Yes, what you say is true. You bring us full circle to the point of the book referenced in my original post. Which is that the South is an inviting place for everyone. The current demonization of the the Confederate battle flag and Confederate heroes is unjustified and unnecessary. I hope you agree. For alternative essays about the South, the Confederacy, the American Civil War, slavery, and the Constitution, please visit abbevilleinstitute.org.
“Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right, a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world”. - Abraham Lincoln on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
The so called Lost Cause has been ill-defined. The Cause was not slavery; the Cause was self-determination. Slavery was the Issue that was the perceived overreach by the federal government, but the Cause was self-determination. The Issue (for arguments’ sake) could have been something else (unfair taxes/tariffs, sanctions, etc.), and it would have been the same Cause.
Self-determination for the sates at that time was defeated. THAT is the tragedy. Because once self-determination for the states was defeated, it was also defeated for the individual. And the power of the federal government over the states is now absolute. And by extension, the power of the federal, state, and local governments over the individual is also absolute.
How can the right of self-determination ever be re-asserted now? It is publicly decried every time, even by people with supposedly conservative credentials. The reason being that the Lost Cause has been defined as slavery, rather than what many people intuitively know it was, states’ rights, and by extension, individual rights.
So, just because someone argues for states’ rights in 2016, does that mean he wants to return to institutionalized black slavery, or make him racist? Not hardly, but that is exactly the pejorative used to shut him up.
A lot of legitimate political discourse is impeded using this tactic, and it is most disheartening.
Agreed.
soakncinder quoting Lincoln: "Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better."
You must remember that Civil War did not come because the Slave-Power declared its secession.
Nor did war come because seceding states formed a new Confederacy.
Nor did war start because of any Northern interest in freeing Southern slaves.
Nor did war start over tariffs, duties or other taxes.
No, Civil War did not even start after months of Confederate military aggression against & seizures of dozens of Federal properties (i.e., forts, ships, arsenals & mints), threats against northern officials, and firings on Union ships.
Civil War did start at Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861), with a Confederate military assault and seizure which cost the lives of two Union troops.
Three weeks later the Confederacy formally declared war on the United States, called up hundreds of thousands of Confederate troops and sent military aid to pro-Confederates fighting in Union Missouri.
In short, Civil War came because the Confederacy started it, not because of some Constitutional debate over "states rights" or secession.
If you keep that in mine, then the rest of your political propaganda should quickly fall by the wayside, imho, FRiend.