[Hugh R]

From another post I just made on Mul.

In defense of FastPat, his analysis of the Civil War and Lincoln I thought was quite good. How many of you were taugh in school that slavery was protected by the Constitution, and that the northern states and the Federal government tried many times to ban it without an amendment, and that the Supreme Court ruled a number of times that Congress, nor the Court could unilaterally ban the holding of slaves? And that the North and the Feds goaded the south into the war with blockades of southern harbors to compel the slave-holding states to change what could not be done legislatively or through the courts? I certainly wasn't taught that. I learned it from an original set of "The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy" by Jefferson Davis (books that I inherited). Also that the Emancipation Proclamation had no effect in law (Executive order freeing the slaves) it was a publicity gimmick, that's why we needed the 14th amendment, and at that time many of the slave-holders were compensated for taking of their "property". You may not like something you read, and find it distaseful, but it doesn't make it not true.

Whether Lincoln was a good or bad president is certainly subject to debate, but it should be debated with all the facts on the table, not just the politically correct ones. Remember, the victors write the history books!