Greg, ol' buddy...

There is no answer to the "slavery was on it's way out" question any more than Saddam being able to prove he didn't have WMDs... That is a trick question... People make choices all the time on probabilities, trends and patterns...

I mean, I could ask you the same question in reverse... It would go something like this: Would the South ended slavery without the war??? And please provide your evidence...

See??? I think we can logically get beyond that question... I believe the South would have... Maybe you don't...

Same with the oath... It was no secret the Southern states wanted out of the Union... The firebrands had been ranting for years... Might of fact the entire concept of "federalism" had never been sufficiently agreed upon in spite of the the 1803 decision in Murbury v. Madison...

Lincoln could have met with Jefferson Davis and proposed a constitutional amendment releasing the Southern States... That would have bought him some time... Think of it more as a divorce where even though one party didn't initiate it accepts it for what it is...

Oaths can be tricky... Google Grover Norquist... I mean, 625,000 men wouldn't have died had Lincoln been more creative...

Lastly, you seem to think that because I do not agree with you that I am not dealing with "reality"... You know better than that, Greg... I am dealing very much with reality... The reality is that the unCivil War didn't ***have*** to happen... The reality is that it did... The reality is that in many ways there is a low grade civil war that has never ended... The reality is that I am neither a Southern Apologist nor a Lincoln Worshiper... I am a historian that just doesn't buy the mythology that this war was gonna happen no matter what...

I offer no apologies for slavery, for radical Southern firebrands, for Radical Republican firebrands, for Lincoln, for Davis... My interest in history is that it offers lessons... Gosh, if we learned nothin' from 625,000 men killed then that disrespects each and every one of them...

Now, I'm going to do what I wished Lincoln had done and leave this alone...

We've been too good of friends, Greg, for me to take it any further... My mamma might have been a pistol in her day but she also taught me grace...

Peace...

B~