***BREAKING*** Trump says Civil War 'could have been negotiated'

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19. I have seen this idea advanced before

And not just by pro-Confederate types. Historian David Goldfield wrote a really good book on the Civil War about ten years ago where he more or less argued the point at the concluding chapter or two. The problem is, folks like that, when they calculate the cost of the war and say that (as Goldfield does), that the war cost X Billion dollars and that if the US Government had just bought the slaves at a market value and freed them it would have cost half that price in treasure (not to mention the lives) -- they don't seem to realize that you need to have a willing seller in addition to a willing buyer. Sure some southerners may have been willing to do a "buyback" program, but the vast majority NEER would have.