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To: Non-Sequitur
[Me] Yankees complain that Southerners didn't offer to discuss taking part of the federal debt (in fact they did, but Lincoln wouldn't receive the Southern commissioners)...

[You] Absolute lie.

Where do you get off, saying something like that?!

Jefferson Davis appointed commissioners briefed to discuss all open matters between the South and the United States. Said commissioners pressed for over a month, from March 6th to April 11th, 1861, for meetings with the new Republican administration. Lincoln instructed Seward to have nothing to do with them or with any other Confederate commissioner, in order to refuse any recognition that the Southern States had, in fact, exercised their right to leave the Union.

What the hell do you mean, "absolute lie"?

397 posted on 08/21/2006 3:00:02 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus ("Whatever." -- sinkspur)
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To: lentulusgracchus
What the hell do you mean, "absolute lie"?

I mean completely untrue. Absolutely false. A total canard. Davis appointed a commission with the expressed purpose of establishing relations between nations. In short, an ultimatum to accept the legitimacy of the southern actions. No other outcome was open for discussion. An end to secession was not on the table. And if Lincoln had surrendered to southern demands then there was a vague offer to settle "all questions of disagreement". Nothing specific, nothing concrete, no offer to take care of the south's portion of the debt or guarantee access down the Mississippi. If the Union had accepted the Southern demands and recognized the legitimacy of the Southern secession then what leverage did they have to get the south to do anything? None, at all. The time to settle "questions of dsagreement" was before secession and not as an afterthought.

399 posted on 08/21/2006 4:39:09 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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