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CivilWar.docx

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I wanted to add a bit about Lincoln and northern thought concerning slavery since you will soon be reading about him and the move towards Civil War. As to Lincoln -- Lincoln like 90% of the Northern population was a unionist, meaning keeping the union of the states was more important than anything else and that means Lincoln was not opposed to slavery existing in the South prior to the Civil War. Lincoln was not an abolitionist and the Republican Party was not a party of abolitionism. The Abolitionists, who advocated an immediate end to slavery with no compensation to the owners for their loss of "property" and immediate rights for African Americans, were a distinct minority (estimated at most of 10% in North in 1850 and at most 20% by 1860) which did not engage in the political process after 1847 Gag Rule (Congress passed a resolution refusing to entertain legislation on ending slavery) and instead put much more emphasis on either letting the South go their own way or funding the underground railroad which by 1860 had facilitated the running away of almost 150,000 slaves. So what this means is that while Lincoln thought the idea of slavery was abominable he also believed in African inferiority and did not believe at all in any sort of equality. When Lincoln ran for the presidency in 1860 he stated over and over that he would not campaign to end slavery in the South, but would not allow it to spread. The Republican Party was also not abolitionist --- ahhhh, but it was anti-slavery. What does that mean? It means that the Republican Party wanted to further the commercial and business interests of the North and to do that it advocated replacing slave labor systems with wage labor systems (because wage labor is far more efficient than slave labor, how? You have to provide for a slave cradle to grave or deal with uprisings, plus there is the initial investment in purchasing a slave, neither of which do you do for a wage laborer before there are any unions and any work related protections). The South knew that Lincoln advocated this same position and therefore interpreted his election as an end of slavery despite his statements to the contrary and his personal views on African Americans. The War forced Lincoln to confront the moral issue of slavery in a way he did not want to in 1860, and because of the abolitionist lobby he was compelled by 1862 to make the war about something more than union (federal over state) and to make the war about the immorality and brutality of the slave condition. Even before the 13th amendment was ratified Lincoln favored sending all former slaves back to Africa because he couldn't accept them as part of his society. He only once ever mentioned the possibility for rights for Americans of African descent and that was in the last speech he ever made. Ok maybe he was re-thinking his position that inferior Africans did not belong with superior European Americans, but we don't know. The only evidence is that he used morality for political purposes and not to further the ideas of democracy, equality and freedom. He was a reluctant emancipator, not a "Great Emancipator" the way he is often depicted. And yet I still love Lincoln.  

Now for the final -- the whole point of writing in the real world (regardless of what you learn in English classes) is to develop the meaning of information -- I did that in working in government, in finance, in retail and not just in my writing as a historian. The whole point of writing is to develop meaning for your reader -- than means summarizing is not important at all. Your reading assignments were meant to give you practice in gathering information and explaining the meaning of that information. Your essay gives you an opportunity to do that in a more pointed and structured way where you are supposed to develop a point and structure evidence to explain that point by determining the meaning of information. The whole point of writing in the real world is to develop meaning -- the whole point of an essay is to develop meaning. You now have a final essay to do. The purpose is to develop meaning -- based on the question you choose, you are supposed to develop an interpretation based on a hypothesis you formulate and the present evidence and the meaning of that evidence to confirm your hypothesis. If you have any questions on that, then write me. Be as specific as possible -- make sure you go through the matrix