Trump says Civil War cause not explored

Contends Jackson, dead 16 years, could have avoided conflict’s 1861 outbreak

FILE - In this March 31, 2017 file photo, a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson hangs on the wall behind President Donald Trump, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. President Donald Trump made puzzling claims about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War in an interview, suggesting that he was uncertain about the origin of the conflict while claiming that Jackson was upset about the war that started more than a decade after his death. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - In this March 31, 2017 file photo, a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson hangs on the wall behind President Donald Trump, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. President Donald Trump made puzzling claims about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War in an interview, suggesting that he was uncertain about the origin of the conflict while claiming that Jackson was upset about the war that started more than a decade after his death. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

NEW YORK -- President Donald Trump mused in an interview that the Civil War could have been avoided if President Andrew Jackson had been around to stop it.

In an interview that aired Monday, Trump also declared that Jackson was angry about "what was happening" with regard to the war, which started 16 years after his death.

Trump questioned why issues couldn't have been settled to prevent the war that followed the secession of 11 Southern states from the Union and brought death to more than 600,000 Americans, North and South.

"People don't realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?" Trump said in an interview with The Washington Examiner that also aired on Sirius XM radio. "People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?"

Historians argue that the causes of the Civil War are frequently discussed, from middle school classrooms to university lecture halls and in books. Immigrants seeking to become naturalized are sometimes asked to name a cause of the war in their citizenship tests.

"Slavery was the root cause of the Civil War. It was not the only cause, but it was the underlying cause," said Eric Foner, a Columbia University history professor and a leading expert on the war.

Economic issues and disputes over state rights were also key factors.

Trump's comments about the war came after he lauded Jackson, the populist president whom he and his staff have cited as a role model. He suggested that if Jackson had been president "a little later, you wouldn't have had the Civil War."

"He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, 'There's no reason for this,'" Trump said.

Jackson died in 1845. The Civil War began in 1861.

Late Monday, Trump took to Twitter to stress that he did in fact know when Jackson died, writing: "President Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!"

Jackson was a slave-holding plantation owner. Some historians credit him with preserving the full Union when South Carolina threatened to secede in the 1830s over an individual state's ability to void federal tariffs. But that controversy, known as the "Nullification Crisis," was not about slavery, and the eventual compromise that preserved states' rights did little to alter the nation's path to the War Between the States.

"Even Andrew Jackson, were he alive, could not have solved the problem," Foner said. "The situation in 1861 was far more dire than in the 1830s during the Nullification Crisis."

The Civil War was decades in the making, stemming from disputes between the North and South about slavery and whether the union or the individual states had more power. The question over the expansion of slavery into new Western territories simmered for decades, and Southern leaders threatened secession if anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860.

After Lincoln won without carrying a single Southern state, Southern leaders believed their rights were imperiled and seceded, forming the Confederate States of America. War erupted soon afterward as the North fought to keep the nation together. The conflict lasted four years.

The White House did not respond to requests for an explanation of Trump's reasoning. His comments on the Civil War drew swift criticism from some civil-rights groups and Democrats, including Rep. Barbara Lee of California, who tweeted "President Trump doesn't understand the Civil War. It's because my ancestors and millions of others were enslaved."

The White House has drawn parallels between Trump and Jackson, particularly between Trump's success with working-class voters and how Jackson fashioned himself as a champion of the common man. Trump paid tribute to Jackson, known as "Old Hickory," by visiting Jackson's grave in Tennessee in March.

Jon Meacham, the historian whose 2008 biography, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, won a Pulitzer Prize, said it would be difficult to predict Jackson's reaction to the start of the Civil War.

Any president would have had to contend with the South's attempt to expand the institution of slavery into territory newly acquired by the United States. It's what Meacham called the unavoidable historical question.

"The expansion of slavery caused the Civil War," he said. "And you can't get around that. So what does Trump mean? Would he have let slavery exist but not expand? That's the counterfactual question you have to ask."

Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; and by Jonah Engel Bromwich of The New York Times.

A Section on 05/02/2017

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