Why Were The Radical Republicans Radical?

[brtmchl]

(01-29-2014 08:21 AM)JMadonna Wrote:  The Missouri Compromise was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Crittenden plan would have been ruled unconstitutional on the same grounds.

The Kansas - Nebraska Act negated everything. Making the Missouri Compromise obsolete in favor of "popular sovereignty." Did the Supreme Court ever take this on? Could they have ruled this unconstitutional since each state would be voting Free or Slave and Slaves were seen as property not people?

Kate: "But the point I am trying to make is that Lincoln said his number one goal was to keep the Union together, and that he would do it either by freeing all of the slaves or none of them. In other words, the plight of the slaves was not his major concern."


Kate: "but what reason did they have to think Lincoln was bluffing when for most of his political career he had spoken against slavery and the spread of slavery, and emphasized that in the Lincoln/Douglas debates?"

I think the difference lays in President Lincoln vs Lincoln the Statesman. Obviously Lincoln's early speeches reflect his feelings toward slavery and his actions to do away with slavery. Critics of Lincoln will point out that he has flip flopped many times on this issue, some have gone so far as claiming he was a racist. Lincoln was a politician, an exceptional politician, and politicians speak to the crowd in which they are in front of. Lincoln the President is a different story. As President, his main job WAS to preserve the Nation ( Union ). As President there is little he can do except to obey and abide by the law of the land and Slavery WAS legal. Now as President in a time of War, a War in which Marshall Law is envoked and Presidential War powers are enacted, changes can be made much faster than in peacetime when all laws are written by a divided Congress.

We can debate whether President Lincoln maneuvered the South into firing on Fort Sumter. But make no mistake, War was coming! The nation was a Powder Keg and no amount of Compromise lasted very long for the 30 years prior to the War. I contend that the Civil War did not start at Fort Sumter or Harper's Ferry or even the election of Abraham Lincoln, but in 1854 with the signing of The Kansas - Nebraska Act and the border War that broke out shortly after.