Posted on 06/12/2003 5:58:28 AM PDT by Aurelius
It is indeed unfortunate that you were not there at the time to keep Frederick Douglass up to date.
Well, he seems to have missed all this:
12/24/62:
Jefferson Davis issues a proclamation which states (1) White officers of black troops will not be treated as POWs; (2) The black troops themselves will not be treated as POWs; (3) Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler is to be hanged w/o trial immediately upon being captured; (4) No Union officers will be paroled until Butler is caught and hanged. All four of these provisions were violations of the Dix-Hill Cartel.
12/28/62:
In response to Davis's proclamation, the Federals end the exchange and parole of Confederate officers.
5/25/63:
Non-exchange and parole of Confederate officers is re-affirmed in orders from Halleck to all commanders in the field. This is done largely in response to the CS Congress passing a law implementing a small variation of Davis's 12/24/62 proclamation.
7/13/63:
Secretary of War Stanton orders an end to the exchange and parole of enlisted men. This is done largely because of increasing arguments over the parole provisions of the cartel, and the feeling that this aspect of the agreement is (unfairly) being manipulated by the Confederates to their advantage.
Fall, 1863:
Confederates return to service most of the Vicksburg garrison, an act which the Federals claim is not justified by the cartel. This hardens Federal attitudes towards the exchange process. So, as of 1/1/64, the exchange cartel is more or less entirely disrupted, as a result of reasonable objections being made by the Federals, and we have yet to see US Grant's name being mentioned. Now, here comes his involvement:
4/17/64:
Lt. Gen. US Grant issues orders that exchanges remain halted until the Confederates compensate the Yankees for the release of the Vicksburg garrison, *and* agree to treat black soldiers equally with white. Grant's role was to confirm a policy already in place, a policy reached as a result of difficulties in managing the cartel. Grant's views on exchange are well-known: He thought it was a bad idea. There's a quote from him to the effect that re-opening exchange might be humanity towards the men in the camps, but keeping it closed was humanity towards the men in the ranks. That's a harsh judgment, but it is no less accurate for being harsh.
-- Jim Epperson
[end]
Walt
It sounds as if Owens is making a big deal out of the obvious, so what's your point?
As a newspaper man and a regular public speaker on political issues it is highly likely that he was better versed in the events of the war than your average citizen. Same goes for Horace Greeley who corroborated Douglass' comments about the black confederates.
If that were true, statements such as the following would not exist:
"Sir, I have presented these views in regard to this tariff for the purpose of showing how it will operate upon the whole country; for the purpose of showing how it will operate upon the non-slaveholding States themselves. I have said nothing about my own State [Virginia] or my own section. Within the last four or five years, my State has been reviving; the tide of emigration, which was getting out to a great degree, has ceased; the statistics will show that she has been increasing in population and wealth. But pass this bill, and you send a blight over that land; the tide of emigration will commence - I fear to flow outward - once more, and we shall begin to decline and retrograde, instead of advancing, as I had fondly hoped we should do. And what I say of my own State I may justly say of the other southern States. But, sir, I do not press that view of the subject. I know that here we are too weak to resist or to defend ourselves; those who sympathize with our wrongs are too weak to help us; those who are strong enough to help us do not sympathize with our wrongs, or whatever we may suffer under it. No, sir; this bill will pass. And let it pass into the statute-book; let it pass into history, that we may know how it is that the South has been dealt with when New England and Pennsylvania held the power to deal with her interests." - Sen. Robert M T Hunter on the Morrill Tariff, US Senate, Feb 12, 1861
...but I'm sure you've got a goofy non-response for that too. Let me guess what it will be: To bolster their "revisionist" tariff theory the democrat confederates used their super secret connections within the Knights of the Golden Circle, the freemasons, and the Vatican to sneak into the library of congress and insert anti-tariff speeches into the record that they could then cite as proof of their earlier objections against Mr. Morrill's bill.
Douglass was a newspaper man and a public political speaker. He therefore had better access to the current events of the day than most people.
Horace Greeley was a crackpot.
Calling him names, deserved or not, in no way changes the fact that he was a newspaper man as well with extensive access to current events information that most people of the time did not have.
My "boy" was well known to say that the Declaration of Independence was meant to apply to all men.
Lincoln was a life long opponent of slavery.
He never called blacks inferior. He is clearly on the record as saying that black soldiers should have the vote.
He never suggested that anyone be forced to leave the country.
Walt
I'm not here to argue the merits of the Clinton impeachment, only that opposition to the impeachment on constitutional grounds is NOT a far-left position as you have indicated.
Constitutional scholars may disagree, but the concept of 'high' crimes as consisting of those against the public interest [as opposed to private matters], is well founded in English Common Law. Blackstone himself has written in support of this restrictive interpretation.
Your refusal to acknowlege this simple fact is further evidence of the weakness of your position against McPherson. That you claim to have "researched" the subject before posting your polemic, is, well...laughable.
Do you deny then that newspaper men have generally better access and knowledge of current events than the average citizen?
HG: was a crackpot -- denying it pits you against the facts
Nowhere did I deny Greeley's eccentricities. But attacking his character does nothing to disprove his profession as a newspaper man, which means that he generally had better access to current events than the average citizen.
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