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To: kosciusko51
Well the first two arguments have been thoroughly debunked previously on lrc.com. They are standard Lincoln cult pap. The third argument is a free floating argument supported by nothing but a back handed slap at George Bush (they can't resist). As for point 4, Lincoln's interest was in preserving the ability of the Union to enforce a protective tariff, which they could not do if the South seceded and adopted a revenue tariff. Lincoln was not interested in abolishing slavery. So point 4 is correct, though not for the reason given.

Number five is partly true and partly false. Slavery was very profitable for those plantations that were large enough to employ the gang system. Technology would have changed that though and would have done so a lot sooner if the war had not destroyed Southern investment capital and broken up the large plantations. European pressure was also building and would have push the South towards abolition. The British in particular were becoming increasingly fanatical about it. But the biggest reason the South could not have survived as a slave society has to do with the cost of dealing with fugitive slaves. With the north no longer constitutionally obliged to return runaway slaves the South could not have afforded to maintain a slave economy. There have only been five examples in history of societies that built their entire economies on slave labor: the Greeks, the Romans, the Caribbean Islands, Brazil, and Dixie. The one thing they all had in common was the ability to socialize the cost of runaway slave management. In every case except Dixie the slave economy ended when this advantage disappeared. In the case of Brazil this was particularly dramatic. One province abolished slavery, runaway slaves began flocking there, and the economies of all the other provinces collapsed. The large slave owners then began calling for abolition as a means of encouraging workers to stay and work.

33 posted on 01/19/2011 12:04:21 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: SeeSharp
In his new book, Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream, black American author, Lerone Bennett, presents historic evidence supporting the theory that Abraham Lincoln was, in fact,a devoted racist harboring a life-long desire to see all black Americans deported to Africa. Bennett suggests that as a young politician in Illinois, Lincoln regularly used racial slurs in speeches, told racial jokes to his black servants, and vocally opposed any new laws that would have bettered the lives of black Americans.
43 posted on 01/19/2011 12:13:46 PM PST by bt579 (Liberals need women dependent and scared so that women, like blacks, will vote Democrat.)
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To: SeeSharp
An excellent response to the neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate Lew Rockwell stuff, from a Hillsdale College professor:

"Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President" by Thomas L. Krannawitter


184 posted on 01/20/2011 12:54:18 AM PST by iowamark
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