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Summary As Lincoln shows his deep morality by freeing slaves, the war in '63 for both the North and South has lows and highs. Big government will bring the South's demise. Chapter At Fredrick Douglass' urging, Lincoln spoke: to liberate the slaves was now his 'duty.' And he didn't hesitate to cite the moral - not political - necessity of acting soon (he mulled the merits of a colony for blacks, in way of compromise). Antietam brought the news of Lee's retreat, and Lincoln, as the diplomat, would use the opportunity, with honor, to emancipate the slaves. While true the slaves he freed were under Southern state control, the proclamation had sublime effects. It stirred the South, earned Europe's deep respect, and most of all assured the black that he was human, not a piece of property. And back at Fred'ricksburg, with Burnside in a travesty of stark defeat, and Stonewall standing tall (the Wilderness displayed his nerve, Lee's expertise), a sense of hopelessness consumed the President: "Our cause is lost!" But then a twist of fate at Chanch'lorsville, with Stonewall killed. And he'd be missed immensely, Rebels never quite the same. And "Pickett's Charge," at Cemetery Ridge, was General Lee's mistake, a large success for Union forces. Now the North's economy, an open Mississippi, and the rampage to the sea by General Sherman ("war is hell") were quickly laying waste the South; a win at Shenandoah, and Lincoln now could taste a Northern victory; torpedoes 'damned' by Farragut at sea; Atlanta, thanks to Sherman, now a desolate and beaten town. Amazingly, the President was blamed for showing mercy to the South. But with the end proclaimed at Appomattox, all was well. At last the servitude imposed on blacks was done (13th Amendment), with a mood of selfless Reconstruction urged by Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth would end the dream: the 'tyrant' put away, along with truth, compassion, dignity. Consider now the certainties about the war: the country suffered more fatalities than all the wars through World War 2 - the South, percentage-wise, the most. And government expansion would epitomize the folly of repressing markets - South especially, where soldiers starved as Davis confiscated industry and liberty. Their histories are filled with irony: in Southern states the slaves were running the economy; and in the north, it's striking that the country's unity depended on a group of men who had a history of drinking (Grant), depression (Lincoln, Sherman said to be afflicted), and (for Grant and Sherman) inability to thrive outside the military. Lastly came a myth: Lost Cause. Confederate defenders raise this monolith of faulty thinking, that their honor and morality were compromised by Northern avarice and tyranny. |