When Lincoln took office in March of 1861, then took our nation to war in April of that same year, he forfeited a golden opportunity to end the scourge of slavery in America without bloodshed. Due to the secession of seven Slave States, his party held a super majority in both the House and the Senate, which gave him a lot of latitude to take other actions to limit the exercise of slavery, or make it economically more expensive.
Tag Archive | Civil War
The American Civil War, Just or Unjust?
Most modern Americans, who think about the nature of the American Civil War, consider the war to have been justly initiated against the South, because, as they most likely believe, it was a war perpetrated to end slavery. Yet even if Lincoln perpetrated the war to end slavery, the Civil War was neither civil nor just.
The Just War Doctrine, which western society has acknowledged for many centuries and to which the United States implicitly subscribed at its inception, is the only non-anachronistic standard by which modern American society can judge a western nineteenth century war to determine if it was justly commenced. One of the criterion of the Just War Doctrine is that a war can only be just, for the aggressor nation, if every other means to achieve a peaceful resolution has been earnestly attempted. Both Lincoln’s own words and his actions prove that he did not resort to war as a last resort. Another criterion of the Just War Doctrine is that an aggressor nation must have a just cause for war. While the abolition of slavery, under certain circumstances, could have been a just cause for war, Lincoln’s own words refute that he initiated the war for that purpose. The historical record shows that Lincoln, and the Northern States, did not use war as a last resort and that he did not have a just cause to go to war against the seceded Southern States, which makes the American Civil War both morally and legally unjust.
A Southern Abolitionist Plagiarizes Habakkuk
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see the iniquity of men in bondage,
and why do you idly look at the wrong of your people treating others so heartlessly?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The South Was Wrong!
From a twenty-first century perspective, it is difficult to imagine that any American could make a defense of institutionalized slavery as it existed in the United States from before its inception, as an independent nation, until 1865. Looking back through history, it is easy for anyone living today to see that slavery was wrong and that there is no Biblical, humanitarian, or rational defense for its practice. People living today might easily make such a judgment because they do not have their entire lives and livelihoods dependent upon it and because it is easy for anyone to make judgments about the ills of others while completely ignoring one’s own transgressions. All of us need to be mindful of these two facts when considering the issue of slavery in America. That being the case, the South was wrong about slavery, but it was right about secession, and frequently these issues are conflated in the minds of modern Americans.
Flag of Contention
In the wake of the Charleston, South Carolina Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shootings on June 18, 2015, Governor Nikki Haley called for the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the State capital’s flagpole. Regrettably, even if her call for action is successful, it would do no more to change the reasons behind the hatred that drives one human to kill others than legislation to ban the “N” word would go towards closing the inaccurately named “racial” divide.
The Death of a Nation
Unfortunately, too many people today do not understand the actual historical causes of the war that set brother against brother and State against State. It is unfortunate, because that war encompasses many fundamental causes of current American problems and without understanding its true cause we will be unable to repair what went wrong or prevent it from happening in the future.
The Case Against Secession
The case against secession was best made before 1861 by James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln, the 15th and 16th Presidents of the United States. Buchanan made his case during his December 3, 1860 State of the Union address and Lincoln made his case during his March 4, 1861 first inaugural address. Unfortunately for their cases against secession, their speeches were filled with a smorgasbord of logical fallacies and unsupported political rhetoric.
Their speeches also showcase how politicians mislead the public, wittingly or unwittingly, into policies that are destructive to the entire nation. The war that transpired as a result of the general acceptance of their rhetoric was completely unnecessary and avoidable. Its prevention required a President willing to act within constitutional bounds and only resort to war for a just cause and then only as the very last resort to restore justice under God’s Law.