Iraq Withdrawal and the Civil War

It is always tenuous to try and draw parallels between historic events especially wars. Most of liberal friends and colleagues get angry whenever I try to draw that parallel mself. It is one they want nothing to do with because after a long, bloody and quite unpopular war, in the end, a hapless, unaccomplished, steadfast, and in many ways, stubborn, President was ultimately proved correct. History of course has lauded Abraham Lincoln as a great leader, a man of courage, and of conviction, but that was not the way his opponents saw him then.Take a look at the 1864 Democratic Party platform.

Resolved, that in the future, as in the past, we will adhere with unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution, as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people, and as af ramework of government equally conducive to the welfare and prosperity ofallthe States, both Northern and Southern.1864 Democratic PresidentialNominee,General George B. McClellan Resolved, that this conventiondoes explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that afterfour years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, duringwhich, under the pretence of military necessity, or war power higher thanthe Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice,humanity,liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be madefor acessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of theStates.

Resolved, that the direct interference of the military authorities of the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky,Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware, was a shameful violation of theConstitution, and a repetition of such acts in the approaching election willbe held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means and power underour control.Resolved, that the aim and object of the Democratic partyare to preservethe federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired ;and they herebydeclare that they consider the administrative usurpation ofextraordinary anddangerous powers not granted by the Constitution; the subversion of the civil by the military laws in States not in insurrection;the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where civil lawexists in full force; the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press; thedenial of the right of asylum; theopen and avowed disregard of State rights;the employment of unusual test oaths, and the interference with and denial ofthe right of the people to bear arms in their defense, as calculated to preventa restoration of theUnion and the perpetuation of a government deriving itsjust powers from theconsent of the governed.

Resolved, that the shameful disregard by theadministration of its duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who are now andhave long been prisoners of war in a suffering condition, deserves theseverest reprobation on the score alike of public policy and commonhumanity.Resolved, that the sympathy of the Democratic party isheartily andearnestly extended to the soldiers of our army and the seamenof our navy, who are and have been in the field under the flag of their country; and, in the event of its attaining power, they will receive all the care, protection, andregard that the brave soldiers and sailors of the republic have so nobly earned.

Now, take a look at this diary from the Virginian

First, although the war was about saving the Union and ending slavery, it was–
as it was known throughout much of the South - the “War of NorthernAggression.” Unfair, perhaps, but the South’s objective in the Civil War wasto be left to secede in peace, not to invade or conquer the North. The Civil War’s fighting was ostensibly begun by the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the surrender of Major Anderson and his 85 troops. The fighting was not expected to last very long at all,and the surrender of the fort's defenders was quickly followed by their release to Union warships outside Charleston harbor. Major Anderson later became a UnionGeneral. But, while the skirmish at Fort Sumter marked the initiation ofshooting, the Civil War was started by Abraham Lincoln’s decision to prevent theSouth from seceding, and his willingness to use military force to preventit.Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union and – as a result – Northernarmies invaded the states that seceded to bring them back under Federal Government control.

Virtually all of the war was fought on secessionist soil.Today we considerthat a good thing. But it was not inevitable. Lincoln could have allowed theSouth to secede and made arrangements with the Confederate government tocooperate in developing another separate country on the North Americancontinent, thereby saving roughly 600,000 lives; 2% of the population. In todya's terms that same death toll would
equal 6 million people.Followingthe war, the South was treated as conquered enemyterritory during “Reconstruction” and its economy was sod evastated that it took a century before it fully recovered.There were many people who opposed the war.

First or course were the 10 million people of the Southern states who would justas soon not fight an invading army. But even among the 20 million Northerners,there was a very large contingent who did not feel the war was worthwhile andwho were content to see the South secede. Among these was George McClellan, the topNorthern General at the beginning of the war who ran against Abraham Lincoln in1864 when his party – the Democrats – ran on an anti-war platform, promising toend the war and negotiate with the Confederacy

read the rest at the link...