Posted on 02/20/2007 6:31:57 AM PST by Rebeleye
The Museum of the Confederacy will likely drop the word "Confederacy" from its name when it moves its collection to a new home.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
I can play.
"What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession? This reason may be summed up in one single proposition. It was a conviction, a deep conviction on the part of Georgia, that a separation from the North was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery." -- Speech of Henry Benning to the Virginia Convention
On the Southern side: For some it was only slavery. That is, they would not have even wanted to leave the union if they were sure slavery would be preserved. For others, they maybe didn't care about slavery, but wanted to be free from the North. To others, it was a mixture of both. Some politicians i.e. Davis focused on the freedom angle when rallying people. Others, like the VP, focused solely on the slavery angle when rallying people. Now, slavery was of course an important issue.
But my main point is that the reasons for going to war are diverse, are different for different people, and change over time.
Probably a lot more endlessly than I can.
"The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states." Charles Dickens, 1862.
Had Lincoln tried compensated emancipation, and he did float several ideas during his presidency, such plans would have required three things which were missing. One was the $4 billion or so a buy out plan would have required. Second, such a plan would have come from the federal government and would mean Washington was telling the Southern slave owners they had to give up their chattel. Hardly respectful of state's rights, which you all claim was the big bone of contention in the first place. Finally, any emancipation plan, compensated or otherwise, would have required the Southern slave owners be willing to give up their slaves in the first place. I'm not aware of any interest in that being present in the South prior to the rebellion.
Another Freeper who forgets that three slave states stayed in the Union, that there were Southern grievances against Federal tariff policies that played into the decision to seceed, and that the Emanicipation Proclamation was a war-measure intended to provoke a slave rebellion in the Confederate states, and left the slaves in Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri still in bondage.
If the war had been a noble abolitionist crusade, the North would have freed the slaves in the Union in 1861, not after the war ended.
Please, try reading what people write. This does not have to be a crevo/evo thread where everyone arrives with immovable positions.
Since you think that Sumter was the cause of the civil war, do you think that the first shot at Lexington was the "cause" of the revolutionary war? Was the first bomb dropped on Baghdad the "cause" of the current Iraq war? Was the first artillery piece lobbed into Poland that "cause" of ww2?
And from people who were actually in the South at the time. One would think that they would know the why's and wherefore's better than foreigners like Dickens and Mills.
"This new union with Lincoln Black Republicans and free negroes, without slavery, or, slavery under our old constitutional bond of union, without Lincoln Black Republicans, or free negroes either, to molest us.
If we take the former, then submission to negro equality is our fate. if the latter, then secession is inevitable..." -- Address of William L. Harris of Mississippi
-----------------------------------------------
Did I write that the North fought to end slavery? No. I wrote that the south fought to retain slavery.
The South will rise again! We're on the verge now.
Especially if it starts to drag on.
Museum of the Rebel Slavers?
Johnny Reb Memorabilia?
Like the good General?
"Although the South would have preferred any honourable compromise to the fratricidal war which has taken place, she now accepts in good faith its constitutional results, and receives without reserve the amendment which has already been made to the constitution for the extinction of slavery. This is an event that has long been sought, though in a different way, and by none has it been more earnestly desired than by citizens of Virginia." Gen. R.E. Lee, 1866.
Changed his mind, did he?
"Considering the relation of master and slave, controlled by humane laws and influenced by Christianity and an enlightened public sentiment, as the best that can exist between the white and black races while intermingled as at present in this country, I would deprecate any sudden disturbance of that relation unless it be necessary to avert a greater calamity to both. I should therefore prefer to rely upon our white population to preserve the ratio between our forces and those of the enemy, which experience has shown to be safe. But in view of the preparations of our enemies, it is our duty to provide for continued war and not for a battle or a campaign, and I fear that we cannot accomplish this without overtaxing the capacity of our white population." -- Robert Lee, 1865
Touche'. A mind is a terrible thing to change.
"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. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own so much of the territory as they inhabit." Abraham Lincoln, 1848.
Indeed.
"As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a recourse to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for 'perpetual union' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not a government by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the other patriots of the Revolution. . . ." -- Robert Lee, January 1861
Try four. Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware.
...that there were Southern grievances against Federal tariff policies that played into the decision to seceed...
Like?
...and that the Emanicipation Proclamation was a war-measure intended to provoke a slave rebellion in the Confederate states...
Which is why it says, "And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages." That must be code for "Rise at dawn and kill all de white folk", huh?
...and left the slaves in Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri still in bondage.
And Delaware. You keep forgetting Delaware. But in any case that's what the 13th Amendment was for.
"Did you know that there is a black Confederacy group for the descendants of black Confederate troops? They wear the uniforms and have drills, and everything! What do they have to say about this"?
Got some news for ya. You blue-zone yankee liberals ARE the 'Other Guys'.
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.