Lincoln’s Best Speech: A Sesquicentennial

ThePublicDiscourse.com ^ | 3/4/2015 | Matthew S. Holland

[DoodleDawg]

I give up. You're hopeless.

To be honest I was just being polite. I had given up on you making any sense several posts ago.

[ReaganGeneration2]

The South didn’t have the infrastructure to support many thousands of freed slaves and couldn’t do it on Lincoln’s timetable.

My point was the results were horrific, both in terms of American deaths and states’ rights that most of us desire to have back. Don’t say they were not Americans. If they were not, why did they want them back in the Union?

Lincoln was the president at the time of this travesty. He is not the hero that you were taught that he was.

[rockrr]

The South didn’t have the infrastructure to support many thousands of freed slaves and couldn’t do it on Lincoln’s timetable.

Lincoln never set any timetables.

Don’t say they were not Americans. If they were not, why did they want them back in the Union?

Why would I say they weren't Americans?

Lincoln was the president at the time of this travesty.

You may recall that the south initiated hostile actions before Lincoln even assumed office.

He is not the hero that you were taught that he was.

Opinions vary.

[x]

No other nation required a war to end slavery.

American exceptionalism?

The amount of money the union spent on the war could have bought the freedom of every slave.

To make a purchase, you have to have somebody willing to sell, and there weren't many slave owners in the Deep South willing to sell in 1860, and wouldn't be for years to come. If we tried to force them to do so, then pretty much what you complain about would have happened anyway.

[Sherman Logan]

But it's also irrelevant because there was no desire in the South to end slavery, either through compensated means or any other.

Probably true. The amount would have been roughly equivalent to the money the Union spent on the War. Add in the amount spent by the CSA and the damage caused, and it would have been much cheaper to buy the slaves out.

The problem is more than what you say. The North had no desire to tax itself to pay slaveowners compensation. Much as very few Americans are interested in taxing themselves today to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves.