--- Andrew Mathews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Uh, you'd better get a refresher on history. Convenience had nothing > to > do with it. The abolitionist movement started many years before, and > was > the general principle behind the States motivation to secede from the > United States, which is why war was declared. To preserve the Union > was > the reason the war took place. Yes, Lincoln supported the abolishment > of > slavery, but not because it was "convenient". By the way, how many > Druids are still hanging out sipping a few pints? <g>
This is an entire debate unto itself. There are scholars who argue that the Civil War was about states' vs. federal rights, and not slavery at all. Or more specifically, the ability of each state to enact their own laws that cannot be superceded by the federal govt. Slavery happened to fit the bill, but slavery explicitly was really the debate of the fundamentalists vs. the conservatives. Lincoln was pro abolition before the war, but he used the issue of freeing the slaves as an attempt to hold the union together, so that they would be able to win the war. The federal goverment was relatively weak in its powers before the war, and significantly stronger afterwards. It all comes back to states rights, and how the war really began to define them in a meaningful way. ===== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lonni J. Friedman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Linux Step-by-step help: http://netllama.ipfox.com . __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ General mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/general
