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Re: Abner Doubleday and Lincoln

What raises a "Red Flag" to me is that there is some evidence that some of these "conversations", regarding the forts, between such people as Lincoln, Washburne and Winfield Scott were happening in October of 1860 well before Lincoln was even elected. All of these men were very high ranking members and political operatives, of the old Whig political party. These people had a history of well over a decade of political cooperation between themselves.

Few people remember that Abraham Lincoln was a Congressman from Illinois as a Whig from 1846 to 1850. An interesting story there, that never gets mentioned, involving Lincoln, President Polk and Winfield Scott that cost Lincoln his seat in Congress. And that Winfield Scott was the Whig candidate for President of the United States in 1852. It was also Winfield Scott who had been the Commander of the United States Army forces sent to Charleston for President Andrew Jackson during the 1832 Nullification crisis. Was Old Winny reliving his glory days?

Ever since the demise of the old Whig party in 1854 these men had to have been trying to figure out ways to get back into power. That's what politicians do. The Republican Party was their ticket. They were during that time picking and choosing who their friends were, and who they could trust and who would follow orders. And therein enters Major Robert Anderson into the circle. This would also apply to others that had metoric rises to their careers like Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Hallack, David Hunter and Abner Doubleday, etc. etc. It is interesting to also notice who was evidently NOT within the circle. Men like Robert E Lee, Joe Johnston, Samuel Cooper, William Hardee, P.T.G. Beauregard, Albert S Johnson, former Sec. of War Jefferson Davis, Vice President John C. Breckinridge, Even Lincolns own brother-in-law Benjamin Hardin. Were their differences with Lincolns republicans purely political? Or were these men maybe driven by their personal principals?

So was all of this political preplanning among these politicos what they would do if Lincoln was elected and South Carolina seceded? How would they handle South Carolinas threats of secession? What about the international impacts? Revenues? Internal politics among the states that didn't secede? You know they weren't just sitting on their thumbs.

All of these subjects had to be topics of discussion among Lincoln's intercircle of advisors whether they are recorded for posterity or not. Therein lays our problem. Because hindsight is not always 20/20. Not all things are recorded for posterities sake. Lincoln certainly didn't walk into the Presidents Office on March 4th, 1861 in a total vacume and without a plan.

Contemporary history would have one to believe that all these events "just happened" as a matter of random chance. As decisions made in the best interest at the time of individuals such as Anderson trying to best protect the men of his garrison. But the impact of those events such as the Occupation of Fort Sumter seem to have the calculated effect of achieving a political objective which had been outlined among these same people several months before.

In other words if it waddles like a Duck, swims like a Duck, and Quacks like a Duck, it probably is a Duck. I am waiting for someone to prove to me that it was not a Duck.

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Abner Doubleday and Lincoln
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Re: Abner Doubleday and Lincoln