<explain how old Honest Abe could have achieved his success, i.e. save the union and secure slavery's elimination, without massive quantities of blood, including his own>
The British Empire, the Brazilians, and most other nations, were able to eliminate slavery (and stay united) without a Civil War, in the 19th Century. To say that the massive bloodletting of our Civil War was unavoidable, is to ignore all those examples.
From Message 19827210 :
9. The winner-take-all system of allocating each State's Electors, gives an advantage to candidates whose support is concentrated in one section of the country. A candidate whose support is spread evenly throughout the nation, and who is probably more acceptable to more of the entire nation, is at a disadvantage. This can lead to disastrous results, such as the election of 1860, where Lincoln won with less than 40% of the popular vote. In that election, there were two sectarian candidates who were highly unacceptable in large parts of the nation (Lincoln and Breckinridge). There were two other candidates, who would have been acceptable to the entire nation. If the President was chosen directly by popular vote, and if we had an instant runoff system, Douglas would have won in 1860. But, because his support was spread throughout the entire nation, and because of the Electoral College system, Douglas lost, and the result was the Civil War. |
