A Disease In The Public Mind, Fleming - B

                                          The title of the book is from a comment by President Buchanan about John Brown's Raid, which he referred to as  "an incurable disease in the public mind".  The subtitle is 'A New Understanding Of Why We Fought The Civil War'.  The disease was intense antipathy, visceral public opinion, and bitter sectional rivalries that led to hatred between the North and South.  The differences stemmed back to the beginning of the Colonies, continued through the creation of the nation, and were exacerbated by just about every national decision. The North was opposed to the Louisiana Purchase because it viewed it as an extension of the Virginia slaveocracy and a diminution of the power of New York and New England, who were losing their preeminence to the Virginians. The North was so upset with tariff policies and anti-British legislation that they practically boycotted the War of 1812. As for the South, they looked to St. Domingo (Haiti) and lived in fear of race war, after the French were slaughtered by their slaves. Slave rebellions in the Indies after British emancipation inflamed their anxieties. Even if the slaves were freed, no one had any ideas about how to absorb the generally-considered inferior species into society.  Lincoln, as late as 1858, was a believer in exportation  to Africa. The Abolitionists threw fuel on the fire and called the psychopath Brown a "holy martyr". Perhaps the issue of slavery could only be resolved by war when politics could not solve the problem or delay it further. Certainly, by 1860, feelings were too high for any other solution.