re: #224 LudwigVanQuixote

Andersonville was abuse of Union soldiers by Confederate jailers. Just to clarify that.

The war was ugly no doubt and the Union did start it. The question is were they justified in entering Virginia to stop succession. Constitutionally that was dubius. But constitutionally slavery should have been illegal too. Categorizing blacks as property was legally dubious and morally bankrupt.

Morally I think Lincoln did the right thing. I would have hated to have been in Robert E Lee’s shoes having to choose between loyalty to State and Loyalty to Union.

Interestingly enough my own ancestry includes a bunch of abolitionists, a handful of Unions soldiers, some race-mixing Quakers and one northern slave holder (2 house slaves that were freed upon his death).