[lbo-talk] Germans should stop feeling Holocaust guilt:

[Jim Devine]

jthorn wrote:
> Most Union soldiers fought to preserve the union and a great number of them had no problem with slavery.  It is not knowable what percentage of Union soldiers did not mind slavery but it seems over 2/3 of the  letters from soldiers I read expressed that sentiment. Lets keep that in mind as well. Very few felt they were fighting and dying to abolish slavery.<

Right. It's also true at the top: Lincoln justified the North's
military efforts totally in terms of keeping the Union together. The
abolition of slavery came more as an unintended effect of that war, as
it ground on and Lincoln had to use the Emancipation Proclamation as
part of his strategy.

-- 
Jim Devine / "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh,
otherwise they'll kill you." -- Oscar Wilde