We all know that Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860 with less than 40% of the popular vote. What is less well known is that two Democrats and a Whig candidate split the rest of the vote, with only Lincoln's name appearing on all States' ballots. By modern standards, the election results would never have been accepted.
By the time of Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861, South Carolina and six other States had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Interestingly, neither Virginia nor three other States had yet seceded. It was not until after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 soldiers to invade the seceding States that Virginia, the most populous and industrial southern State, joined the Confederacy and pulled in the rest of those States with her.
What if Lincoln had adopted a less aggressive posture towards these States? What if he had merely demanded the return of Federal property and compensation for any damage, rather than calling for an invasion? This would have been entirely justified by any standard as well as compliant with international law. Virginia was essential to the viability of the Confederacy. Would it have joined in the absence of Lincoln's attack on State Sovereignty?
Within 20 years of the end of the Civil War, slavery had been abolished in the Western Hemisphere and most of the rest of the world. Could not an accommodation with Virginia have been reached? The importation of slaves was already prohibited. For example, might not there have been an agreement that, henceforth, the children born to slaves would be free? Without Virginia, the Confederacy would have collapsed under its own weight.
Was "Preservation of the Union" worth 620,000 lives, more than all of our other wars combined? Might this armageddon have been avoided with a little less concern about Presidential prestige and legacy?
