Charlottesville And Revisionist History

We are in the midst of an era of insanity.  This isn’t the first time America has temporarily lost its mind.  What is important is that we refuse to allow the residual effects from such an era to take permanent hold in our national conscience.

In the aftermath of the horror in Charlottesville, there are those busy trying to rewrite history and thus alter its proper perspective.  To suggest why is speculative but it requires we all be outraged at the attempt to do so.  Since that confrontation, no less than a dozen different individuals have stated publicly that the Civil War was fought to end slavery.  Hearing it again could push one over the edge.

Lincoln made it clear that the major impetus for the war was secession and the preservation of the union. 

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.  If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.  What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.  I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause." 

ABOVE CITATION: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388 

Gettysburg Address; “testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” 

That endurance was of UTMOST importance.  This reality should, in NO way, diminish the utter disgust that Lincoln had for the barbaric practice of slavery.  Only that the preservation of the union was his most deeply held conviction.    

Those with limited knowledge of history always point to the fact that Lincoln’s moral outrage over the practice of slavery grew as the war marched on.  They like to suggest that that signifies the war was fought over slavery.  The truth is that the longer the war raged on the greater national opposition grew to the bloodshed. The demonstrations in the streets in the north made the Vietnam protests look like a tea party.  Lincoln was hung and burned in effigy.  The north wanted the war over.  Lincoln needed northern support to continue with the war.  As such he increased his moral outrage over slavery to quell the opposition.  He used the strong emotional pulls surrounding the inhumanity of slavery to strengthen support for the cause - to gain the support he needed for continued acceptance of the awful human carnage and wanton destruction necessary to save the Union. i.e. "...  I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."

To suggest that the Civil war was fought to end slavery is to suggest the Second World War was fought to end the Holocaust.  Both were incredibly positive residual benefits but they were not the primary motivation for the conflicts.

Amplifying moral indignation to a sacred level clearly engenders a heightened sense of pride through morality.  Yet if that amplification is seeded in falsehoods, it can also result in destructive, deceitful manipulation. Beware of false gods clocked in historical rewrites.   

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”   

~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan