Libertarianism and the Civil War

Volokh Conspiracy ^ | 6 March 2012 | Ilya Somin

[donmeaker]

There are, generally speaking, three types of libertarian perspectives on the Civil War. Many libertarians actually support the war, some condemn it without defending the Confederacy, and some are actually pro-Confederate.

[MachIV]

I could not have said it better myself.

[Dead Corpse]

Um... Because it was increasingly expensive to own and operate with slaves? There certainly wasn't a scarcity of supply...

Maybe you are right, much better to make a complete mockery of the Republics federalism by going to war... That worked out well didn't it?

[kalee]

ping

[GilesB]

Their right to secede can and should be defended by constitutionalists and libertarians. The reason for their seceding cannot be defended by any thinking libertarian.

Disagree with why you’re seceding, but defend your right to secede. They are two separate issues.

SO - the question I have is regarding Lincoln - was he wrong to disallow secession? Or was he right to use the power at his disposal to end slavery? What should Lincoln have done, given the choices with which he was faced?

[ml/nj]

It is in our acceptance of slavery

Aristotle accepted slavery.

ML/NJ

[GunRunner]

Article I Section 9 - Confederate Constitution

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.

[campaignPete R-CT]

civil war bkmk

[central_va]

Chalk me down as being a fiercely pro-Confederate libertarian. The War Between the States was actually our second American Revolution, fought to protect the America of our Founding Fathers. But sadly, the bad guys won; and now we desperately need a third revolution to get out from under the era of federal tyranny ushered forth by that worst president of them all - Lincoln.

Agree.

[central_va]

Or was he right to use the power at his disposal to end slavery?

Lincoln was a racist and cared little about freeing slaves until he ran out of Irish conscripts to throw at Lee and the ANV.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

SO - the question I have is regarding Lincoln - was he wrong to disallow secession? Or was he right to use the power at his disposal to end slavery? What should Lincoln have done, given the choices with which he was faced?

Lincoln was screwed. To maintain the Union, he had to use totalitarian-type powers to fight the secessionists, setting the precedent for nearly unlimited Federal power which haunts us today. However, had he allowed the Confederacy to secede peacefully, the two sides would have clashed on the battlefield eventually as both the North and the South sought expansion to the west.

He was faced with a true no-win situation, the source of which was institutionalized slavery, and that plain fact cannot be avoided.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Aristotle accepted slavery.

So did Locke. Big deal . . . doesn't make slavery right.

[ml/nj]

doesn't make slavery right

"Right" is an interesting concept. It is my opinion that making me pay for a rich slut's birth control pills isn't "right" either. It's not a bad as being her slave, but there are other things that are worse, IMHO at least.

ML/NJ

[GilesB]

OK - but the environment that bred the Civil War was the disagreement about slavery. The Civil War ended slavery in the United States. The question remains, was Lincoln right to use the power at his disposal to end slavery? Your answer simply states your opinion about Lincoln and his motivation for issuing the emancipation proclamation, but says nothing about the rightness or wrongness of his action.

[Cheburashka]

Chalk me down as being a fiercely pro-Confederate libertarian.

---

In view of the fact that the Confederacy was formed to protect and perpetuate the institution of slavery, which is antithetical to libertarianism, being a pro-Confederate libertarian is the intellectual equivalent of being a whore for chastity. Slavery is Marxist: from each slave according to his abilities, to each slave-master according to his needs.

[Happy Rain]

I would say Lincoln was wrong but thank God he was successful—and I'm pure Southern Gray all the way.

I liked how America turned out—at least til now.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

"Right" is an interesting concept. It is my opinion that making me pay for a rich slut's birth control pills isn't "right" either. It's not a bad as being her slave, but there are other things that are worse, IMHO at least.

I'd agree with you.

Fluke and her ilk kind of want us all to become "economic slaves" of the state, of sorts, and like you, I resent that with the very core of my being.

[central_va]

Without the South the USA would be a fully socialist/communist country by now. The South would be 10 times better off without the North.

[Idabilly]

OK - but the environment that bred the Civil War was the disagreement about slavery.

The war to preserve federal revenue was almost waged several years earlier. When two sides don't like each other all that's left is the excuse (..tariffs, slavery, evil southrons, siding with the enemy in 1812, nasal voiced, sucky food, socialism, 48ers, etc )

Your answer simply states your opinion about Lincoln and his motivation for issuing the emancipation proclamation, but says nothing about the rightness or wrongness of his action

In the Conkling letter before mentioned, I said: “Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then to declare that you will not fight to free Negroes.” I repeat this now. If Jefferson Davis wishes, for himself, or for the benefit of his friends at the North, to know what I would do if he were to offer peace and reunion, saying nothing about slavery, let him try me (…). The Living Lincoln. p.613-615

[Cheburashka]

One can be in full agreement with the idea of a state’s right to secede and be in full opposition to the idea of slavery.

---

That such might be theoretically possible is irrelevant and does not change the fact that the the Confederacy was set up to protect and perpetuate slavery.

On February 4, 1861 the Confederate government was proclaimed. On March 3, 1861 Tzar Alexander II freed the serfs. Between the Confederacy and the Russians someone was going in the wrong direction and it wasn't the Russians.

[central_va]

The principle, on which the war was waged by the North, was simply this: That men may rightfully be compelled to submit to, and support, a government that they do not want; and that resistance, on their part, makes them traitors and criminals.

No principle, that is possible to be named, can be more self-evidently false than this; or more self-evidently fatal to all political freedom.

               -- Lysander Spooner from "No Treason No. 1"