re: History Topic: Did R.E. Lee Betray His Countrymen?

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RollTideATL

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So are you now admitting that it wasn't only about slavery?



I read that link and have read the book he is talking abourt and I disagree with the author's very that ths south would not haver wanted to secede. It is impossible for you, any historian, or me to make a reliable prediction if slavery would not have been a cause. You can show me links to this historian saying X and I can show links to that historian saying Y. However the fact remains that the north and south were on a collision point for a civil war without slavery. The south felt like it paid an unfair amount of taxes thanks to the tariff and its economic opportunities were limited thanks to import taxes GB and other european countries put on american goods (mainly cotton) in response to said tariff. The difference would not have gotten better when the northern railroads started building a railroad with government subsidies that the south felt it was paying an unfair share of or Stewart bought Alaska with tax dollars. The differences would not have gotten better when Irish catholics and Chinese moved in. They wouldn't have gotten better when we finally defeated the Indians and opened up the plains. The list goes on and on, but the only accurate prediction that anyone can make is that without slavery the civil war would not have occurred in 1861, however it still would have occured.