Quote:
Originally Posted by Borodog
The secession was not the war.
But I see where this is going; proximate cause of southern secession was slavery, proximate cause of the war was southern secession. Conceded. However, the point remains that Lincoln explicitly stated that the only reason he would wage war was to collect the loot.
Getting from that statement to "tariffs were the proximate cause of the war" is pretty much the worst kind of spin imo. Lincoln's inaugral -- which, remember, took place in March and after the CSA was established -- basically said the following:
1) Yo Southerners, relax. I'm not going to take your slaves.
2) States cannot unilaterally secede. The acts purporting to do so are void and I do not recognized them.
3) That having been said, to keep things from getting out of hand I will tell you where I am drawing the line: don't interfere with government property or federal taxation. So long as you don't go there, then I won't appoint Northerners to federal posts in the south even if it means those posts go unfilled because no southerner wants them. And I'll keep delivering the mail, too.
4) So THINK about what you are doing. We can work things out.
To put a cherry on it:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln
One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.
Point 2, above, resulted in the war. If you want to spin it pro-South you can say "Lincoln's refusal to recognize the rights of states to secede caused the war", and if you want to spin it pro-north you can say "the Southern states' attempts to secede caused the war", but to say that the proximate cause of the war was "tariffs" borders on the absurd.