Questions: 

1. How greatly and in what ways was propaganda used by either the North or the South?  How did war psychology affect the soldiers' opinions and morale?

2. How greatly did the leadership (of either the presidency or generalship) of the North or South affect the general public's opinion of the war effort?

3. How was the national and international commerce of goods affected by the conflict between the North and South?  (Specifically, were any certain goods monopolized?)

    Sub-question:  How was the economic system and trade relations of the Civil War compare or contrast with the Revolutionary War?

Questions © Jonathan Barone 2/19/08

Introduction: 

           Arguably the event known and taught with the greatest bias in American history is the Civil War.  On one hand, the North is seen; on the other, the South.  Men in the North view themselves as valiant upholders of liberty, protecting the inalienable rights of men and showing the rest of the United States and all havens of liberty that the United States of America was a free country.  In the eyes of the former Union, the Confederacy was made of blind men, cruel men: either those unwilling to see the inhumanity of slavery or those who embraced it wholeheartedly.  Meanwhile, the South still holds a grudge against the North, seeing them as crusaders with a black-and-white sense of justice, passing judgment on all who stood in their way, regardless of the consequences.  Even in this day and age, the South is markedly different than the North, and the rift between them has not been fully healed.  Acts of propaganda and bias are as prevalent today as they were eighty score years ago.  The wounds caused by trickery and “war-time strategy” are still being nursed today.  The lies have not ceased.  The conflict has not ended.  The differences have not been resolved, as the years go by.

            Sadly, Union Leagues are still prevalent today.  Perhaps they do not go strictly under the same name, but the idea remains similar.  The psychology of the war continues on in society far after the surrender at Appomattox.  Men say that they are more open-minded and accept new ideas, and yet the textbooks describing this event of American history are sectionalized depending on how far north one happens to live.  They continue to live their lives, preferring to be ignorant to the matter rather than deciding to change it.  The Civil War may have indeed lasted from 1861 to 1865, but the essential struggles of identity and independence are still a part of American society today.

Conclusion:

          In the present moment, decisions are usually made either on whims or with careful planning.  Whether or not the action is moral sometimes comes into play, but more often than not (especially in times of war) the morality of the decision is put aside for the expedient choice.  After the matter is over and done with, the victor can apologize for their actions, for that is truly when the public cares.  After the war, the public can decide whether or not persuading other nations to not join the Confederacy was a moral choice to make.  At the time, it’s just a strategic advantage, and nothing more.  In the end, it was the leader who was able to make such resolutions that won the war.  Yes, strategic battle operations were decidedly important.  However, if that was all it took, would the Confederacy not have won, with Robert E. Lee on their side?  Did not the Confederacy win several more battles than the Union?  While this may be the case, history shows that the skill in battle was not the deciding factor in winning a war. 

                Neither the North nor the South wish to recognize that there is no true meaning of justice.  Laws can be made and enforced, and there will always be those who break said laws.  But justice is an intangible concept, ungraspable, and essentially indefinable in the scientific nature of humans.  Due to this inability to define justice, many have taken it upon themselves to prescribe their own vision of what justice should be, regardless of whether it is right or wrong.  No one can truly say whether it is justice to restore slaves their rights while crippling and effectively destroying the economy of part of one’s own country.  Thus, there are those who become self-righteous in their own ideals; the minority cannot argue with them.  Such was the fate of the Athenian empire, and who is to say there are not striking similarities to the empire of the United States?  The very deeds the Americans found atrocious and unforgivable (e.g., monopolizing trade) and caused them to separate from their mother country, those deeds they soon committed on their own brethren.  The circumstances and actions may not have been the same, but the theme of blockading trade routes is essentially the same.  Human actions are seen to repeat themselves, undoubtedly.  The ignorance or blatant refusal to acknowledge the striking differences between the North and the South is just a folly that is doomed to reopen the rift between them.  Only once the schism is accepted can repairs begin and the United States of America can be united as one indivisible nation.

Bibliography:

http://www.civilwarhome.com/

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cw/

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