Historical Update...circa 1987.

[piece-itpete]

In the Founders case many were enlightened enough to believe what they were doing was wrong, very different from later in our history (and before in world history). It was commonly believed to be dying out on its own and might well have if not for the cotton gin.

Not to give legitimacy to this or that. But it is very, very hard to stand in another times shoes.

A while back I read an excellent article in either the Smithsonian or Atlantic (darn grey matter) that talked about slavery and the revolution, and basically came to the conclusion that without slavery our form of government would never have succeeded, not because of the institution but because the founders knew what people actually did to hold others in bondage and so could protect the people from those actions. This does make some sense.

If one can put that aside for a moment though, why did Lincoln believe the Union was more important than slavery?

Pete