How quaint. The Confederate flag is the symbol of resistance to federal tyranny, not the defense of slavery. Indeed, it was northern commercial interests using government for economic domination of the south. Liberals must stick to the false and inaccurate “slavery pitch” to discredit any cause against the tyranny of democracy.
I’m quite tired of the repeated crapola that the Civil War was about slavery. It was called the War of Northern Aggression for good reason and we should never forget that.
You're the first person I've ever seen get it right in one. It was, indeed, about money and power, and that is why some "gentlemen's" letters to and from Lincoln and his inner circle are sealed and closely guarded today. And likewise why, as (Unionist) historian Mark Neely noted 10 or so years ago, there are still about a dozen people in Lincoln's inner circle (men whom not one citizen in 1000 can name, but they killed a million people and rewrote the Constitution with a bayonet) who have not had proper, scholarly, thorough biographies done yet.
My guess: These guys are still radioactive after 150 years, and toxic to standard historiography of the Civil War.