VP Beast Butler?

[Thomas Thorne]

(12-17-2014 01:48 PM)Don1946 Wrote:  Great! Let's go from Jesse James to Nathan Bedford Forrest, another Confederate hero, slave trader, founder of the KKK, commanding officer at the Fort Pillow massacre.

Why should this forum be given over to these subjects? Am I alone in finding these neo-Confederate discussions tiresome and pointless?

Let's keep this forum to talk about Lincoln, his life, his presidency, and what he stood for, not give it over to defending historical figures who despised him and everything he stood for. There are many other sites on the web to vent those points of view. Here, as they said in 1861, We are Lincoln Men (and women!)

Onward

Although I consider myself a Lincoln man, I must respectfully reject Don 46's idea mentioned in other posts that this forum be restricted to Lincoln admirers.

Such a forum would be awfully dull and would not be worth anyone's time.

I have greatly profited from being exposed to points of view I disagree with. Probably no one on this forum has more historical knowledge than Wild Bill. His theories of Extraterritoriality are so fascinating ,they inspired me to educate myself on the the Framers' beliefs on Congressional authority over slavery in the territories which was the principle cause of the Civil War.

My reading convinced me that Wild Bill,despite being very erudite, is on this topic wildly wrong. Congress did have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. Despite this, I still retain my deep admiration for Wild Bill and am eager to read his latest book.

One sees an alarming tendency in modern life to believe that if you educate yourself about a political or historical topic, anyone doing similar research must come to the same conclusion as you. Opposition to your opinion is therefore not disagreement with you but is really a lie designed to promote a nefarious cause, as the Truth must be obvious to anyone of intelligence.

If the truth were so obvious, we would not need wonderful forums like the one Roger has given us.
Tom