Posted on 01/20/2014 1:42:16 PM PST by 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 Lincolns 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 countrys 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 Lincolns 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
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 Lincolns 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 Lincolns 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 Lincolns 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.
What you mean is that states don’t have the ability to secede. The states never gave the federal government authority maintain the union by force. The civi war marks the point in history when the US Constitution was rendered irrelevant by the federal government.
What you mean is that states don’t have the ability to secede. The states never gave the federal government authority maintain the union by force. The civi war marks the point in history when the US Constitution was rendered irrelevant by the federal government.
Pretty weak.
So how old are you?
If it's not the Morrill tariff that you're talking about, then tell me what your great mystery of 1859/1860 is.
How will you secede from Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, etc? What are you going to do with all the liberals in the cities?
Thanks for finally coming around to my side. :^)
They will be fully enfranchised citizens of their new country, what do you mean by this? Israel has Palestinians that are fully enfranchised and vote and everything, how about that? The mayor of Jerusalem was a Palestinian, not sure who is mayor now but probably is a Palestinian.
So, preserving the union had nothing to do with it, huh?
Your judgment on display.
You don’t have a problem with strengthening the Mid-East bases of those who wish to saw our heads off with dull knives?
I hope your standards aren’t as low in your personal life.
You're holding up the Palestinian/Israeli relationship as a model? Uh oh.
But really, you want to secede because of New England liberalism, but liberals will still run your government in Austin, Richmond, etc. The liberals got elected statewide, they will continue to do so, you will continue to be oppressed. What is the answer to this?
The idea is to correct the flaws in the Constitution and get back to a Constitutional government. Secession is the quickest (only) way. Make the shenanigans that socialist have been pulling for 100 years unconstitutional. PS you're not invited. You get to stay in the USA hell hole.
It’s a shame when foreigners have a better understanding of your Constitution than Americans do.
South: you suck,
North: you lost.
But it will be liberals that will still run your new government and they will take you to the same tax and spend hell we're in now. And they don't respect the constitution either, or any other constitution you can come up with. It is not in their blood to follow a prescribed law, that's why they're atheists also. A high percentage of people in the cities will be stupid, a lower percentage of people in the countryside will be stupid, and when you add the two together they always overwhelm the smart people, who mostly reside in the countryside. That's why no republic ever lasts more than a few hundred years, shorter now that the liberals have TV to push their crap 24/7.
Mind you I'm not against secession, when the government has reached the point where it is now, I believe that the spirit of 1776 has to resurface at some point, but anyone who secedes will have to look at what went wrong and institute structural changes that will keep the same problems from immediately resurfacing. It will have to be very un-PC.
PS you're not invited. You get to stay in the USA hell hole.
LOL I have no intention of moving to any new CSA. I despise the first one. If you don't have slavery it would be better, but I don't want to join anything that bases its foundation on the events of 150 years ago. That had nothing to do with freedom. I want to join a movement that stands for the principles of 1776, and implement structural reforms that will better preserve freedom for all.
Preserving the Union for the revenues, you mean.
If the Southern states and its economy were not the chief bankroller of the Union’s tax base, and were instead a drain on the federal treasury, Lincoln would have said “Bravo!” to secession and “Good riddance!” to the seceding states.
Lincoln was a very, very small man; but his hagiographers immortalized him as some kind of god.
Lincoln set the stage for the eventual collapse of the United States as a Constitutional republic. His present-day soulmate, B. Hussein Obama, has completed the task.
The south an industrial powerhouse? lol
Lincoln was a very, very small man; but his hagiographers immortalized him as some kind of god. Lincoln set the stage for the eventual collapse of the United States as a Constitutional republic. His present-day soulmate, B. Hussein Obama, has completed the task.
Lincoln and Reagan believed a lot of the same things. Hussein likened himself to Reagan also, he's just a liar.
You don’t have a better understanding of what our Constitution says; you have a better understanding of what you think our Constitution says.
There’s clearly a difference.
However you wish to describe it, the issue was settled.
“The south an industrial powerhouse? lol”
Where, doofus, did I ever mention the term “industrial powerhouse?”
The South, however, was an agricultural powerhouse; and agriculture was a stronger element of the economy in the mid-nineteenth century than industrial output. To whom did the U.S. export industrial goods in the mid-nineteenth century, such that it surpassed the revenues generated by agriculture? Hell, the Northern states in Congress had to pass protectionist laws in order to give Northern industry a hand up.
“Lincoln and Reagan believed a lot of the same things.”
That’s a red herring, and is comparing apples to oranges, because by the time Reagan came around the U.S. had fundamentally changed from what it was in the mid-nineteenth century, such that the U.S. of Reagan’s time hardly resembled the U.S. of Lincoln’s.
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