Posted on 02/23/2014 6:39:53 PM PST by grumpa
Few people understand how lawless Abraham Lincoln was in propagating our country’s biggest nightmare—the Civil War. And not enough people sense the parallel of Obama’s emerging lawlessness.
Lincoln achieved his political aims by bullying—rather than effective, innovative solutions and negotiations. Here are some facts:
• Lincoln closed more than 300 newspapers that disagreed with him.
• He arrested members of state legislatures, preventing them from debating the secession issue.
• He ordered military trials for citizens when civilian courts were available. Many of these trials resulted in hangings.
• Operating as a military dictator, Lincoln spent millions not authorized by the Congress.
• He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, a law that prevents people from being imprisoned without due process. This suspension, along with the military tribunals, resulted in the imprisonment of 14,000 war opponents illegally. (For comparison, Mussolini is reported to have jailed around 2,000 people.)
• When Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney ruled Lincoln’s suspension of the writ unconstitutional, amazingly, Lincoln ordered Taney arrested! But the United States Marshal’s office refused to make the arrest without a valid arrest warrant. However, due to the political situation at the time, the writ was never officially restored until Andrew Johnson’s tenure.
• The cruelty of the Northern generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan was authorized by Lincoln. The wanton cruelty toward civilian life and property made Lincoln clearly guilty of war crimes.
• His dishonorable prosecution of the war is responsible for the failure to re-assimilate the South after the war, and left bitterness for a hundred years. The Ku Klux Klan is certainly a result of this bitterness.
• Lincoln signed the order approving the hanging of 39 Sioux Indians, for dubious reasons. This was the only mass hanging in American history.
• Lincoln was a liar, changing his message to suit the audience and his political objectives.
This is all presented in an amazing book by Charles Adams entitled, When in the Course of Human Events. Adams concludes, as any reasonable man would, that Lincoln should have been impeached. The war would thus have not progressed to its devastating conclusion. And slavery, which was clearly on its way out anyway, would have ended without the loss of 630,000 American lives.
So, how is this relevant today? Is it not ironic that a black president is potentially taking us down a path of a constitutional crisis not seen since Lincoln? History never repeats itself exactly. But the parallels should be apparent to anyone willing to see them.
“How did your Dad deal with Article Three ?”
Can you be more specific?
It is true he placed saving the Union as his first priority, but it is totally untrue that he didn't care about slavery. He hated slavery and always had.
As I said, I see no point in getting into an argument about this, beyond the plain fact that Obama is no Lincoln (although from time to time he pretends to be).
There was violence on both sides, and the Confederates fired the first shots—although I understand you can say they were provoked, if you wish.
And although slavery was not Lincoln’s first purpose, it was certainly a major factor.
Try to imagine what this country will look like in 3 more years. We will be in CWII.
Well said. And I would also add that the confiscation of weapons will touch off a Civil War.
Sucede from the Union!
Your opinion. We are all entitled to one.
Two completely different topics.
As usual with the Lost Cause neo-confederate Lincoln haters, this "writer" takes a grain of truth and builds a mountain of lies. (Sort of what Obama and the Left do all the time.)
Here's the story behind the execution of the 38 Indians.
On August 17, 1862, the Dakota Indians began attacking white farms and settlements throughout Minnesota. Many settlements were totally wiped out, men, women and children. Estimates at the time put the white death toll at over 800, the vast majority them civilians.
Eventually four Minnesota Volunteer Infantry regiments under the command of General John Pope forced the Indians to surrender. The Dakota warriors were held until military trials took place in November 1862. Of the 498 trials, 303 Dakota were sentenced to death.
Henry Whipple, the Episcopal bishop of Minnesota urged Lincoln to grant clemency while the military and Minnesota politicians warned Lincoln that the white population strongly opposed any leniency.
Lincoln personally reviewed the trial records to distinguish between those who had engaged in warfare against the U.S., versus those who had committed crimes of rape and murder against civilians.
In the end, Lincoln commuted the death sentences of 264 prisoners, but he allowed the execution of 39 Indians convicted of raping and murdering civilians. The people of Minnesota were not at all happy with Lincoln's decision.
So far from the Neo-Confederate rant above, Lincoln actually saved 264 Indian warriors from hanging, but he did allow the hanging of 39 rapists and murders who also happened to be Indians.
It sure wasn't for lack of trying. They weren't shooting nerf balls into that fort.
If no one had been killed at Pearl Harbor, would that have been any less an act of war?
Those hanged were deserters from the Confederate army who joined the other side and started fighting against their former comrades. After they were captured by the Confederates, they were hanged by order of court marshal.
From the Richmond Dispatch newspaper of February 19, 1864: [Source]:
More Executions of deserters at Kinston.
