"Hypocrite Abe"

[cash]

WOW! You are....For the 1st time since joining, I guess I'll have to ignore your bitter remarks!

In fact, I'd like to confront that fraud. What was his name? I'll look him up and communicate with him directly.

 

[Nathanb1]

WOW! You are....For the 1st time since joining, I guess I'll have to ignore your bitter remarks!

Nothing bitter at all. But cash makes an important point. If your professor said Lincoln was not interested in ending slavery, he was at the least wrong--I'll leave it at that. Lincoln was quite clear in including slavery in his speeches and writing as a reason to go to war. Was it the main reason when the war began? No. But even if you merely accept that Lincoln ran as a republican, then he must necessarily have had the ending of slavery as an important part of his philosophy.

I'm going to suggest if you don't like the way cash worded this, you go back to your post and see what prompted his use of such a strong term.....I'm thinking if it's not dishonesty, then you either misunderstood or misrepresented what the guy said. Those are pretty much the choices you've left us.

 

[rhettbutler1865]

Thank you-

Nothing bitter at all. But cash makes an important point. If your professor said Lincoln was not interested in ending slavery, he was at the least wrong--I'll leave it at that. Lincoln was quite clear in including slavery in his speeches and writing as a reason to go to war. Was it the main reason when the war began? No. But even if you merely accept that Lincoln ran as a republican, then he must necessarily have had the ending of slavery as an important part of his philosophy.

I'm going to suggest if you don't like the way cash worded this, you go back to your post and see what prompted his use of such a strong term.....I'm thinking if it's not dishonesty, then you either misunderstood or misrepresented what the guy said. Those are pretty much the choices you've left us.

Thank you-you put it nicely!

 

[James B White]

Also, are we forgetting that Lincoln was a politician? In the course I took, from a very knowledgeable man, Lincoln couldn't have cared less about slavery when he took office. A few times, IMHO, and my professor's, he told the North what they wanted to hear. Now I greatly admire Abe, so not trying to pick a fight!

Others have addressed this from the point of view of what Lincoln thought personally about slavery, but I'd like to point out the other half of the equation. The professor was apparently saying that "the North" wanted to hear he was anti-slavery, perhaps strongly so. Ironically, he generally was low-key about anti-slavery views, even to Horace Greeley in that famous letter.

That to me is better evidence he was behaving as a politician. If he'd been publicly strongly anti-slavery fron the start, he would have lost a lot of white northern sympathy (the emancipation proclamation wasn't wildly popular among everyone even in 1863), not to mention Kentucky and Maryland, who were important border states.

 

[rhettbutler1865]

Thank you so VERY much--I had to defend my professor...and that is what I was saying--I really appreciate your post! I took offense (and even got angry, which I should know better not to do)...I'm just so "into" the CW, I took the comments too seriously. Again, Thanks...

 

[cash]

Thank you so VERY much--I had to defend my professor...and that is what I was saying--I really appreciate your post! I took offense (and even got angry, which I should know better not to do)...I'm just so "into" the CW, I took the comments too seriously. Again, Thanks...

Note that none of that defends what you claimed your "professor" had said. I'd still like to know who he is so I can confront him.