Intellectual Choice Verses Instintive Choice

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 [email protected]