[originaltext]M: Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started.

M: Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I want to talk today about the political management of the war on both sides: the north under Abraham Lincoln and the south under Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was to justify for their citizens just why the war was necessary.
W: It started in 1861, on July 4th when Lincoln gave his first major speech, right?
M: Yes, in the speech he presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserve democracy, Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble campaign that would determine the future of democracy throughout the world. For him the issue was whether or not this government of the people, by the people could maintain its integrity, could it remain complete and survive its domestic foes. In other words, could a few discontented individuals and by that he meant those who led the southern rebellion, could they break up the government and put an end to free government on earth?
W: The best way for the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion, right?
M: At the time, he was hopeful that the war wouldn’t last long and the slave owners would be put down forever, but he underestimated how difficult the war would be. It would be harder than any the Americans had thought before or since, largely because the north had to break the will of the southern people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied northerners to a deep commitment to the cause and achieved the success.