Please make no mistake about this. The Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery. If this had not been a bone on contention, there may never have been a Civil War. The so-called Southern way of aristocratic life could have continued under the roof of the US government but Abolition was the basis of the war. Even Lincoln's suggested compromise would not have been tolerated by Northern Abolitionists.

Confederacy's Southern way of life was predicated on the slave trade for it's economic survival. If it had given up slavery there may never have been a war. To say that the Confereracy was merely trying to defend it's way of life is like saying that the Nazis were only trying to help the German people recover economically.

Frank Hamilton