GDG- NPs & Slavery

[Roger Johnson]

This ground has been plowed many times. Read the speeches of the delegates
who fanned out to persuade states to seceed- they all talked about
preserving slavery. No slaves and there would have been no war.
RLJ

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 6:47 PM, <ATMackeyJr at aol.com> wrote:

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> In a message dated 1/3/2012 2:35:03 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> pennmardel at mchsi.com writes:
>
> Esteemed  GDG Member Contributes:
> Aha!  One down and a couple more to  go.
>
> Since I now have the field to myself, I wish to emphasize that  Lincoln
> went
> to war against the South because they seceded and attacked  Fort Sumter  -
> not because the South seceded over the slavery  issue.
>
> If the South had seceded over another issue and fired on Fort  Sumter,
> Lincoln undoubtedly would have gone to war to preserve the Union in  that
> case as well.
> -----------------
> But there was no secession over another issue.  The secession was over  the
> one issue that had the power to drive secession--the preservation of
> slavery.
>
>
>
>
> In  addition, the Emancipation Proclamation was not designed to end
> slavery,
> but primarily to punish those states that had seceded and were  waging war.
> Slaves were not freed in areas where slavery existed, but were  not in
> rebellion.
> -----------------
> The EP also was the limit of Lincoln's constitutional ability regarding
> slavery after Congress had abolished slavery in the territories and in the
> District of Columbia.  It was a war measure, yes.  But it's also true
>  that it
> could only be issued constitutionally as a war measure.
>
>
>
>
> The  action to end the institution of slavery was a post-war (and
> post-Lincoln)  phenomenon.
> ------------------
> Not quite.  Lincoln pushed for the 13th Amendment and worked for its
> passage.
>
>
>
>
>
> Perhaps  a better way to phrase it is that, while it was the underlying
> cause
> of  secession, slavery was not the immediate cause of the  conflict.
> -----------------
> Lincoln begs to differ.
>
> "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves,  not distributed
> generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of  it. These
> slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that  this
> interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and
>  extend
> this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the  Union
> even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to
> restrict the territorial enlargement of it."
>
> Best Regards,
> Al Mackey
>
>
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