Questions About John Brown

[L Verge]

QUOTE When Confederate emissionary Hunter, speaking “at length, in rather congressional style,” urged “that the recognition of Mr. Davis’s power to make a treaty, was the first and indispensable step to peace” and referred “to the correspondence of King Charles the First, and his Parliament, as a reliable precedent, of a constitutional ruler, treating with rebels,” Lincoln remarked: “Upon questions of history, I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don’t profess to be bright. My only distinct recollection of that matter is, that Charles lost his head.” That observation “settled Mr. Hunter for a while." END QUOTE

And, unfortunately, Mr. Lincoln would lose his life also by seeming to take a different approach to what was to become another crisis in our country that has never been satisfactorily dealt with for all. If the River Queen meeting was going to be considered a sham from the beginning, why sail down the river at all?

This is what frustrates me about Lincoln and Reconstruction. With his talent for words and his political skills, I just can't believe that he was heading into restoring the Union with no key points on paper. It wasn't going to be about just the freedmen, it was also about hundreds of thousands of citizens who had built this country -- and that included labor forces in the North that would have to deal with both black and white men surging in their direction looking for opportunities to root hog or die.
The plight of the cities continues to plague our society and our economy.