Posted on 07/13/2004 8:03:30 AM PDT by Mike Bates
Like this one: give it up peacably?
Glad I can teach you some history, Heyworth. The pleasure is all mine.
I've spent plenty of time on farms. I know all about mechanization. I also know that the mechanical cotton harvester wasn't in use until about 1950, which is, not so coincidentally, when sharecropping--the agricultural labor system that replaced slavery in the south--pretty much died. So are you saying that blacks would have endured another hundred years of slavery before the south got around to freeing them on their own time?
I sure hope not! Debating "what-ifs" is a losing argument for all sides. You can always read the Turtledove books for entertainment.
A good question,and I'm not about to argue that the North fought the war to free the slaves. But I doubt that there was any other issue that would have led the south to secede, to raise armies, and to fire on U.S. troops at Ft. Sumter. But, at the simplest level, I think that if the south had simply stopped demanding the expansion of slavery into new territories, the north would have left it alone. I think that the south demanding the Missouri Compromise of 1820 be overridden by Kansas-Nebraska act was a mistake. I think that demanding an enhanced Fugitive Slave Act was a mistake. And I think that those actions made it possible for hardliners on both sides to come to the fore, split the Union and take us to war. Of course, I also think that dividing the Democrats among three candidates in 1860 was suicidal against Lincoln.
They had some high thoughts, but they also had to compromise. They also couldn't possibly have predicted everything we have today, but they might have given more thought to private property rights and in particular to the ownership and disposition of lands acquired subsequent to the original colonies. Public access easements on private land--illogical and unbelieveable, but there it is.
"A person who has feet of clay basically lacks moral courage of conviction."
Uh huh.
"They had some high thoughts, but they also had to compromise. They also couldn't possibly have predicted everything we have today, but they might have given more thought to private property rights and in particular to the ownership and disposition of lands acquired subsequent to the original colonies. Public access easements on private land--illogical and unbelieveable, but there it is."
No doubt you are correct. I think thats the most incredible thing of all. They couldn't have predicted the issues we face today, but the tools they gave us allow the leeway to deal with changing realities.
Thats the most amazing aspect of all in my opinion. Its also why I believe there are Americans that could rise to that level if required. No of these men were "Gods" they had what would be termed "issues" today, all of them.
Yet they acheived something magnificent in spite of that observation.
Simply amazing.
Men were the same then as today, the same abilities, the same brains, the same eyes. And yet not. Thinking was different then.
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