[FLT-bird]

But after many years it was not achieved. Coulda, shoulda, woulda is not the sort of discussion I care to engage in ...However your comments are also interesting..

And yet slavery was abolished via peaceful means everywhere else in the Western World during the 19th century. Most got rid of it via various compensated emancipation schemes. Say, who opposed compensated emancipation when it was proposed in the US? Hint: it was not Southerners.

[PerConPat]

And yet slavery was abolished via peaceful means everywhere else in the Western World during the 19th century.

And it should've been done here, in the US. But it wasn't...Discussions as to whether or not it could've been done are, IMO, hypothetical and a waste of time. Otherwise, it's been an interesting discussion.