See Rhett's address I included portions of above. He goes into it in detail.
He doesn't want to read it. He is trying very hard to look away from anything which goes against what he wants to believe.
This argument is not a debate about evidence. It is a problem of getting people to not shy away from information that hurts their feelings, and get them to admit the truth that can be discerned from the information.
Their normal response is to not cooperate in learning things they don't want to learn.
Either that or to dishonestly try to claim that anything which in any way contradicts what they were taught and want to believe is the "lost cause myth". Thus they will go on and on and on about that. That is exactly why in all these quotes and sources I list, I only list ones from before or during the war.
No, this isn't somebody trying to justify after the fact. This isn't someone trying to sweep something under the rug. These are the complaints and speeches made by the principal actors at the time.
I love the excuse that anytime any Englishman observes something that disagrees with their dogma, its because that guy supposedly hates America....despite all evidence to the contrary. Since they can't use the "trying to protect slavery" claim, they're all just America haters. LOL!