“...he created an unnecessary civil war”
I have always thought this and if I even tentatively brought this up in a discussion (I have always lived in New York, upstate, but a liberal northern state) I received aghast looks as though I was crazy!
I DO think the Civil War was unnecessary though! States rights would have been key: States were already starting to phase out and outlaw slavery one by one and over time; the very few states that would have still tried to hold out for slavery would have been ostracized, embarrassed, boycotted and peer and social pressure would have gotten rid of slavery within the next 20 years without a single drop of blood shed.
I am very convonced of this.
convinced
Indeed.
It would have been over because some states were starting already to boycott cotton from some of the southern states.
It would have just been a matter of time.