[lentulusgracchus]

Absent the rebellion, and had the existing slave states all hung together, then it would have taked 46 states to pass constitutional amendments the slave states opposed. That's a total of 61, if your math is weak. I guess they would still be working at it, huh?

You keep trying to walk this idea past us, that Lincoln would have confined himself to constitutional measures. When clearly that was not his m.o. -- as witness his escapades with West Virginia and Nevada, and his suppression of Maryland and Missouri.

Lincoln was a machine politician who liked the steel fist. He played with the gloves off, and he could have given lessons to all those other machine pols you're so proud of.

"Rape" was the right word.

[Non-Sequitur]

You keep trying to walk this idea past us, that Lincoln would have confined himself to constitutional measures. When clearly that was not his m.o. -- as witness his escapades with West Virginia and Nevada, and his suppression of Maryland and Missouri.

What was unconstitutional about all that?

Lincoln was a machine politician who liked the steel fist. He played with the gloves off, and he could have given lessons to all those other machine pols you're so proud of.

(*yawn*) One man's opinion, until you show otherwise.