So the Civil War, which pushed our young country to the brink killing hundreds of thousands, was fought not to preserve the Union and end slavery.... but to line the pockets of farm equipment factory owners. I have to say I've never heard that one. So Abraham Lincoln wasn't one of, if not THE greatest, Presidents in history ... He instead was an evil genocidal maniac willing to see the country stressed to the breaking point just to help some businessmen in the north get rich. If what you're saying is true, then his place in history isn't with the Washington's, the Roosevelt's, the Reagan's of the world...but rather the Hitler's, the Stalin's, the Mao's .... Somebody needs to grab a jackhammer and some dynamite and head on out to Mt. Rushmore tooth sweet!!
It is important to go right to the source, not as much what some historian somewhere thinks.
On Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. Why is the big debate. 4 days after this vote they wrote a document called the Declaration of Causes. The overriding theme of this was document was the Federal Government infringing upon their rights to hold slaves. Statements were used such as: "they (Federal Government) have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery", "elected a President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to Slavery", and condemned the Republican Party for taking a position that "a war must be waged against Slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States."
No one is debating that there were other issues. There were. However, slavery is what made the engine go.
Also, to be clear. The poor Southern soldier wasn't fighting because or for slaves. This was the desire of the planter class, the elites of the South. But as we well know, they drive policy, and have forever.
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