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To: Non-Sequitur
See... this is where the debate always breaks down. Why do you have to defend the actions of the North while you villify the South... Why put all the blame for the Civil War on the South alone? Why not pull back and show some even-handedness...and understanding of the times when you debate?

You state that Lincoln's letter to Pickens justified his decision to send the fleet to Sumter. But... you dismiss and excuse the political reality of why he did it.

Sure, he may not have wanted the South to have Sumter... but why? Why did he dig his heels in over that one fort. If peace was his true end-game, then why not just give them the fort. It's not like the fort could sail up the Atlantic and fire on Boston.

No, he wanted that fort because he knew and understood that war was coming.

Furthermore you then justify Lincoln's action by railing against Davis... It's a red flag and a diversion. I hold Davis as equally culpable as Lincoln. I don't try to excuse what Davis did... What would be the point? Davis was just as politically motivated as Lincoln was.

So... the gist of your argument seems to be that Lincoln's motives were as pure as the driven snow (after all, he sent a letter) and that it is evil Jefferson Davis that deserves all the blame for the bloodshed of the next four years.

Sigh...

99 posted on 01/15/2004 6:32:48 AM PST by carton253 (It's time to draw your sword and throw away the scabbard... General TJ Jackson)
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To: carton253
Sure, he may not have wanted the South to have Sumter... but why? Why did he dig his heels in over that one fort. If peace was his true end-game, then why not just give them the fort. It's not like the fort could sail up the Atlantic and fire on Boston.

So your position is that the only hope for peace was to turn over all federal facilities to the Davis regime and accept the legitimacy of the soutern rebellion. In other words, complete and total surrender. Why should Lincoln do that? Why reward rebellion? Why follow acts of aggression against you with acts of appeasement towards the aggressors? Where is the sense in that?

Lincoln believed the southern acts of secession were illegal, and that the southern states were not a sovereign nation but were merely areas in rebellion. The political reality was that the Lincoln government either took the correct position that the rebellion was illegal or surrender and accept it. Lincoln chose to stand by his convictions, and in your eyes that makes him a war-monger. War may have been coming, but as Lincoln himself pointed out the south would not have its war without the south initiating it. And that is what the south did.

Furthermore you then justify Lincoln's action by railing against Davis... It's a red flag and a diversion. I hold Davis as equally culpable as Lincoln. I don't try to excuse what Davis did... What would be the point? Davis was just as politically motivated as Lincoln was.

I would have a hard time finding any evidence in your posts to date to support that. It all seems to be Lincoln's fault, and that's consistent with myth of the Lost Cause. There did not have to be a war started at Sumter. The only reason that it did start was that the Davis regime wanted it.

100 posted on 01/15/2004 6:45:33 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: carton253; Non-Sequitur
"The time for compromise has now passed, and the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel" -Jefferson Davis Feb, 1861

Doesn't sound as if the confederates were interested in compromise, does it?

102 posted on 01/15/2004 7:42:32 AM PST by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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To: carton253
because N-S is a PROPAGANDIST, that's why.

he KNOWS the TRUTH but tells KNOWING LIES!

according to him, everything the southerners did was wrong & evil. according to him,everything done by the north was PERFECT IN EVERY WAY!

nobody here on FR, who has a brain, believes him.

that too, is TRUTH!

free dixie,sw

118 posted on 01/15/2004 8:52:30 AM PST by stand watie (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. -T. Jefferson)
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