Let's Play

If our contemporaries were reporters in 1862.

Today the Lincoln Administration released another statement arguing that the rebellion of the southern states would not stand and that progress had been made in restoring the Union. Yet reports over the past few weeks have shown that the rebellion has broad support among southerners. There is little evidence that the war will end anytime soon, despite Lincoln's pronouncements.

Lincoln came in as an unpopular president, having received well less than half of the popular votes in the recent election. Then he claimed to the American people that the rebellion was only the effort of a few slaveholding elites and it had very little support from the majoriy of the southern people. He claimed the war would be short, and that his only goal in fighting was preserving the union.

The war has dragged on for over a year since his pronouncements, the loyal southerners are no where to be found, tens of thousands of American men are dead, and now the war aims have changed to freeing the slaves. Of course, Lincoln only claimed to be concerned about the plight of slaves in order to shift attention from his other failures.

All the spin has a lot of Americans questioning whether this war was worth it in the first place, and whether Americans should be dying for the new objective of freeing the slaves. What popularity Lincoln did have came from a Patriotic Fever in the aftermath of the firing on Fort Sumter, but the American people have finally come to their senses. They now see things clearly.

This civil war is a disaster. Americans can see no favorable conclusion. Lincoln's claims seem tired and trite. He is losing support of the people.

Lincoln has made it so that his presidency will sink or swim with winning the war. He has found out that even his abolitionist buddies cannot throw him a lifeline.

Unfortunately, and unlike the soldiers on both sides, Lincoln is not making any real sacrifices for his misbegotten war.