Posted on 11/21/2015 11:35:55 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Before when free-soil men invoked the right of revolution in defense of their political rights, proslavery men condemned them for defying the legitimate government. But proslavery men feared the loss of their right to own slaves as much as free soilers feared the loss of the right to exclude slavery.
At Hickory Point, [Kansas] a squabble over land claims ignited these political quarrels. A settler named Franklin M. Coleman had been squatting on land abandoned by some Hoosiers, who subsequently sold the claim to Jacob Branson, another Hoosier. In late 1854, when Branson informed Coleman of his legal claim and attempted to move into Coleman’s house, Coleman held him off with a gun. A group of arbitrators later awarded part of the claim to Branson, but the boundaries between his land and Coleman’s were not determined. Branson invited in other men, including a young Ohioan named Charles W. Dow. Branson belonged to the free-state militia, a connection he used to intimidate Coleman, although Branson later testified that there had been no problems between Dow and Coleman – until the day of Dow’s murder.
On the morning of November 21, 1855, Dow went to the blacksmith shop at Hickory Point to have a wagon skein and lynchpin mended. While there he argued with one of Coleman’s friends, but left unharmed. As he walked away, he passed Coleman on the road. Coleman snapped a cap at him. When Dow turned around, he received a charge of buckshot in the chest and died immediately. His body lay in the road until Branson recovered it four hours later. Coleman claimed that Dow had threateningly raised the wagon skein (a two-foot piece of iron) as they argued over their claim dispute, forcing him to act in self-defense. Fearing that he could not get fair treatment at the free-state settlement of Hickory Point, Coleman and his family fled to Missouri.
Nicole Etcheson, “Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Eraâ€
Merry Christmas Cracker!
Interesting.
John Brown instigated the Civil War.
Not at Harpers Ferry, but at Pottawatomie Creek.
Thanks for that link.
Think of it as a preview of coming attractions.
Or, coming EXTRACTIONS.....of divine Providence and Judgment.
"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled up by the bondsman's two-hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be repaid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three-thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.""
-- Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural, March 6, 1865
The disintegration of the company continues... Renzo and I are doing our best Hiroo Onoda impressions.
In the end we will have to send Tony in to talk you guys out.
Good old Abe, shifting the blame for the war to Someone else. Particularly ironic considering that his closest friends were skeptics and routinely defended Lincoln from ‘accusations’ that he was a believer.
bookmark
Personally, I find Lincoln’s political and historical analysis to be the best of that era, most prominently in his 1858 “House Divided” speech, his two Inaugural Addresses, and the Gettysburg Address.
While certainly a partisan for Union, he was always statesmanlike and charitable towards his southern brethren, I think.
And I still believe that had he lived, the post-war era would have been vastly better for all involved than it turned out to be.
Tony started his own company.
I tend to wonder how Lincoln fans would feel if a modern President were to decide to call up an army and lay waste to their neighbors over the most divisive political issue of their time. I doubt that they would be convinced of his good heart because of his pleasing rhetoric. Killing your opposition to force them to comply is something we abhor when we see it in other nations. Here, we build a temple to the culprit in a fashion that a Caesar deifying Roman would recognize.
Aside from the question of who exactly it was in 1861 that called up an army and commenced hostilities first, how would you feel if today the abortion-minded decided to secede, and raise a rebel army, and fire at federal troops, because they thought their particular bloody trade was threatened by the election of a candidate who seriously opposed the murder of babies?
That would certainly remind me of another rebel army that fired on government troops and declared themselves in secession.
Of course that would be Lexington and Concord and the rebel army of 1775. Maybe not what you were looking for.
Obviously, I don’t believe the causes of action to be comparable.
Was there something that happened three days before that Proclamation, on April 12th, that might have justified such a drastic (but quite constitutional) step?
“Obviously, I don’t believe the causes of action to be comparable.”
They were both secession movements. In both cases the rebels fired on the troops of the established government. In both cases the government declared the rebels to be traitors and didn’t recognize their secession. Moreover London declared two emancipation proclamations during the secession of the Colonials. Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation of November 1775 and the Philipsburg Proclamation of June 1779. Had the United Kingdom prevailed then slavery in America would have ended 90 years earlier. So what cause of action are you objecting to?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.