Donald Trump’s statement that the Civil War ‘could have been negotiated’ is condemned by civil rights organizations.

Revisions & Updates: This article originally stated incorrectly the year that Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office. Here is the updated version.

Washington, DC During a campaign appearance in Iowa, former President Donald Trump made the remark that the American Civil War might have been “negotiated,” which immediately sparked criticism from both historians and civil rights organizations.

On Saturday, the third anniversary of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Trump referred to the Civil War, which started in 1861, as both “horrible” and “fascinating.”

Trump remarked, “There were a lot of mistakes made.” To be honest with you, there was something that I believe could have been worked out. You could have worked that out, in my opinion. Everyone perished. So many individuals lost their lives.”

He went on, “Obviously, if Abraham Lincoln had negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was.”

Only a few weeks ago, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley neglected to bring up slavery as a reason for the Civil War during a town hall meeting. Trump criticized Haley for her statement at a different rally in Iowa, stating, “I’d say slavery is sort of the obvious answer.”

However, Trump’s claim that the war could have been averted was met with swift backlash. “There is no negotiation with slavery,” stated Charles V. Taylor Jr., executive director of the Mississippi NAACP.

Taylor Jr. stated, “Human rights and civil rights should never be negotiable.” “Trump is definitely communicating to one group of people and alienating another when he says things that are controversial, disrespectful, and racially charged.” Though his remarks are outrageous,

“These aren’t your typical dog whistles.”

Progressive advocacy group People For the American Way’s president, Svante Myrick, told that Trump’s remarks show a “glaring ignorance of American history.”

“The southern states’ seceding are what started the Civil War,” Myrick said. “By the time the Civil War broke out, there had been literally hundreds of years of negotiations around how, when, and where to end slavery.” “And it appears that President Trump implied that Abraham Lincoln’s diplomatic failures were the root cause of the Civil War.”

Myrick said that Trump’s remarks run the risk of escalating racial tensions in the nation because they are “extremely appealing to Confederate sympathizers and white supremacist folks.”

Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown concurred, stating that it seemed as though Trump was trying to minimize the historical enslavement of Black Americans.

“We are aware of the South’s past. “People of color would be in a permanent social status, and we know that part of the elements of the South was centered around the institution of slavery,” Brown said, accusing Trump of communicating “to those that still feel like their only advantage is white supremacy.”

As Trump looks to secure the Republican nomination and unseat President Joe Biden from the White House, his remarks on the campaign trail have become increasingly divisive. He made comments last month that compared President Biden’s campaign to dictator Adolf Hitler and warned that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country.”

Last year, Trump also made dictatorial comparisons when he called his political rivals “vermin,” which made many think of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini of Italy.

According to Brown, “I think he’s getting more bold because he’s getting more desperate.” “He employs fear and deceit. He makes use of this crazy notion of white supremacy. He employs all of those items as a part of his armory.

Some of Trump’s remarks, according to Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, have alluded to “the worst parts of our history.” She brought up the bogus conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, which Trump has been promoting.

2024 will be a “crucial year,” according to Taylor Jr., since the election will “chart a course in this country.”

Taylor Jr. stated, “Because Trump has been in office, we also know that these are not just dog whistles or just words to excite a particular group of voters. Black voters absolutely know the dangers of what Trump says.” “We know the consequences of his holding these absurd beliefs have a very negative impact on our democracy. These are things that he believes.”

On the Civil War, what do historians say?

It is ludicrous, historians told News, to hold Lincoln responsible for not securing a war preemption.

Upon Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, the southern states had already broken away from the nation. Lincoln refused to acknowledge or recognize state separation, and he would never negotiate an arrangement that included such a provision.

Additionally, Lincoln decided to restock government buildings in the southern states, such as Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The military war began when South Carolina decided to attack the federal garrison at Fort Sumter early on April 12, 1861, a little over a month after Lincoln entered office.

Professor of history at Yale University and author of “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,” David Blight, disagreed with Trump’s remarks.

Frederick Douglass’s biographer, Blight, who won the Pulitzer Prize, described it as “really nothing more than fantasy with dark political aims – it’s history as bad, vicious entertainment.”

Historians also questioned how anyone could have bargained with a freshly formed republic that was adamant about continuing to operate on a slave economy.

Author of “Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration,” Harold Holzer is a Lincoln scholar. He stated that “no historian and no reader of history believes that a compromise could have reversed secession or averted a civil war over- yes, slavery.”

According to Holzer, prior to Lincoln’s election, “he was willing to guarantee the survival of slavery where it already existed, as long as the Union was restored and the extension of slavery was forbidden.”

Holzer commented, “It’s not surprising that someone who encouraged insurrection lacks understanding of insurrection,” in reference to Trump’s ignorance of historical events. When it happens, it must be denied.”

He went on, “The slave states would not return under a Republican president. The South refused.” Federal fort at Charleston was attacked by Confederate forces six weeks after Lincoln became office.”