It’s a fact: South fought over slavery
Sorry, Roger Smith (Free Press columnist), you’re wrong.
No disrespect, but everything you said in your Thursday commentary was wrong. For example, the American Civil War can justifiably be called a civil war because American citizens fought on both sides. The North refused to acknowledge the South as a separate country throughout the war, and its victory solidified that denial.
Hindsight and victors name wars; the North won. And thank goodness it did, because you are also wrong on why the South fought. In their own proclamations of secession, Southern states explained it was because of slavery. From our country’s conception, Southern aristocrats maintained a majority in government to keep their fortunes in slavery secure. In the years leading up to the war, that majority was beginning to crumble in the face of abolition. And when a known advocate like Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the South worried its control on government would finally fail. So they seceded.
To view the Civil War as a “lost cause” of states’ rights is a disservice to those who fought and those who were freed. The left doesn’t divide this country. Willful ignorance in the face of facts does.