Paul is on record criticising Lincoln for entering into the Civil War unnecessarily. This is a perfect example of Paul questioning something we were all taught in school and most of us accept as fact. Namely that the Civil War (or War Between the States as my Louisiana history teacher insisted on calling it) was fought to end slavery and that without it we would still have slavery.

Paul says other countries resolved slavery without war and notes that the US was in the process of doing so when Lincoln interrupted the process. He cites the British model as the ideal. There the government purchased the slaves from owners, freed them without conflict, and ended the practice.

Paul says the Civil War led to 100 years of bigotry and discrimination based on hatred. Reconstruction certainly led to the Jim Crow Laws and ultimately the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Paul claims Lincoln used the war to strengthen the authority of the federal government over the states and in doing so unnecessarily killed 600,000 Americans.

This website shows that process of eliminating slavery was well underway in 1803 and slavery was only prolonged by the introduction of the Cotton Gin.