Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Ditto; Pelham; donmeaker; the OlLine Rebel; wardaddy; rockrr
Pelham post #212: " ...'the slave power'.
Of course this phrase described the majority of American Presidents right up through Zachary Taylor."

Precisely speaking, the term "slave power" was used from almost the beginning of the Republic to refer to extra votes provided by the Constitution's 3/5 of slaves rule.
Indeed, it was "slave power" which first elected Thomas Jefferson President in 1800.
Without Jefferson's "slave power" President John Adams would have been re-elected.

It's the reason Jefferson was, at the time, called "The Negro President".
Indeed, that term "Negro President" for Jefferson adds a special cutting irony to slave-holder denegrations of Lincoln as a "Black Republican".

_ditto_ from post #279: "Add Buchanan to the list as another "Dough Face" who bowed to the Slave Power.
The same was true for control of Congress and the Courts.
You are correct that from Jackson onward until the election of Lincoln, the Slave Power controlled the not just the Executive, but also the the Legislative and the Judicial branches."

In fact, when you look at the list of Presidents from Washington through Buchanan, there was not one openly anti-slavery.
Indeed, very few elected Presidents did not themselves own slaves -- the Adamses, van Buren, Buchanan -- and except for John Adams, they were all Dough-faced Northern Democrats.

So Lincoln was the first President ever elected who was even mildly anti-slavery.
And minority Republicans only got elected because Southern Democrat "fire eaters" having ruled for generations, suddenly walked out and split apart their majority Democrat party.

In Congress the Southern Slave Power ruled through its majority Democrat party, which was very seldom and only briefly out-of-power in both houses.

In the Supreme Court, Slave Power domination was powerful enough to pass Dred-Scott (1857) by a vote of seven to two!
Only Massachusetts Whig Justice Curtis and Ohio Republican Justice McLean voted against Dred-Scott.

In fact, it was exactly this Slave-Power domination of Federal Government which drove Republicans to break-off and effectively destroy the old slavery-friendly Whig party.
Republicans feared, with good cause, that the next major Supreme Court decision would effectively make slavery legal in every state and territory.

So bottom line: the term "Slave Power" was not invented by Karl Marx, but rather by Americans themselves, at the time of the Founding, to refer to the extra votes constitutionally provided owners of human "property".

Terms like "Slave Power" and "Slavocracy" were later used by Republicans (1850s) to provide focus among "low information" Northerners who couldn't quite understand why they should not vote for Democrats.

;-)

281 posted on 03/01/2013 5:26:08 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 279 | View Replies ]


To: BroJoeK; Ditto

Such rantings from you legalists is always used to justify killing fellow Americans. The arguments are primitive, varied, and subject to interpretation to fit the political agenda. You use your man made rules and org charts to make money and further your agenda and if some fellow human violates some “rule of law” kill him. There is a higher law that bestows a right to life and liberty, and that is God’s law. Get off that legalist BS and follow what is right. Every tyrant who wins a war always paints a rosy picture of himself and vilifies the defeated.


285 posted on 03/02/2013 3:36:59 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 281 | View Replies ]

To: BroJoeK; Ditto

Such rantings from you legalists is always used to justify killing fellow Americans. The arguments are primitive, varied, and subject to interpretation to fit the political agenda. You use your man made rules and org charts to make money and further your agenda and if some fellow human violates some “rule of law” kill him. There is a higher law that bestows a right to life and liberty, and that is God’s law. Get off that legalist BS and follow what is right. Every tyrant who wins a war always paints a rosy picture of himself and vilifies the defeated.


286 posted on 03/02/2013 3:36:59 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 281 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson