Journal #8

After reading Jefferson Davis's Inaugural Address, I got the impression that the South felt that they were superior the the North.  Jefferson clearly states that he believes the North is completely to blame for this conflict and that the South is innocent.  "We are doubly justified by the absence of wrong on our part, and by wanton aggression on the part of others".  The South see's the efforts by Northerners to fight for the basic human rights as a blatant attack on them.  It is also preposterous that Davis believes the "courage and patriotism of the people of the Confederate States" is justified, when they have just succeeded in breaking a nation in half.  That is the complete opposite of courage and patriotism, to solve an issue by running away from it.  

In Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address he points out the difference between the South and the North: "one side would rather make war than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish".  This clearly shows the foul intentions and lack of patriotism that South had.  They would split apart the nation their grandfathers and fathers had worked so hard to win and build over slavery.  I can not imagine how these people could hold slaves in the first place and keep a clear conscious, but then to destroy something so precious and valuable so they could continue and expand such an institution.