Utter bilge. The Southern Confederacy was established Feb 4 1861 - before Lincoln was inaugurated. South Carolina December 20, 1860; Mississippi January 9, 1861; Florida January 10, 1861; Alabama January 11, 1861; Georgia January 19, 1861; Louisiana January 26, 1861; Texas February 1, 1861 all seceded BECAUSE Lincoln won the election and the Republican administration was never going to stand for the extension of slavery into western territories. They did not do this because of anything he did, said or said he would or would not do.dgs49 wrote:With all the positive things one can read about Lincoln, the one negative that is never mentioned is that the Civil War was an unprecedented waste of lives and resources, and he could have prevented it (albeit with an indefinite extension of slavery). History records that then - as now - the opposing political sides had reached a point where compromise appeared impossible, and war came.
But the adulation of Lincoln presumes that no diplomatic solution was possible, and that is an unknown. Considering him our greatest president (which many do) ignores this total failure to resolve our differences without bloodshed. Had he personally decided to support the South's right to secede, there would have been no war, and slavery would have died of its own economic weight within a generation. Slaves would have, one by one, been emancipated because it simply made no economic sense to keep them. Would they be better off today or worse off? Who knows?
His first inaugural was March 4 1861 when he became president. He specifically stated that he would not interfere with slavery in any state where it existed; he would accept the Corwin Amendment, already approved by both houses, which would have made slavery constitutional in those states; he would not start any war although he was constitutionally bound to resist the taking of United States property etc.; he even promised not to assign northern names to southern offices (such as postal) but would rather leave the posts vacant to avoid aggravation.
This is the man who said if he would win the war by freeing all, some or none of the slaves then that's what he would do.
Meade
