The Civil* War - It was the economy, stupid!

*Misnomer to be addresses in some subsequent essay.

In his last foray, MR Bodkin alluded to the Jeffersonian ideal of an agrarian utopia personified by the yeoman farmer. MR B trusts that this will be in the mind of the reader as this essay unfolds.

1) A common perception is that the "War Between The States" as many southerners prefer to call it or American Civil War as history books prefer it was a war over the slavery issue. On this point, let us reflect on the words of someone whose knowledge about the era in question should be given significant weight, President Abraham Lincoln. In 1862 he stated in a letter to Horace Greeley that if he "could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it." This does not mean that Mr. Lincoln approved of slavery. There are many quotes and anecdotes that clearly show that he, like any person who could lay claim to being civilized and sane, knew slavery for the evil that it was, is and shall always be. It just means that the issue being fought over was not slavery.

2) States rights is another issue that was certainly in the forefront in the times leading up to the war.    There were states, Virginia for example, many of whose residents considered themselves first and foremost citizens of their state, not the USA. This is essentially why Robert E. Lee accepted command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and not command in (or of) the Union Army. The political situation and issues of personal loyalties, while important in effecting some of the particulars of the war, were not the reason(s) that the war was fought.

3) Slavery could have been eliminated in any one of several ways. Questions regarding powers of states versus the national government would have continued to be argued as they are still argued even today. The problem was that the primarily agrarian southern states wanted and needed to have access to both domestic and foreign markets for their produce and northern states wanted and needed government encouragement for and protection of their expanding industrial/manufacturing economies. MR B will not attempt to discuss tariffs, taxes and trade in this limited format. If the reader wants to explore the details, there are many sources in libraries and websites.

The simple truth in this case, as in so many others, can be found by following the money.

Differing economic needs and priorities were the fundamental causes of the bloody internecine war. IT WAS THE ECONOMY! (And it was stupid!)