Posted on 05/19/2015 10:33:26 PM PDT by iowamark
Even while the Civil War raged, slaves in Cuba could be heard singing, “Avanza, Lincoln, avanza! Tu eres nuestra esperanza!” (Onward, Lincoln, Onward! You are our hope!) – as if they knew, even before the soldiers fighting the war far to the North and long before most politicians understood, that the war in America would change their lives, and the world.
The secession crisis of 1860-1861 threatened to be a major setback to the world antislavery movement, and it imperiled the whole experiment in democracy. If slavery was allowed to exist, and if the world’s leading democracy could fall apart over the issue, what hope did freedom have? European powers wasted no time in taking advantage of the debacle. France and Britain immediately each sent fleets of warships with the official purpose of observing the imminent war in America. In Paris, A New York Times correspondent who went by the byline “Malakoff” thought that the French and British observers “may be intended as a sort of escort of honor for the funeral of the Great Republic.”
...the French forced Benito Juárez, the republican leader, to flee the capital and eventually installed the Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.
European conservatives welcomed the dismemberment of the “once United States” and the bursting of the “republican bubble” that, beginning with the French Revolution, had inspired revolution and unrest in Europe. Republicanism had been in retreat in Europe since the failed revolutions of 1848, and some predicted that all the wayward American republics would eventually find their way back to some form of monarchy, or seek protection under European imperial rule. When Lincoln, in the darkest days of the war, referred to America as the “last best hope of earth,” he was hardly boasting...
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...
I'll take a dour, narrow-eyed, muddy coated Grant or Longstreet any day over the coiffed and gold bedecked Picketts and Custers.
About the only example of the latter who rises to real competence is Jeb Stuart.
As far as I am concerned, any man who believes that he has a right to keep other men and women in a condition of hereditary slavery has forfeited his own inheritance, and is not entitled to the blessings of freedom for himself. It's that simple.
You cannot judge 19th century Americans by 21st century standards unless you want a distorted view of history.
Who said this?
I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,”
I think I do. Two presidents most responsible for where we are now are Southerners, Wilson and LBJ. FDR's most ardent supporters were Southerners in Congress. Southern congressmen today are among the most ardent pork-barrel advocates going. Before the Civil War and after it your Southern leaders had no problems with federal overreach...as long as it worked to their benefit. Davis himself did pretty much what he wanted to do. Face it, if you're entirely honest you will admit that where we are today was a joint effort. And Southerners are just as guilty as Northerners.
Your state voted for Obama the last two elections and will likely vote for Hillary in the next one. It's not going anywhere.
You say...and then immediately judge Lincoln by 21st century standards of racism.
Oh yeah I'll bet reconstruction was so much fun.
If you were to ask people at random which region of the country is the most God fearing and conservative all would say the South with exception of you. You are seriously out of touch .
Are saying the South is not the most conservative part of the USA? Say it then and us all know how really stupid you really are.
Sic semper tyrannis.
Crickets.
In some respects (a black woman) certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others.
And that sentiment, my FRiend, is not 21st century sensibility. It was commonly held throughout mid-19th century Christendom, with the notable exception only of Russia and of certain areas of the USA.
I don't appear to be the only one.
Lincoln was a slime ball no question he tailored his speech message to the crowd. He had no moral compass at all.
Actually, if I had been around in 1861 I would not have advocated a war against the Confederacy.
What I would have done would be to assist, by every covert means, the slaves in rebellion against their so-called "masters".
That would depend on how they went about it.
Is the South the most Conservative God fearing region of the USA?
Crickets.
Which did not stop you from quoting him when you felt it served -your- point.
All these neo Lincolns twisting and bending words. LOL.
If a state waged war on my country, sure I would. Just as I would fight back if commies or fascists attempted an armed takeover.
I’m not at all happy with much that is happening here, but the problem is that your position is a small minority position, even in the South, and especially in VA, which is rapidly going purple.
This means that to gain and keep power, your minority would have to overthrow the majority, then disenfranchise them.
That would mean, by definition, that your new system of government would not comply with the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and would therefore equally by definition by anti-American.
Just as the CSA was on some levels. Or, a bit more charitably, that it was an attempt to redefine what being American means.
The problem at root is not the government. It’s the moral deterioration of the people. Changing the government by force will not regenerate them. I’m not sure what will, but I know coups and secession won’t.
It is easy to find a quote with Lincoln agreeing with you ; and against you. He is all over the place . He was a slime ball.
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