Paul,

Very well put. As someone who also has roots in ante bellum VA (and apparently with slave-owners to boot), I am still mystified at those who speak of the "War of Northern Aggression" as some kind of defeat for this country. There were regrettable things about the war and its aftermath (for every white southerner outraged over Reconstruction, I could probably find 10 African-American southerners who saw their voting rights, rights to property and other privileges their white neighbors took for granted revoked by the backlash that lasted until the Civil Rights movement 100 years after the war.

For anyone who thinks that the war was a mistake, I invite them to justify such a conclusion with some evidence of how this country could have become as great and prosperous as it has divided into separate nations. It just wouldn't be possible. It's why many gray veterans came to believe that the results benefited the nation and the South more than had their cause not been lost.

One man's opinion.

As to Lincoln, he was far more complex than the hagiography that surrounds his memory would indicate, and his policies were not always as noble as the movies and books about him would have us believe. But if there's such a thing as "the right man for the job," I think he qualifies.

Bill Cross

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