The Civil War could have been avoided...

"The Civil War could have easily been avoided. The South even attempted to negotiate a peace over slavery with an end-date in the mix. The Whigs (which were disbanded and replaced by the Republican party in 1856) had always wanted to subdue the South because the South balked over the Internal Improvements Policy (contemporary pork)and the South was chomping at the bit over the high tarrifs being levied on their products.

The South was willing to fight over these two major issues and some smaller ones but the Whigs/Republicans/Lincoln worked very hard to keep slavery in the mix and they had some media spin-doctors who worked it much like our present administration. Lincoln could have easily ordered the closing of all military contingents in the seceded South which he did for the most part. But he kept Fort Sumter and a couple of others open to use as a powder keg to ignite military interaction between the North and South.

The South accommodated him by attacking resupply efforts to Sumter and later the fort itself. Without a hint of a doubt the Civil War and all the mayhem could have been avoided. Good job Ron Paul if you did, in fact, say this. The majority of the U.S. is obviously not well enough read to have properly analyzed the situation and prefer to remain stump-minded over it."

-Jim Jones, http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2007/12/26/hot-seat-lincoln-wrong-to-fight-civil-war/37#comments