• jj4211@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The funny thing is that Lincoln pretty much said they could keep their slaves for the sake of keeping the union together. He had made it clear he wanted to abolish slavery, but he wasn’t going to risk the nation over it. He basically opened with an offer to let the south have everything.

    The South, however, believed that the day would come where the US would abolish slavery, and they needed to get out before that happened.

    Given the South were handed everything they wanted in the default position, no amount of negotiation would have worked.

    • Red_October@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      So what you’re saying is, Trump was Wrong? Holy shit someone needs to tell the Press! Word needs to get out that Trump was wrong about a thing! Nobody will believe it!

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I suppose Trump was right… The south could have easily negotiated to get what they wanted. So while the free states could not have negotiated, the slave states absolutely could have. They were just pissy that too many new states were choosing to be free states and they were outnumbered and wanted a country where they weren’t outnumbered on slavery.

        • paddirn@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Although I hate to attribute anything Trump says to having any sort of “deeper” meaning, I do wonder if there’s a sort of implied threat here, he does tend to talk like a mob boss and tries not to explicitly get himself nailed for things, at least sometimes. Like he’s really saying, “we’re going to have another Civil War if I lose or if you keep coming after me in court, but it doesn’t have to be like that, we can negotiate…” which I feel like others in his camp have floated that idea previously. They assume the multiple felonies that Trump has been indicted for is all political theater meant to put pressure on him and that all he has to do is just leave the race and that will make all his problems go away. He’s trying to use his candidacy more as a bargaining chip, as a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card, while his supporters are ready to tear down American democracy in the name of that orange POS.

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            That was the thought that occurred to me when I originally said no negotiation. My amendment to the position that it was entirely within the power of the insurrectionists to negotiate was after reconsidering the situation at the time, and amused by extrapolating it to Trump’s current position. Yes, negotiation is possible, so go ahead Trump and make concessions. Oh he didn’t mean a negotiation where he/insurrectionists would have to make any concessions? Well that wouldn’t have been a possibility for the 1860s, and I don’t think it would work now.