On Sun, 12 Aug 2007, Doug wrote:
> Robert wrote:
>
>> *************************************************
>> You Yankees just don't get it!<G>
>> I'm know that you are aware that the Civil War was a particularly
>> bloody conflict and many young lives were lost on both sides. Do you
>> think that even on the losing side people would not memorialize those
>> who fought for their cause? You have to remember that slavery was just
>> the tip of the iceberg of reasons why the war was fought.
>> OTOH, if you are under the impression that the reason the North fought
>> in the Civil War was to "free those poor slaves", you need to review
>> your history. At that time there were slaves working at The White
>> House (among other Northern locations), so you have to wonder what was
>> up with that.
>
> The reason the war was fought initially was to preserve the Union, but the
> reason the South broke that union was to preserve slavery. Slavery was
> not the tip, but the root of the problem. Ask the question if there had
> been no slavery would there have been a Civil War? Every single cause
> forwarded can be traced back to the "peculiar" institution.
>
> I have no problem at all with a memorial for those that fell in the Civil
> War. What I have a problem with is the idea that they were fighting for
> some noble cause like state's rights. Lincoln himself believed in the
> right of states to secede, but he believed that the cause for the
> secession had to be just and that the preservation of the institution of
> slavery was not a just cause.
The thing is, the rank-and-file who were fighting weren't fighting for
slavery, they were fighting for their homeland. State loyalty was higher
in the south, and national loyalty lower.
So yes, the main impetus of the war was the preservation of slavery,
but that's not the reason that was in the minds of many of the people
doing the actual fighting.
I mean, my great-great grandfather didn't charge up a hill with Pickett at
Gettysburg for the sake of slavery, but for the sake of Virginia.
Julia
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