The Terrible Truth About Abraham Lincoln and the Confederate War

Snap Out of it, America! ^ | 1/20/14 | Michael Hutcheson

[mhutcheson]

President Lincoln has been all but deified in America, with a god-like giant statue at a Parthenon-like memorial in Washington. Generations of school children have been indoctrinated with the story that “Honest Abe” Lincoln is a national hero who saved the Union and fought a noble war to end slavery, and that the “evil” Southern states seceded from the Union to protect slavery. This is the Yankee myth of history, written and promulgated by Northerners, and it is a complete falsity. It was produced and entrenched in the culture in large part to gloss over the terrible war crimes committed by Union soldiers in the War Between the States, as well as Lincoln’s violations of the law, his shredding of the Constitution, and other reprehensible acts. It has been very effective in keeping the average American ignorant of the real causes of the war, and the real nature, character and record of Lincoln. Let us look at some unpleasant facts.

In his first inaugural address, Lincoln stated clearly that (1) he had no legal authority to interfere with slavery where it existed, (2) that he had no inclination or intention to do so even if he had the legal authority, (3) that he would enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, returning runaway slaves escaping to the North to their masters in the South, and (4) that he fully supported the Thirteenth Amendment then being debated in Congress which would protect slavery in perpetuity and was irrevocable. He later famously stated, “Do not paint me with the Abolitionist brush.”

Although there was some opposition to slavery in the country, the government was willing to concede everything the South wanted regarding slavery to keep it in the Union. Given all these facts, the idea that the South seceded to protect slavery is as absurd as the idea that Lincoln fought the war to end slavery. Lincoln himself said in a famous letter after the war began that his sole purpose was to save the Union, and not to either save or end slavery; that if he could save the Union without freeing a single slave, he would. Nothing could be clearer.

For decades before the war, the South, through harsh tariffs, had been supplying about 85% of the country’s revenue, nearly all of which was being spent in the North to boost its economy, build manufacturing, infrastructure, railroads, canals, etc. With the passage of the 47% Morrill Tariff the final nail was in the coffin. The South did not secede to protect slavery, although certainly they wished to protect it; they seceded over a dispute about unfair taxation, an oppressive Federal government, and the right to separate from that oppression and be governed “by consent”, exactly the same issues over which the Founding Fathers fought the Revolutionary War. When a member of Lincoln’s cabinet suggested he let the South go in peace, Lincoln famously replied, “Let the South go? Where, then, would we get our revenue!” He then launched a brutal, empirical war to keep the free and sovereign states, by force of arms, in the Union they had created and voluntarily joined, and then voluntarily left. This began his reign of terror.

Lincoln was the greatest tyrant and despot in American history. In the first four months of his presidency, he created a complete military dictatorship, destroyed the Constitution, ended forever the constitutional republic which the Founding Fathers instituted, committed horrendous crimes against civilian citizens, and formed the tyrannical, overbearing and oppressive Federal government which the American people suffer under to this day. In his first four months, he

1. Failed to call Congress into session after the South fired upon Fort Sumter, in direct violation of the Constitution.
2. Called up an army of 75,000 men, bypassing the Congressional authority in direct violation of the Constitution.
3. Unilaterally suspended the writ of habeas corpus, a function of Congress, violating the Constitution. This gave him the power, as he saw it, to arrest civilians without charge and imprison them indefinitely without trial---which he did.
4. Ignored a Supreme Court order to restore the right of habeas corpus, thus violating the Constitution again and ignoring the Separation of Powers which the Founders put in place exactly for the purpose of preventing one man’s using tyrannical powers in the executive.
5. When the Chief Justice forwarded a copy of the Supreme Court’s decision to Lincoln, he wrote out an order for the arrest of the Chief Justice and gave it to a U.S. Marshall for expedition, in violation of the Constitution.
6. Unilaterally ordered a naval blockade of southern ports, an act of war, and a responsibility of Congress, in violation of the Constitution.
7. Commandeered and closed over 300 newspapers in the North, because of editorials against his war policy and his illegal military invasion of the South. This clearly violated the First Amendment freedom of speech and press clauses.
8. Sent in Army forces to destroy the printing presses and other machinery at those newspapers, in violation of the Constitution.
9. Arrested the publishers, editors and owners of those newspapers, and imprisoned them without charge and without trial for the remainder of the war, all in direct violation of both the Constitution and the Supreme Court order aforementioned.
10. Arrested and imprisoned, without charge or trial, another 15,000-20,000 U.S. citizens who dared to speak out against the war, his policies, or were suspected of anti-war feelings. (Relative to the population at the time, this would be equivalent to President G.W. Bush arresting and imprisoning roughly 150,000-200,000 Americans without trial for “disagreeing” with the Iraq war; can you imagine?)
11. Sent the Army to arrest the entire legislature of Maryland to keep them from meeting legally, because they were debating a bill of secession; they were all imprisoned without charge or trial, in direct violation of the Constitution.
12. Unilaterally created the state of West Virginia in direct violation of the Constitution.
13. Sent 350,000 Northern men to their deaths to kill 350,000 Southern men in order to force the free and sovereign states of the South to remain in the Union they, the people, legally voted to peacefully withdraw from, all in order to continue the South’s revenue flow into the North.

