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The Late Great Walter Williams said the South had a right to secede.
YouTube ^ | June 19,2023 | DiogenesLamp

Posted on 06/29/2023 4:16:36 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp

The late Great Walter Williams makes it quite clear that he believed the South had a right to secede.


TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: lostcause; notinconstitution; opinion; proslavery; right; secede
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To: vetvetdoug

Lincoln had Union troops attack and take Pensacola a month before Sumter.

This is false.


101 posted on 06/30/2023 1:28:00 AM PDT by rxh4n1
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To: jeffersondem

Orders lost and found?
The whiskey rebellion proved who was in charge.


102 posted on 06/30/2023 3:08:56 AM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: woodpusher

Thank you for the enlightened post.


103 posted on 06/30/2023 3:16:42 AM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: A strike

What is the Constitutional process for secession? There is none given in the Constitution.

Both the arguments of the Confederate states and the arguments of Lincoln relied of two different sets of moral sentiments and assumptions (not law) they believed the Constitution relied on, but the clear legal language for neither was placed in the Constitution.

Yes, I think the Confederate states had the better philosophical argument, even though I reject their cause (to preserve slavery) but no I don’t think they were on any better Constitutional grounds than Lincoln; unfortunately due to the founders unwillingness to place legal language for secession in the Constitution.


104 posted on 06/30/2023 9:25:43 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: A strike; rockrr; BroJoeK; jmacusa
What Constitutional argument do you submit that States are eternally locked in to the Union? The very antithesis of the Declaration of Independence.

It was always possibly to dissolve the union through mutual consent of federal and state governments. It still is. It could be done by an act of Congress or a Constitutional Amendment. It can't be done by a state acting on its own. There is no right in the Constitution for a state or locality to break with the Constitution and declare itself independent and free from federal laws.

The Declaration of Independence was written and signed when war had been going on between the colonies and Britain for over a year. It asserts a right to revolt and a right to independence, but says that "Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes." In other words, it doesn't say that you can throw over membership in a nation whenever you feel like it.

105 posted on 06/30/2023 10:40:53 AM PDT by x
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To: DiogenesLamp
A right isn't a right if you are only allowed to exercise it for approved reasons.

Prime example: the second amendment in New Jersey, New York and numerous other states. Permission from the almighty state required to exercise it. A right which can be denied is no right; it is a privilege.

106 posted on 06/30/2023 11:04:54 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: FLT-bird
Walter Williams was someone I looked up to for his words of wisdom and non nonsense academic rigor. He is of course completely correct here.

Yes he is. We have been fed lies by the government since at least 1861.

107 posted on 06/30/2023 12:32:38 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Codeflier
Walter Williams was a great man.

Yes he was, and it is a shame we lose good men such as he was yet we keep human garbage like Biden and the Clintons.

108 posted on 06/30/2023 12:34:00 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Retain Mike
I’ll work on this. I think I probably have a link, but it may just be in his notes to the Convention. I really enjoy reading the notes. It is just as if I could meet him in a tavern at the end of a day.

I've read a lot of the founding era stuff, and I know exactly what you mean.

109 posted on 06/30/2023 12:38:57 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Freedom4US
I think reasonably intelligent people could give good answers, the problem with too many of our politicians frankly is they are not very bright. It isn’t a matter of education - they have the *credentials* but they are too often very dense and cheerleaders for unitary government. They don’t believe in our form of government, they hate it and want to change it, believing they are smarter than the engineers who designed it.

I now believe the reason they wanted it changed was because the way it was originally designed, there was too little opportunity for graft.

I now believe graft is the primary purpose of government. We feed this massive army of do-nothings and parasites because they have rigged the system to give them wealth off of the backs of people who actually do useful things in society.

110 posted on 06/30/2023 12:42:28 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Jim Noble
How were the slaves eventually freed?

Aren't you going to answer my point first? Do you believe that people have a right to hold others in subjugation simply because they have the power and might to do so? Or do you believe in natural rights?

And the slaves were eventually freed because the US government gathered together a massive army to destroy the South, not because of slavery, but because it refused to keep allowing DC to control it's money and finances, and as an afterthought, they abolished slavery so as to hide the real reason why they invaded and killed people.

