Tom DiLorenzo on why the soldiers on both sides fought the Civil War

[A]ll of this editorializing about the war being waged over the “sacredness” of “the flag” is consistent with what Lincoln cultist James McPherson wrote in his book, What They Fought For: 1861-1865. After reading hundreds of letters home and diaries of “Civil War” soldiers on both sides of the conflict, McPherson concluded that the average Yankee soldier believe he was fighting for “the flag,” whereas the average Confederate grunt believed that he was fighting against a tyrannical government that had invaded his country, bombed his town, and threatened to harm his family.

~ Tom DiLorenzo, "The American Religion of Violence," LewRockwell.com, July 7, 2014

Civil War Centennial - The Wilderness
1864-1964

Tom DiLorenzo on how the American System differed from true capitalism

The American System... was the framework for a giant political patronage system.  Politicians who could control such a system could use it to maintain and enhance their own power and wealth almost indefinitely, as the Republican Party eventually did.  It was not an example of "capitalism," as James McPherson incorrectly stated in Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, but quite the opposite: It was mercantilism, the very system that Adam Smith railed against in his epic defense of capitalism, The Wealth of Nations.

~ Tom DiLorenzo, The Real Lincoln, pp. 59-60