When I started to write this, my intention was to have a thought experiment where we pretended slavery didn't exist in America in the 1860s and I would ask "ok then, why did we go to war?"
I realized that was a fool's errand.
The South had an economic and political strangehold on America, and they wanted to expand that into the new territories. Furthermore, they believed the central government had no right to impede them.
How did they get control?
Through slavery.
The wealthiest agricultural magnates in the South--the 1%-ers of the Antebellum days--used forced labor to make ridiculous profits. They effectively lobbied to get disproportionate congressional representation based upon the slaves who were not free to leave the south. And finally, they successfully lobbied to have any escaped slaves returned. It was the perfect business model, protected by the authority of the central government--an authority they would later rebuke.
Forget about morality and essential liberty. Forget about the suffering of black people. Just put it out your mind. The only way to make government fair and representative and to make the market free--duties of the government enshrined in the constitution--was to abolish slavery.
The South needed to preserve and extend slavery to maintain economic supremacy. Abolitionists wanted to end slavery because it was immoral. Blacks wanted to end slavery because they had been languishing under the lash for 400 years. Poor white southerners wanted to end slavery so they could compete fairly. The North wanted to end slavery to break the back of the South. And, the government had a duty to end slavery because it was unconstitutional.
It was ALL about slavery.
Lincoln had a plan to preserve the Union and end the abomination of slavery. He wanted to gradually wean the south off the slavery tit through compensated voluntary manumission. It was not ideal, but it fulfilled the constitutional and moral obligation of the States in the most painless way possible.
How did the south react? They refused. They turned their back on the Union and attacked their former compatriots on the the grounds of states' right and the financial well-being of 1%-ers. They did not care about the constitutional need to end slavery. They did not care about loyalty to their country. They did not care about a free, competitive economy. They didn't care about the inalienable rights of slaves. They didn't even want to coexist in peace as two separate nations.
If this was anyone else except our great great grandparents, we would say the "Rebels" were selfish, disloyal, stubborn, immoral and foolhardy. But, because we idolize that prideful rebel spirit, we whitewash what they really did and what it meant.
At the point they seceded, raised a new flag and called themselves the Confederate States they were no longer American. They're history is NOT our history. Furthermore, when they attacked the United States, they became no different than Imperial Japan, Communist Russia, Nazi Germany or ISIS.
What loyal American patriot flies the black flag of ISIS? Who dons a swastika and gives the Roman salute? Who reveres the crescent and the hammer of communism? If any American of Islamic faith, Russian or German heritage did, they would be reviled. Japanese Americans won't even talk about old Imperial Japan. British expats never speak of the "good ol' days" when America was still British. Mexican Americans don't erect statues to the Spaniards who died in the Mexican-American War. Confederate symbols and "heroes," however... they are special. They have been (white)washed clean and, somehow, made holy.
We born in this country, we have a common history ALL can remember with pride--American history. Americans are pioneers, freedom fighters, liberators, innovators, discoverers, philosophers, makers of exquisite art and soulful music. We conquered the wild and reached for the stars. We harnessed the power of nature by splitting the atom and connected the world with the internet. We have fought genocide, famine and plagued. We destroyed fascism, totalitarianism and communism. We have spread freedom and democracy the world over. We were the original Rebels of modernity; all free, democratic republics are the progeny of America. It means something to be American. Despite all this deep American history, some Americans want to glorify the 4 years when we couldn't get our shit together.
And that... is truly sad.
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