posted on Feb, 17 2012 @ 03:43 AM
I'm torn on Lincoln.
As a President he had a hard job and he succeed in keeping the union whole which he thought was his responsibility.
He however shredded the constitution when he did so, the states were allowed to succeed and or abolish the government itself.
Lincoln said no I won't let you, so he kept America whole, but began the process of Presidents and the congress slowly ignoring our constitution.
As far as slaves, yeah most people don't realize he was at the very least neutral about the issue.
He once said if it would preserve the Union he would let them keep their slaves.
He only freed them as part of a propaganda ploy to cause chaos.
The war itself was over States rights, the north had more control over the House and was taxing the hell out of the south.
They were taxed on their corn production instead of the sale of corn.
Couldn't sell your corn and wanna make whiskey well they taxed that too.
Southerner:"but you already taxed our corn how are you going to tax us twice"
Northerner:"shut up and pay the taxes, oh and while you're at it, if you send raw goods to other countries to be refined or processed we will tax
your export, and than tax the money when that comes back as well"
The war was fought over unequal taxation as well as other issues that could fill an entire text book.
As for the scars of the war on race, there actually weren't that many at first.
In fact freed slaves could vote, it wasn't until Democrats saw that they were losing elections because the slaves were voting Republican and third
party that they passed Jim Crow laws and poll taxes.
The places that had already lost were lost, but what they did is enact the poll taxes in regions that they hadn't lost control and were able to
maintain their control.
Once smaller areas shored up their control they were than able to spread the policies.
They even got Republicans and independents to agree because it wasn't sold under a race issue it was sold as an election protection issue.
The underlying tool used was literacy, the secondary tool was the poll tax.
They convinced people that if you stop their illiterate neighbor from voting you could have your way easier.
They convinced the rich people that if you stop the poor person from voting you can have your way easier.
Over time since many African Americans were poor and didn't have access to education they were affected worse than other groups.
Once disenfranchisement occurred than horrible racial laws were easier to pass.
That is when the racial divide began and that didn't occur until 1/2 a generation or more out of the war, in some places much further out of the war
than that..
Our racial issue in this country is all because politicians were whiny jerks and didn't want to lose their offices.
I'm sure I will get flamed or hated on for pointing out things that make people uncomfortable but oh well.
I am not saying these things to be malicious, just pointing out that the Civil War, and the following racism were much deeper than most realize.