These are just a few of the most egregious things Lincoln did during his despotic presidency. He set himself up as a tyrannical dictator with powers never before utilized or even imagined by any previous administration. During this four years of terrible war he was one of the greatest despots the world has ever known, his tyranny focused against his own countrymen, both North and South. He was called a despot and tyrant by many newspapers and citizens both North and South, until he had imprisoned nearly all those who dared to simply speak out against his unconstitutional usurpations of power. Those who disagreed with him were branded as “traitors”, just as were the brave and honorable men in the states which had legally seceded from the Union over just such issues as these criminal abuses of power by the Federal government.

Four months after Fort Sumter, when Lincoln finally called Congress back into session, no one dared oppose anything he wanted or speak out against him for fear of imprisonment, so completely had he entrenched his unilateral power and silenced his other many critics. The Union army, under Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and President Lincoln, committed active genocide against Southern civilians---this is difficult for some to believe, but it is explicit in their writings and dispatches at the time and indisputable in their actions. Tens of thousands of Southern men, women and children---civilians---white and black, slave and free alike---were shot, hanged, raped, imprisoned without trial, their homes, lands and possessions stolen, pillaged and burned, in one of the most horrific and brutal genocides ever inflicted upon a people anywhere; but the Yankee myth of history is silent in these well-documented matters. For an excellent expose of these war crimes and their terrible extent, see War Crimes Against Southern Civilians by Walter Brian Cisco (Pelican Publishing Co. 2007, ISBN 9871589804661).

Only after the Union had suffered two years of crushing defeats in battle did Lincoln resolve to “emancipate” the slaves, and only as a war measure, a military tactic, not for moral or humanitarian purposes. He admitted this, remarking, “We must change tactics or lose the game.” He was hoping, as his original draft of the document shows, that a slave uprising would occur, making it harder for Southerners to continue the war. His only interest in freeing the slaves was in forcing the South to remain in the Union. His Emancipation Proclamation was denounced by Northerners, Southerners and Europeans alike for its absurdity and hypocrisy; for, it only “freed” the slaves in the seceded states---where he could not reach them---and kept slavery intact in the North and the border states---where he could have freed them at once.

The Gettysburg Address, the most famous speech in American history, is an absurd piece of war rhetoric and a poetry of lies. We were not “engaged in a great Civil War, to see whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, can long endure.” The South was engaged in a War of Independence from a tyrannical North, and after having legally seceded, wished only “to be let alone.” The North was engaged in a war of empire, to keep the South involuntarily under its yoke. Government “of the people, by the people and for the people” would not have “perished from the earth” had the North lost the war; on the contrary, it perished in the United States when the North won the war; for, freely representative government, by consent of the governed, is exactly what the South was fighting for and exactly what Lincoln’s military victory destroyed.

The checks and balances of powers, the separation of powers, the constitutional constraints so carefully and deliberately put into place by the Founding Fathers, had all been destroyed in Lincoln’s first months. The Republic which the Founders gave us had been completely destroyed and a new nation-state was set up; one in which the free and sovereign States would afterward be only vassals and tributaries, slaves to an all-powerful, oppressive Federal government. This new nation-state is completely different in both nature and consequence to the original American Republic. One only has to look around today to see the end results and legacy of Lincoln’s war, his destruction of freedom, and his institution of despotic, centralized governmental power and tyranny.

In retrospect, it is a tragedy that John Wilkes Booth did not act four years earlier. Slavery would have ended naturally, as it has everywhere else (except in African and Arab states); the American Republic, liberty, and 700,000 lives would have been saved, and untold thousands of those young men would have lived to contribute their ingenuity, inventions, creativity and talents to the political, economic, literary, scientific and social legacy of our people. And the greatest despotic tyrant in American history would never have gained the foothold of power or been able to establish the oppressive and omnipotent Federal government we all suffer under today.

[liberalh8ter]

My Husband's great-great grandfather was a confederate soldier who was captured, taken to Virginia, escaped and joined back up with the confederacy, was captured again and escaped again. His letters to the government seeking his war pay are entertaining, as he was fighting because they deemed him a deserter during his capture and incarceration. General Lee actually intervened and wrote on his behalf that he had indeed been captured, escaped and joined back up so he was entitled to his pay. In any case, we always understood it to be about oppression and excessive taxation. Talk about oppression, his land was 'condemned' and taken from him and is Fort Polk.

[jmacusa]

Again bub, the only one mouthing off is you. I didn’t call all Southern Freepers Dixiecrats. I’m talking about the Johnny Reb wannabes like you. You ought to man up and shut up.

[Resolute Conservative]

You are so wrong.

