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To: EternalVigilance
The men, flawed as they were, who broke away from Great Britain, had a moral basis for the break, one which, because of its intrinsic moral power, eventually persuaded the world.

But the law of God as they wrote in the Declaration does not place conditions on the right to leave.

This is good, because if it placed the same conditions on them that people try to place on the South, then the 13 slave holding colonies wouldn't have been permitted to secede either.

The Confederacy had an immoral basis, one which unsurprisingly therefore lacked the moral power to convince anybody in the end.

Tell me my Friend, are your rights contingent on your morality? Must you be moral to exercise a right? It would seem to me that if you must be moral to exercise a right, then we are all doomed, because there is often not much agreement on what constitutes "moral".

I have to conclude that the Union didn't regard slavery as a "moral" issue upon which the rights of others is contingent, because the Union had five slave states that remained with it throughout the war.

Is it okay when they did it?

69 posted on 07/22/2015 9:39:53 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp
But the law of God as they wrote in the Declaration does not place conditions on the right to leave.

Of course it does. The first paragraph makes that abundantly clear. If what you say were true, there would also be absolutely no need for their long delineation of the abuses of the British Crown.

are your rights contingent on your morality? Must you be moral to exercise a right?

The foundation of the claim to liberty, and particularly the American claim to liberty, is morality. Those who think they can maintain the enjoyment of their rights without morality are self-deceived.

It would seem to me that if you must be moral to exercise a right, then we are all doomed, because there is often not much agreement on what constitutes "moral".

I'm sorry you're confused about that. There was very little such confusion in the founding generation.

I have to conclude that the Union didn't regard slavery as a "moral" issue upon which the rights of others is contingent, because the Union had five slave states that remained with it throughout the war.

God in His providence, via circumstance, eventually cured them of their compromising attitude.

73 posted on 07/22/2015 9:59:25 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Liberty cannot survive without morality.)
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To: DiogenesLamp
Is it okay when they did it?

That's pretty much my main point in this exchange. It was okay when the founders of this free republic did it. They made the moral case to the whole world, and demonstrated the physical fortitude to back up their moral position. The Confederacy could lay claim to neither the legitimate moral right to what they did, nor the power to back up their immorality in the physical, martial sense.

77 posted on 07/22/2015 10:04:26 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Liberty cannot survive without morality.)
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To: DiogenesLamp
Is it okay when they did it?

No, which is why three of those states emancipated before the end of the war, and the other two had it forced on them by 13A.

86 posted on 07/22/2015 10:12:54 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: DiogenesLamp; EternalVigilance
But the law of God as they wrote in the Declaration does not place conditions on the right to leave.

I think it's very safe to say that no one who signed the Declaration of Independence believed that everyone has a God-given unconditional right to replace existing governments. Obviously, you have a right to leave, but the secessionists weren't leaving. Instead, they were trying to replace the existing government in the Southern states. They were trying to strip their neighbors of the rights they possessed as citizens of the United States. They were trying to strip their neighbors of their United States citizenship. And, for what? Slavery? Isn't that what they said? And, if God afforded these folks a divine right to a government that protected their interest in owning slaves, why would they have stooped to relying upon a twisted interpretation of a phrase in the Declaration of Independence?

It seems that, somehow, you have become so unhappy with life in America and feel so alienated from our institutions that you can convince yourself of anything that you think might assist you in escaping your misery. I suggest again that you consider the possibility that your profound dissatisfaction with your circumstances has nothing to do with government or politics. Very few Americans feel any obligation to create a government designed to cater to your personal whims. Government cannot make you feel happy. Look elsewhere for happiness. It's out there.

250 posted on 07/22/2015 7:28:06 PM PDT by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
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To: DiogenesLamp; EternalVigilance
DiogenesLamp: "But the law of God as they wrote in the Declaration does not place conditions on the right to leave.
This is good, because if it placed the same conditions on them that people try to place on the South, then the 13 slave holding colonies wouldn't have been permitted to secede either."

FRiend, I'd like to know the name of your history professor who told you that our "13 slave holding colonies" were somehow permitted to secede.
Such a professor would deserve to be defrocked, tarred and feathered for malpractice and malfeasance.

All our Founders clearly understood, as Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, on July 4, 1776:

Our Founders knew that the penalty for failed rebellion was inglorious death.
Pro-Confederates, by contrast, love to whine and complain that they were not treated like heroes.

439 posted on 07/26/2015 10:05:32 AM PDT by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective...)
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