In a previous blog your loyal blogger
asked five questions about the American Civil War and asked you readers to read
the questions and consider your own answers.
As previously stated, there are no right
or wrong answers here. Your thoughts are as good as anyone’s. It said in the previous post that this blogger
promised to post a set of replies and they are below, with the questions.
QUESTION
#1: If war had somehow been avoided, how long would the institute of
slavery have remained legal in the United States of America?
ANSWER #1: Given how difficult the struggle for
civil rights was in the 1950s and 1960s as it was, it seems possible slavery
might be legal in some form today had the Civil War never happened. It is
instructive to recall that some states that remained loyal to the Union during
the War left slavery legal until the war ended.
QUESTION
#2: How different would American society have been during the 20th
century had Abraham Lincoln lived through the completion of his second
Presidential term and seen to the start of Reconstruction?
ANSWER#2: Lincoln wanted to let the South up easy.
Much of the punishment-oriented governance that dominated the years during and
following Reconstruction would no doubt have been different with a living Abe
Lincoln. Carry this thought forward. Using what we know about Lincoln’s ideas
for Reconstruction as a baseline, it is very possible that much of the strife
that has marked some periods of our history since the war could have at least
been lessened.
QUESTION
#3: How would your life have been
different if the Confederate states had secured their independence?
ANSWER #3: Your loyal blogger would not have been
born had the Confederate States of America won its separation from the Union.
QUESTION
#4: In terms of action on the battlefields, who was the single most important
individual in the fighting? No fair choosing one per side and no fair choosing
the individual foot soldier as answers.
ANSWER #4: Ulysses Grant commanded the victorious
army in the most important victories in both the Western and Eastern theaters
of the war. This is an easy answer for your loyal blogger.
QUESTION
#5: No single event has had a bigger impact on United States history than the
Civil War. Study of the War era and the War itself offer educational
opportunities on many social and historic topics. Should the War be
reemphasized in K-12 classrooms?
ANSWER #5: Yes. Here is a partial list of topics
that could be covered in different ways at different grade levels: Politically
correct or not, the war happened, so a bit of study of the War itself; the
struggle for racial equality during the century after the end of the War; the
importance of addressing major issues in a timely manner (rather than kicking
the can down the road, as Congress did regarding the elimination of slavery
from the time the Constitution was written until the War started); the cost of
the war in terms of money spent and lives lost (among other things, Southern
states had to start providing pensions for former Confederate soldiers in the
decades after the War); the impact of the war on the non-combatants; the impact
of the war on America’s foreign relations and how far behind most of Europe the
United States was with the elimination of slavery; the change in the way
Americans conducted their politics following the War and whether that impacts
us today.
Thanks for reading and answering.
