American Civil War Reassessed

The seeds of self-destructive strife Were sown soon after drums and fifes Extolled success from breaking free From Britain's aristocracy. The Constitution's writ accedes Peculiar Institution's needs: Proportional House seats would be Increased counting slave property. Cross purposes within the cloth Of nationhood revealed the moth That slowly raveled fine knit strands Exposing North and South demands. Decades of wrongs in faint disguise Betrayed the truth and broke the ties That bound the states within one cause And shattered order, faith and laws. When reason failed to parlay peace The rift would steadily increase And split the nation into spheres With fighters formed from extant fears. North claiming states could not secede Waged Civil War against that creed. South claiming states had rights innate Then waged a War Between the States. Long years saw men in Blue and Gray Lay lifeless forms by path and way As armies swarmed then crept from fights And Death employed its solemn rites. When South drove north exposing flaws So foreign States would join its cause, The North held ground forcing retreat And quashed Rebellion's last entreat. And, proclaimed end to slavery, The by-product of strategy, Emancipates morality To confront past ignominy. The storm clouds of impending fate From intervention dissipate And war grinds to a bloody halt With thousands dead as a result. The Union came to be maintained With frightful cost of life sustained Granting renewal to recast stakes, Haunted by ghosts of past mistakes. While time would try to heal these wounds, Those deep cut scars to this day loom. From tribulation life resumed: The body politic exhumed.