From
“Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst
September 16
“The reason the
Lost Cause actually lost was not because the Confederate leadership wasn't
prepared to pay the price; it wasn't because they failed to see themselves, or
behave, as men of honor; it wasn't because they lacked the kind of talent, the
sheer brain power, to pull it off; it wasn't because they used up all the men,
money and resources needed to get the job done; it wasn't even because God was
punishing a society based on the monstrous evil of slavery. The real reason had
to do with the logic behind the idea of secession itself. Only a few short
weeks before secession actually took root, they thought they saw a new
president [Abraham Lincoln] of a thing larger than their precious individual
states show signs that he was going to be a state-eating ogre; that mind-set
had quickly become set in concrete. Soon Jefferson Davis was warning that the
Confederacy’s only hope of final victory over what eventually proved to be a
vastly-determined foe was in unity and the [temporary] surrender of states'
rights to a different president [namely, himself] of a thing larger than a
state. Davis’s warning largely fell on deaf ears. He was told, in effect, ‘we
already endured that kind of presidential tyranny; we'll not put up with it
again.’ In their heart of hearts they knew Davis was right; in his heart of
hearts Davis knew they were right. Bottom line: although each side ended up
making significant accommodations to the other side, there was simply no
accommodation here. The problem was that Southern leaders continually ended up
tripping over a mind-set that leads to secession – a mind-set, they discovered
to their cost, that has no internal check.” - Arnold Kunst
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