Historians study the past so they can understand it. But when pundits start talking history, you can bet that they are likely using the past to talk about the present. A new book by former Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., features his conversations with average Americans about the country’s founding principles. DeMint now heads the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank and advocacy group.

Christian radio host Jerry Newcombe had DeMint on his show "Vocal Point" to talk about that book Falling in Love With America Again. DeMint defined conservatives as people who want to retain principles that have proven to move the country forward. The conversation turned to the Civil War and whether that showed that the nation’s founding guidelines didn’t always produce good results.

DeMint argued that the Civil War vindicated conservative principles. He first credited the Constitution for leading to the end of slavery, then he took a different tack.

"But a lot of the move to free the slaves came from the people, it did not come from the federal government," DeMint said. "It came from a growing movement among the people, particularly people of faith, that this was wrong... So no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves."

We thought we should check with historians to see whether a lot of the move to free the slaves came from people of faith rather thanthe federal government.

There are two elements to run down -- the role of Washington and the role of religion. We contacted the Heritage Foundation for information that would back up both parts of DeMint’s statement. DeMint himself was unavailable and a spokeswoman sent us material only about the role of religion.

The federal role

Eric Foner, professor of history at Columbia University and a leading Civil War scholar rejected DeMint’s conclusion and invited him to attend the class he is teaching this semester.

"He will learn that the federal government was central to emancipation," Foner said. "The Second Confiscation Act, Emancipation Proclamation, and Thirteenth Amendment originated with the federal government, not to mention the role of the army in freeing slaves. Of course, many other actors were involved, not least slaves themselves who seized freedom. But it was a context created by the federal government -- the war -- that enabled them to do so."

The Second Confiscation Act of 1862 declared that the federal government would seize the slaves of any rebel and they "shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves."

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, declared that slaves in the Confederate states -- but not states loyal to the Union -- "are, and henceforward shall be free."

The Thirteenth Amendment, passed while the fighting still raged and ratified about six months after it ended, declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States."

Another prominent Civil War researcher, Bruce Levine, a historian at the University of Illinois, said DeMint was "mixing apples and pears."

"It was one, very important, thing to advocate abolition," Levine told PunditFact. "It was another thing to legislate and impose it. It was obviously the federal government that actually did decree and enforce the abolition of slavery, first of all through the Union war effort and finally through enforcement of the thirteenth amendment."