I know we want to go down the well-worn path of "why the war was fought", but let's please try to stick to the initial question. Why wasn't the United States able to abolish slavery without bloodshed? Why were all other countries able to end the practice without war?

Many consider slavery the "great blot" on our nation's history. The most immoral of practices. Isn't a war with six-hundred thousand (600,000) dead, which might have been avoided with diplomacy, also a great immoral act?

I believe the American Civil War was directly a result of politics and competing ideologies, gone awry.

¿Pero, que se yo?

Jim