The Pros And Cons Of The Civil War

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People often view the Civil War as a war over slavery; this in fact is only half true. During Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency, the struggle between the states took on many different identities and played many different roles for the nation. It began as a war to restore the Union and to save the social experiment that is democracy from a complete failure but soon developed in to an all or nothing war for the freedom of the “negro” man. The Emancipation Proclamation initially used as a strategy to hit the South where it hurt most was soon the war cry for most if not all Republicans fighting for their nation. Lincoln, whose read on the pulse of the people and timing was never less than impeccable, beautifully orchestrated the war from the side of the Union. Synchronizing both political strategy and …show more content…

This goal led to political and social changes throughout the nation, the most foremost and obvious being the redefinition of both “liberty” and “property”. To some people of the United States liberty meant “men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor”, this is how slavery was justified in the eyes of the southern states. They believed that they had the freedom to control lesser men, or black men, and claim the fruits of those men’s labor as their own. They even twisted the words of the Founding Fathers to say, “all white men are created equal”. Essentially claiming the black community as their property and not as equal men with equal rights. Lincoln defined liberty as “each man to do as he pleases with himself and, and the product of his labor”. It was his belief that each and every man no matter their color had the same basic rights as any other. Through Lincoln’s pursuit of ratifying the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments he changed the nations definition of both liberty and property. ALL men were now free and NO man was the property of

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