[Peace-discuss] the stinkin' lincoln legacy

[E. Wayne Johnson]

>   [2] collect duties outside the ports of seceding States or blockade 
> them; 
There are those who are of the opinion that the issue of Tariffs and 
Duties levied on
imported goods entering Southern ports was more of a divisive and 
contentious issue than
the matter of slavery, since neither the South nor the North had a 
majority favouring
abolition and emancipation in 1861.  The tariff was high and served as a 
trade barrier
favouring goods produced by the factories of the North as opposed to 
products from Europe and
elsewhere.



On 5/21/2009 3:07 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Options other than war were available to Lincoln, and he was aware of 
> them.
>
> Advice came from the most distinguished American military figure of 
> the day,
> Gen. Winfield Scott (1786-1866). He served on active duty as a general 
> longer
> than any other man in American history and may have been the ablest 
> American
> commander of his time; he devised the Anaconda Plan that would be used 
> to defeat
> the Confederacy.
>
> In a letter addressed to  Governor Seward (leading Republican and 
> Lincoln's Secretary of State) -- and obviously meant for Lincoln's 
> eyes -- on the day preceding Lincoln's inauguration (March 3, 1861), 
> Scott suggested that the president had four possible courses of action:
>
>   [1] adopt the Crittenden Compromise (which restored the Missouri 
> Compromise
> line: slavery would be prohibited north of the 36° 30′ parallel and 
> guaranteed
> south of it);
>
>   [2] collect duties outside the ports of seceding States or blockade 
> them;
>
>   [3] conquer those States at the end of a long, expensive, and 
> desolating war,
> and to no good purpose; or,
>
>   [4] say to the seceded States, "Wayward sisters, depart in peace!"
>
> Scott clearly preferred the forth.  In retrospect, it probably would 
> have been best.
>
> (For more on why that would have been the case, see the recent book by 
> William Marvel I mentioned the other day.)  --CGE
>
>
> John W. wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 10:37 AM, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag 
>> <mailto:ewj at pigs.ag>> wrote:
>>
>> Death toll from "Lincoln's War"
>>
>> "The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these
>> casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the
>> Revolution through Vietnam."
>>
>> Adjusted for today's US population, the number would be over 6 million.
>>
>>
>> I'm curious what you would have done as President in 1861, Wayne. 
>> Simply let
>> the South secede?
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>