Your Email:

Subject:

Message:
Entry: The Limits of Lincoln Bashing Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_limits_of_lincoln_bashing#24247 Post contents: One of the great overlooked aspects of Lincoln was his nearly lifelong membership in the Whig party. He only reluctantly joined the Republicans after the definitive demise of the Whigs. The Whigs were the (moderately) conservative party of the day (compared to the Jacksonian Democratic Party). His hero was the anti-slavery slave-owning Kentuckian Henry Clay. Clay and the Whigs had a national constituency, unlike the strictly Northern Republicans. Lincoln was not an aboltionist, as the term was understood in those days (he disapproved of the breed, believing they made the prospect of solving the slavery problem less likely with their shrill rhetoric). He was a believer in slavery limitation, however, believing it would lead to emancipation and possible relocation of the freed slaves to Africa or elsewhere. This was a widely-supported program by many prominent Americans. Even Southern spokesmen paid lip service to the idea (both before and after the civil war!). Although the civil war was a disaster, both Lincoln and the Southern statesmen believed it would be a short affair. Both sides pressed their prosecution of the war; in the case of the Confederacy, the effort was pressed long after any rational hope of success passed (Jefferson Davis even hoped to continue the war from the Southwest after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia). Sent at: 2008 07 20