| | The power of the state ultimately rests upon a series of myths about the alleged munificence of our rulers (Wilson, FDR, Truman etc). Nothing serves this purpose better than the Lincoln myth. The truth is the first casualty of War.
For the leading lights of the historical profession as well as the punditocracy, Lincoln remains a mythological figure whose greatness, essential goodness, and heroism go unquestioned. They tolerate NO independent analysis or revisionism; instead, they fiercely guard a set of axioms: The North was right, the South was wrong; the cause of the war was slavery and only slavery; the war was inevitable; the Southern "rebellion" was wicked and had to be crushed; secession was unconstitutional; Northern methods of war were moral, appropriate, and necessary to victory; Lincoln's economic policies ushered in a modern industrial society of unprecedented wealth. Through the marshalling of evidence and reasoned argument, DiLorenzo refutes them all.
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/Chronicles/July2002/0702Trask.html
For those who don’t care if our President’s are tyrants or not, because "War was necessary to end slavery" DiLorenzo disposes of this fallacy with a single devastating question: Why was the United States the only country in the 19th century that had to resort to war to end slavery? That it was ended in this way, rather than through peaceful reform, should be a cause for shame, NOT pride.
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