Posted: 11/20/2013 Updated: 2/18/2015
Trigger
The 150 anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. In my opinion it should have never come to an all out Civil War and a great, wise president would and should have done everything to prevent it. Therefore, there should have never been the tragic occasion for Abraham Lincoln to give such a speech.
A 150 Year Celebration Of What?
Here are a few points to ponder (nothing original I suspect):
- The Civil War was not a war of necessity (to use this recent term de rigueur) nor was it just
- Slavery was not the cause of this war, it was the secession of the southern states
- The secession chosen by southern states was not illegal at least not from the Founders view I would venture to guess
- Slavery would have disappeared anyway within decades. At the outbreak of the Civil War slavery was already doomed. For decades, other Western countries were already in the process of phasing out slavery. Had the federal government or others purchased slaves to free them at every opportunity it would have been a whole lot of a better solution, but bullets are cheaper
- “... that these dead shall not have died in vain ...” In my opinion, they died in vain. At least 600,000 soldiers died in this war (or 1.9% of total population of 1860). It appears estimates of civilian casualties of this war are hard to come by (Why?), perhaps exceeding 200,000. The Confederate states were devastated and so on.
- “... a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live ...” The nation would have lived much better without this horrendous civil war and black Americans would be in a similar position as they are now without this war
- In conclusion, the Gettysburg Address is a great oratory achievement, but deeply dishonest by so called Honest Abe (Diversion: why was he referred to as “Honest Abe”? Google/Bing searches were in vain.)
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