The end of slavery did not come soon enough and I question your assumption that slavery would have died peaceably if the war hadn't occured . Every book I have read on the subject pointly shows that southern intransigence would have prevented this from occuring . It was and is a moral wrong and is a stain on the soul of the United States .

What economic concessions did Lincoln offer, either during his campaign or after taking office, to the South to keep the country united? The southern states had good reason to suspect that Lincoln would act aggressive toward them after his election.

 

The bolded text is exactly why I do not place Lincoln higher on my list. Not only did Lincoln do nothing to prevent the escalation of the war, the war itself was badly mismanaged and cost far more lives than it might have.

 

Lincoln was courageous and made more difficult decisions than any other president has ever made - but civil war in any country is the result of failure, not success.

 

What more could have been offered? The South wanted slavery expanded into the new territories irregardless of how the people there felt. Buchanan did nothing and left the South with the illusion that Secession might work.

 

He too office in March 4, 1861. South Carolina was already demanding the forts that were federal be surrendered to them. Within just over a month the words became cannon fire. Sorry Hoot, the war was the failure of compromise over one issue that the founding father's refused to address. By 1861, that refusal could be ignored no longer.

 

Now that we've thread jacked, I'll leave mine at that. As always, good to discuss things with you Hoot. :thumb:

The end of slavery did not come soon enough and I question your assumption that slavery would have died peaceably if the war hadn't occured . Every book I have read on the subject pointly shows that southern intransigence would have prevented this from occuring . It was and is a moral wrong and is a stain on the soul of the United States .

Slavery has ended in all but a few Muslim countries. Where else did ending slavery require the sacrifice of more than 600,000 lives? The application of emerging technology to agriculture would have eventually made the reliance of slavery in agriculture economically unfeasible. That would have made ending the institution through political means much easier.

 

Again, I am not saying that Lincoln could have done anything better but if he only did what any other reasonable person would have done and 600,000 Americans died, then what qualifies him to be placed at the top of a "greatest president" list?

What more could have been offered? The South wanted slavery expanded into the new territories irregardless of how the people there felt. Buchanan did nothing and left the South with the illusion that Secession might work.

 

He too office in March 4, 1861. South Carolina was already demanding the forts that were federal be surrendered to them. Within just over a month the words became cannon fire. Sorry Hoot, the war was the failure of compromise over one issue that the founding father's refused to address. By 1861, that refusal could be ignored no longer.

 

Now that we've thread jacked, I'll leave mine at that. As always, good to discuss things with you Hoot. :thumb:

This will also be my final Lincoln post. The Tariff of Abominations was revised in 1833 to diffuse an earlier stand-off with South Carolina. The northern states insistence on high import tariffs were a legitimate concern for the South and an area where further compromise should have been placed on the table. Fostering prosperity in the South through lower tariffs might have been a big enough carrot to have forestalled or prevented armed conflict, IMO.

 

As the southern states moved away from the economy of an agricultural colony, slavery would have become an increasingly expensive proposition. The North's attempts to protect its own markets from European exports through tariffs did nothing to weaken the South's reliance on slavery. Nor did it help diversify the southern economy, which might have created more internal resistance to slavery in the South.

Not much love for GW...he's #1 for a reason. :notworthy:

The Tariff of Abominations was revised actually revised in 1832, not 1833 as I stated in my previous post.

Reagan

Teddy

Jefferson

Favorite-John Adams

 

One I would like to have talked with-Nixon

 

Interesting figures-T. Roosevelt, Wilson, Madison, Jackson, LBJ