Was the Civil War about Slavery?

Acton Institute, Prager University ^ | 8/11/2015 | Joe Carter

[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.

[Ditto]

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.

[Ditto]

Just one would do.

[clamper1797]

Agreed ... I said it for the low intelligence posters out there.

[PeaRidge]

The Federal arsenal and tariff collection office in downtown Charleston.

How about more?

[PeaRidge]

Yes, he had been planning to force a war for a long time. He would ignore the armistice of his own government to force the issue.

There can be no doubt that Lincoln waited for the Senate to adjourn and began a war as soon as it was out of session. He did not call them back into session until July 4, 1861 when the war was a fait accompli. He then delivered a message to the special session of congress where he lied in his testimony.

There is an interesting sequence of events.


3/04/1861 -- Lincoln inaugurated.
3/12/1861 -- Lincoln issues orders to Army Capt. Vogdes to reinforce and hold Fort Pickens. Capt. Vogdes is aboard ship off Pensacola. Delivery of these orders is delayed until March 31 to Capt. Vogdes, who in turn delivers them to Navy Capt. Adams on April 1.
3/28/1861 -- The Senate adjourned.
3/29/1861 -- Lincoln issues directive: "I desire that an expedition, to move to sea be got ready to sail as early as the 6th of April next, the whole according to memorandum attached..." The memo called for 300 seamen with one month's stores, and 200 soldiers with one year's stores.
3/31/1861 -- Orders issued 3/12/1861 are delivered to Capt. Vogdes. Delivery took either three weeks from the date of issuance or three days from the date of adjournment of the Senate.
4/01/1861 -- Orders issued to Capt. Vogdes are shown to Navy Capt. Adams. Capt. Adams refuses to assist Capt. Vogdes and informs SECNAV Welles of the orders.
4/01/1861 -- Orders issued by Winfield Scott, countersigned by Abraham Lincoln, to Brevet Colonel Harvey Brown to reinforce and hold Fort Pickens.
4/01/1861 -- Orders issued by Abraham Lincoln to Lt. D.D. Porter to assume command of any steamer available.
4/01/1861 -- Orders issued by Abraham Lincoln to Commandant, Brooklyn Navy Yard to "fit out the Powhatan without delay. Lieutenant Porter will relieve Captain Mercer in command of her. She is bound on secret service; and you will under no circumstances communicate to the Navy Department the fact that she is fitting out."
4/05/1861 -- SECNAV Welles, still unaware of the Lincoln intrigue, issues orders to Navy Capt. Mercer, "You will leave New York with the Powhatan in time to be off Charleston bar, 10 miles distant from and due east of the light house on the morning of the 11th instant, there to await the arrival of the transports with troops and stores. The Pawnee and Pocahontas will be orders to join you there, at the time mentioned, and also the Harriet Lane, etc.
4/11/1861 -- "April 11th at 9 P. M. the Brooklyn got under way and stood in toward the harbor; and during the night landed troops and marines on board, to reinforce Fort Pickens." Log of U.S.S. Supply, night of April 11, 1861. LINK
4/12/1861 -- Fort Sumter fired upon.
4/17/1861 -- Lt. Porter arrived in Florida with Powhatan.



Within 8 days of taking office, orders of March 12, 1861 issued from the Lincoln administration to reinforce Fort Pickens and thereby violate the armistice that was in effect. These orders to Army Captain Vogdes were delayed until after the Senate adjourned on March 28, 1861 and then delivered by USS Crusader on March 31, 1861. Capt. Vogdes delivered them to Navy Captain Adams on April 1, 1861. Capt. Adams refused to comply with the orders.

credit to nolu chan for research posting.

[PeaRidge]

There were no hostile insurrectionists at the time of this communication.

As pointed out, it fully demonstrates Lincoln’s intent to hold ground and force tariffs.

[DiogenesLamp]

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.

I follow what I dub a "grand unified field theory" of Social Dynamics. My philosophical Universe is highly ordered and supported by strong foundations built on very basic philosophical principles.

Things that don't fit properly into my ordered Universe I dub as "mistakes"; Places where humanity should have gone in a different direction.

For example, Liberals believe in Libertine sexual behavior. Pragmatically this causes pregnancy, unwanted children and disease. (both physical and mental) Their response is to push for contraception, abortion, medical technology to cure the disease, and Welfare and state homes to deal with the unwanted children. That many of these consequences manifest problems far beyond the initial problem is also lost on them.

The correct move, is to not get into such behavior, and to get other people not to do it either.

As with Slavery, the correct answer is to not go there in the first place, as opposed of trying to deal with the consequences of doing what "felt good at the time."

Thanks for introducing me to this author. ;-)

You are welcome. He is very good, and has written quite insightful things regarding the nature of the left, which is in fact, the more primitive/evil aspect of everyone's nature.

[DiogenesLamp]

You aren’t a person worthy of being taken seriously.

[HandyDandy]

You seem to have a knack for extrapolation and hyperbole. Lincoln was fighting subterfuge with subterfuge. Just to get himself into Washington he had to disguise himself. Why do you suppose that was?

Incidentally, your Lt. D.D. Porter (foster brother of Admiral Farragut of "damn the torpedos, full steam ahead", fame) later became the second to ever hold the title of "Admiral". After his brother.

[rockrr]

Come on pea, we’ve been over this ground often enough to know the trail. The memo you post shows a contingency plan that reveals Lincolns regard of the events unfolding in South Carolina. He did nothing to “interfere” with The Feckless One (how can it be defined as interference when buchanan wasn’t doing anything?). As it turned out his read was spot on - he saw what the insurrectionists were planning and his entreaty to Washburne to be prepared was entirely appropriate.

We know from the filed reports of Pettigrew and Anderson that armed bands of “secessionists” were constantly probing the defenses of Forts Johnson, Moultrie and Sumter beginning in November. We know that Anderson had begun beefing up Moultrie and had called for the completion of Sumter in an effort to make them more defensible.

And we know that Anderson withdrew to Sumter on December 27th to avoid conflict with an increasingly agitated Charleston citizenry.

Fort Sumter was a federal installation (complete or otherwise) on November 6th, 1860. It was a federal installation on December 20th when South Carolina seceded. And it was a federal installation on April 12th, 1860 when it came under fire by Beauregard. It only ceased to be a federal installation (temporarily) when it was seized by the insurrectionists.

It was a federal installation and Lincoln was duty-bound to defend it.

[x]

Not to mention, I have yet to look up the letter from Greeley that Abe was responding to.

The "Prayer of Twenty Millions" was an open letter published in the paper. Probably, Greeley also sent a copy to Lincoln. You can find it here.

A lot of Lincoln's literary fame may have to do with his ability to condense his thoughts into a few well chose words, rather than to sprawl out as Greeley does.

[jmacusa]

And you aren’t worth of anything at all.

[DiogenesLamp]

And you aren’t worth of anything at all.

You wound me.... Deeply.... Deeply I say....

[jmacusa]

You forgot the sarcasm tag Lamp Boy.

[PeaRidge]

When you allege “hyperbole and extrapolation”, to what are you referring?

[PeaRidge]

“Fort Sumter was a federal installation (complete or otherwise) on November 6th, 1860. It was a federal installation on December 20th when South Carolina seceded. And it was a federal installation on April 12th, 1860 when it came under fire by Beauregard.”

Anderson moved to a rock pile that was no more a federal installation than the Isle of Palms Revolutionary War gun emplacement.

[rockrr]

Head in the sand to the bitter end, eh pea?

It was more of a federal military installation than the csa was a nation. Otherwise why would the terrorists want it?

[PeaRidge]

It was Lincoln who wanted it. He started a war over it.

[rockrr]

It was the cornfederates who wanted it. They started a war over it.

FIFY

[HandyDandy]

A good example of you exaggerating and jumping to conclusions is your post #151. You take a fairly harmless and innocuous letter from a president-elect, to the man who will be in charge of his armed forces, telling him to be prepared during a time when even Stevie Wonder could see War was approaching, and you make it out to be a "secret message" of underhanded subterfuge and unprecedented treason. Your screaming headline as much as states that "in Lincoln's own words he commands Scott to "hold and retake" and "seize" Forts Sumter and Barranas.

C'mon man, that's National Enquirer stuff.

And then there is all those highly suspect timelines attributed to someone named nolu chan. I'll betcha if nolu dug deeper he would find that Seward was really the behind all that.