111 posted on 06/30/2023 12:45:53 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: hinckley buzzard
The question is more interesting when you strip out the whole slavery issue.

Slavery is a dodge to prevent discussion of the real issue of the civil war.

If you ever talk about the civil war, and someone wants to divert into slavery, this is just a tactic to prevent a discussion on the issue of self determination.

People are now like trained seals and cannot help themselves anytime the subject of the civil war is brought up. They cannot think beyond the propaganda we have all been taught growing up.

Beyond that, I await eagerly to read the documentary support for the right to secede at will. So far no one has made that case, just lots of bloviating.

You must be reading different areas of the internet than me. So far i've seen a lot of evidence to support the idea that people have a right to independence, beginning with the Declaration of Independence, and I see very little in support of the contrary idea.

112 posted on 06/30/2023 12:49:36 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Brian Griffin
If your citations are offered as contrary evidence to what Walter Williams said, it would be helpful if you narrow your point down to a sentence or two.

I didn't read anything in there that contradicts the Declaration of Independence.

Wouldn't that be a thing? Arguing that the US constitution could directly contradict the Declaration of Independence?

113 posted on 06/30/2023 12:52:37 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Locomotive Breath
In the book “Lee: The Last Years” by Charles Bracelen Flood he notes that none of the southern leadership, including Lee, was ever tried for treason. He says that Salmon P. Chase, who was then Chief Justice, told Federal Prosecutors to not try it because they might not get a conviction and that would set a bad precedent.

I have actually ran across quoted bits of this discussion, and if memory serves me right, I believe what Justice Chase said was "You will lose everything in the courtroom that you gained on the battlefield."

114 posted on 06/30/2023 12:54:51 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: devere
But a hotheaded leader named Jefferson Davis turned a winning legal case into a losing war.

What made him "hot headed"? What should he have done differently?

115 posted on 06/30/2023 12:56:12 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: cowboyusa
Except the Confederacy wrote a clause against Sucession on thete OWN Constitution.

Well then I suppose you can quote it for us?

I doubt you are the sort who would be spreading false rumors so I look forward to you pointing out what part of their constitution forbids secession.

116 posted on 06/30/2023 12:58:03 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: bantam
I miss Walter Williams!

Me too. He was the best among us.

117 posted on 06/30/2023 12:59:14 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: willk
When I think of Walter Williams I think of a man who truly loved his wife above all.

I am not that familiar with that aspect of him. All I know is he wrote great columns for the newspapers for years, and he substituted for Rush and did a wonderful job.

He was also a professor at George Mason University. All around a very admirable man.

118 posted on 06/30/2023 1:01:11 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: vetvetdoug
Lincoln had Union troops attack and take Pensacola a month before Sumter. Lincoln was dishonest in his talks with the Confederate emissaries that were in D.C. He told them he wouldn’t reinforce Sumter at the same time he was sending a fleet to reinforce Sumter. This ruse was ferreted out by the Confederacy and the reason Beauregard was ordered to fire on Maj Anderson’s garrison.

This is fairly correct but leaves out an important point. The warships he sent were ordered to attack if they were resisted in placing supplies in Fort Sumter.

Also left out is that fort Sumter was seized by force in the middle of the night by Major Anderson. The seizing of fort Sumter was probably the first belligerent act of the war.

119 posted on 06/30/2023 1:04:44 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: woodpusher
The 14th Amendment defeats state claims of being sovereign and independent states. It reversed the relationship of the states and the federal government. It dictates to the states who are its citizens. Self-determination of state citizenship was extinguished.

It also was not legitimately passed. When they took over the state governments, they made them sock puppets of Washington DC. Those "governments" created by guns and bayonets *DID NOT* represent the will of the people of those states.

Those fake puppet governments ratified Amendments that were completely against the will of the people of those states. It was all ceremonious pretense. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were ratified by DC, not by the conquered states, and we just make a pretense today that this was a valid ratification.

I argue that the constitution was never meant to encompass such a corrupt ratification process. It turns consent of the governed on it's head.

120 posted on 06/30/2023 1:11:02 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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