Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "How Soldiers Vote During Wartime" video.

  1. I really liked your presentation, but I feel you glossed over or omitted some facts. It’s understandable given the format and not wanting to get lost in the weeds. You chose to err on the side of parsimony and I can accept that. Just the same, I wrote a comment covering what I think are important details that provide greater context on the politics of the Civil War. I admit that some parts are far out of scope of your topic. I hope you’ll read it and comment (once you’ve completed your move 😅). To repeat, I did enjoy the video very much. Please consider the other comment to be supplementary to the video, and not a criticism.
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  2.  @kreb7  The conservatives won back parliament and Churchill became PM a second time. I wonder, was this because of the Cold War becoming a major issue? Or were people reacting to “too much socialism” from Atlee? (It should be noted that Atlee was one of the early architects of the West’s response to Soviet aggression. He and Truman agreed on a policy of “containment” that defined the general approach.) I’m not an expert on UK politics, nor do I know much about Churchill’s second time around. AFAIK, Churchill didn’t reverse Labor Party reforms, or not many. AFAIK, that didn’t happen until Thatcher was PM.
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  3. There’s some important political details regarding Abolition, Lincoln, and the Civil War that are missing. Sadly, these often don’t get covered in U.S. History classes before college, and I’m not sure how deeply they’re covered in introductory college courses. First of all, the Republican Party was not unified on the question of slavery, and among those that favored abolition there was a variety of opinion on how to accomplish it. The moderate view was that it was on the way out—as long as it didn’t spread as new states were admitted it would become gradually less economically feasible. They were happy with the status quo. There were those that wanted compensation for slave owners. And there was a faction known as the “Radical Republicans” that wanted immediate abolition. The majority of Republicans did not. In the election of 1860, Lincoln promised that he would not support abolition. Abolition was not part of the Republican Party platform. Lincoln was sensitive to the politics in some swing states where slavery was still legal, such as Maryland and Delaware. Despite this, the South seceded, and did so violently. They fired the first shots (most famously in Fort Sumter, but also throughout the South were there were Federal bases and civilian installations). Lincoln’s reassurances weren’t enough. The Southern Democrats wanted to extend slavery into the new territories in the West. They wanted to roll back abolition in those states that had abolished slavery by preserving the “property rights” of slave owners who traveled with their slaves in abolitionist states. And they wanted to preserve the right of slave owners to catch escaped slaves in the North (cf. the Fugitive Slave Act). With Lincoln elected President, their chances to accomplish these goals were much less, if not impossible. Another matter that few people talk about is what would happen if the South had been allowed to secede and recognized. War between North and South would still have been inevitable because of the South’s expansionist goals. The South wanted the Southwest U.S. and they wanted to expand into the Caribbean. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not become the law of the land. It was not within Lincoln’s presidential powers; only Congress could enact such a measure. The E.P. was a military order that only applied to those states in rebellion because Lincoln did have the authority to issue such a command. This is alluded to when Ryan mentions Maryland abolishing slavery in 1864. Anyway, I think these are important details to understanding the Civil War. Some of the details are beyond the scope of Ryan’s topic, but others should not have been omitted. Other parts of the presentation are also incomplete with regard to Jim Crow, but I think Ryan hit the facts most pertinent to soldiers’ voting rights.
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