Lincoln Endorses Ron Paul?

Abraham Lincoln proposed Ron Paul's peaceful method of ending slavery, compensated emancipation (paying to free the slaves).

"In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress with the census tables and Treasury reports before him can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named state." --Abraham Lincoln, "A Message to Congress Requesting a Joint Resolution on Compensated Emancipation," March 6, 1862

It is nice to see Lincoln validate Ron Paul's position but unfortunately Lincoln did not follow through effectively.

Lincoln made Lincoln controversial. States began seceding between Lincoln’s election and inauguration because those states knew his policies from the presidential campaign and considered his plans unacceptable (even though Lincoln had no plans to completely end slavery any time soon).

Too Little Too Late

Lincoln’s 1849 compensated emancipation plan was only for the District of Columbia (not for any state), his 1862 plan was nominally universal but intended only for the border states (not for any Confederate state, but a payoff to keep slave states on the Union side), and other 1862 compensated emancipation plans only for the District of Columbia (not for any state) were only $300 or $500 per slave, with only half of the latter going to the owner and the other half to the slave if the freed person emigrated.

The problem was a failure to offer the right price to the right people.

Even “overpaying” an 1861 New Orleans prime male slave price of $1,381 each for all 4 million slaves would have cost only half the price of the Civil War.

Then add the priceless savings in human life, both black and white.

Critics charge that today Bush is pursuing military solutions for political problems and Lincoln similarly pursued military solutions for political and economic problems.

• Iraq War = almost 4,000 American dead
• Civil War = over 600,000 American dead
• Civil War relative to today’s population = over 6 million American dead

There is nothing pro-American about killing 6 million Americans.

Today's pundits and politicians who ridicule peaceful options for avoiding the Civil War are truly frightening and dangerous to US national security in their crackpot, cavalier disregard for killing today’s equivalent of 6 million Americans to implement their policies.

Such people are unfit to "dog-sit," much less have anything to do with public policy.

Thank goodness that Captain Ron Paul’s sane, steady statesmanship is based on his strategic, thoughtful study of history and economics.