[donmeaker]

Goad. How do you goad someone?

Considering that the Confederates had been stealing US property for months, and seizing US forts, and Lincoln did nothing.

Guess Lincoln was just that much smarter than Jeff Davis. That and Lincoln had that much better a cause than Jeff Davis. Treason in support of insurrection in support of slavery by the poor for the benefit of the rich has to be a hard sell.

The Confederates enslaved whites as well as blacks. One thing they didn’t do is enslave rich people.

[Jay Redhawk]

Lincoln's actions destroyed the original relationship of the federal government to the states and to the individual. Secession from a voluntary union is not treason. Most of the abandonment of forts in the South occurred under Buchanan and not Lincoln. Slavery was a legal practice, and no matter one’s economic condition, if you invade their land and threaten their families then heck yeah they will fight. Two hundred and eighty thousand confederates did not die just because they wanted slavery. Most had no stake in that business. It was about protecting their culture and way of life, and the original understanding of the federation's relationship with the states.

But you know as well as I do that these Civil War disagreements will never be settled. With all the tyrannical crap going on today I can see a similar North and South situation setting up with the blue and the red states. The truth is that there has always been two competing ideologies in this part of North America. Actually we have a situation where we have two countries trying to be one. That is becoming more and more apparent.