Land+Slavery+Abolitionist= Civil War...

5fish

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There is a man forgotten by history in his relationship to our Civil War. He is the one who plowed the land for forces of Slavery/Abolition to fester and blow up into or Civil War. He did it out of his belief in our nation's Manifest Destiny to spread across the continent and his desire to spread slavery west. He was James Polk our 11th President of our great nation. With Texas and his conquest of Mexico and achieving a border in the Northwest with Britain, he created the final ingredient, Land. Land with Slavery and Abolitionist was the brew that gave us our Civil War which tore our nation apart which cost our nation so much in blood and treasure...

James Polk has never been called the man that cause the Civil War but he was. President Polk was the second greatest president since Washington and before Lincoln and should be at least the 5th or 6th greatest President of all time but historians have problem with him owning slaves and protecting and promoting slavery. It cost him at least 5 ranking places each time a list of presidents is made...

James Polk was incredible for he told everyone what he was going to do and he did it all within his 4 year term. President Harry S. Truman summarized this view by saying that Polk was "a great president. Said what he intended to do and did it." His overall record of achievement it impressive and unrecognized...

James Polk gave our nation most of its modern day borders and in achieving this goal he unwittingly cause our Civil War. His desire for our nation achieve its Manifest Destiny...


American Civil War Formula...
Land+Slavery+Abolitionist= Civil War...
 

MattL

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There is a man forgotten by history in his relationship to our Civil War. He is the one who plowed the land for forces of Slavery/Abolition to fester and blow up into or Civil War. He did it out of his belief in our nation's Manifest Destiny to spread across the continent and his desire to spread slavery west. He was James Polk our 11th President of our great nation. With Texas and his conquest of Mexico and achieving a border in the Northwest with Britain, he created the final ingredient, Land. Land with Slavery and Abolitionist was the brew that gave us our Civil War which tore our nation apart which cost our nation so much in blood and treasure...

James Polk has never been called the man that cause the Civil War but he was. President Polk was the second greatest president since Washington and before Lincoln and should be at least the 5th or 6th greatest President of all time but historians have problem with him owning slaves and protecting and promoting slavery. It cost him at least 5 ranking places each time a list of presidents is made...

James Polk was incredible for he told everyone what he was going to do and he did it all within his 4 year term. President Harry S. Truman summarized this view by saying that Polk was "a great president. Said what he intended to do and did it." His overall record of achievement it impressive and unrecognized...

James Polk gave our nation most of its modern day borders and in achieving this goal he unwittingly cause our Civil War. His desire for our nation achieve its Manifest Destiny...


American Civil War Formula...
Land+Slavery+Abolitionist= Civil War...
A very good point. Polk often is forgotten. I think Jefferson with the Louisiana purchase and Polk with Texas and Mexico they are two presidents that provided the land problem. We should keep in mind we're talking massive expansions of federal power to basically federally dictate the growth direction of our Nation for centuries... and in historical hindsight they did exactly that! IMHO no oich ther federal power is as expansive and influential as both land acquisition (which includes what is done to get that land) and even more importantly land distribution. Nearly all of our American pioneer ancestors were heavily subsidized by the government (sometimes at multiple levels). I like to call them welfare pioneers, or welfare settlers/homesteaders. Nearly every single deep rooted line leads back to many cases of this that allowed our ancestors to then work hard and take full advantage of that privilege.

He who controls that land distribution controls the Nation's future. Jefferson wanted to create an agrarian utopia and he basically did, it took quite a while for another vision of the US to overtake that one. Jefferson and others were fine with expansive federal power when they had a stranglehold on it.
 

MattL

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A very good point. Polk often is forgotten. I think Jefferson with the Louisiana purchase and Polk with Texas and Mexico they are two presidents that provided the land problem. We should keep in mind we're talking massive expansions of federal power to basically federally dictate the growth direction of our Nation for centuries... and in historical hindsight they did exactly that! IMHO no oich ther federal power is as expansive and influential as both land acquisition (which includes what is done to get that land) and even more importantly land distribution. Nearly all of our American pioneer ancestors were heavily subsidized by the government (sometimes at multiple levels). I like to call them welfare pioneers, or welfare settlers/homesteaders. Nearly every single deep rooted line leads back to many cases of this that allowed our ancestors to then work hard and take full advantage of that privilege.

He who controls that land distribution controls the Nation's future. Jefferson wanted to create an agrarian utopia and he basically did, it took quite a while for another vision of the US to overtake that one. Jefferson and others were fine with expansive federal power when they had a stranglehold on it.
One might even argue the Civil War was for the power of land distribution.
 

5fish

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One might even argue the Civil War was for the power of land distribution.
I think this is an insightful thought about the war...


I like to call them welfare pioneers, or welfare settlers/homesteaders.
I think this another insightul look at the past...
 

5fish

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Here one look... dividing the land up....

Westward Expansion

The concept of expanding the United States from "sea to shining sea" divided the South in the 1840's. Mississippi's Henry Foote and Louisiana's Solomon Downs strongly supported the concept while Whigs led by Alexander Stephens opposed adding territory, especially that taken in the Mexican-American War. With the admission of California in the Compromise of 1850, the issue of territorial expansion had become moot. It was replaced by the bitter argument over whether the states would be added as slave states or free states.
 
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