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Comment by throwit1979 | Hacker News Reader

throwit1979

Rather than gambling on one political idea, why not open certain smaller states to experimentation of new political structures, and stop trying to make one massive old machine work better

This was tried. It was called The United States of America. The 9th and 10th amendments to the constitution delegated an enormous amount of powers to the states to try their own experiments, with the federal government standing by to adjudicate interstate disputes and maintain standards of currency and commerce.

Then Lincoln came along.

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>Then Lincoln came along.

If only our public schools taught kids the real meaning of the war of northern aggression.

Can you elaborate? I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on this. (I am a foreigner and certain things can escape the little I know about US).

I'll attempt to be brief:

1: The civil war was not, by definition, a civil war. The south never fought for control of the north. The definition of a civil war is both side fighting for control of the whole.

2: The states joined the union of their own volition, they weren't conquered. The "Civil War" changed the notion of free states. Now the states are subservient by force to the federal government.

3: Lincoln didn't free the slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation decreed that slaves in rebel states were free. Slave states loyal to the north got to keep their slaves. So, Lincoln freed slaves in lands he had no control over.

4: Lincoln oversaw the first national conscription law in which the government is allowed enslave citizens to war. You can't be a free country AND force people to their death.

Lincoln is popularly considered the angel of liberty to an enslaved people, but in reality he did more to enslave all of us to an all powerful federal government.

I'm curious to learn more about this era of history.

Are there any good books/films about the civil war that are recommended?

Most books and films about Lincoln are meant to celebrate the popular understanding of presidency. His humble beginnings, awkward appearance, rise to power, difficult choices, freer of slaves, and untimely death.

Some books have a different angle. Many books written generally about the history of liberty in the US will specifically cite the "Civil War" and it's negative consequences.

There's also a book called "The Real Lincoln". I haven't read it, but it might be one of the few books that casts a critical eye on the precedents Lincoln set.

Sorry, there's nothing specific that I've read, just a bunch of sources combined.

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