[raynearhood]

I see this type of argument alot. Fine, ask then... Would this Great Republic have survived leaving well enough alone and allowing the southern states to secede? Would the greatest stain on our history remained, or would the Confederacy eventually have decided that "Wow, these blacks really are people and not property."

OK, Lincoln was a tyrant, blah, blah, blah. and yet the greatest tyranny this country ever saw was for years sactioned by the government on every plantation in the southern states.

A needless war my a**. Slavery would have persisted, and all who argue otherwise are fools.

[brainstem223]

The internal combustion engine would have put slavery out of business in a generation, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and soldiers would have been spared, along with the suffering of caused by terrible battle wounds; this weighs against the suffering of slaves; who were freed but became sharecroppers...not an easy rode either. The war caused more far far more carnage than slavery would have had it lingered on...

This weight of history nullifies your arguement.