--The execution of seven deserters at ← Kinston, N. C., on the 13th, has been published. On the 16th thirteen more were banged [sic]. The correspondent of the Raleigh Confederate. says:
J. S. Brock, Wm. Haddock, C. Huffman, Stephen Jones, A. J. Britton, J. I. Sumerien, William H. Daughtry, Lewis Taylor, Lewis Freeman, and Jno. Freeman, of Nethercutt's battalion; and W. D. Jones, of Wright's battalion, and Jos. Brock, of the 27th N. C. regiment, and C. R. Cuthrelt, of Latham's battery, were all hanged in this place on yesterday, by order of court martial, for deserting their comrade and taking up arms on the enemy's side. They all received the ordinance of baptism, according to the dictates of their own consciences, on the morning of their execution. Two were baptized by immersion by the Rev. Mr. Camp, of the Baptist Church, whilst the others were sprinkled and poured by the Rev. Mr. Paris, of General Hoke's brigade, who were their spiritual advisers at the gallows.The prisoners were accompanied to the place of execution by a large concourse of people, both citizens and soldiers, with a strong military escort.--They ascended the scaffold with a firm and elastic step, and met their fate with much fortitude and determination. The ropes were all suspended from the beam of the gallows, and Stephen Jones and Wm. H. Daughtry selected the once by which they preferred to be hanged.
I am informed that three more deserters are to be hanged here in a few days — making in all 23 within the last two weeks, all of which were captured by our troops in the late expedition against Newbern. Old or Haddook, father of the Haddock who was hanged here yesterday, and his son, were arrested for some cause, and brought to this town last night and lodged in the guard house.
Perhaps you are familiar with US Military Law [Source]:
Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct.
Here is what General Grant thought [Source]:
Grant disagreed with Butler's argument, as he had indicated in an earlier letter to Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston regarding Confederate deserters who had joined the Union army. "Of course," Grant had written, "I would claim no right to retaliate for the punishment of deserters who had actually been mustered into the Confederate Army and afterwards deserted and joined ours." He did not agree, however, to punishment for Union soldiers who had been conscripted but deserted before being sworn into the Confederate army. Although Elijah Kellum fell into that category, this exception would never be seriously pursued by Union authorities.
There is a long discussion in my last source above about attempts over the years following the hangings to charge and try Pickett for them.
Pearl Harbor is not the topic.
The tyrannical behavior of presidents and others who demand everyone bow to their wishes is.
I get so sick of these hyphenated ethnic groups! We're all "Americans" dammit. Insects or not.
Come to think of it, ants are pro-slavery ...
But the point I was trying to make is it was a mass hanging. Which means that the claim that the execution of the Sioux was the only mass hanging in American history is wrong. Correct?
Well I doubt that ants had segregation and same but equal and a head ant called George Wallace. The South also gave us the KKK which in the beginning was anti-Jew, anti-Catholic and of course anti-Black. The Civil War (war of Secession) was basically caused by the policies of Buchanan. Lincoln unfortunately inherited those policies causing the South to start the war by bombarding Ft. Sumter and invading the North at Manassas (first battle of Bull Run). But all this has been hashed out over the past 150 years or so and since there are still people fighting that war, I leave it to them to argue between themselves.
I was responding to the fact that you characterized those who were hung simply as US soldiers, not mentioning they had deserted from Confederate units during time of war, an act (theirs, not yours) punishable by death. I took no other exception to your post. Lincoln did not execute all of the Sioux he could have. Pickett did not execute all of the captured deserters he had (if memory serves Pickett's forces had captured over 50 of them at that time).
There have been other mass hangings in US history. Nat Turner and 16 of his followers were hung following Turner's 1831 slave rebellion [Source]. Wikipedia [which can be a questionable source] says the state executed 56 of those accused of being part of Turner's rebellion.
Some 40 suspected Unionists were hung at Gainesville, Texas in October 1862 (Source: "Tainted Breeze, The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas 1862" by Richard B. McCaslin). One of the convicted Unionists boasted that the intent of his comrades had been to kill all Southern sympathizers, men, women and children, but it seems clear that a number of those hung were simply members of the group and not aware of such a purpose.
Um ... Manassas is in Virginia, not the North. Stick around on these threads. You might learn something.
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought on July 21, 1861
Ps - rustbucket. Good nym.
Lincoln wasn’t a humble little honest poor boy that grew up in a cabin.
He was a crooked lawyer and one of the biggest of his day. He worked for big iron railroads. Few know that he served in Congress, presented cases to the US Supreme Court, or that he was a devout racist that while he hated slavery he felt free blacks should not be allowed into Illinois, marry white women, or live in white areas. His entire war was about keeping the north and south together for railroads to make money.
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