The Forget Hell! crowd

Townhall.com ^ | February 27, 2006 | W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

[SuzyQ2]

I love history. I’m proud of my Southern heritage. But for me to be angry to the point of protesting a moment in Southern history that happened nearly a century-and-a-half ago would be just, well, nonsensical. And would in some ways tarnish that heritage.

[Flavius Josephus]

Uh, yeah, considering Goebbels almost coined the term "Big Lie", didn't he?

I would just say about Sherman, that he is a symbol now. Like Lincoln, he "belongs to the ages." I'm glad to learn he was involved in the side of reconstruction that sought to heal the wounds rather than perpetuate them. Worst thing that can happen, then as now, is to let a bunch of Massachusetts (and greater New England) liberals get involved. A more self-righteous, ineffectual bunch of effete snobs you will never find, then or now. Reconstruction was a HORRIBLe way to run the governments of the south, and led to the perpetuation of the hatred that has led to the mutual mistrust and hatred between the North and the Old South that still exists today.

[wardaddy]

man, FR sure gets some koolaid drinking brainwashed idiots doesn't it?

even the usual South bashers around here don't pretend the Reconstruction era laughable state governments elected when most whites were disenfranchised were the "best the South ever had"....too funny......I did not realize Cornel West was a FReeper.

well, at least he hasn't called us Nazis yet..

[AnAmericanMother]

If you believe that, I don't guess anything I could say would disabuse you of your mistaken notions.

We lived through it . . . did you?

[AnAmericanMother]

Sherman did the nation a great deed, he purged the South of slave owners.

No, he didn't. He just burned a lot of property.

The Radical Republicans THOUGHT they were "purging the South," but all they did was get everybody's back up.

[wardaddy]

[stainlessbanner]

< snip > But despite the misdeeds of Sherman’s soldiers, the razing can’t be totally laid at the General’s feet.

Double standard: Give him the glory of victory, but forget his misdeeds. He was such a great leader, he couldn't control his troops? Doesn't make sense

It's been getting pretty bad around here lately. The usual south bashers have been replaced by folks who subscribe to revisionist ideas. Their ideas are rooted in fantasy. It would be amusing if these people did not pass themselves off as "conservatives."

[wardaddy]

anyone who surrenders the culture war is no conservative.

[wardaddy]

Sherman was forgiving....as was Grant more or less...and Lincoln too compared to the Jacobin Radical Republicans

but the behavior they allowed in the war was debatable regardless of their reasoning

were we to do that to our common foes today, the media and most politicians would howl and we would be scorned by history as pillagers

[stuartcr]

The world is full of mindsets.

[stuartcr]

As long as there are forums...there will be bashers.

[rock58seg]

BIG difference!! Sherman won!

[Riley]

The 'killing fields of the Superdome'?

That has to go down as one of the most egregious examples of overblown rhetoric that I have ever read. Why should anyone take someone who would say such a thing seriously at all?

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!!!!

[reagandemo]

"but the behavior they allowed in the war was debatable regardless of their reasoning"

I disagree. What Sherman and grant did was to bring the level of the war up to the point where it would break the Southerners will to fight and limit the loss of union lives. What Truman did to the Japanese was to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to achieve the same goal. Yes some people detest what Truman did but I would argue it was the right decision.

[stand watie]

in other words, the "end justifies the means"????

should we have committed mass WAR CRIMES to end WW1 & WW2 sooner???

sherman was a WAR CRIMINAL, who deserved hanging.

free dixie,sw

[MamaTexan]

More claptrap about how people that believe the federal government violated the letter and the law of the Constitution are unAmerican and racist.

I thought better of townhall.com.

Ironically, the 14th Amendment and it's 'giving Negros equality under law' actually did no such thing.

It leveled the playing field by making us ALL 'US Citizens' under federal control. ______________________________________________________________________

"... the term `citizen' in the United States, is analogous to the term `subject' in the common law; the change of phrase has resulted from the change in government."
14 CJS section 4 quotes State v. Manuel 20 NC 122

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"There are, then, under our republican form of government, two classes of citizens, one of the United States and one of the state".
Gardina v. Board of Registrars of Jefferson County, 160 Ala. 155; 48 So. 788 (1909)

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"...rights of national citizenship as distinct from the fundamental or natural rights inherent in state citizenship".
Madden v. Kentucky, 309 U.S. 83: 84 L.Ed. 590 (1940)

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"The amendment [fourteenth] reversed and annulled the original policy of the constitution"
U.S. v. Rhodes, 27 Federal Cases 785, 794

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Americans today sit around wondering how government got so out of control, yet insist the Civil War was justified......and they NEVER see the connection between then and now.

[Blzbba]

"in other words, the "end justifies the means"????
should we have committed mass WAR CRIMES to end WW1 & WW2 sooner???

sherman was a WAR CRIMINAL, who deserved hanging."




Agreed. "Just following orders" didn't work for scumbag Nazis nor should it suffice for a$$hole Sherman.

[reagandemo]

I disagree. What Truman did was not a war crime. What Truman did was save the life of my dad and countless thousands of American soldiers from the death that waited for them if they were to land on the Japanese mainland. What Sherman did was what he thought was right. I just made that statement as he saw it. Also, that is why I said that the people of the South who burned him and Lincoln if effigy had a good reason to feel that way.

[stand watie]

NOPE, it sure did NOT. they NAZI-scum got what they deserved.

free dixie,sw