Stephen Kinzer Quotes
No one will ever be able to say what the comandantes would have done with their historic opportunity in Nicaragua if they had not been confronted with civil war.
Kinzer, Stephen. Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua. Putnam, 1991, p. 387.
Committee of the Congress. This was the prevailing Congressional and public view except for the South which had coalesced around an intellectual rationalization. See {618013}.
Lee had advised the Southern leadership to avoid secession and the war that would follow. However, the Southern leaders did not really believe that the remainder of the Nation would fight and take casualties to end the institution of slavery. While many would not, they misjudged the intensity of those who would, the moral power of the abolitionists and most Northern religious leaders. Nor did they understand the importance to most Northerners of preserving the Union. And they really had no comprehension of the industrial capability of the Northern free labor states or the importance of that in a long protracted war. Lee, more sophisticated than the other Southern leader, had a more realistic assessment, but thought that there was a chance that the South might have enough early success that the North would politically make the war untenable, but he realized the cost in men and material under the best of circumstances. Lee’s surrender came shortly afterward.
Some southerners had gotten out of the Confederate chain of command and were attacking civilian steamboats killing Southerners as well as “Yankees”. See {633900} . While Sherman had trouble with some of his own men on parts of his March Through Georgia, at this time, it was Southerners who were acting independently and improperly. Legally, the Confederates were responsible for any people committing terror. Sherman tried to persuade the Confederate commanders with letters like this, but was very quick to retaliate for every violation. He also complained to some Union officers that they were not moving quickly enough to retaliate and prevent future behavior--{584048}
The issue is whether Kansas would enter the Union as a slave state of a free state. If a free state, the free states would be able to block further slavery. If Kansas were to become a slave state, the slave states would have a sufficient majority to make all future expansion hospitable to slavery. The slavery forces started sending men and families into Kansas so that they could vote; the abolitionists did the same. Both sides armed and a war began with each faction trying to kill or drive the other faction out of Kansas before the vote. See {612516} for the anti-slavery perspective.
Hunton was an old West Point classmate of Sherman’s and was also a Tennessee slave holder, who wanted his escaped slaves back under the Fugitive Slave Act. Actually, Army Commander McClellan had issued an order just a few days before, prohibiting the Army of returning fugitive slaves to their rebel owners who were guilty of treason. See {619337} Sherman however wrote his friend and made a moral and ethical argument that transcended the law and at the same time pointed out the ethical hypocrisy of the treasonous Confederates.
Generally after civil wars there have been extensive reprisals and trials of the winning side against the losing one. Lincoln was determined that this pattern not be followed as the bloody war was coming to an end. Ironically, Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor and a Southerner, was, together with some of the Radical Republicans, in favor of trying many of the Southern leaders for treason and rebellion. Lincoln’s view however and that of the moderate members of Congress prevailed. However, the Southern Whites generally would not comply with the Constitutional Amendments and laws regarding the role of the Negro, and Johnson was very sympathetic to their racism which led to a conflict between Johnson and Congress.
He was referring to Bosnia and other nations where civil war seems to break out over and over again—albeit much stimulated by outside forces.
Stephen Kinzer is an American author, journalist and academic. A former New York Times correspondent, he has published several books, and writes for several newspapers and news agencies.
