[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Lincoln flat out lied to the Southern delegation in D.C. considering Fort Sumter.

Never happened.

He manipulated the situation to start the war on purpose, willing to kill and did 600K lives to insure the Northern states dominance over the pesky South.

"That darn Lincoln tricked us into starting a war."

The North could have at any time from the 1840 to the time of secession emancipated the slaves just in the same way that England did but the greed of power and political dominance by the North did not allow that option.

Oh, do tell how that would have worked, given that the south had numbers in House and Senate that would have blocked any such constitutional amendment. Hell, until 1844, southerners wouldn't even allow the issue of slavery to be brought up in the House, enacting a Gag Rule.

[central_va]

Lincoln could have chosen peace but his feeling about peace negotiations were well stated in his second inaugural I know it, you know and the Ape knew it then in his own worlds.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

Ape Lincoln.