The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address

[Thomas Thorne]

I hope Gene's last statement does not mean that if he or any member of his I.M force are killed or captured. the secretary will disavow any knowledge.

Wild Bill,who is a delightful duelist, overstates the significance of the sectional, constitutional and economic issues involved. They have always been with us but Civil War broke out only in 1861 because of the differing fears of South and North I previously mentioned.

I don't think we can reduce antebellum political history to a sectional struggle for supremacy. The first two American political party systems saw the winners of almost all presidential elections have majorities in both North and South which in a strange way anticipated Calhoun's 1850 concurrent majority theory. At the same time the need to win in both sections prevented the political parties from being too extreme on the one issue that politicians believed would destroy the country-slavery.

Only the rise of the super sectional anti slavery Republican Party and the effective split of the democracy into hostile Northern and Southern factions in 1860 over slavery destroyed the previous equilibrium.

Again we have always had conflicts over the nature of the constitution and differences over economic policy but only in 1861 did Civil War break out. We should discuss these aspects in later posts.
Tom