Sherman was material in winning the Civil War. Preserving the Union was ever his goal. He believed that the destruction of slavery was desirable as a war measure. However, although he occasionally did acts of kindness for individual blacks, he was quite racist against the race, even by the bleak standards of his day. If you don’t know that about Sherman, you do not know him. However the interest of most Leftists in history begins and ends with its utility in current political battles.
They Have No Clue About Uncle Billie
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Don, Mr. Lincoln has also been accused of being a racist, which based upon some of his writings, is a defensible proposition. He supported deportation and resettlement of slaves for example. And, like Gen. Sherman, Lincoln also desired destruction of slavery as a war measure. He made clear in his first inaugural address that he would tolerate slavery if need be, in order to placate secessionists. He was no abolitionist as I’m sure you know, at least until 1865.
Mr. Kruger does not seem to have been a deep thinker on any issue. Rather, he was a cherry-picking activist, interested only in learning enough to fuel his next diatribe. May he come to know the fullness of Our Lord’s mercy.
Lincoln supported voluntary colonization. He dropped it when blacks indicated no enthusiasm for the idea. His statements that have been interpreted as racist were made during 1858 when he was embroiled in the Senate race with Stephen A. Douglas, who used every opportunity to charge Lincoln with wishing to bring about Negro equality, then deeply unpopular in Illinois. The statements are carefully phrased, as one would expect from the master lawyer Lincoln. Frederick Douglass noted that Lincoln was one of the few white men he ever met who did not hold his color against him. As President he destroyed slavery and by the end of his life was calling for Negro enfranchisement. God send us more such racists!
Lincoln believed that his duty as President was to preserve the Union. He never dissimulated his personal desire to end slavery, and when it could be done as a war measure he took the opportunity.
Sherman also was quite the racist on Indian affairs, as they were called at the time. His policies during the Grant administration were aimed at clearing the West for White settlement.
We used to be better at distinguishing the hero (admired for some but not all accomplishments) from the saint (admired for conforming his life to an ideal). Thus we either pass over the glaring flaws of someone like Sherman or we curse greater men like Lincoln for this or that weakness or failure to conform to an ideal barely existent in their day.
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There’s little doubt that Sherman had little use for Black people. Or Indians. Then again, most Black people and Indians have little use for White people either.
And unless your name was “Ulysses Grant,” he wasn’t the best of friends, either. He was a man the Union needed, but does not rank highly on a list of admirable Union generals.
Kruger would like our woke-addled military to repeat the March to the Sea.