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All Lincoln had to do to stop the war was not start it in the first place. Yes, he tried his best to keep the South from seceeding. Yes, he was the best how for reconciliation when the South lost. None of this negates the fact that Lincoln did not believe that

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

All he had to do was recognize the liberty and right to seceed upon which the country was founded and let them go peacefully, and there never would have been wounds to bind.

All he had to do was recognize the liberty and right to seceed upon which the country was founded and let them go peacefully, and there never would have been wounds to bind.

The framers of the Constitution clearly meant for it to be binding on the states in perpetuity. See the Militia Act of 1792 as amended in 1795 and the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Militia Act requires that U.S. law operate in all the states. The Judiciary Act requires that "Controversies of a civil nature" between the states be submitted to the Supreme Court.

THAT is U.S. law, which the Declaration of Independence is not.

"South Carolina...cannot get out of this Union until she conquers this government. The revenues must and will be collected at her ports, and any resistance on her part will lead to war. At the close of that war we can tell with certainty whether she is in or out of the Union. While this government endures there can be no disunion...

If the overt act on the part of South Carolina takes place on or after the 4th of March, 1861, then the duty of executing the laws will devolve upon Mr. Lincoln. The laws of the United States must be executed-- the President has no discretionary power on the subject -- his duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. Mr. Lincoln will perform that duty. Disunion by armed force is treason, and treason must and will be put down at all hazards. The Union is not, and cannot be dissolved until this government is overthrown by the traitors who have raised the disunion flag. Can they overthrow it? We think not.

Illinois State Journal, November 14, 1860

The secesh cretins went looking for a fight with the wrong prairie lawyer, and the wrong people.

Walt