Intellectual Choice verses Instintive Choice

Individuals make intellectual choices based on education, training, experience,

values and principles. Men make instinctive choices when deciding about who to
support in a physical contest. Instinctive choices are most often based on which
contesting group one belongs to; family, clan, village, tribe, city or state. An
instinctive choice for a woman about which side to support in a physical contest
is determined by the choice of the male she most respects; father, husband, love
or brother. These truths explain most choices made by individuals concerning the
Civil War.

Lincoln was elected president because of the clear, logical, inspiring message of
his Cooper Union speech. This marvelous speech was Lincoln’s only campaign message
to voters. The argument choices that created the speech where intellectual,
supporting the idea that slavery must not be allowed to expand into any new
states. There was no argument that slavery, as it existed in the south, should be
eliminated. The voters who elected Lincoln believed in the intellectual argument
of the speech. Those in the south who agitated for secession from the Union if
Lincoln were elected did so because they intellectually opposed the arguments of
the Cooper Union speech. They where few in number but powerful propagandists
consisting of owners of plantations breeding large numbers of slaves for sale and
those hoping to buy land in the new states and then to sell plantations with
purchased slaves at large profits. The propaganda ignored their plans, instead
claiming unfair treatment of the south by northern politicians.

Robert E Lee’s choice to refuse command of the Army of the United States was
instinctive. Politically, he was a Whig. Ironically, he was attached strongly to
the Union and to the Constitution. He entertained no special sympathy for slavery.
Lee privately ridiculed the Confederacy in letters in early 1861, denouncing
secession as "revolution" and a betrayal of the efforts of the Founders. The
commanding general of the Union army, Winfield Scott, told Lincoln he wanted Lee
for a top command. Lee had earlier been asked by one of his lieutenants if he
intended to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, to which he replied, "--- it
may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state,
Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty." Meanwhile, Lee
ignored an offer of command from the CSA. After Lincoln's call for troops to put
down the rebellion, it was obvious that Virginia would quickly secede and so Lee
turned down an April 18 offer to become a major general in the U.S. Army, resigned
on April 20, and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23. (Lee
stuff Mostly from Wikipedia)

We see here that his choice was instinctively to support his native state. I am
sure that the vast majority of those who fought and died bravely for the south
also choose to do so instinctively. It was an intellectual choice for a free man
in the south to be against slavery. Slave competition against the value of his
labor or trade was obvious. Instinct overpowers intellect when a physical contest
is involved. Southern soldiers did not die to protect slavery. That is a false
canard against southern warriors fighting to support their birth state.

The agitators for succession forced the start of war in Charleston harbor. Lincoln
fought for preservation as his intellectual choice to carryout his responsibility
as president of the United States. He did not fight to eliminate slavery in the
south which he believed would vanish eventually in a peaceful manner if not
allowed to expand into the new states

Robert Wahl
jdwdjw@yahoo.com