I have often asked if the [Civil] War was about slavery, then why didn't the U.S. Congress simply outlaw it in 1861 when all of the Southern legislators left for their home states? Why didn't they outlaw it in 1862? 1863? 1864? 1865?

Why did they wait until 1866 to finally succumb to public outcry to outlaw slavery? (And why did General Grant wait until then to free his own personal slaves?)

Slavery was an American problem, not just a Southern problem.

It was bad enough that the North was willing to kill every Southerner if that was what it took to keep them from being free from Northern domination; and Sherman tried to prove it; but to have Yankees move among us to live and enjoy our hospitality and environment and then attack the very core of our heritage and history is very demeaning and hard to understand or forgive.

Gene Harrison

Fayetteville

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