[labard1]

I haven't even "condemned" Lincoln. So far I have mainly maintained that Reagan was a greater president, based on what he actually accomplished for oppressed people (with minimal loss of life). The fact that every political hero has some imperfections isn't really a "comdemnation."

I don't like Lincoln (this is, after all the rhetoric, a free country), but that doesn't mean I want to reinstitute slavery or that I want to overthrow the government. Too many posters are ready to smear anyone who doesn't worship Mr. Lincoln. One of the wonderful things about this country is that one can disagree about the merits of any politician, living or dead, and still be a good citizen. Lincoln ranks much higher in my estimation than most GOP members of Congress during the 1860s. It's not a fast track.

I'm not a fan of the Southern "fire eaters" either. There were many voices, North and South, which were far more constructive (both Whig and Democrat), but which have been eclipsed by the more extreme forces that brought a war that I have never accepted to have been a plus for the country.

[WhiskeyPapa]

There were many voices, North and South, which were far more constructive...

This was the typical "southern" voice:

The Richmond Examiner stated their choice in unflinching language:

"It is all an hallucination to suppose that we are ever going to get rid of slavery, or that it will ever be desirable to do so. It is a thing that we cannot do without;that is righteous, profitable, and permanent, and that belongs to Southern society as inherently,intrinsically, and durably as the white race itself. Southern men should act as if the canopy of heaven were inscribed with a covenant, in letters of fire, that the negro is here, and here forever—is our property, and ours forever—is never to be emancipated—is to be kept hard at work and in rigid subjection all his days."

-- "The Coming Fury" by Bruce Catton

Walt