Understanding the Causes of Lincoln’s War
In most debates over what caused any historical event to occur, the disputants tend to emphasize what they consider to be the most important causal factor, and minimize the influence of factors they consider to be less important. It is not so much that they dispute the relevance of contested factors in understanding the event comprehensively, but more that there is no agreement on the degree of importance that ought to be attached to those factors. Often people will emphasize the factors that fall within their own field of expertise, where they consider themselves able to contribute meaningfully to the debate. This was a basic feature of scholarly discourse before academic institutions were taken over by political activists. There is no problem with approaching any contested issue from many different perspectives in the traditional academic way, as long as it is understood that each discipline will emphasize certain factors over others. The point about debate is that the participants attempt to defend a specific position or line of argument, otherwise it would not be called a “debate.”
In the case of war, there is rarely, if ever, universal consensus on a single explanation for the causes and conduct of any war. As the great historian Clyde Wilson observes in relation to Lincoln’s war:
What a war is about has many answers according to the varied perspectives of different participants and of those who come after. To limit so vast an event as that war to one cause is to show contempt for the complexities of history as a quest for the understanding of human action.
Those who argue that Lincoln’s war was “about slavery” hold the view that while there may well have been other factors at play, in their view, slavery was the most important issue. The same applies to those who highlight the reasons Lincoln gave for launching his attack, all of which, before the outbreak of war and until at least 1863, had to do with saving the Union, securing his tariffs, and punishing the states that had the temerity to break up his empire. They would argue that the most important issue was Lincoln’s desire to fulfill these political goals.
These debates illustrate the importance of free speech and open inquiry. The truth lies in understanding all the relevant facts and examining historical events from different angles. If certain facts are arbitrarily excluded from the scope of inquiry by the morality police who gatekeep the bounds of permissible debate, then there is no hope that the truth would ever be ascertained. We would be limited to debating only what falls within the bounds of socially acceptable propaganda. In relation to Lincoln’s War, those who promote the “about slavery” explanation often resort to the methods and strategies of cancel culture to silence their oppon
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