Was the Civil War “worth it”?

Last updated on: May 2, 2017 at 5:42 pm by Jane the Actuary

Was the Civil War “worth it”? 2017-05-02T12:03:36-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So let’s talk about the Civil War.

The simple explanation of the war is that “it was about slavery” but it is certainly not as simple as that. The South seceded in part because they feared that the North would ultimately take away their ability to own slaves, but that doesn’t explain why they chose to do so at the particular time that they did, and there were Southerners who genuinely believed they were fighting for independence and (yes, ironically) self-determination. And the decisions of Southerners, both their leaders and the common people, would have likely been different had they not been convinced, to start with anyway, that their cause would succeed.

On the part of the North, Lincoln was most definitely resolved to “preserve the Union,” not to abolish slavery, though I imagine many of the common folk did perceive the cause as anti-slavery, or, at any rate, were more determined to win the day because the South, being slave-holding, was alien to them. But plenty were conscripts who fought because they had to.

Could the war have been avoided? What if Lincoln had not been elected, but instead someone squishier on the subject? What if the outgoing government had offered the right combination of carrots and sticks to get the southern states to rescind their declarations of secession?

From the vantage point of 2017, there’s a certain simple response, for instance, in this morning’s Dahleen Glanton column in the Tribune:

In the Civil War, one side had to step aside before America could move forward. There was no room for compromise. The ideals of the two sides were so mismatched, their views of right and wrong too diabolically opposed and their visions for America too different. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

It’s a point of view that says that war was inevitable, since only with war and total vanquishment of slaveholders could slavery have been ended, and the North had the obligation to end slavery in the South. In fact, it seems to me there was a cable movie that claimed to be presenting (in a comedic fashion) an alternative history in which the South had won the Civil War and slavery continued unabated to this day.

Now, I don’t know that there’s much value in speculating on questions like, “how long would slavery have continued?” — but bear in mind that Brazil, in 1888, was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to have banned slavery. How much longer would the U.S. have continued, on its own?

But I think there is a more worthwhile discussion on the question: what was the right thing to have done? Imagine that there was no established expectation that the U.S. must always stay in its present form — after all, if I remember correctly, de Toqueville not long before proclaimed that federalism and the individual rights of the states, were so strong that any state could indeed secede without complaint. Would it have been just, a “just war” (in your own peception, not following the “official rules” on such things), for the Union to fight the Confederacy with the explicit intention of ending slavery?

What if the South had never seceded? At what point, if at all, would abolitionists have been justified in using force to end slavery? And is the answer different in the case of an abolitionist gaining power and using military force, vs. guerrilla actions? Or would it have been better for the federal government, or voluntary organizations, to buy the slaves’ freedom, perhaps with laws requiring that slaveowners sell at market price? Or should abolitionists have been content with working to “change hearts and minds,” as they say, indefinitely as long as the South didn’t push for expansion on their part?

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACivil_war_reenactment_1.jpg; By Daniel Schwen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 2, 2017

The perils of the diversity crusade

Next Post

May 3, 2017 Please sign! A petition on NFP effectiveness

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Elijah Joshua Nehemiah Solomon