Rush Limbaugh is Wrong About Lincoln and the Civil War

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Rush Limbaugh is usually right. He agrees, claiming a 99.1% accuracy. In fact, I have only disagreed with him twice in my life. I was adamantly against NAFTA from the very beginning, he was not; and a school measure on the ballot a dozen years ago I supported he did not (he turned out to be right on that one, I realized after the fact).

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh made mention of Lincoln and the American Civil War, and I found myself opposed to him in opinion for the third time in my life.

Limbaugh, answering accusations that he's racist and supports slavery, ventured into the topic of the war that divided a country. He said that the civil war was all about slavery, despite the claim by some it was about state's rights.

I think Rush Limbaugh misses the point.

Slavery was the primary ingredient, and had slavery not existed in America the civil war would have never been fought. Slavery was a component that weaved in and out of every issue of that day, especially when it comes to the war. Slavery was a major topic of political discussion, and an abolition movement was underway in The South as the 19th century ventured into its second half. Therefore, I can understand why people demand that the American Civil War was about slavery.

A war was not required to end slavery in America, no more than a war was required to end slavery in Britain when Mr. Wilburforce was so determined to end the sin of slavery through legislative means. Had there have been no war, slavery would have ended in the United States because of pressure by abolition groups, probably not very much longer than the time it took to kill all of those Americans in the Civil War. Therefore, slavery itself did not cause the war in the United States. The federal government stepping on state's rights (over slavery) caused the seccession of the Confederacy, and ultimately led to the War Between the States.

The states did not secede because they wanted to fight to keep their slavery. The states seceded because the federal government was taking unconstitutional steps to pressure The South out of their use of slavery.

Slavery was a huge component, and the existence of slavery is linked to the causes that brought on the Civil War, but slavery itself was not the cause.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary