Dec. 31, 2015

Abraham Lincoln and the people connected to his life are very interesting.  I will endeavor to shed light on some of them as well as show their character in developing our nation.  It is my hope that the reader will gain a better understanding of history as a result.

Abraham Lincoln’s Personal Life

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky and died on April 14, 1865 (the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865).  He had characteristics typical of Melungeon stock – a swarthy complexion and coarse black hair.  Nancy Hanks, his mother, was described as having dark skin, dark hair, and blue eyes. 

The Melungeons have lived for centuries in the Appalachian Mountains in remote regions of Tennessee and Virginia.  When the first census was taken in the 1790s, they claimed to be “Portyghee” (Portuguese).

The author of Pandora’s Box (Spokane, 1993), Alex Christopher, discovered a genealogy in old records in a courthouse in North Carolina that said that when Nancy Hanks was visiting the Springs family in Lincolnton, North Carolina in 1808, she was forced to succumb to the sexual advances of A. A. Springs and became pregnant with Abraham as a result.  Nancy was married to Thomas Lincoln at the time (June 12, 1806), so it was only natural that Abraham was given the surname Lincoln to avoid a scandal.  The Springs were Jewish and related to the Rothschilds.   A. A. Springs had changed his name from Springstein to hide the fact that he was Jewish.   An enormous amount of land in Huntsville, Alabama was left to Abe in A. A. Springs’ will. 

Lincoln’s family moved from Kentucky to Indiana in 1816 and to Illinois in 1830.  He left home, was admitted to the Bar in 1837, and he settled in Springfield.  Although Stephen Douglas courted Mary, she chose to marry Abe instead.  Mary’s father, Robert Smith Todd, was a wealthy banker in Kentucky.

Records in the Smithsonian, National Archives, and Congressional Library state that in the early 1850s, Abe and Elizebeth (an illegitimate daughter of King Leopold of Germany) had a sexual liaison that produced twin daughters, Ella and Emily, in 1856.  A member of the German royal family slapped Abe in the face three times with a white glove at a White House reception in 1862 and demanded a pistol duel, but Abe simply bowed his head and walked out of the room (Christopher, p.283).  Abe’s wife, Mary, didn’t find out about this until 1865, but she was to get her revenge.

Prior to this, Mary had become addicted to opium.  Her supplier knew about the illegal twins, and he knew that the Rothschilds in Europe would be interested in this information (Ibid., pp. 283-284).

Mary’s drug dealer, a Southerner, was hired to kidnap Abe, send him on a two month cruise in the Atlantic where he would be injected and addicted to opium.  Mary, for her cooperation, was promised that she and Abe would be moved to Europe where they would live happily ever after with a steady supply of opium.

It was arranged that Abe would be kidnapped at Ford’s Theatre.  However, when the drug pusher came and saw Mary shoot her husband in the head (she was left-handed) while Abe was sleeping with his head on Mary’s left shoulder, he was horrified and realized that he was probably meant to be the patsy.  So, John Wilkes Booth jumped off the balcony on the stage to get away since he believed the plans had secretly been changed and that the men in waiting at the back door might blame and/or kill him for the murder (Ibid., pp. 285-286).

Later, Mary was imprisoned in her room for two weeks with two armed guards for killing her husband.  She later applied to Congress three times for a widow’s compensation but was denied.  “An unknown benefactor paid for Mary’s passage to Europe where she died in a small cottage in Germany” (Ibid., p.286).

The man who died in the fire was not Booth, but a crippled Confederate war veteran who was willing to sacrifice his life for him.  Booth moved to east Texas where he operated saloons and performed in theaters.   Booth was like a modern movie actor and earned about $20,000.00 a year – a princely sum in those days.  He was given a lethal dose of arsenic in 1904 to keep him quiet about the assassination (Ibid., p.287).

“Elizebeth abandoned the illegitimate daughters of Abraham Lincoln after birth, and the twins were placed in separate orphanages.  Emily was adopted by family in Georgia, and Ella grew up in orphanages.  Ella married a man named John Kramer, and they had a son named William; . . . [William] had a son named Robert, and Robert had several children. . . . The various intelligence communities could care less about Ella . . . [but Emily’s] offspring are one of the most fascinating and intriguing untold chapters of American history” (Ibid., p.288).

Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham’s eldest son (August 1, 1843 – July 26, 1926) -- a politician, lawyer, and businessman -- destroyed countless documents related to his father’s origins and assassination.  However, Lincoln’s great-great grandchild has uncovered the truth.  William gave one of Robert’s children an autographed picture of Abraham Lincoln (worth $2 million in 1989) which Ella had given him (Ibid.).  Alex Christopher would only reveal that the one who was given this photo is a well-known, famous author who has been able to uncover many documents in Washington D.C. that have astounded curators.

The Background of the Springs and Payseurs

Louis was the son and heir of the French King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.  It should be noted that the French King and Queen, who was from Austria, were of the Merovingian bloodline (Ibid., pp. 68, 72), so that means that their son, Louis was Jewish.  The book, A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France 768-900, shows that the Merovingian dynasty which wove its way into the royal houses of Europe was Jewish (Sir Laurence Gardner confirms this in his books).  The Merovingians had numerous children and “married into almost all the noble families of Europe during the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th centuries” (Ibid., p.13).  It appears that they bore a birthmark on their chests or backs which resembled a red cross, so this became the insignia of the Templars (Ibid., p.14).

Marie’s sister had written letters to her, warning her of the revolutionary plot by the bankers and Freemasons, but Marie wrote back that she was just worrying too much and needn’t be concerned (William Guy Carr, Pawns in the Game, Boring, Oregon, p.36).  After the King was beheaded in the French Revolution, Louis was placed on the throne in January 1793 at the age of eight for two years and then was imprisoned and allegedly died in prison on June 8, 1795.  What actually happened was that he was rescued and placed in hiding since the revolutionists wanted the whole royal family dead.  The story of substituting another boy of the same age in the prison through a hobby horse is given by Christopher (Christopher, pp. 52-54). 

Louis was taken under the wing of his uncle, General Kleber, who bestowed on him all his wealth when he died.  Eventually, Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, helped Louis escape from France on February 16, 1804 to England where he was cared for by Queen Charlotte.  When Napoleon discovered who Louis was, Louis changed his name to Daniel Paiesieur (which was later Americanized to Payseur).  While in England, Daniel bought shares in the Virginia Company, and he agreed to share a fixed percentage of his profits with the Crown of England.  (The 48 families that were part of the Virginia Company were all Merovingian and Hapsberg.)  The lands in America granted to the Virginia Company included everything between 34 – 40 degrees latitude North of the equator and extended from the east to the west coast (Ibid., p.133).  The King gave him a ship and supplies so that he could start a new life in America.  It should be noted that the Louisiana Purchase was approved by Congress for $26,070,000.00 on November 30, 1803.  This money was sent to the bank in England for the Royal family of France.  Although Napoleon was emperor, he did not receive this money.  One can only speculate if any or all of this money went to Daniel.

Daniel arrived at Boddie Island, North Carolina in 1805.  He travelled inland and settled just north of what is now the border between the Carolinas.  King George backdated a land grant to 1749 for 600 acres and gave it to Daniel’s travelling companion who posed as his father, George Bashore (Paiesieur).  George passed this land on to his “son” in his will in 1831.  “This same piece of land has been increased to over 3,000 acres and is still considered to this day by the State of North Carolina to be ‘French foreign soil’” (Ibid., pp. 57-58). 

Daniel was later given two monopolies – railroads and banking -- by his close friend, President Andrew Jackson (Ibid., p.203).  The banking system was owned by the railroads, and Daniel owned the railroads (Ibid., p.359).  The Payseurs acquired a monopoly not only of the railroads, but also electrical power, water, and fuel, now known as Standard Oil and Exxon Oil (Ibid., p.235).   Westinghouse, General Electric, Proctor & Gamble, U.S. Steel, General Mills, Alcoa, and AT&T, to give some examples, are all ultimately owned by the Lancaster and Chester Railroad Company of South Carolina (Ibid., p.451).  J. P. Morgan was Daniel’s Banker-Trustee and front man (Ibid., p.367).  Payseur hired Jews such as the Springs, J. P. Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and others as trustees of his assets (front men).  Interestingly, the Rothschilds also used J. P. Morgan as their agent in America.  (J. P. Morgan made a fortune selling the government rifles for the Union Army that had been condemned – see Carr, p.60; Morgan owned the hideaway on Jekyl Island, Georgia where the bankers met in secret in 1910 to draw up the Federal Reserve system – Carr, p.62; and Nikola Tesla received his financial backing from Lewis Cass Payseur and J. P. Morgan -- Christopher, p.329).

Daniel died in 1860 and left all his assets to his eldest son, Adam, who died childless (he was murdered), so the inheritance was passed on to his nephew, Lewis Cass Payseur (1850-1939), the eldest son of Adam’s brother, Jonas (Ibid., pp. 50-58).

On December 15, 1865, the U.S. government confiscated all the railroads, ships, lands, and money of the Confederate States under the Acts of Treason, so all the rules of ownership changed.  The Payseur family bought the Deed of Trust of these assets the same day (Ibid., p.172). 

“This Deed of Trust was known as the Alabama and Tennessee Rivers Railroad Company or The Kings Mountain Railroad Company.  The government took into consideration the Payseur family background and assets as potential buyers of all the railroads that had been confiscated during the Civil War. . . . including [the fact] that the Payseur’s gold fields in North Carolina were some of the richest in the nation and that the assets of their gold could pay for the reconstruction of the railroads destroyed during the American Civil War” (Ibid., p.172).

The records and the name “Payseur” have been hidden from the public.  To conceal their interests and to avoid anti-trust laws, the Payseurs would put assets under family names such as Smith, Hawkins, Reed, etc.  Abe Lincoln’s private attorney in North Carolina, whose cousin was the Governor of Alabama, was related through marriage to the Payseur family (Ibid., p.169).

Lewis Cass Payseur owned the Rutherfordton Railroad Construction Company which was the sole supplier of railroad lines and cross-ties to all railroad companies.  He also owned the Baldwin Locomotive Works which supplied all the engines and rolling stock for all the railroads in the world (Ibid., p.237).  The Payseur family never sold the railroads, but instead leased them to various companies for 99 years.  These leases expired between June 1993 – June 1994 (Ibid., pp. 486-487).  The question is, were these leases renewed, or did the railroads revert back to the Payseur heirs?  Christopher notes that all Federal excise taxes on the railroads and lands owned by the railroads were due and owing on the last day of the leases.  To avoid paying these taxes, the railroad lessees illegally sold some of these lands to companies or individuals who not only had to pay these taxes but had to surrender their land back to the railroad on demand, no questions asked (Ibid., pp. 332-333).  This is one reason why people are not given an allodial land patent when they buy land.

Lewis Cass Payseur placed all of his assets in a trust, to be divided equally between his three daughters – Pearl (born 1867), Iola (1870-1972), and Una (born 1876).  However, the women in the family were kept in the dark regarding the family’s assets and financial affairs.  Iola married George Gatling, of Gatling gun fame (Ibid., p.238).  Leroy Springs, the son of A. A. Springs, was Lewis Cass Payseur’s attorney, trustee, and the president of all of Payseur’s companies.  Leroy’s face was badly scarred by syphilis because of his frequent fraternization with colored slave girls.  When Leroy died on April 7, 1931, his son, Elliott White Springs, discovered all the bonds, deeds, and important papers in his dad’s safe, so he embezzled many of these assets by altering the records.  Elliott was a playboy and had connections to the Mafia, and he teamed up with his son-in-law, Hugh William Close.

Pearl’s portion was ultimately granted by her to her grandchildren, while the remainder belonging to Iola and Una was incorporated in 1979 as the Lewis Cass Payseur Trust Company, Inc. (Ibid., p.236).  Iola’s grandson, Donald C. ____?____ was Administrator (Ibid., p.236).  In 1971, Iola’s family discovered that they had vast holdings and owned hundreds of corporations around the world (one-third of their holdings is shown on pp. 321-328), so the family began trying to sort everything out.  The lesson here is that day-to-day control is more important than ownership.  Payseur always held stock certificates (#1) of Preferred Stock, meaning that he controlled 95 percent of the stock of each company when first issued (Ibid., pp. 447-448).  However, Carr writes that Jacob Schiff achieved “undisputed control over the transportation, the communication systems, and the supply lines in the United States [in the early 1900s]” (Carr, p.61).

The Rothschilds had been trying to get the control of America from the Payseurs.  But, according to Christopher, the Rothschilds didn’t get real control over everything in America until the Springs took over the Payseur family assets (Christopher, p.284).

“The person that controls the Federal Reserve and the rest of the world is the decedent of Leroy Springs, the great-great granddaughter Crandal Close Bowles, who sits as director in the Federal Reserve building in Charlotte, North Carolina” (Ibid., p.418).  “The Federal Reserve Bank as it is known today is one of the banks owned by the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad [of South Carolina]” (Ibid.).

I would urge anyone who is interested in more details about this to purchase Christopher’s book, Pandora’s Box.  She has put out a new, revised edition, the details of which can be found on the internet at “Pandora’s Box by Alex Christopher – Whale” (www.whale.to).

Lincoln’s Actions as President

In 1876, Bismarck revealed the masterminds of the “Civil War” to a fellow German named Conrad Siem, who published it in “La Vieille France” (No. 216, March 1921):

“The division of the United States into two federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the High Financial Power of Europe. . . The voice of the Rothschilds predominated.  They foresaw tremendous booty if they could substitute two feeble democracies, indebted to the Jewish financiers . . . Lincoln read their plots and soon understood that the South was not the worst foe, but the Jew financiers. . . Lincoln decided to eliminate the international banker by establishing a system of loans [after the Rothschilds offered to finance the North at 39% interest], allowing the States to borrow directly from the people without intermediary. . . . The death of Lincoln was [therefore] resolved upon. . . . The Jews will not hesitate to plunge the whole of Christendom into wars and chaos in order that ‘the earth should become the inheritance of Israel.’”

Lincoln had $450 million printed, using the credit of the nation as security.  The international bankers retaliated by “ruling that Lincoln’s Greenbacks would not be accepted as payment of interest on government bonds nor import duties.  The Bankers caused Lincoln’s money to become almost valueless by refusing to accept the Greenbacks except at a heavy discount.  Having beaten down the value . . . to 30 cents, they bought them all in.  They then turned around and bought government bonds with them, demanding dollar for dollar value.  In this way they overcame a serious threat and made 70 cents on the dollar” (Carr, p.54).  It appears that the U.S. went into bankruptcy in 1861 (see Redemption in Law: Cracking the Code, 2^nd ed., Tarzana, California, p.170), so Lincoln should never have started the war with the South.

“The Bankers financed the election campaigns of enough Senators and Congressmen to assure them that the National Banking Act would become law.  The National Banking Act did become law in 1863 despite the vigorous protests of President Lincoln.  Thus the International Bankers won another round” (Carr, pp. 54-55).  Among other things, the National Banks were not subject to State laws, paid no taxes, and could increase or contract the currency in circulation and grant or withhold loans as they saw fit (Ibid., pp. 56-57).  “Between 1882 and 1887 the per capita money in circulation in the United States was reduced to $6.67” (Ibid., p.59), resulting in many business failures and foreclosures.

What is puzzling is why Lincoln thought war and going into debt to the bankers would hold the nation together when he would have known that the nation would be lost to the bankers even if the North were to win the war.

On March 15, 1861, the Confederate government was assured that Fort Sumter would be evacuated within a few days.  On March 28, Lincoln completed his plans for outfitting an expedition to invade Charleston.  On April 5, ships loaded with troops, munitions, and military supplies sailed southward.  During this time, Lincoln reassured the South that Fort Sumter would be peacefully handed over and that there would be no war (Richard Hoskins, War Cycles Peace Cycles, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1985, p.153).  On April 10, South Carolina received a warning of the coming invasion.  However, a terrible storm on April 12 upset Lincoln’s schedule.  The people of South Carolina were then faced with the choice of allowing Lincoln’s fleet to combine forces with the fort or to bombard the fort before the storm died down.  By making the latter choice, the South was blamed for firing the first shot (Ibid., p.154).

The following information is from Mildred Rutherford’s book which Americans need to know:

“’Lincoln’s order that Confederate commissions or letters of marque granted to private or public ships should be disregarded and their crews treated as pirates, and [his order that] all medicines [and surgical instruments be] declared contraband of war, violated every rule of civilized war and outraged the conscience of Christendom.’

“’Lincoln never hesitated to violate the Constitution when he so desired.  The Chief Justice testified to this.  Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus in 1861; he allowed West Virginia to be formed from Virginia, contrary to the Constitution; he issued his Emancipation Proclamation without consulting his Cabinet and in violation of the Constitution.’

“’He consented to a cartel for exchange of prisoners February 14, 1862.  When it was to the advantage of the North, faith was kept; when it was to the advantage of the South, it was violated’ (See Cor. Lieut. Col. Ludlow and Col. Ould, July 26, 1863).

“’Had he been humane, he would not have allowed 38,000 men and women – editors, politicians, clergymen of good character and honor – imprisoned in gloomy, damp basements for no overt act, but simply because they were Democrat suspects (Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin, p.393). (Bancroft’s Life of Seward, Vol. 2, p.254)’” (Mildred L. Rutherford,  Truths of History, Athens, Georgia, 1907, pp. 66-67).

B. T. Butler said:  “’During the whole war, the Lincoln government was rarely aided, but was unanimously impeded by the decisions of the Supreme Court, so that President Lincoln was obliged to suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus in order to relieve himself from the rulings of the [Supreme] Court’” (Ibid., p.68).

Benjamin R. Curtis, of the Supreme Court (Executive Power) said:  “’The President has made himself a legislator.  He has enacted penal laws governing citizens of the United States.  He has super-added to his rights as commander the power of usurper.  He has established a military despotism’” (Ibid., pp. 67-68).

Ida Tarbell wrote in Life of Lincoln:  “’In the winter of 1862-1863, many and many a man deserted the army.  They refused to fight.  Mr. Lincoln knew that hundreds of soldiers were being urged by parents and friends to desert. . . The people were weary of war, weary of so much waste of life and money.  Open dissatisfaction was shown in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which broke out in violence over the draft for more men’” (Ibid., p.68).

John A. Logan wrote in Great Conspiracy (Springfield, Illinois, June 1863, p.551):  “’There was open and avowed hostility to Lincoln in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and strong opposition in New Jersey.  So violent was the hostility to war in Massachusetts and New York, the call of volunteers was unheeded, and when the government demanded a draft, the people gathered in crowds and fearful riots ensued.  In New York City the opposition was so violent, the rioters so numerous, the city was terrified for days and nights.  The houses in which the draft machines were at work were wrecked and then burned to ashes.  The order for draft was rescinded by the government at Washington and the people urged to disperse and to retire to their homes on the promise that there would be no more drafting’” (Ibid., p.68).

Northerners who opposed Lincoln’s war were called Copperheads, and they went so far as to sabotage the war effort.  For instance, after packing gun powder into hollowed out pieces of firewood and sealing them with wooden plugs, they dropped them from bridges into railroad cars which were on their way to naval bases.  Union ships had numerous unexplained, explosive mishaps on the high seas as a result (Richard Kelly Hoskins, Vigilantes of Christendom, Lynchburg, 1990, p.218).

 

Lincoln’s war was so unpopular that he had to recruit 200,000 men from Germany who could not speak English and did not know what the war was about (Ibid.).  This is interesting because King George, at the advice of Rothschild, hired unemployed Russian and Germanic soldiers to fight the American colonists in the Revolutionary War.  Many of the English people refused to fight since they were related to the colonists and/or sympathized with them.  These soldiers were dressed up in English soldier uniforms, similar to Obama’s dressing Russian and Chinese soldiers in DHS, FBI, or U.S. Army uniforms.  Rothschild negotiated a contract with these mercenaries at 50 cents a day but charged the King $1.00 a day for them.  Ultimately, although Rothschild got his money, it is my understanding that he failed to pay the mercenaries, so many of them decided to stay and settle down in America after the war. 

 

One regiment of Germans that landed on Long Island was sent to attack Charleston in the Revolutionary War.  However, one of the soldiers, John Reed, sympathized with anyone opposed to the King of England, whether German or English, so he deserted and settled in North Carolina among German-speaking settlers.  John married Sarah Kiser, and Sarah’s sister Susannah married Daniel Payseur around 1814 (Christopher, p.191).  John found lots of gold on his property (nuggets weighing up to 28 pounds) and became one of the richest men in North Carolina (Ibid., p.192).

 

Lincoln “’had few friends and fewer intimates.  He unbosomed himself to none’” (Rutherford, p.64).

We read in Rhodes, Vol. IV, p.320:

“’Lincoln’s contemporaries failed to perceive his greatness.’

“’Ben Wade and Henry W. Davis issued a manifesto against him.  Sumner, Wade, Davis, and Chase were his malicious foes.  Lincoln was forced to appoint Chase to the office of Chief Justice in order to remove him from the Cabinet, for he was said to be the irritating fly in the Lincoln ointment.  Stanton called Lincoln a coward and a fool.  Seward said he had a cunning that amounted to genius.  Richard Dana said, The lack of respect for the President by his Cabinet cannot be concealed.  He was called the baboon at the other end of the avenue, and the idiot of the White House.  Had not Grant succeeded in gaining a victory at Vicksburg, a movement to appoint a Dictator in Lincoln’s place would have gone into effect.  His Cabinet had lost confidence in his policy’” (Ibid., p.67).

Richard A. Dana, in letters to Thomas Lathrop, wrote on Feb. 23, 1863:  “’. . . [T]he lack of respect for the President in all parties is unconcealed.  He has no admirers.  If a convention were held tomorrow, he would not get the vote of a single state’” (Ibid., p.69).

In Hapgood’s Life of Lincoln, we read:  “’Charles A. Dana testifies that the whole power of the War Department was used to secure Lincoln’s re-election in 1864.  There is no doubt that this is true’” (Ibid., p.69).

Lincoln’s Attitude Toward Religion

Lamon, an intimate friend of Lincoln and one who often acted as his private secretary, wrote in Life of Lincoln: “’No phase of Mr. Lincoln’s character has been so persistently misrepresented as . . . his religious belief’” (Ibid., p.70).  “’Mr. Lincoln went to church, but he went to mock and came away to mimic’” (Ibid.).  Dennis Hanks, Lincoln’s first cousin, said:  “Abe would often collect a crowd of boys and men around him to make fun of the preacher.  He frequently reproduced the sermon with a nasal twang, rolling his eyes and all sorts of droll aggravations, to the great delight of the wild fellows assembled.  Sometimes he broke out with stories possibly humorous and invariably vulgar” (Ibid., p.83).

“’Abe wrote many satires which are only remembered in fragments; if we had them in full they would be too indecent to print’” (Ibid.).  William Herndon was Lincoln’s friend and law partner for 20 years.  In a letter from Herndon to Lamon (see Life of Lincoln), he wrote:  “’In New Salem, Mr. Lincoln lived with a class of men . . . [who] were scoffers of religion . . . They denied that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. . . In 1835 Mr. Lincoln wrote a book on infidelity and intended to have it published, but Hill, believing that if the book should be published it would kill Lincoln as a politician, threw it into a stove, and it went up in smoke and ashes before Lincoln could seize it.

“’When Mr. Lincoln became a candidate for the Legislature, he was accused of being an infidel, and he never denied it’” (Ibid., p.82).

Herndon wrote in Life of Lincoln:  “’Abraham Lincoln became more discreet in later life and used words and phrases to make it appear that he was a Christian.  He never changed on this subject.  He lived and died a deep-grounded infidel’” (Ibid., p.70).  Herndon added in his Story of a Great Life:  “’Lincoln detested science and literature.  No man can put his finger on any book written in the last or present century that Lincoln read through.  He read little’” (Ibid., p.82).

In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln stated:  “’I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.  I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so’” (Ibid., p.72).  Hapgood wrote in Abraham Lincoln, the Man of the People (p.273) that Lincoln said:  “’If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it’” (Ibid., p.70).

A couple reasons why Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation were that:

1.     He hoped that Southern men in their army would be forced to return home to protect their wives and children from negro insurrection.

2.     He wanted to prevent foreign nations from recognizing the Confederacy (Ibid., p.75).

Ironically, after Lincoln’s martyrdom, “Northern writers claim[ed] that Abraham Lincoln was ‘the greatest man that ever lived;’ that he was ‘the Godliest man that has walked the earth since Christ’” (Ibid., p.84).  This myth still persists to this day.

Andersonville

General Lee offered to exchange prisoners of war, man for man, with General Grant but was turned down, presumably because it would prolong the war.  “Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton’s statistics testify that while there were 50,000 more of prisoners in Southern prisons than in Northern, the mortality among Southern men in Northern prisons was far greater” (Ibid., p.21).

General Butler frankly put on the record why General Grant refused to exchange prisoners:  “’. . . the Confederate prisoner was too dangerous to be exchanged’” (Ibid., p.27).  In other words, they had more courage and were better fighters than the men of the North – or maybe the Northerners didn’t believe in the war and therefore exerted themselves as little as possible.

“There was never any trouble about lack of provisions at Andersonville . . . There was an abundant supply of the rations that the soldiers and prisoners needed, but the trouble came because of the over-crowded condition of the stockade.  It was made for 10,000 and in four months 29,000 were sent.

“There were 6,000 sick in the hospitals at one time and no medicine – the first time in the history of wars when medicine was made contraband of war” (Ibid., p.22).  All surgical instruments were declared by Lincoln to be contraband.  On top of this, “There were not enough vessels in which the food could be properly prepared and served, and the Confederate authorities were powerless, for they could not obtain these vessels to supply the need” (Ibid., p.23).

When Dr. Gardner of New York petitioned the American Medical Association at its convention in Chicago in 1863, arguing that making them contraband rebounded on their own soldiers who were prisoners of the Confederates, he was hissed from the hall.

Dr. Henry Wirz

“There were many bad men among the [Northern] prisoners called ‘bounty jumpers,’ and they were killed by their own men [at Andersonville], yet Captain Wirz was accused of their murder. . . Captain Wirz paroled those six prisoners to send them North to plead for an exchange [of prisoners] . . . [Wirz even] went to Macon, relying on the honor of General Wilson’s parole.  Imagine his surprise when he was arrested” (Ibid., p.26). 

At his trial, “Dr. Kerr says that Wirz was called hard-hearted and cruel, but he has seen the tears streaming down his face when in the hospitals watching the sufferings of those men [Northern prisoners].  Not a man ever died that he did not see that his grave was distinctly marked so that his mother could come and claim that body.

“If the [Northern] soldiers hated Wirz, as was said in the trial, why did they not kill him, for they had ample opportunity, as he never went armed.  He did not even carry a pocket knife.  . . .

“James Madison Page, a prisoner at Andersonville, wrote a book exonerating Captain Wirz and the Confederate authorities.  Some of the prisoners sent a letter with a watch which they presented to Captain Wirz as a token of their appreciation of his kind treatment of them” (Ibid., p.25).

Wirz “’. . . was tried out of his State by suborned witnesses – all witnesses in his defense were not permitted to be admitted to the stand . . .’” (Ibid., p.48).

A high Cabinet official assured Wirz that if he were to implicate Jefferson Davis for the “atrocities committed at Andersonville,” his sentence would be commuted.  He replied that Davis had no connection to Andersonville, and he would not become a traitor to save his own life (Ibid., p.49).  Tragically and cruelly, Henry Wirz, a kind and innocent man, was hanged on November 6, 1865.  “That was the foulest blot in American history . . .” (Ibid., p.26).

Destruction of Southern Property by the North

The following shows the difference in the attitudes of the Generals of the North and South in the war.

General Sheridan’s official report said:

“I have burned 2,000 barns filled with wheat and corn, all the mills in the whole country, destroyed all the factories of cloth, killed or driven off every animal, even the poultry that could contribute to human sustenance.  Nothing should be left in the Shenandoah but eyes to lament the war” (Ibid., p.34).

Gregg’s History (p.375) said:

“’The devastation of the Palatine hardly exceeded the desolation and misery wrought by the Republican invasion and conquest of the South.  No conquered nation of modern days . . . suffered from such individual and collective ruin . . .’” (Ibid., p.37).

Lincoln was not only aware of what General Sherman was doing in the South, but he honored him.

“’General Lee, for fear his soldiers should pillage while foraging in Pennsylvania, had the roll call three times daily’” (Ibid., p.37).

Southern General John B. Gordon told the women in York, Pennsylvania:  “If the torch is applied to a single dwelling or an insult to a woman by a soldier in my command, point me the man and you shall have his life” (Ibid., p.38).

When General Early was urged to burn York, Pennsylvania in retaliation for what the North had done to the Shenandoah, he said “We do not make war on women and children” (Ibid., p.38).

Jefferson Davis himself stated:  “In regard to the enemy’s crews and vessels you are to proceed with the justice and humanity which characterize our government and its citizens” (Ibid., p.37).

Jefferson Davis Contrasts With Lincoln

Davis was the most powerful debater in the U.S. Senate, was a graduate of West Point, and was an experienced soldier.  Davis “could shatter the arguments of his shrewdest opponents, but he could not fathom the opponent’s political cunning or forestall its success.  He always won over Douglas in debate; Douglas won the political crisis in the end” (Allen Tate, Jefferson Davis: His Rise and Fall, Nashville, 1998, p.14).

When Davis, a Democrat, perceived that Douglas had betrayed the interests of the South, he turned against Douglas and unwittingly helped Lincoln get elected.  In 1860, the Democratic Convention would not nominate Stephen Douglas for the presidency even though he was the only candidate the Northern Democrats would vote for (Ibid., pp. 8-9). 

“After the Republican senators had rejected the Crittenden Compromise, which gave to them every eventual advantage and to the South nothing in the end, they would not listen to a proposal of a convention of the states; they were then challenged for a compromise proposal of their own, but not a Republican replied.  At this distance it is certain that the deadlock exactly suited the North, for its purpose was to subdue the South at all costs; in a policy that conceded nothing and demanded everything, the North meant to ‘ride over the South rough-shod.’  The South at this time was willing to accept any measure that guaranteed it even less than its Constitutional rights in the territories; but the North no longer desired equality of sectional power; the North was bent upon domination.  By refusing to bridge from this position, the North forced the South to act for its preservation, and by means of the slavery issue the shrewdness of the Yankee succeeded, as always, in putting his enemy in the wrong” (Ibid., p.12).  

Davis “made himself ill in the last four or five months trying to avert secession” (Ibid., p.7).

At the Constitutional Convention in the South, each of the six states represented had one vote for the presidency of the provisional government of the Confederate States.  Although not present at the Convention, Davis was elected. 

Davis’ leadership, however, proved to be a military failure.  He would have been wise to have made Robert E. Lee the commander-in-chief before it was too late (Ibid., p.224).  Davis either risked too little or in desperation risked too much (Ibid., p.231).  Lee was not given enough men to win battles decisively.  Davis refused to act when he should have and did not take the advice of Nathan Bedford Forrest (the greatest cavalry leader of modern times) or of General Joseph Johnston, a true patriot, who was fighting against Sherman (Ibid., p.242).  Davis’ “unshakable belief in Braxton Bragg [over Johnston] was his sole major blunder as President . . .” (Ibid., p.244). Bragg hated Johnston and wanted him to fail, and unfortunately Davis listened to Bragg.  “Forrest was . . . left in Mississippi protecting useless cotton and crates of chickens . . . while Sherman slowly but with deadly certainty pushed Johnston toward Atlanta” (Ibid., p.245).  Davis replaced Johnston with General Hood, a man of Bragg’s choice (who had “the brain of a hare and the personal courage of a lion” – Ibid., p.246). As a result, Atlanta fell to Sherman, restoring the prestige of Lincoln’s government and making it a certainty that Lincoln would be reelected in November (Ibid., p.249).

On the other hand, Davis was completely discredited in the eyes of the Southern people.  The people cried out for Lee and Johnston to be put in charge of the Confederate Army, but Davis was too stubborn to admit his mistake and refused to replace Hood with Johnston.  Consequently, many Southern men died needlessly, and the South lost the war.   Bragg’s egotism succeeded in getting what he wanted, but it was hardly worth sacrificing the whole war for it.

After the war, Davis was incarcerated at Fortress Monroe for two years, much of the time in heavy iron chains, separated from family and friends.  His vision, memory, and hearing were impaired.  He had the use of only one of his eyes.  There was a continual humming in his head, and he had floaters in his one eye.

Although charged with treason, Lincoln’s government did not wish to risk trying Davis in court and losing what it had won in battle.  Chief Justice Chase stated:  “If Jefferson Davis be brought to trial, it will convict the North and exonerate the South” (Rutherford, p.58).  When the trial was pending and it was learned that Rawle’s book View of the Constitution (used at West Point) would be used in his defense, it was decided not to have the trial (Ibid., p.59).

The editor of the New Haven (Conn.) Register eulogized Davis as follows:

“It is, in justice, time that the man who in his day suffered more than any other Southerner for the cause in which he believed should cease to be reckoned a traitor and a coward and be esteemed for what he was, a brave, true Southern gentleman.      . . . Of that host of true men who gave their best and their all for the Confederacy . . . none was more sincere than he. . . none was braver, none was nobler.  His . . . treatment by the victors after the crash came was sore medicine for a heart that was breaking” (Ibid., p.61).

Dr. Craven, Davis’ prison physician, said of him:  “He impressed me more with the divine origin of God’s Word than any professor of Christianity I ever met” (Ibid., p.57).

Davis died on May 11, 1865, less than a month after Lincoln’s death.

The question is, what did Lincoln gain to justify the loss of more than one million lives and the destruction of more than $8 billion worth of property?  Perhaps a man who lived in that time, R. G. Horton, gives us the answer in A Youth’s History of the Civil War (N.Y., 1867):

“’I shall stress that this war was not waged by the North to preserve the Union or to maintain Republican institutions, but to destroy both.

“’It will be seen that the war changed the entire character and system of our government, overthrew the rights of States, and forced amendments against the action of the people’” (Ibid., p.29).

The North insisted on calling it a Civil War because they believed we were a Nation, not a confederation of Sovereign States.  This attitude prevails today as those in power insist that we are a Democracy, not a Republic.