I could never top the ones in the story this post is referencing no matter how hard I tried.
Then I must have missed something in WWII. What American base on Japanese soil did the Japanese attack after asking us many times to leave?
Well you did hit on the common thread between both. Both Japan and the Davis regime attacked a military base that did not belong to them, both lost their war, and both have spent much of the time since then whining about it.
The relevant legal declarations were called "Ordinances of Secession". Every state published one.
But four states published declarations on the causes leading to their secession. Their versions of the Declaration of Independence. And in all four slavery was the single most often reason mentioned.
Lincoln said this himself. But as to who wasn't very smart -- four more states seceded after Sumter so I don't think Lincoln was very smart either.
But Davis was convinced that by starting the war he'd get all 8 remaining slave states to join him. Who was more wrong?
And what did the proclamation do for the thousands of blacks captured behind Union lines and concentrated into Benjamin Butler's "contraband camps" - where they were starved, left to die of disease, charged with vagrancy and forced to perform free labor?
Hyperbole and Southron myth aside, Lincoln could only legally free the slaves being used to further the Southern rebellion. He could not touch the rest, that required an actual end to slavery. Which Lincoln accomplished with the 13th Amendment.
The Emancipation Proclamation was merely a war measure designed to disrupt the Southern economy. I believe you had something to say about myths?
True, and a highly effective one at that. What's mythical about that?
No it wasn't a customs house. It was the control point for Charleston Harbor. It's guns covered every ship entering or leaving. Its main use during peacetime was as a threat to any ship attempting to avoid the port authorities.
Again, more myth. Sumter's purpose was to defend Charleston from attack. That was also the purpose of Fort Moltrie and Castle Pinkney and every other army fort up and down the coast. The organization tasked with enforcing the tariff and limiting smuggling was the U.S. Revenue Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard.
You might want to check the date on that.
L
Except of course, Sumter was SC territory, the Sumter attack was provoked, and was a legitimate police action against a foreign occupier.
But Davis was convinced that by starting the war he'd get all 8 remaining slave states to join him. Who was more wrong?
Davis didn't want a war and did not set out to start one. Lincoln deliberately sought war. That makes him more wrong. Remember the war could have ended any day Lincoln decided to live by his own stated ideals - "government of the people...".
Hyperbole and Southron myth aside, Lincoln could only legally free the slaves being used to further the Southern rebellion.
How does a man "legally" acquire the right to dispose of property in another country? It was a military measure, nothing more.
Which Lincoln accomplished with the 13th Amendment.
Which Lincoln hoped and planned to be a prelude to a massive back-to-Africa deportation campaign.
The organization tasked with enforcing the tariff and limiting smuggling was the U.S. Revenue Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard.
Are you referring to the US Revenue Cutter Service? That service operated against smugglers at sea. Enforcement of port regulation was the responsibility of local port authorities, which in important ports (where the customs takings were good) were backed up by the army.
Sumter is a cork in the mouth of Charleston harbor. It controls all the traffic coming in and out. That's why Lincoln wanted it and that's why South Carolina couldn't let him keep it. Lincoln made it clear in his inaugural address that SC could secede if they wanted to but he was going to collect the tariff anyway.