Lincoln wanted the war and was out to provoke it. He meant to centralize power and crush the slave states, which were coincidentally also the leading states to oppose government works projects like the continental railroad.
How do we know he meant to provoke it? Well, there are his actions at Fort Sumter, but more compelling are his acts after. At least four states, including the most populous state in the Confederacy and the richest state in the Union had had secession votes and voted to remain in the Union UNLESS the federal government moved against the seven states who had seceded militarily. So, knowing this, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to crush the so-called rebellion. He knew this would force more states out and it did. In fact two more, Missouri and Kentucky would have gone out but were immediately occupied by federal troops.
And that entire war was on his head. The Confederacy would have had no chance whatsoever and would not have been nearly as successful without Virginia. And Virginia expressly went out because of the call for troops from Lincoln. The Virginia governor wrote a detailed telegram to Lincoln’s secretary of war telling him that his call for troops exceeded the constitutional authority of thr 1795 Ordinance.
I doubt Lincoln knew how bad it was going to be or that the federals would come so close to losing on so many occasions, but the war was his fault and his alone. Moderation may have seen things cool off a bit. It is doubtful the seven states who had gone out could have stayed out with the eight other slave states remaining in. I guess we’ll never know.
And yeah, Lincoln deserved it. He had 800,000 souls to answer for.
Last edited by JoeBob; 02/13/24.
