Do you see? Lincoln wanted high import tariffs and high taxes to subsidize wealthy corporate campaign donors. The Confederacy wanted to create a free trade zone with no tariffs, low taxes and no corporate subsidies. As Confederate President Jefferson Davis said during his inaugural address, the South wanted “the freest trade our necessities will permit.”...

...The war cry of the North was never “free the slaves” but “preserve the Union” because a free trade zone to the South would spoil the plans of Lincoln’s corporate sponsors. The 13th Amendment, which abolished chattel slavery, was supported by a majority of the Southern states.

Every other country in the New World ended slavery without violence, with the exception of the Haitian Revolution, which was a slave revolt, not a civil war. The Civil War was essentially a very bloody tax revolt followed by a successful propaganda campaign.

The ugly fact is that, despite Mr. Spielberg’s revision of history, Lincoln did not believe in equality for African Americans. ...

...“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

For some reason that didn’t make it into the film. But if you think that’s bad, consider this quote of Lincoln from his debates with Douglas in 1858:

“I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, — that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, not to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”