In response to Mr. Powell’s April 2 letter, “Only voters have right to protest”:

In his letter, Mr. Powell claims, or at least implies, that the United States acted morally to liberate an oppressed people in our civil war. It should interest Mr. Powell, and a great many Americans for that matter, to know that the Civil War was not fought to free an oppressed people, but rather, it was fought to preserve the state of the Union.

President Lincoln, time and time again, stated that his sole goal, officially, was to preserve the state of the Union: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some slaves and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

Even the Emancipation Proclamation, which was decreed nearly two years after the beginning of the war, only freed slaves in those areas in rebellion against the Union.

The Civil War meant a great many things — of paramount importance is the fact that it eventually led to freedom for the slaves — but it was not, for most Americans at the time, a war to free an oppressed people. Thus, it should not be used as an argument for our present war with Iraq.

To do so would be to ignore our true history and proliferate the misconception that our country is one unmarred by moral atrocities.

Ryan Gerdes

Senior

Computer Engineering