[jmacusa]

The Dixiecrats also passed gun control laws specifically designed to keep guns out of the hands of newly freed black slaves so the KKK could more easily kill them. It went on this way until 1872 when some ex-Union Army soldiers and officers formed an organization called “The National Rifle Association’’ and at risk to themselves gave blacks guns and the knowledge to use them so to protect themselves from Klan violence.

[WhiskeyX]

Lincoln was morally opposed to the institution of slavery and sought to bring about its discontinuance by legal and Constitutional means, rather than by unconstitutional means.

[jmacusa]

Where in the Constitution is that exactly? I hear this from you Johnnies all the time and yet I've never been able to find it. Obliviously you're a Constitutional scholar so could you tell me what article or section this is under?

[jmacusa]

Really? I don’t think so. If the shoe fits wear it.

[OKSooner]

Secede, secession, succeed, succession.

[Resolute Conservative]

My mother’s side of the family hails from Mississippi and Alabama since before the war of northern aggression they are all staunch conservatives as am I, partially raised in that environment. I’ll match my bonafides and voting record with anyone.

Only a Sith lord deals in absolutes.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Very interesting. You must have heard a lot of good stuff.

[jmacusa]

‘’a Sith lord’’. Jump Jeosaphat a “Star Wars’’ loon! War is all about absloutes Obi Wan. You either win them or lose them.And if you go about starting them as the South did you'd better make damn sure you win them. The South started the war and lost it. To quote General Omar Bradley,’’In war there is no second place prize for the runner up’’. “Northern Aggression’’? Seems to me the Rebels fired first. So your southern ancestors were ‘’conservatives’’? When? From say, 1854 on? Did they fight for the Confederacy?

[Ditto]

He starts his essay with a false premise.

Although there was some opposition to slavery in the country, the government was willing to concede everything the South wanted regarding slavery to keep it in the Union.

To say "everything" is simply not true. The one thing the Slave Powers had been demanding for the last 30 years was the one issue that Lincoln refused to compromise on. That is the expansion of slavery to the territories. The South demanded it, and Lincoln and his party refused to allow it.

[Ditto]

What a better world this would be if the South succession had been a achieved permanently.

How do you think it would be better?

[central_va]

Better for the South. The North, without the South, would be completely communist by now.

[fabian]

I have a book that is full of actual speeches and quotes by Lincoln during his term and run for senate. He was very much against slavery and the push to spread it in the new territories was real and constant. He knew that it would eventually destroy the union, and he also said things to mollify the weaker and Democratic souls in order to get his way...the good way, done. This author really doesn’t know what he writes.
And whether slavery would have eventually been gone is probably true, however, the larger it grew at the time, the more people it enslaved. It was not just apartheid that died with much bloodshed too, it was far worse. It very well could have split the nation into two, with the slave part eventually becoming free, but then we probably would have had two separate and weaker nations.

[PeteePie]

Some serious bumpage is in order for later reading. The posts will be better than Netflix tonight!!!

[central_va]

A WBTS thread is very entertaining indeed!

[Resolute Conservative]

Both sides. Many families were split.

The south may have shot first “live rounds” but Lincoln started the war. Did you read the post?

So when things get really bad here do conservatives need to wait and not shoot first? I say the first shot has been fired.

I don’t see by your page where you hail from. Jersey maybe? A non-southern state?

[Cvengr]

The North government policies was more anti-Black than the South.

The South mandated equal pay for all soldiers, Black and White alike.

The North paid Black soldiers $10/mo minus a $3/mo clothing fee, while Whites weren’t charged a clothing fee and were salaried at $13/mo, effecting about a 46% pay cut for Blacks in the North.

The Confederacy had already outlawed overseas slave trade by 1863 and allowed individual states to outlaw slavery.

Union states still had legalized slavery at least 3 years after the War in Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky.

The South wasn’t without racism as declared in his “Cornerstone Speech”. Vice President Alexander Stephens, declared that the “cornerstone” of the new government “rest[ed] upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

It should also be noted that the Emancipation Proclamation failed to remove Indentured Servitude as a legitimate form of slavery for whites.

Historians of the period noted the White indentured servers were frequently maltreated to the point of death, whereas Black slaves were well provided because they were a longer term investment. The indentured servitude might only last 3-10 years, whereas the slave was considered property of his owner to be properly cared for as human livestock.

White slavery and indentured servitude far exceeded Black slavery in North America through about mid 1600s, and by 1700, about 45% of immigrants were indentured servants, with white slaves and indentured servants numbering about the same and Black slaves in N America. (S America and Latin speaking areas were much more heavily Black slave numbered than the N American English areas)

While both the British Empire abolished slavery and the US abolished imprisonment for indebtedness in 1833, they still lingered until about 1917 in various forms and not really internationally outlawed until 1947 by the UN.

Involuntary servitude and slavery were outlawed in the US in 2000 by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, as well as peonage (which also had been outlawed in the US after the Civil War).

[Cvengr]

The North government policies were more anti-Black than the South.