encd President John Tyler with secession if Texas were admittedrnto the Union. By the Jeffersonian test, that, to be legitimate, arngovernment must rest upon the consent of the governed, thernConfederacy had legitimacy by the time of Fort Sumter. Whatrnthe Union took back in 1865 was not free men and free states,rnbut defeated rebels and conquered provinces.rnIn 1861 it had been an open question whether a state had arnright to secede. The question was submitted to the arbitramentrnof the sword and settled only at Appomattox. But, of allrnthe wars America ever fought, “vital interests” were at risk in thernCivil War. Had South Carolina, Georgia, and the Gulf statesrnbroken away, British and French would have moved in to exploitrnthe Southern free-trade zone to undermine Northern industries,rnand wean the West away from the Union. Indeed, duringrnthe war. Napoleon III installed a puppet regime in Mexico in violationrnof the Monroe Doctrine, and the British were movingrntroops into Canada. The first secession would not have beenrnthe last. Fragmentation of the nation was at hand. As a privaternin the 70th Ohio wrote home in 1863:rnAdmit the right of the seceding states to break up thernUnion at pleasure . . . and how long will it be before thernnew confederacies created by the first disruption shall bernresolved into still smaller fragments and the continentrnbecome a vast theater of civil war, military license, anarchyrnand despotism. Better settle it at whatever cost andrnsettle it forever.rnWith the Deep South gone, the United States would havernlost a fourth of its territory, its window on the Caribbean andrnthe Gulf, its border with Mexico, and its port of New Orleans—rnthe outlet to the sea for the goods of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa,rnand the Middle West. The South would have begun to competernfor the allegiance of New Mexico and Arizona; indeed,rnrebellions arose in both areas and had to be put down byrnUnion troops.rnTo Lincoln, secession meant an amputation of his countrvrnthat would have destroyed its elan and morale. Disunion wasrnintolerable. Where Jackson said it directly, “Disunion isrnTreason,” and “preservation of the Union . . . the highest law,”rnLincoln used his rhetorical powers to elevate the cause to one ofrnuniversal values. But his goal was the same as Jackson’s.rnLincoln was the indispensable man who saved the Union.rnHe accepted war and may have provoked war to restore thatrnUnion. In the end, that war freed the slaves. “At last after thernsmoke of the battlefield had cleared away the horrid shapernwhich had cast its shadow over the whole continent had vanishedrnand was gone for ever,” wrote England’s John Bright. Butrnwas war necessary to free the slaves, when every other nation inrnthe hemisphere, save Haiti, freed its slaves peacefully, withoutrnthe “total war” Lincoln’s generals like Sherman and Sheridanrnunleashed on the South? To Lincoln, then, belongs the creditrnof all the good the war did, and full responsibility for all thernwar cost.rnWhile the men of government had one set of reasons for goingrnto war, the men who marched into the guns had another:rnpatriotism, love of country. They fought, as Macaulay said, forrnthe reasons that men always fight, “for the ashes of their fathersrnand the temples of their gods.”rnWe are fighting against “traitors who sought to tear downrnand break into fragments the glorious temple that our fathersrnreared with blood and tears,” a Michigan private wrote to hisrnyounger brother. A month before he fell at Gettysburg, a Minnesotarnboy wrote home that he was willing to give his life “forrnthe purpose of crushing this g-d— rebellion and to support thernbest government on God’s footstool.”rnIn the war’s last days, a Union soldier captured a woundedrnrebel and was astonished by the man’s ferocity. “Why do yournkeep Bghting like this?” he demanded. “Because you’re here!”rnthe dying rebel replied. crnThe Conquerorsrnby Harold McCurdyrnWe’re gobbling up the planet, we Americans,rngobbling it up and turning it intornautomobiles, computers, nuclear devicesrnand all manner of effluvia deadly to mountain lions,rnto alligators, to salamanders, to spotted owls, to people,rnand wondering why it is that family valuesrnare disappearing in spite of the passionate rhetoricrnof divorced senators and adulterous presidents.rnOur assembly lines have conquered most of the earth.rnWhen China and India at last catch up withrnour USA standard of living and billions of gas-guzzlersrnroar across their vast landscapes, eliminatingrnthe quaint villages, the colorful bazaars, the green rice-paddies,rnwe shall, with a sense of mission accomplished, depart,rnleaving to them what is left while wc speed offrnto gobble up and mechanize the rest of the galaxy.rn22/CHRONICLESrnrnrn