[fella]

"If Lee had accepted Lincoln’s appointment to lead the Union’s armies the War probably would not have lasted a year."

And the slaves would not have been freed.

[arrogantsob]

It would have taken longer to free the slaves no doubt but it would have eventually happened. A pre-feudal economic system in a industrializing world is doomed.

[rockrr]

I disagree. When the south made war on the north in their misguided quest to preserve their Peculiar Institution, they cast the die that became an inevitability.