[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Waste of time. Read

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Tells you more about the politics of the Civil War than you probably ever suspected. And of course the politics precedes the military actions, for they determine the objectives and the limitations of the military actions.

All very well to belabor Lincoln for not being more militant against slavery; without the adherence to the Union of slaveholding border states the Union would almost certainly have failed to carry the day - and slavery would not only have continued where it was but would have continued to expand.

But was Lincoln a racist? Practically everyone in America was racist. What is certain is that those determined to sit in judgement of their ancestors are self righteous and arrogant. Their ancestors were what they themselves would have been had they lived in that time, with the same upbringing, education, and peer influences. A fact which the "liberal" cannot admit.

[billbears]

Waste of time. Read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

LOL, I have a lot things better to do with my time than read a book by a plagarist about a power mad politician