We all agree this was a tragic event, but also there seems to be a feeling that since the Civil War was essentially “won” at the time, that it wasn’t earth-shattering.
I submit that Lincoln’s assassination is one of, if not the most, important event in our country’s history since the writing of the Constitution.
Why? Because the Civil War wasn’t truly won. Yes, military victory was secured, but the goals of the war were not. What really needed to happen, as the very event of the war proved, was that the Constitution needed to be rewritten without the factor of slavery as an integral part.
I know many will argue with me but there are so many parts of the Constitution that were written with slavery playing a significant factor. Outlawing slavery didn’t changes those parts. The electoral college? Think what an effect that has had in our lifetime with two presidents elected with a minority of vote? The Second Amendment? The fear of slave insurrection played a huge part in that; please spare me the tyranny thing, because the Civil War actually a result of 2A being acted out.
Lincoln was the one man with the smarts and the will to have gotten the United States a new Constitution out of the ashes of the Civil War. His death lead to appeasement, Jim Crow, and many of our present day problems.
His assassination 154 years ago today affects us much more than Kennedy’s more recent one.
Just my two cents, but I’ve been reflecting a lot on the Constitution and our current problems and I believe most of it stems from the original document allowing slavery to exist; a horrible and completely unethical compromise that has tainted our country ever since. And we are now the ones that will live out this tragic event.
Duty, Honor, Country: A Novel of West Point and the Civil War
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