the afformentioned article is much too long and trite for me to take it point by point,, but first and foremost, if there was no written record of the meeting then the exact terms of the confrence would be in debate, but i will respond
I'm inclined to agree with neutron about the article offered by plumor, i could sense in the words that it would eventually sink into a rant, but i didnt think that it would be like that. The loss of liberty caused by the civil war. I dont really feel all that less free because Florida wont risk its own distuction over fucking orange juice import taxes
I find it the miscourse of most people who offer such disperaging remarks about wars to focus more on the specific problem than the overall hostility surrounding a situation that causes military conflict. In what i have learned about the subject and just in my own personal gut feeling the war between the states was basically inevidable. ever since we put together our own government the big argument was states rights, versus national authority, lets not forget, the marijuana of revisionist history is the correct reporting that it could be considered that George Washington was not the first president of the united states, and that in fact the us started out under the articles of oh whats this thats right CONFEDERATION, the group of old drunken guys that wrote what we know as the consitution (im pretty sure that it was the sons of liberty, but history class was a long time ago for me boys) knew that drafting and proposing such a document could have sparked an armed conflict just for talking about it so the first thing they did when they sobered up was to arm themselves and prepare for the potential of gunplay at that point in time, lucky for them at the time they controlled the press so they got enough votes to get it passed yada yada yada, but the key pint is that the issue was never resolved, certain people still felt certain ways about certain things, and you know that tense look at family reunions, u know im not the only one who gets them thats what i imagine it to be like on the senate floor at that time. and when the south seceeded what government did they propose thats right confederation. dont loose the fact (and i know its hard with all this boring talk about tariffs) that back then you thought of yourself as a Floridian first, not as an American First. or a Virginian, or someone like that. so the perception of for average person in most cases of the federal government and the president was jsut as it was for the colonies and king george before the rev. war, a far off power telling them what to do, i knotice in the article provided that the secession attempts of new england, none happened after the war, why, because there were consequences. okay, slavery wasnt the main main thing, but in my oppinion it might not have been the greatest accomplishment of the armed military action of the late 1800's, now when you look around in america we are a truly united states, all the citizens for the most part think of themselves as Americans first. had there never been a military action to clean out all the bad blood we would not be the last remaining superpower on earth. a house divided can not fall, so on and so forth, but the thing in my oppinion that still classifies Abe as a great president is the fact that even reported above that he would not waiver on the unification of this nation long term and forever and under even an adopted flag of just cause.
and as to the commitment of the Linclon administration to end slavery on a genuine level, the tlaking points of a confrence that coulsd have saved countless american lives should not necessarily indicate anything to the contrary. the carrot of the south not having to bow down and abolish slavery by force and then the offer of 400 million (half a trillion in todays dollars) would have given the southern delegates the ability to sve face with their constituents and make the ucs not seem so much like a ucs, but i still think that half a trill is a pretty good commitment, and the end would have been met, politics is politics then or now right.