Lincoln, a brilliant leader

Aside from the Civil War, Lincoln accomplished a number of things in office that had a major impact on the country. Here are some of the least known:

1. His administration established the Land grant educational system, that produced at least one university in each state. Usually this is the best known state university in each state.

2. He established the homestead system that gave free government land to settlers.

3. He established the Department of Agriculture. When I was growing up on a farm, my father received each year a book from the Department of Agriculture called the "Yearbook of Agriculture". This was in the 1950s. Lincoln himself started this tradition of putting together an annual book about Agriculture. It may still be going.

4. He promoted the idea of a transcontinental railroad, although it was not completed during his term of office.

 

Yep, he did all of that and more. It was necessary and I applaud it. The size of government needed to be increased in 1860. It was necessary to end the illegal rebellion. He did it all brilliantly and by the end of the war, the United States was far more powerful than at the beginning. But the most immortal thing he did was free 3 million blacks. That is why his monument is on the Capitol mall and not that of Jefferson Davis.

Have you ever thought what could be included in a monument to Davis? Maybe something like: "He strove to keep millions of people in slavery". or maybe "Jefferson Davis, he put property above human decency". Naw, somehow I think even southerners would not admire that. Can you imagine at the death of Davis, one of his colleagues saying "Now he belongs to the ages"? I can't imagine that.

 

>>>>>>Three billion dollars - that was the amount the abolition of slavery cost the Confederacy in terms of lost property. In 1990 dollars, that would be the equivalent of a $3 trillion loss to the Gross National Product. Few nations could afford those kinds of losses and still remain viable. In retrospect, given the effect this loss would have on the Confederacy's ability to wage war, it is remarkable to think that emancipation was not initially one of the Union's primary war aims. Emancipation had enormous potential as a weapon of economic warfare.<<<<<

The above is from the link mentioned in the previous post. With the slaves worth a staggering amount, it is easy to see why the slave holders controlled the various southern state governments. As Lincoln said, slave holders could see the issue on through a very thick coating, which was the value of the slaves. I can forgive the slave holders to some extent, because it is only natural that their self interest would determine their actions. But with modern day southern apologists, it is harder to see why their view of slavery is so warped. Maybe some of them think it is a lark, to promote the discarded ideas of slave holders. For whatever reason they do it, it seems mighty backward to me.

 

>>>>>But in his own mind, Lincoln did not EVER accept the South's secession as a reality. Federal flags still had stars for every state, even those in rebellion. He would not allow the Union to be dissolved.<<<<<<<<

He had an iron will where the issue of secession was concerned. Has it been good or bad that the south was forced to stay in the Union? The cost was very high, maybe much more than Lincoln and his allies expected. But I am sure that the U.S. has had much greater influence as a united nation, as compared to what would have happened if it had been two nations.

 

>>>>>One of our biggest mistakes, then, was not going in and taking Canada while we were at it. And then the rest of Mexico (after the northern 2/3 we did take). We could have controlled all the Americas. What great "influence" we could have had!

Manifest destiny... did we earn it, burn it, or spurn it? <<<<<<

I was not suggesting that the USA turn to aggression as a way to make our influence felt. There have been many more honorable ways to use that influence.