Mr. Lincoln’s Mistake

Abraham Lincoln deserves to be revered as one of our great presidents.  His towering figure has a rightful seat in the temple to freedom that stands majestically at the end of the Washington Mall.  But the great emancipator made a great mistake, and one that caused more suffering than needed to occur.  That mistake was not in fighting to free the slaves, but in fighting to preserve the Union.

When the southern states seceded, he could have declared them enemy nations, which is how they saw themselves anyway.  State by state, the President could have marched the Union Army into enemy territory, causing as little harm to the yeomen and small farmers as possible, but burning the big plantations to the ground and inviting the freed slaves to fight with them for the freedom of their brethren.  For those who chose not to fight, the bluecoates could have provided safe passage north .   

The Confederacy was a weak political union, and its states saw themselves largely as sovereign nations.  So it is by no means clear that Georgian slave owners would have marched to the rescue of Texan slave owners or vice versa, making each war smaller and quicker.  And while the fighting would have been fierce, it would have been mild in comparison to the Civil War if, once the slaves were free, the Union withdrew rather than keeping fighting to conquer.

The small farmers in the south, while they would be no fans of America, would no longer have had to compete with the plantation owners who held such a massive advantage and they would have had very little incentive and very few resources to launch a war against the north.   With much open territory left in the west, freedmen could have begun their own small farms.

From then, the albatross that was the Jim Crow south would have no longer burdened the Union, and there would have been no pro-segregation majority in America.  The terror inflicted by the Klan to keep African-Americans in subservience would not have plagued these states to the extent that it did.   A less reactionary and more progressive Congress would have been possible.  Rights for women and minorities would likely have come sooner, as would progressive legislation of many kinds.  Without the presidents elected with southern votes, America would have a much smaller debt, be on its way to energy independence and would most certainly not have invaded Iraq.

And now a small but growing movement in some states is starting to talk secession again.  If they decide to go, and as long as they provide safe passage for whoever would like to move to the Union, I say let them follow their path to its end. 

Image by George Eastman House via Flickr