TO RESPOND TO THE ANONYMOUS WRITER FOURTH FROM THE TOP who said that the south were traitors to the union, I would like to say that with all do respect they were not. Nor were they traitors to the Constitution. When this country was started and legally speaking as it stands today still each state is allowed to secede from the union. It was partly about slavery but not all about slavery most of it was about the state's individual rights. Speaking of legality the Emancipation Proclamation while a great document was a completely illegal one. The president is not allowed to make laws nor proclaim a change in a current law. That is the purpose of our checks and balances system. However the ammendments made after were legal so the Proclamation can stand now but when it was wrote and stated it could not. Despite what we, including myself, was taught in school as a child about the civil war we have to keep in mind that history is written by the winners of the wars that are fought so therefore the history that is told will be biased to one side. The end of slavery was a wonderful thing a just thing that came from the civil war but it was not the reason nor passion that people of the south fought for. They were fighting to preserve their way of life. Not to keep slaves. If you honestly research this, while slaves were horribly beaten and sold away in some cases, in the 1800s in the south it was not the norm to beat your slaves nor to sell them from their families. It was considered low class and looked down upon. Do not take this to mean I am condoning slavery in any way I am not, no one should have to live that life no matter what race creed religion or gender. Not one person is superior or inferior to another. But before we decide to hold someone up on such a high pedestal we need to recieve facts from both sides and make an intelligent decision on what our opinion is. I hate that after I researched I found what used to be one of my heroes is really maybe not so far as a racist but at the very least a bigot, it broke my heart. It taught me though that there are two sides to every story and the one should know the truth before judging another.