Mr. Mitcham’s column on space had a lot of facts but missed the point. We cannot sit around and watch the stars. An international space program may take a long time and a lot of money, but the new technology gained will be worth the effort. Technology that can be used to help solve the life and death problems that we face.
Now, back to the Civil War. Mr. Gillispie, your column on the Civil War had a lot facts, but also missed the point.
By 1860, the United States was two nations under one flag. The industrial North and the agricultural South. Both with different ideas on how the nation should be run and on the brink of Civil War. Slavery was the spark that set that powder keg off. After the battle of Antietam then Lincoln made the emancipation proclamation. Slavery made the Civil War a war about human freedom.
Don’t take my word that slavery was a cause of the Civil War. Here are what a couple of experts on the Civil War have to say:
James M. McPherson: “The war began because a compromise did not exist that could solve the differences between the free and slave states regarding the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in territories that had not yet become states.”
Bruce Cotton: “Although there were serious differences between the sections all of them except slavery could have been settled through the democratic process. Slavery poisoned the whole situation. It was the issue that could not be compromised. It put a cutting edge on all arguments. It was not the only cause of the Civil War, but it was unquestionably the one cause without which the war would not have taken place. The antagonism between the sections came finally and tragically to express itself through the slavery issue.”
In closing, I will say, “check your facts on history.”
Sincerely,
Terry D. Adams
