Posted on 09/09/2019 9:42:11 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
Nearly all modern historians agree with Professor James McPherson’s conclusion that the Civil War was caused by Southern objections to the 1860 Republican Party’s resolve to prohibit slavery’s extension into any of the federal territories that had not yet been organized as states. The resolution originated with the Wilmot Proviso fourteen years earlier before the infant GOP had even been formed. In 1846 Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot introduced a rider to a $2 million appropriation intended for use in a negotiated settlement to end the Mexican War. The rider stipulated that the money could not be used to purchase land that might be acquired in the treaty if slavery was allowed in such territories. After considerable wrangling, the bill passed without the rider.
Contrary to first impressions, the Proviso had little to do with sympathy for black slaves. Its purpose was to keep blacks out of the new territories so that the lands might be reserved for free whites. As Wilmot put it, “The negro race already occupy enough of this fair continent . . . I would preserve for free white labor a fair country . . . where the sons of toil, of my own race and color, can live without the disgrace which association with negro slavery brings upon free labor.”
The same attitude prevailed during the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln readily admitted that his September 1862 Emancipation Proclamation was a necessity of war. Major General George McClellan, who then commanded the North’s biggest army and would become Lincoln’s opponent in the 1864 presidential elections, believed it was a deliberate attempt to incite Southern slave rebellions. Lincoln was himself aware that such uprisings might result.
(Excerpt) Read more at civilwarchat.wordpress.com ...
They had previously fired across the bow of another ship Lincoln sent into their territory to drive it away. ??
That’s assuming none of them including those from border states could be flipped. Bad assumption.
Star of the West.
Thanks,
They actually hit Star of the West with one of the rounds fired at her. She was unarmed.
It would have made no difference if warships accompanied Lincoln’s chartered supply ship or not. Davis was not going to allow Sumter to be resupplied under any circumstance.
had the nine Democrats that abstained from voting on the tariff bill, voted against it, flipping a couple of border states would not have made a difference.
That was (as you admit) the Star of the West on January 9, 1861. You realize (of course) that Lincoln wasn't inaugurated until March 4th of 1861?
No country is going to allow another to invade its territory without firing a shot in Defense.
You’re reaching. The Democrats who did not vote against it were Northern Democrats. It was going to be a windfall for their region at the South’s expense. They weren’t going to vote against it.
Yes. South Carolina made it clear they were not going to consent to have their territory invaded without firing a shot in defense. No country would.
But it wasn’t in defense - it was a belligerent offensive provocation. In the same way, the United States couldn’t and wouldn’t stand for anyone assaulting their territory.
No true American could ever condone being fired upon without reprisal.
Davis willingly fired that shot
You are guessing. It was not all “Northern Democrats” that abstained. The abstaining senators: 5 Southern Democrats, 3 Northern Democrats, 1 California Democrat, 2 Republicans and 1 Unionist from MD.
Sent on that mission by the Buchanan Administration
But it was in defense. They were on their own territory not somebody else’s territory.
The aggressor is one who invades the territory of another, not one who fires to drive an invader away.
It was sufficiently clear to enough people that it was going to pass. Editorials in the newspapers of the two largest ports in the CSA as well as statements from several leading politicians all show they took its passage as inevitable.
Yes Buchanan sent it - and South Carolina made it clear they did not consent to being invaded and would defend their territory.
Davis still fired the first shot.
That was open for debate.
Lincoln still invaded their territory. No invasion, no shot to repel it.
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