Interesting Jim Schlosser column in today’s N&R on”Confederate enthisuast” William Oden.
Oden makes an interesting analogy to modern times:
Like many with views equal to dynamite sticks, Oden isn’t one-dimensional. Although he loves conservative columnist Thomas Sowell, he also likes liberal Maureen Dowd for how she beats up on President Bush.
Liberals, and some conservatives, would shout hooray when Oden declares, “Bush is the worst president,” but many would cringe when he adds, “since Lincoln.”
Oden says Bush’s war in Iraq doesn’t match what he calls the Civil War debacle — which he blames on Abraham Lincoln — “but it comes pretty dang close.”
It’s certainly fair to ask whether or not ending slavery was worth the death (of many innocents), destruction and gross Constitutional violations that went on during the Civil War. For some reason, it’s worth it to many people looking through the prism of modern times, yet the freedom of the Iraqi people isn’t worth it. I would say it’s because they’re Iraqis, not Americans, yet a cornerstone of modern liberal politics is concern for oppressed people around the world.
But what if there had never been a Civil War?
Oden is convinced slavery was becoming obsolete and would have ended without the Civil War and without the postwar bitterness Southerners felt for decades. If not for the war and Reconstruction — Northern control of the South — black people would have achieved freedom, education and eventually equality, in Oden’s opinion.
“Slavery was not a good idea to begin with,” he says. “It was becoming burdensome to slave owners. Few people could afford to own slaves. Slavery could have ended in a more civilized way.”
