Re: [tlug] [OT] US Civil War

[baluta@example.com (Chris BALUTA)]

> Lincoln used "slavery" as a similar rallying cry for those in the
> North too uneducated, lazy, or otherwise unwilling to examine the real
> motivations for the war

   This isn't my understanding of things. I don't think slavery
was a burning issue one way or the other for the average
Northerner (or Sourtherner, for that matter). 

   The Emancipation Proclamation was aimed squarely at Great Britain 
and at ensuring sure that she -- who had significant economic interests 
in the (slave) economy of the South and were making noises about arbitrating
the war/recognizing the Confederacy, etc. -- stayed out it. 

  Great Britain had in the recent past eradicated slavery in her colonies, 
and it had become an explosive moral/political issue in Great Britain,
as in many parts of Europe. The  Emancipation Proclamation framed the 
American Civil War in a moral,  "freedom vs. slavery" context to the 
outside world. It took the wind completely out of the sails of Southern 
hopes in an arbitrated settlement -- with the confederacy left intact. 
It was a political masterstroke by Lincoln.

 (France also was making some noise about both sides reaching a 
settlement, I believe.)

    
     -Chris