If he were alive in 1860, maybe he could have prevented secession and war.
I was wrong, but it wasn't any big deal.
The first crisis over slavery came in 1820.
Through compromise, the country was able to stave off war for 40 years.
Given first-rate leadership it's possible we could have held off war for some time longer.
But after the Clay-Webster-Jackson generation died off, there were only second-raters around.
Through compromise, the country was able to stave off war for 40 years.”
I think the whole idea that the Civil War was inevitable because of slavery is wrong.
Slavery was legal in the Northern states and very gradually discontinued. It was still legal in several Northern states in 1860 but not for new slaves.
There was almost no desire to end slavery in the deep south.
The Kansas Nebraska Act which meant to create a slave based economy in the Midwest and the west caused the establishment of the Republican Party in Wisconsin 1854. Its base was primarily Midwestern farmers and tradesmen who did not want a slave based economy in the Midwest or the west.
The secession was planned and organized before the election of Lincoln. Groups like the Knights of the Golden Circle and others planned for secession in the early 1850s.
Except slave rebellions started before the country was even a nation: http://slaverebellion.org/index.php?page=maps
A big one in NY in 1712 even.