Rights

Lincoln argued that the Civil War was not possible and that the Confederate States seceding from the Union was  impossible on the grounds that he felt that it was impossible to leave the Union. Fighting against an oppressive leadership and breaking free to form your own government. Sounds familiar right. This is what the South felt they were doing and it is exactly what the original 13 colonies did when they created the United States of America. Is Lincoln's faith in the Union blinding him from the fact that at any point a government can be toppled, just as was done with the American Revolution?

Freedom= Oppression?

Something very bizarre about the Civil War to me is that the battle is being fought by the South on hypocritical terms. The South wishes to be free from the Union in order to further oppress and enslave the African Americans. Does it seem likely that at least some of the Confederates found this to be an odd situation?

Change

Throughout the semester, we have read about Lincoln and realized some very important things about him. First, he was extremely against fighting and war. As we saw, when he was confronted with duels and other things of that nature, he turned them down in most cases. What is extremely ironic is that he wound up conducting the American Civil War, the bloodiest battle ever to be fought on American soil. Does this mean that the issues over preserving the Union were much deeper issues for Lincoln and therefore justified going to war?

England's Support

Last week in class we discussed the idea that if England had supported the Confederacy in the war,then they would have made a fool of themselves. This is entirely due to the fact that they had outlawed the slave trade there years before and if they ended up supporting the South, who's primary purpose was keeping slavery going in the United States, they would have looked ridiculous. Now the question I pose is, if England had supported the South, would there have been any stipulations, such as, they would demand gradual emancipation or eventual outlawing of slavery? Is there any signs of this in history?