A musing after reading an article from my hometown in Alabama. It was reflecting on the recently discovered 'Lincoln Journals' as they've been called, and cover the years of the Secession Crisis in the 1860's time. I've read the journal and some other literature of the time, and it's kind of surprising how seriously people were taking the threat of war, even though the entire South was outweighed three or more times.
Lincoln's diary made an interesting point about the Lincoln Compromise, though, in how it came almost out of the blue from some highly placed members of the British government that had just swept into power. Apparently it was the British government that suggested the crux of the deal first: that in exchange for a substantial lowering the high tariffs and a forty-year non-aggression pact, that the British government would not support any rebels and would raise tariffs on slave-labor goods or products. Even with the outside offer of a mix of carrot and stick with regards to the South, Lincoln wasn't sure he could make the proposal stick.
It did, of course, no small thanks to the untimely accidents to some Southern hardliners, the farce that was the 'Battle' of Bull Run, and the North Carolina vote against any secession proposal, but still, just reading the letters give you goosebumps.
Just how far could it have gone, though? War or peaceful separation, either would have have had devastating effects to both Northern and Southern financial and production centers.
Lincoln's diary made an interesting point about the Lincoln Compromise, though, in how it came almost out of the blue from some highly placed members of the British government that had just swept into power. Apparently it was the British government that suggested the crux of the deal first: that in exchange for a substantial lowering the high tariffs and a forty-year non-aggression pact, that the British government would not support any rebels and would raise tariffs on slave-labor goods or products. Even with the outside offer of a mix of carrot and stick with regards to the South, Lincoln wasn't sure he could make the proposal stick.
It did, of course, no small thanks to the untimely accidents to some Southern hardliners, the farce that was the 'Battle' of Bull Run, and the North Carolina vote against any secession proposal, but still, just reading the letters give you goosebumps.
Just how far could it have gone, though? War or peaceful separation, either would have have had devastating effects to both Northern and Southern financial and production centers.