Votto
Diamond Member
- Oct 31, 2012
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- #21
Lincoln is one of the recognized best, and I'd put him in the top five. He had tough decisions to make, and he made them by the book. To wage war you need to do three things. The first is a clear goal, preserving the union. The second is to have a moral cause to rally the people, outlawing slavery. The last is to have the constitution to carry out the war to the very end, which cost him his life. Was he right back then? I believe he was, preservation of the union has proven to have been the correct descision. Should he have done everything else he did? Yep, it takes the percieved good and bad of his actions to come to the conclusion he wanted.
As for secession, we already have that. If you don't want to live in the state you live in for whatever reason, you have the freedom to leave that state. Same with the country if you don't like it, feel free to leave. What you can't do is make your neighbor leave with you.
Lincoln did what he had to do. It was a time for strong leadership and Lincoln stepped up. Lincoln seems to be the only one who understood the political big picture.
So had Lincoln made slavery in the South Constitutional, then he would have been justified in "doing what he had to do" in order to preserve the union?