Steve Schear wrote:
In short, the Constitution itself was a casualty of >Lincoln's war. A Pyrrhic victory indeed.
For the first time in a long time, I've read a post that actually make me seriously consider rethinking what I have been taught. I've studied quite a bit in regards to US law and the Consitution, (made necessary by my being Pro-PGP), and never looked in that direction. Your post adds a very different light to things. I took the liberty of forwarding your post to a few of my old teachers, and they said that even they had not looked at history from that point. Thank you for the push.
Even more disheartening is the realization that the war probably wasn't ncesassary to free the slaves, as the South was already in decline and slaves were leaving (via the Underground Railroad) in record numbers. Like the West's 'victory' over communism, there's good reason to believe that the South would have collapsed sooner than later due to its untenable economic structure. It seems the war substantially fought over economic, idiological and egotistical reasons. Big sigh... --Steve