The Dark Side of Abraham Lincoln

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In 1861 Jefferson Davis made it quite clear in his resignation from the Senate and again in his inaugural address that all the Confederate States wanted was to be allowed to leave in peace. He stated this point explicitly and after so doing he took no action that would have indicated otherwise to the Union or to its president. No troops were called up. No extraordinary military appropriations requested. No belligerent rhetoric from Davis' office or from his Cabinet. The South feared invasion, but never threatened it—not even implicitly.

Why, then, did Lincoln call for 75,000 troops "to defend the Union"? Why did he begin immediate preparations for war? Why did he insist on dispatching troops to Fort Sumter when a majority of his Cabinet advised against such a rash move and when he knew that South Carolina and the Confederacy believed the fortress to be legal­ly and Constitutionally theirs?
-Thomas Landess

Read on:
http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/review/the-dark-side-of-abraham-lincoln/


This short review covers a lot - more than anything you were ever exposed to in your government school.