Here's the real deal here, Greg...

Lincoln didn't have to use such firey rhetoric in the campaign... He was going to be elected no matter because the Northern Repubs had the numbers... Lincoln could have shown a little more grace in his speeches...

But that's just the tip of the iceberg... The unCivil War didn't begin until well after Lincoln had been sworn in and he allowed himself to get sucked into a game of brinksmanship in Charleston... That was his choice... I guess he just didn't understand just how pissed off the secessionists were... His bad... Again, I am not excusing anything that the secessionists did but pointing out that that clusterfuck pchapter of American history took more than one person putting pride above intellect... Kinda like the Iraq war, come to think of it...

I mean, I think it can be argued that there were opportunities on both side to "step back" after 1st Mananas and again neither side was operating with intellect...

B~