they were NOT among the states that had to be persuaded to join the Union and sign the Constitution on the promise they could withdraw if their sovereignty came into question.
You need to study more."
Well, first of all, no state's "sovereignty" was in question in 1860 when Deep South Fire Eaters began organizing to declare secession.
So no promise was ever broken.
But more important, no such promise was ever made because none could ever be kept.
There is certainly no signed document to that effect anywhere.
Mollypitcher1: "Your mythology is that Lincoln was the 'Saint' of the time and that the southern states were the evil doers.
Study the REAL history of the time the country was 'born.'
Revisionists have had a field day on our history."
From the beginning, mythologizing revisionists were the Lost Causers who invented "facts" long afterwards to explain the inexplicable.
As for Confederate leaders being "evil-doers", well... there is that little matter of the war they started, waged and refused to stop fighting until some 700,000 American soldiers died.
For month after month, year after year, Confederate leaders refused any better terms than Unconditional Surrender.
Sure that's a heavy burden for anyone to bear, but they did bring it on themselves.
Mollypitcher1: "Lincoln IGNORED the peace seeking delegation sent by the southern states to negotiate the purchase of Ft. Sumter and any other Federal possessions within the southern states.
He REFUSED to meet with them."
Sure, just like the Brits in the 1770s ignored Dr. Franklin, sent by the good citizens of Philadelphia to negotiate better terms for American colonists.
But the Brits ignored Franklin for 10 years, and for 10 years Franklin kept trying to negotiate better terms.
Without success.
So when Franklin finally returned to Philadelphia in 1776 it was to help write the Declaration of Independence.
So, just like Philadelphians, Confederates sent emissaries to Washington, who like Franklin worked for 10 years to negotiate a better deal, right?
No, wait, it wasn't 10 years for Confederates, was it one year?
Was it even a full month?
How many days did those Confederate emissaries actually stay to negotiate, before heading home to declare war on the United States?
Not very many, suggesting first: they weren't really very serious about it.
Second: those Confederate emissaries' precondition for meeting was the implied recognition of Confederate sovereignty over states they claimed, something neither Democrat President Buchanan nor Republican President Lincoln ever did.
Constitutionally, the body charged with deciding disposition of Federal properties is the US Congress, not the President, but those emissaries never went to Congress, thus demonstrating again they weren't serious.
Mollypitcher1: "He then sent a MILITARY CONVOY to resupply Ft. Sumter with men, arms, food, etc.
He FORCED the Confederacy to attack the Fort before the convoy could arrive.
Lincoln is clearly responsible for forcing the attack on Sumter."
I hear that from a lot of our pro-Confederates, but it's sheer nonsense.
First of all those ships were sent to resupply Union troops in Union Fort Sumter -- equivalent today to US forces at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
And like the Commie Cubans Confederates then didn't recognize our right to be there.
But if the Commie Cubans threaten war and then start war because of US resupply ships in Guantanamo Bay, that war will be on them, just as the Civil War is on Jefferson Davis.
And Davis well knew it at the time.
His Secretary of State, Robert Toombs warned him accurately:
- "Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North.
You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death.
It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal."[15]
Mollypitcher1: "He also got word from a union SPY that Maryland, a border state, planned to join the Confederacy and sent troops to ARREST the duly elected Marylanders so that they could not meet and officially secede from the Union.
(Washington, D.C. is built on Maryland soil.) "
But there's more to this story.
For example, did you know the Maryland legislature voted on April 29, 1861 against secession by 53-13, four to one?
And what happened just a week later?
That's right the Confederate Congress formally declared war against the United States, May 6, 1861.
Now, did you study your Constitution enough to learn the definition of "treason"?
Well, here it is:
- Article3, Section 1: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
So, according to the Constitution, what was any Marylander who supported secession after May 6, 1861?
That's right, treasonous.
And what does the Constitution say about rebellion?
- "The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
So, in extraordinary circumstances the government can take extraordinary actions, and what circumstances were ever more extraordinary than those in 1861?
Mollypitcher1: "War was his intention although he thought it would be very short in duration."
No, from Day One, Lincoln's intention was to avoid war, just as he promised in his First Inaugural Address:
- "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.
The government will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. "
Lincoln did not want war and would not start war, but he did provide Jefferson Davis with the opportunity to start Civil War, and Davis took it without hesitation.
Big mistake.