Comment: A Great Deal Has Been Written . . .

by Walter D Kennedy on the influence of European communists after their revolution of 1848, on the American Civil War.

A great deal of these communists were soldiers in the Union Army, including a general. (By the way, in those days they used the word 'socialist' in the way we would understand the word 'communist' today.)

Kennedy wrote that there wasn't evidence that Lincoln was an actual Marxist. But Marx saw an all powerful central government as essential to his goals. Thats why he wrote with admiration to Lincoln.

Thomas DiLorenzo has researched Lincoln and written a couple books on him. The stories of the 'country boy' that we've been told about Lincoln are a fabrication. He was a wealthy lawyer who did legal work for the railroads. While a lawyer, had his own private rail car. He pushed through a law that enabled him to have railroad lines run through property he owned when he was president. This was for his own personal financial gain. When asked at one point about the South leaving, he replied (paraphrasing by memory from a class I took from DiLorenzo) "But who will pay for the Union?"