Posted on 05/27/2021 5:31:11 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
SPECIAL DISPATCH FROM WASHINGTON.
WASHINGTON, Sunday, May 26.
For a wonder, we hare gone through twentyfour hours without any extraordinary excitement. Movements of troops are constantly going on, but it is only the details or filling in of the grind movement of Thursday night.
Every non-resident of the city who could command a vehicle has visited the captured city of Alexandria. All concur in representing the inhabitants as sullen and disaffected -- the only smiling faces seen being those of the "peculiar institution."
All along the river line or front, the troops are engaged in throwing up works. There are several forts being constructed, some of large dimensions.
The Sixty-ninth has thrown up a bank one mile long and seven feet high.
Of course we have a fresh rumor every hour. Now it is a grand attack along the entire line; next it is a skirmish with the outposts; and then there is no enemy within fifteen miles.
SEIZURE OF ARMS IN ALEXANDRIA.
The troops in Alexandria last night seized two hundred and fifty revolvers, and six hundred rounds of ammunition, all of which were in the possession of some Secessionists, and were duly confiscated.
MARTIAL LAW IN ALEXANDRIA.
Col. WILCOX has declared Martial Law in the city and vicinity.
The last Regiment of New-Jersey troops left this evening for Alexandria, the Band playing "Hall Columbia."
Three spies were arrested yesterday, and one last night.
The pickets of Col. WILCOX's command were fired upon last night by the rebel troops, and one of the balls passed through a soldier's hair, slightly grazing his head. Col. WILCOX immediately ordered the men to form, and they slept on their arms all night.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Link to previous New York Times thread
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3962531/posts
This is the first mention I've seen of "Beast" Butler's "Contrabands of War".
It will not be the last and could become a key to Union victory.
Here we see a quote from a Georgia newspaper expressing some of Confederates' fondest fantasies about "unlimited expansion southward".
It shows that the Golden Circle was part of their plan from Day One.
“This is the first mention I’ve seen of “Beast” Butler’s “Contrabands of War”.
He first brought it to Gen. Scott’s (and our own) attention in a May 24 memo.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3960175/posts#41
This phrasing by Butler tends to support the later observation by the London Spectator:
“The government liberates the enemy's slaves as it would the enemy's cattle, simply to weaken them in the . . . conflict. . . . The principle is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States.”
Your Point?
“Your Point?”
My point was the the phrasing by General Butler supported the later observation by the London Spectator.
Indeed, as jeffersondem so gleefully points out, the Constitution "enshrined" slavery for loyal States.
But for States at war against the United States, laws of war allowed US officials to declare "contraband of war" and so they did, thus simultaneously moving to defeat the rebellion and accomplish their long term moral goals.
So it was a win-win for the Union, for the Confederacy it was a stake in the heart.
Confirming that Union actions against slavery began in the war's opening days, and not as some afterthought two years down the road.
In his “House Divided” speech Lincoln expressed the expectation that one way or the other constitutional slavery would end.
Everyone, North and South, knew Lincoln would not likely have the votes to end constitutional slavery peacefully in his lifetime using the amendment process.
However, if he could parlay 39 percent of the popular vote into a presidency; if he could gain control of the military he could levy war against the states and violently overthrow constitutional slavery. And the Constitution.
First he would need a pretext for war. This he found using the navy in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
I meant to say, the Fort Sumter Incident.
Fort Sumter was a "pretext" only in the same sense that, for examples, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were "pretexts".
All had the effects of convincing all Americans that war had begun in earnest.
"Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North.
You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death.
It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal."[19]"
To compare Fort Sumter - no battle deaths - to Pearl Harbor or September 11 is inapt and unapt.
It is also inept.
So, the analogy would be totally apt with you, you'd have no problems comparing Fort Sumter to Pearl Harbor if... if... if only Maj. Anderson had put up more of a fight, if only he'd held out longer, killed more Confederates, got more of his own troops killed, right?
So, how many Union dead people would you need to see?
Would 7% Union casualties be enough to convince you the battle was serious enough to rank with Pearl Harbors' 7% casualties?
Regardless... Fort Sumter had the same effect, just as Toombs had correctly predicted.
And that's a fact, regardless of how apt you consider it.
And Jefferson Davis' excuse for ignoring Toombs' advice was?
Toombs?
I guess you are ready to move the discussion to anything other than the cat you let out of the bag in post 10 when you acknowledged Lincoln and his officials used war to “accomplish their long term ‘moral’ goals”, i.e. the violent overthrow of constitutional slavery.
And the constitution.
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