Kicking the can: An end-over-end boot to no end

                The American Civil War was very little more than the continued maturation of our Constitution. As such, it serves as the ultimate example of what happens when our legislators elect to kick the can of decision making down the road.

          The framers of the Constitution did not eliminate slavery and the matter festered until the majority of southern states started pulling out of the Union to form the Confederacy in 1860.

          The Civil War started with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April of 1861, sure. But the war came about because the framers of the Constitution put the matter of slavery on the back burner in order to get the document ratified.

          You could argue the decision to get the Constitution ratified was of paramount importance and all other considerations were of lesser importance. Many of the founders felt that way, obviously, and when you consider the question, you have to try to assume a 1780s mentality.

          If you give the Framers of the Constitution a pass for not addressing slavery during the period when the Constitution was written and voted into law, fine. But there was no serious effort to rid the young nation of the scourge of slavery through the end of the 18^th century and no serious legislative attempt to get the job done through the middle of the 19^th century, either.

          Now, I’m pretty sure we all agree that wars are bad and should be avoided when possible, but I am positive that we all agree that the institution of slavery is even worse.

          And that takes us to the 1860s and the War Between the States. The conflict has been termed by some historians the first modern war. The carnage was awful. More than half a million Americans lost their lives, some of them civilians. Some towns on both sides lost an entire generation of young men.

          But slavery ended.

          The war brought death, destruction and suffering. It cost families their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons. Many of the survivors carried wounds for the remainder of their lives and they frequently had to carry those wounds on crutches or in empty sleeves.

          But the practice of slavery was made illegal in the United States of America.

          It is argued here that slavery would have existed in some form well into the 20th century without the coming of the Civil War. Congress did not have enough votes to eliminate the vile practice of enslavement before the war started and it probably wouldn’t have had enough votes for decades to come.

          Go back and read your history. Study the era. Two states where slavery was still legal, Maryland and Kentucky, remained loyal to the Union. If every Congressman from every free state voted to end slavery before the war, they would not have had enough votes to pass the law and we can assume that at least some representatives from free states would have voted to maintain the status quo.

          Thankfully, we’ll never know how long the practice of slavery would have lasted in the United States without the violence of our Civil War. But we do have a prime example of what happens when you kick the can down the road: Nothing good.

          Thanks for reading.