“meretricious” - did someone get themselves a Thesaurus for Christmas last year? Seriously - meretricious?!”
As I just told another poster, stop resenting people who have a better education. That word has been in my active vocabulary for half a century now.
“I’m always suspicious of a man who would use a ten dollar word when a five dollar one would do” - Will Rogers.”
Will Rogers was a humorist, and probably one of the last to mistake humor for profundity. BTW, you didn’t get the joke.
“The challenge was to show evidence that the confeds would have any inclination to free the slaves if they were to achieve independence”
Brainless cackling creates no obligation on my part.
“(since it is one of the cornerstones of lost cause faith that “slavery would have dies out sooner or later on its own”).”
What? No it isn’t. Those are two completely separate propositions. You know, philosophizing about such things does take a certain minimum level of intelligence. It’s not true that just anybody can do it.
“The evidence you provided showed not a sincere effort but a desperate last minute gambit.”
Last minute? Your buddy took pains to show that the quotation I posted was from 1854 (IIRC). It was neither last minute nor a “gambit.” It was a cri de coeur written to his wife.
“They didn’t free a soul out of benevolence - only out of practical necessity.”
Thank you for conceding the argument. I would say, “It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong,” but I’m pretty sure you don’t even realize what you did.
Whether the practical necessity came in the form of a sword to the neck or an empty bank account, the end result would have been abolition. The only difference would have been the ghastly butcher’s bill.
“But, despite your meretricious efforts to paint him as some sort of saintly abolitionist”
I have suspected, and am now sure, that you don’t know a thing about Robert E. Lee. He has not been canonized, but he was vastly more saintly than you, I, or anyone you are ever likely to meet.
“he still owned them”
No. They were his wife’s inheritance, and although the laws of the time placed legal title for a wife’s property in the husband’s name, he was not morally free to manumit them.
“and used them”
I’ll guarantee you that any slaves for whom he had responsibility had a significantly higher standard of living than all but a tiny few of the Irish immigrants in northern cities.
“and enjoyed the fruits of their labor”
That is only wrongful by extension of the wrongful nature of slavery itself.
“and whipped them when he thought they misbehaved.”
Are you just assuming, or have you heard that old canard somewhere? To save time, I’ll copy and paste.
“Since 1859, there have been “accusations” that Lee, once, was involved in the whipping of three runaway slaves. However, to my knowledge, there is no evidence that Lee ordered anyone to be whipped or that he personally whipped anyone.
“Several publications have repeated these allegations during this millennium; however, they have not supplied necessary corroboration to make these accusations factual in my opinion.”
Men in Lee’s social stratum did not whip, rape, or otherwise treat slaves with cruelty, nor did they “sell them down the river” or break up families.
“meretricious - I’ll have to remember that one ;’)”
I won’t be expecting too much.
Oh, you mean you! Yea, that's right - I'm resentful of you because of your education (or something). I must admit - you do an outstanding job of hiding it.
Brainless cackling creates no obligation on my part.
I agree. Providing brainless cackling in return was an unexpected bonus. The rest of your screed was amusing, but empty. You are dismissed.
You are one crashing boor and I’ done with revisionist American hating ass— got it?