This is the second article on a new YouGov poll of a thousand Americans on the Civil War and Reconstruction. The first article looked at how the era is taught in school, this article looks who caused the war and whether either side was morally justified in fighting.
The respondents said that the Confederacy was more responsible than the Federal government for causing the war by nearly a four-to-one plurality, but more than a third said that both sides were equally responsible.
The answer that the North was more responsible was voted “Yes” by twice as many Trump voters as Biden voters.
Similarly, on whether either side was morally justified, the Federal side had nearly five times as much support as the Confederate side.
When asked if respondents had some ancestor involved in the Civil War, more than a third said that they did not know, and a third said that they did not have ancestors connected with the war, so two-out-of-three don’t have any immediate perceived family connections to the conflict.
Among actual participants in the Civil War, there were about two Union supporters to every Confederate supporter, but among modern Americans more than four times as many said they would have supported the Federal cause over the Confederate.
While Confederate supporters seem to make up about half of all social media posters, they are in fact a pretty small percentage of actual Americans.
Next, we’ll look at who modern Americans think of a their favorite Civil War figures.
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Lincoln should have let the rebellious states ceceed. Their economy would have quickly become a shambles once the United States put significant import tariffs on essential goods. He could have negotiated with their government as to the disposition of Federal property such as arsenals, naval yards, customs houses, mints etc. The death toll was serious waste that was avoidable. Every trouble this country has had since the 1840’s has been due to the `Southern Way of Life’. We would have been well shed of them in 1861. The `North’ has supported the `South’ with tax dollars far surpassing its tax contribution and all we get is ingratitude and violence. In 1861, we should have said `Good riddance’. Of course that puts the moral imperative of ending human bondage to one side and that is what really conflicts me.
“He could have negotiated with their government…”
That would require recognizing the Confederate government as legitimate, and thus secession as legitimate.