He believed in what he was fighting for. You don't go to war and act like that war is your fault. This what the libs want us to do in the WOT.
If he'd said that he believed in what he was fighting for, it wouldn't have been as objectionable. If he'd just said "I desire Peace as much as you do; I deplore bloodshed as much as you do" and stopped there, I wouldn't object to that either.
But Jeff was way to into proving that his own hands were clean (when they weren't). There's something at least a little neurotic about that.
This is a guy who's way to into himself:
I feel that not one drop of the blood shed in this War is on my hands. I can look up to my God and say this. I tried all in my power to avert this War. I saw it coming, and for twelve years I worked night and day to prevent it; but I could not.
And this is a guy who's at least a little bit nutty at least by today's standards:
The North was mad and blind; it would not let us govern ourselves; and so the War came: and now it must go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks, and his children seize his musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for Slavery. We are fighting for INDEPENDENCE; and that, or EXTERMINATION, we WILL have."