"I recently toured your exhibit on Abraham Lincoln entitled With Malice Toward None. Both the exhibit and the related brochure contain a number of historical errors.
The exhibit claims that Lincoln did everything to avoid war. He could have easily prevented war by removing Federal troops from South Carolina property. He left them there to provoke the South into firing the first shot. South Carolina had sent agents to Washington for the purpose of negotiating a troop removal, but Lincoln would not agree to that. Lincoln placed a naval blockade on the ports of North Carolina while that state was still in the Union. Naval blockade is an act of war. Lincoln could have ended the Civil War at any time by bringing his troops home.
On page 7 of the brochure you say that Lincoln was a single-issue candidate for high office. I am curious to know what that issue was because it wasn’t slavery. Lincoln stated unequivocally in his 1861 Inaugural Address that he wasn’t going to free the slaves. You made a vague statement to this effect in your brochure.
On page 10 you say that Lincoln treated secession as an artificial crisis manufactured by designing Southern politicians. The Southern States were paying about 85% of all revenues collected by the Federal Government. Congress was controlled by the Northern States and that is where most of the money was being spent. The South wanted free trade with England and France without the burden of high import tariffs.
The New England States were the first to consider secession in the early 19th Century. Our Declaration of Independence establishes the right of secession as the founding principle of this country. Peaceful secessions have occurred throughout history. In 1905 Norway seceded from Sweden and not a shot was fired.
On page 12 you mention Lincoln’s attack on slavery. There was no attack on slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation did not even free the slaves in the border states where Lincoln had political control. Lincoln’s father-in-law and Ulysses S. Grant’s wife owned slaves throughout the war.
On page 17 you said that Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman were men who understood the brutality of war. I can’t argue with this one. In his General Order number 11, Grant instructed his troops to arrest and deport all Jews in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi. Sherman charged 700 female mill workers in the Atlanta area with treason for making cloth for the Confederate Army. These women were herded into rail cars like cattle and shipped to Indiana. Few ever returned. A large number of slaves following behind Sherman’s troops were allowed to drown in Ebenezer Creek in South Georgia. The Union Army murdered, tortured, raped, and robbed tens of thousands of civilians. Union prison camps were worse than Andersonville. Thousands of Northerners were imprisoned without a trial for speaking out against Lincoln’s invasion of the South. One of them was the grandson of Francis Scott Key. The behavior of the Union Army under Lincoln is the most shameful page in American history.
Pages 23 and 24 deal with the Union Pacific Railroad which Lincoln built with public funds. The eastern terminus of this railroad just happened to be on land that Lincoln had recently purchased. Lincoln scholar Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo describes this project as the mother of all political payoffs. Many prominent Republicans cashed in on construction contracts. General Sherman led a campaign of ethnic genocide against the Native Americans of the Great Plains in order to clear the way for this railroad. I noticed that the Union Pacific Corporation gave generous support for your Lincoln exhibit.
So why can’t we tell the truth about Abe Lincoln? His ties to European socialists have been documented. Our Federal Government, public schools, and news media are almost completely controlled by the socialist left. Lincoln’s mercantilist policies make him a convenient hero for fans of big government. The myth that Lincoln freed the slaves protects him from too much scrutiny. No one wants to be called a racist for excoriating Abe.
This country is long overdue for an honest debate on Lincoln and the Civil War. Would the Atlanta History Center be interested in making this a reality?"
Joe Jordan
Smyrna, GA
jordanwolf@bellsouth.net
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