Posted on 12/30/2023 12:56:39 PM PST by Starman417
Well, this week Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley said something that upset people who weren’t going to vote for her anyway. At a Town Hall setting someone asked her “What caused the American Civil War?” It’s not at all a question with great relevance 163 years later, but it is a modern litmus test for many people on the left, i.e. people who likely weren’t going to vote for her anyway.
History is amazing. Like all hindsight, it can be 20-20 in vision and clarity. Over the past 30 years, this is less and less the case. Led by late-night comics and pretend “news” history-when told in partiality and half-truth, is stranger than fiction. It’s entertaining. Political activists, politicians, media, and academia have all since found that telling half of history is a great way to manipulate people. Rather than be steered by what can be learned from studying all of history, they’ll tell us half a story that would lead to a conclusion that would support their activist causes. There is no better example of this, NONE, than the American Civil War.
Those who advocate for studying more “Black History” in school inevitably and emphatically declare that, unlike every war in all human history, the American Civil War was caused by one thing: slavery. Slavery was an aspect of the causes of the American Civil War, but the ultimate proof that it was NOT the cause, is to point out that even if there were no slavery, the war still would have happened.
Those who want to really learn about history-all of it-will study more than just “Black History.” One simply cannot learn with the intent of repeating mistakes, by studying a single facet. These people will remember the first time the United States almost fell to Civil War. In 1832 and 1833 there was an event in American history called, The Nullification Crisis. President Andrew Jackson was trying to balance the Federal budget. At the time, there was no income tax all income came from tariffs on goods. Led by states in the North, the tariffs were raised. This hurt southern agrarian-based economies. Not even 50 years old, people in the South wondered why they should be taxed to help get money to the North. They felt like their representation in Congress was zero. The issue got so hot that the Vice President resigned, and he went to South Carolina to lead the rebellion. There, the state was considering secession based on the idea that higher tariffs were unconstitutional/not for the general welfare, and just for the welfare of the Northern states. President Jackson prepared to personally lead troops into South Carolina and vowed to personally hang anyone who opposed him-including and specifically the former Vice President. The crisis ended when both sides agreed to raise tariffs temporarily, and then gradually lower them back down to about 20%.
Civil War over taxes was avoided.
In the following years, more and more states joined the Union. As they did, an agreement was made that for every state admitted that allowed slavery, another state could be admitted without slavery. The idea was that states where slavery existed would not be outnumbered in the House and Senate, and thus another tariff that would hurt slave/agrarian states would not happen. This worked until The Mexican War happened (1846-1848). After that war, the Federal government needed money again, and so politicians began examining ways to raise tariffs. In Kansas and Missouri, a micro Civil War erupted as wealthy people in the South tried to make both states slave states, and wealthy abolitionists in the North tried to make them both free states. If either group of powerful people had their way, then the balance of power in Congress would be tilted and increased tariffs would pass or fail.
The abolitionist movement in the North grew, but it never became a majority. Its leaders all had far more to gain from raising tariffs than they ever did from freeing slaves. Followers of the movement became increasingly radical. They threatened terrible violence in the South. John Brown, one of the popular followers (more celebrity than leader), went to Kansas and Missouri. There he led violent raids against people who wanted to make the states slave states. One night he and his family broke into some pro-slavery family homes, pulled people out in the middle of the night, and butchered them all. A few years later he and his family tried to seize control of the Federal armory at Harper’s Ferry Virginia (1859). A young Colonel Robert E Lee led a band of US Marines and put down the pathetic attempt to start a slave rebellion.
Slave rebellions were a serious fear in the South. Many believe that the fear of reprisals is what convinced slave owners to stand firm and demand that the US Constitution allow slavery back in 1789. In fact, the year after it was ratified (1792) all the slaves in Haiti rebelled, tortured, and killed everyone who was white or even 1/8 white. There had been several smaller attempts at slave rebellion in the South as well. Given the choice to keep slavery or to risk being butchered in retaliation, most powerful people in the South chose to keep slavery. John Brown’s raid shocked the people in the North, but in the South, it spread terror.
Immediately following John Brown’s raid, Abraham Lincoln and the new Republican Party began their push for the Presidency. In his highly distributed debate transcripts, Lincoln said the way to handle the debt from the Mexican War was to dismiss the Compromise of 1833 and raise tariffs as high as 45%. This upset people in the South, but in Charleston, Carolina it caused fury. Lincoln was an abolitionist celebrity at the time-though not one pledging violence like most of the abolitionists in 1860. Southern states refused to allow someone like Lincoln to become President so they removed him from the Presidential ballots in the South.
THIS is a lesson today as blue states are doing the same thing to President Trump in an era when people are openly talking about Civil War. People who only study “Black History” and convince themselves that the Civil War was just about slavery, will never learn this important lesson for today and next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Slaves rebellions were always a possibility. But that's to be expected when people are treated as property, and slaveowners were right to be scared of a slave rebellion.
As noted in another thread:
"Of course, Federal assistance and requirements to return fugitive slaves ramped up even more slaves being given assistance to go to Canada, being hidden, and some states making return of fugitive skates as time consuming as possible.
That’s not to say that slaves should not have tried to escape, or rebel, or States should not have fought the return of fugitive slaves. Those did occur, were encouraged and should have been."
