Hi Jim,

I don't want to speak for Craig, I'll just speak for myself.

You write:

"Could you teach without fear of being ridiculed or ostracized by your professional counterparts, that the South was Constitutionally justified or had a superior argument to the Northern position of an indivisible Union?

I'm not asking what you believe personally, I'm asking if you could teach this point of view?"

--University professors do not approach a Civil War Era course with the stark view you suggest. I have never stood in front of an 80-person lecture hall and argued that the "South was Constitutionally justified" or "had a superior argument." However, I have presented the arguments of John C. Calhoun, George Fitzhugh, Jefferson Davis, and Alexander Stephens to my students. Similarly, I have presented the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, and William Seward to my students.

Ultimately, an educator is not force-feeding ideology down a student's throat. We are presenting both sides of an argument. Exams and papers ask the students to weigh the ideologies and interpret their meanings; it is the student who ultimately must interpret the past. A good history professor teaches them how to seek out sources, weigh evidence, and think for themselves. Frankly, that is what a university campus is devoted to.

Best,
Sam.