The vast majority of Americans, then and now, thought the Civil War was 100% necessary and only so long & bloody because some Confederates preferred "extermination" to surrender. In the same manner that Stalin had a 100% approval rating. If you criticized the war, the Lincoln administration would put you in prison.
His administration even locked up Septimus Winner for "Treason" because he wrote the song "Give us back our old commander". (About General McClellan) They made him claw back every copy of the song he sold before they would let him go.
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Septimus Winner was a well known song writer of that era. He wrote hits like "Listen to the Mocking bird", "Where oh where has my little dog gone?" "Little Brown Jug", "Ten little Indians", and other music less known to modern ears.
Abraham Lincoln said of "Listen to the Mocking bird" It is as sincere as the laughter of a little girl at play.
quoting BJK:
"The vast majority of Americans, then and now, thought the Civil War was 100% necessary and only so long & bloody because some Confederates preferred "extermination" to surrender."DiogenesLamp: "In the same manner that Stalin had a 100% approval rating.
If you criticized the war, the Lincoln administration would put you in prison."
Just as in every major US war, from the Revolutionary War through World War II.
It's only since WWII that the idea of people shamelessly committing treason -- i.e., "Hanoi Jane" Fonda in North Korea -- has been taken as a normal right of "free speech" or whatever.
In 1864, hundreds of thousands of Union troops voted, 78% of them for Lincoln as opposed to the Democrats' "Peace Candidate", "Little Mac" George McClellan.
