142nd Anniversary of Gen. Lee’s death

Canda Free Press ^ | October 12, 2012 | Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.

[BigReb555]

America mourned the death of Gen. Robert E. Lee on Wednesday, October 12, 1870 and Friday, October 12th marks the 142nd anniversary of his death.

[Delhi Rebels]

Again, it must be very nice to just up and leave whenever you feel like it. I'm planning on leaving, but what with finances, jobs, etc, it'll be several years at least before I can brush new england dust off my boots once and for all.

And in the mean time you'll whine, just like all those Yankee snowbirds y'all like to complain about. One great truism I learned early in my working life is if you don't like your job then quit. Otherwise shut up about it. I think the same could apply anyone in your situation. If you don't like where you live then leave. Otherwise etc. etc.

As for the rest of your comment--I've lived in the south. I like the food, know the weather, the surroundings etc etc.

And for all that you still left.

And if the south starts doing things "the way its done back home," then I'm resigning and going to mars.

I can't help you with any suggestions on transportation to there. But I'll be glad to wave goodbye when you go.

[donmeaker]

So give me a name for the pretend Confederate supreme court.

You cant because Jeff Davis didn’t want laws restricting him as he committed insurrection, so never appointed anyone to his counterpart to the supreme court. He had every assurance that if he lost he would be executed. He was wrong on that too.

[Lee'sGhost]

I’m just amazed that you agree with me about SCOTUS.

Thanks!

[donmeaker]

But I don’t. Lincoln had the supreme court that he had. Davis was such a lawless man that he didn’t trust even his hand picked supporters to interpret the law.

The Texas v. White is still good precedent today, after more than 140 years of subsequent consideration.

[donmeaker]

Even if the pretended confederacy was valid, which it was not, Lincoln’s soldiers would be killing soldiers of the other country, by contrast, Lee’s soldiers would be killing citizens of the US. So aside from the occasional friendly fire, or the very many deaths from disease, Lincoln was not responsible for, even by the most rabid interpretation in favor of the rebels, killing Americans.

So, do you agree that the Confederacy had no validity?

[Fast Moving Angel]

Even if the pretended confederacy was valid, which it was not, Lincoln’s soldiers would be killing soldiers of the other country, by contrast, Lee’s soldiers would be killing citizens of the US. So aside from the occasional friendly fire, or the very many deaths from disease, Lincoln was not responsible for, even by the most rabid interpretation in favor of the rebels, killing Americans.

So, do you agree that the Confederacy had no validity?

Sorry, can’t agree with you. By Confederacy, do you mean the Confederate government or the association of seceded states? The seceded states had every right to secede for reasons I’ve explained previously and the Confederate government was what they chose – by mutual consent of the governed – to govern themselves. Either way, the Confederacy (whether the states or their chosen government) was valid.

As to the issue regarding killing of each others’ soldiers, I think it is analogous to the issue of Lincoln blockading Southern ports. Lincoln could not legally blockade his OWN country’s ports – yet in order to blockade Southern ports, it was necessary for him to officially recognize the Confederacy (of seceded states) as a separate country, which he was not willing to do – he considered them American states in rebellion. So, he illegally blockaded the ports. Under this analogy, since Lincoln did not officially recognize the Confederacy, the southern soldiers who were being killed were Americans (although rebels). If he had recognized the Confederacy, technically I suppose they would be considered from “another country” – but this was not the case.

Lincoln could have avoided all this by letting the “wayward sisters go in peace.” I suspect that had that been the case, after a while, one or more of the seceding states, particularly the border states, would have petitioned to rejoin the Union and much of this would have been moot anyway. But after such atrocities as Sherman’s destruction of Atlanta and Sheridan’s destruction of the Shenandoah Valley, not to mention “reconstruction”, the southern wounds were just too deep and an amicable reuniting wouldn’t be possible. Read some of the southern-oriented pages on Facebook sometime; those scars are still being carried by the southern soldiers’ descendants to this day. Forgiveness may be possible, but they won’t forget.

[donmeaker]

Lincoln didn’t have the option to let the states go, after the pretended confederacy declared war and started shooting. They also took several other forts.

Lincoln could have ‘quarantined’ the southern ports, perhaps, or he could have blockaded US trade from other countries. except through ports not in locations in insurrection.

It seems to me that the southern soldiers were very very lucky to not be executed after the war was over. Certainly Grant and other Union officers were far more moral in victory than the Confederate officers who enslaved Union soldiers while the issue was in doubt.

[donmeaker]

The southern states may have had reason to secede, but they didn’t do it correctly- by amendment, federal law or supreme court case, and so they didn’t. I suspect they knew they had no case because they never tried to make the case to the various states, to the supreme court or to the federal legislature.

They gathered armies, and won some battles, but lost their insurrection.

[donmeaker]

When discussing the burning of Atlanta, remember that Hood set fire to the city first. Confederates routinely committed atrocities such as slashing fire hoses after setting various cities on fire.

Then you can throw in General Wheeler’s use of infernal devices to block Sherman’s path, (and to murder random civilians traveling on the roads).

Compare to that Grant’s gentle terms to the soldiers captured at Vicksburg. Such soldiers were tired of war, and needed their parole to protect them from being enslaved by their rebel states.

[Stonewall Jackson]

General George Thomas, also known as the Rock of Chickamauga and the Sledge of Nashville for his thrashing of two Confederate field armies, was a Virginian whose family and friends never forgave him for staying loyal to the Union instead of siding with Virginia.

His sisters turned his portrait to face the wall, burned his letters unopened, refused any financial assistance following the war, and refused to attend his funeral when he died of a stroke in 1870. JEB Stewart threatened to hang him from the nearest tree if he caught him, a threat the War Department took seriously enough that they transferred him to Kentucky and the Western Theater.

Sadly, many of his friends in the Union Army set out to destroy his legacy in the years following his death. Schofield, one of his top subordinates in the Army of the Cumberland, wrote a scathing letter to the editor, to which Thomas was responding when he suffered his fatal stroke. Grant had never forgiven him for replacing him after Halleck relieved Grant following Shiloh, and he trashed Thomas's character in his memoirs. Sherman, whom Thomas had considered a close personal friend and had offered Thomas great praise shortly after his death, refused to counter Grant's allegations and even put forth his own "damning with faint praise" of his old friend and comrade.