Your Email:

Subject:

Message:
Entry: Just War, Jeremiah, and Jeremiah Weed Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/just_war_jeremiah_and_jeremiah_weed#1062 Post contents: It seems that in analyzing the Civil War, we have to keep two things separate. On the one hand, America is an "imperialist" country. We wouldn't have allowed a part of our country to split off in the 1860's, any more than we allowed the Mexicans to keep Texas or California when we decided we wanted them. We can talk about the constitutionality of the Civil War or its agreement with Just War theory until we’re blue in the face, but the reality is that Americans of that time wouldn’t have allowed such questions to stop them. I know that sounds pretty cynical, but I think we have to face our character as Americans. I hope we can get away from this imperialism. The other matter is the sincerity of Lincoln's commitment to ending slavery. The fact that he put more importance on holding the Union together doesn’t mean he wasn’t really committed to ending it. He probably hoped that if the Union could be kept together, Congress would eventually end it. Most likely he thought allowing secession would delay the ending of slavery in the South. I know that’s not his entire reason for opposing secession, but he probably held this opinion and thought of it as a “moral imperative.” Putting those two things together, I don’t think there’s any reason to deny Lincoln was the “man of the hour” for America. He led Americans in the direction they wanted to go. Of course that doesn’t excuse a lot of the brutalities of the war, as I implied above. Sent at: 2008 09 08