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Was the Civil War about Slavery?
Acton Institute, Prager University ^ | 8/11/2015 | Joe Carter

Posted on 08/11/2015 1:11:21 PM PDT by iowamark

What caused the Civil War? That seems like the sort of simple, straightforward question that any elementary school child should be able to answer. Yet many Americans—including, mostly, my fellow Southerners—claim that that the cause was economic or state’s rights or just about anything other than slavery.

But slavery was indisputably the primary cause, explains Colonel Ty Seidule, Professor of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The abolition of slavery was the single greatest act of liberty-promotion in the history of America. Because of that fact, it’s natural for people who love freedom, love tradition, and love the South to want to believe that the continued enslavement of our neighbors could not have possibly been the motivation for succession. But we should love truth even more than liberty and heritage, which is why we should not only acknowledge the truth about the cause of the war but be thankful that the Confederacy lost and that freedom won.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.acton.org ...


TOPICS: Education; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: civilwar; dixie; prageruniversity; secession
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To: jmacusa

Don’t forget Degenerate’s penchant for Liberal Projection™.


181 posted on 08/12/2015 4:20:19 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: DoodleDawg
I'd say you see only what you want to see. You always have.

Since you have known me. About 15 years ago I thought as did you. The difference is I became better informed, and no longer able to rationalize away things which didn't fit and didn't make sense.

My Black History-Major Friend who obsessed over the Civil War and Racism was the one who talked me into believing that Lincoln deliberately engineered the civil war. He himself certainly believes that.

The Difference between he and I is that he was gleeful and chortling about it when he learned of it. I was aghast that so many deaths would have been "engineered" by someone I had previously regarded as a Hero.

182 posted on 08/12/2015 4:21:04 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DoodleDawg

Some people are born ignorant and have to educate themselves to function efficiently. And then there are some who actually get dumber as they get older. Degenerate is a case in point.


183 posted on 08/12/2015 4:23:55 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: jmacusa
The South lost the war the moment it made up it’s mind to start it.

I'm no longer so certain the South did start it. PeaRidge has posted a series of messages that make it appear as if the South was going to get war anyway, because Lincoln was going to give them one, one way or another.

For every one cannon foundry the South had, the North had ten. The South’s railway system was a hodgepodge of different gage tracks which meant freight trains had to be stopped and cumbersomely unloaded and reload back on to different trains, the North had a single gage railway system. The South had no navy to speak of. One of the first things the very powerful Union Navy did was blockade Southern ports. ...

You left out the fact that the North had five times the population and most of the factory and industrial output. The Confederates would have to be insane to start a war with them, unless it were already a foregone conclusion, and nothing they could do would stop it.

I'm beginning to think they realized this long before Sumter.

184 posted on 08/12/2015 4:27:37 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: rockrr
Don’t forget Degenerate’s penchant for Liberal Projection™.

I see your best skills are sniping from the sidelines. Good Job!

185 posted on 08/12/2015 4:28:34 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: rockrr

Rodger that.


186 posted on 08/12/2015 4:29:28 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: DiogenesLamp

Thanks for making my point.


187 posted on 08/12/2015 4:30:34 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: rockrr
Some people are born ignorant and have to educate themselves to function efficiently.

I would think ALL people are born ignorant, but I expect you are just voicing your level of understanding on the matter. As with your understanding of other things, it would seem to be refuted by reality.

188 posted on 08/12/2015 4:30:39 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: rockrr

History tends to forget the losers and time filters out failures and shades in legend. That and good pr.


189 posted on 08/12/2015 4:34:21 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: jmacusa
Thanks for making my point.

To the Contrary. It undermines your point. Why would anyone in their position want to start a fight with someone at five times the population and 10 times the industrial might?

Did Poland initiate Hostilities with Germany? The only reason why they might is if they knew an attack was coming anyway. That makes far more sense, and it also helps to explain the urgency of General Beauregard's letter to Captain Anderson.

To be fair, they defended their homeland to such a great extent that it truly was insane to keep killing so many people in an effort to subdue it.

Worst loss of Life in American History.

190 posted on 08/12/2015 4:37:48 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

Nah, doesn’t cut it. You’re creepy.


191 posted on 08/12/2015 4:38:20 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: jmacusa

You just don’t have anything else to throw.


192 posted on 08/12/2015 4:39:07 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: rockrr

To be a federal installation it would have to be formally commissioned. It never was.


193 posted on 08/12/2015 4:40:54 PM PDT by PeaRidge
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To: DoodleDawg

The mind is like a parachute— it functions best when opened. Lamp Boy just can’t pull the rip cord.


194 posted on 08/12/2015 4:44:53 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: PeaRidge

I’m not sure how you arrived at that hair-splitting conclusion. Even though it was still under construction it was inarguably federal property and it was manned by federal troops.


195 posted on 08/12/2015 4:49:19 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: jmacusa

Or in the case of the lost causers a really good lie enthusiastically told.


196 posted on 08/12/2015 4:50:45 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: DiogenesLamp
From what I read, it sounds like the author was an interesting guy. He's another one who grew up, looked around and then chose the United States. It seems he opposed democracy and was a critic of "leftism."

I remember being impressed by something Reagan wrote:

"'You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream — the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.'"

There was a practical side to Reagan's philosophy that I always admired. I tend to deal with problems one issue at a time and I try not to let labels serve as a shortcut or detour. But, I am getting older and bit slower, probably.

Thanks for introducing me to this author. ;-)

197 posted on 08/12/2015 4:55:29 PM PDT by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
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To: rockrr
Yup.
198 posted on 08/12/2015 4:56:41 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: DiogenesLamp

I don’t have to throw anything Lamper. I make a point, you resort to cheap stunts like you just did and convoluted history. Nazi Germany started a war of conquest with Poland by using a staged assault on a German radio station. Read about it. And then read some more real history. Not the kind you make up in that fever swamp brain of yours.


199 posted on 08/12/2015 5:01:25 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: DiogenesLamp

You do have a penchant to twist words and obviously do not understand how free markets work. The merchants didn’t make more money than the planters. They provided a service that the planters were both unable, and unwilling to provide. It is neither unethical nor illegal to provide services to others. The wealthy people of the south chose to invest in land and slaves. Those in New York invested in ships, warehouses and banks. They both made profits.


200 posted on 08/12/2015 5:19:48 PM PDT by Ditto
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