“All you need is the ability to read those documents to understand their reasons.”
Lot’s of other things to read out there mate. For openers, try any of Thomas Delorenzo’s works. Might open your eyes...they did mine and I was brainwashed like everyone else in school about the Civil War.
Anybody who insists it was slavery and only slavery, period, is so historically ignorant they’re not worth arguing with.
If I remember correctly, the retarded far left took us through a period of retardism when the “afro-centrists” claimed that there was absolutely no connections between African slaves and the Civil War. Whatever happened to that? Remember, the Africans used to fly around the pyramids in jets.
If I remember correctly, the retarded far left took us through a period of retardism when the “afro-centrists” claimed that there was absolutely no connections between African slaves and the Civil War. Whatever happened to that? Remember, the Africans used to fly around the pyramids in jets.
Interesting map but not detailed enough. In the state I live in Arkansas, all voted for secession except Benton and Madison Counties. The state decided they needed a 100 % secession vote so had another vote. Someone in Madison County said something disparaging about Benton County that they so infuriated them they voted pro Secession. That left Madison County against. The State decided Madison County’s vote did not count so secession was decided on.
As for what the map calls “Unorganized Territory” was the Indian Territory. They had no say in the matter but when war broke out they went with the South. the few who chose not to secede joined with John Ross, chief of the Cherokees and fled to Union Territory. All others joined with Stand Watie another Cherokee chief who became the last Confederate General to lay down his arms.
The tribes that made or were negotiating treaties with the Confederacy.
Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Comanches, Wachitas, Kiowas, Pottawattamies, Chickasaws, Osages,
Seminoles, Senecas, Shawnees, Quawpaws.
The South also had Indian agents operating all throughout the High Plains and mountain region stirring up other tribes such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Navajo and Apaches to make war on the Union at that time.
Their traditional enemies, Pawnee, Kaw, Osage (well, most of them) remained loyal to the Union.
The pro-Union Osages wiped out a party of Confederate officers heading for Colorado. On them were found instructions to...
#1, encourage southerners in Colorado to join the Confederate army.....and
#2, ENCOURAGE THE INDIAN TRIBES TO ATTACK SETTLERS IN THE KANSAS-COLORADO AREA.
That party was wiped out. Who knows how many other Confederate parties made it through with the same instructions.
“There is little doubt that the recent outbreak in the Northwest (Minnesota Uprising) has resulted from the efforts of secession agents operating through Canadian Indians and fur-traders.”—Mr Giddings, US Counsul-general in Canada
I never thought there could be a more naive and simple-minded statement than when a four-year-old proclaims babies are delivered by storks.
Congratulations, you proved me wrong.
The war would not have been perpetual if Jackson had been President, because he would have won it in several mounths and hanged all the traitors.
He said it a lot, including in his first inaugural address, but the most famous occasion in which he said it was his letter to Horace Greeley.
"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views."
Treason had to be stoped.
...which is why Republicans have to learn how not to answer these "gotcha" questions that have no "great relevance 163 years later."
If asked what the cause of the Civil War was, simply say:
Why? Did you miss that class in high school? I'm here to talk about my vision for the country in 2024. If you want to learn about the Civil War, I suggest you watch the famous documentary by Ken Burns.-PJNext question...
The confederacy had a bigger Government than the Union. Yes, Lincoln was too much of a Whig. That would not have happened under Jackson, who would hav3 crushed treason quickly. Lincoln was a softy.
Treason? Most today believe that leaving the Union was a legal option - but the North could not live with it - so there was war. But history is written by the “winners”, so this side is not widely known.
And with the oncoming Industrial Revolution and modernization in general, the war was unneeded and catastrophic. Shelby Foote, who is probably one of the most prolific and objective scholars/writers on the subject, is quoted:
"Right now I'm thinking a good deal about emancipation. One of our sins was slavery, another was emancipation. It's a paradox. In theory, emancipation was one of the glories of our democracy - and it was. But the way it was done led to tragedy, turning four million people loose with no jobs or trades or learning. And then in 1877 for a few electoral votes, just abandoning them entirely. A huge amount of pain and trouble resulted. Everybody in America is still paying for it.”
The North could exist without the Southern produced tariff revenue, but it would mean a lot of money leaving the pockets of wealthy powerful men in the North who liked having that money coming into their pockets.
They weren't going to allow the South to walk away.
The North would have just been cut off from it's addiction to Southern produced money, and like a drug addict, they reacted violently, blamed others, and took out their rage on the victim.
At the root of every conflict is greed and “love of money”.
The South, while not on the moral high ground with regards to slavery - had every right to succeed.
It’s a tragedy that over 500,000 of some of our best were destroyed in a conflict that could have been avoided.
“But that’s to be expected when people are treated as property, and slaveowners were right to be scared of a slave rebellion.”
I’ve often wondered about that. If slavery was as horrible as we’ve been led to believe, why wasn’t there massive, overwhelming rebellion? Hmmm?
Spok, please note that DiogenesLamp clips off the final sentence. This is the easy “tell” that he is not being completely honest. It is an earmark of a Lost Causer.
A lot of people have never heard of nullification I would wager.
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