Civil War indeed centered on slavery
On Jan. 2, letter writer Steve Quick attempted to say that the Civil War (or, as he probably calls it, The War of Northern Aggression) was not about slavery by using selective quotes from a British newspaper, Lincoln and Grant, none of whom actually seceded from the Union.
The Confederate states are the ones who actually seceded, and here are some samples of the reasons why, in their own words, from just a couple of their Declarations of Secession:
South Carolina — 18 mentions of some form of the word “slave”
Mississippi — 7 mentions of “slave”, plus these phrases: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery,” and “by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.”
Georgia — 35 mentions of “slave”
Texas — 22 mentions of “slave,” plus this statement that the newly elected Lincoln administration was “based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color — a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law.”
What the purpose of his letter was, we can only guess (oh, I think we know). To paraphrase from a local sports radio station, Steve Quick, who are you kidding”?
Bruce Henke
Bartlett