GOP candidate: Civil war wasn’t about slavery

The Hill ^ | June 25th, 2018 | Lisa Hagen

[Mariner]

Republican Senate nominee Corey Stewart said that he doesn’t believe that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery, arguing that it was mostly about states’ rights.

In a Monday interview with Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Stewart, who recently won the GOP nomination in the Virginia Senate race, said that not all parts of Virginia’s history are “pretty.”

But he said he doesn’t associate slavery with the war.

“I don’t at all. If you look at the history, that’s not what it meant at all, and I don’t believe that the Civil War was ultimately fought over the issue of slavery,” Stewart said.

When “Rising” co-host Krystal Ball pressed him again if the Civil War was “significantly” fought over slavery, Stewart said some of them talked about slavery, but added that most soldiers never owned slaves and “they didn’t fight to preserve the institution of slavery.”

“We have to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who were fighting at that time and from their perspective, they saw it as a federal intrusion of the state,” he said.

Stewart also said he doesn’t support a Richmond elementary school named after a Confederate general deciding to rename it after former President Obama.

[TBP]

Some did. Some didn’t.

[Garth Tater]

"And you would pretend that they were equal offenders when in truth the slave ownership of northern states would be measured as a tiny fraction of a percent while the lowest percentage of any would-be confederate state was Virginia at 26%."

I've pretended to nothing. I've simply quoted the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln to support my contention that the Southern states did have the right to secede from the Union and that the war was not primarily about slavery. But you just keep on putting words in my and other FReepers' mouths and making up and ignoring facts as you merrily express your ignorance.


Abraham Lincoln's Letter to Horace Greeley - August 22, 1862:

"The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free. Yours, A. Lincoln."

[BillyBoy]

>> It’s the southern education. They still teach the Lost Cause view. <<

You can't even blame that on Stewart. He was born and raised in Minnesota, and didn't move to Virginia until AFTER he gradated college.

He's just a northern boy who loves "southern heritage" and has some strange neo-confederate fetish, like Kid Rock.

It's the equivalent of rich white suburban kids who wanna be seen "cool" around their black urban friends by dressing and acting like this:

[jeffersondem]

“The Union was fighting against secession. I think there is little debate about their motivation.”

If that is true, we can forever dismiss the notion the North was fighting for the moral cause of “freeing the slaves.”

And all the self-serving hymn singing about “as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free” was just a pretext.

[Nifster]

I didn’t blame him. I just explained how it happens

[DoodleDawg]

To my knowledge, Mosby never rose above the rank of Colonel.

Only general's opinions matter?

[DoodleDawg]

The Maryland Assembly were set to vote to leave the Union. Lincoln had them arrested so they could not meet to make it official. The city of Washington was built on Maryland soil.

No, he didn't.

[Timmy]

It’s probably good you got that off your chest.

[Reno89519]

Your funny, Corker and Flake. LOL

[jeffersondem]

“Have you read any of the Constitutions of the seceding states?”

Have you read the Constitution of the United States and its pro-slavery provisions?

The one unanimously adopted by the slave and erstwhile slave states of New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island and Maryland.

It seems like there were others. Oh yes, the four other original slave states that ended up in the Confederacy: Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

[DoodleDawg]

The Constitution lists those powers which belong to the Feds. Any others not on that list are the powers of the States which is so stated in the Constitution.

"Among the enumerated powers, we do not find that of establishing a bank or creating a corporation. But there is no phrase in the instrument which, like the Articles of Confederation, excludes incidental or implied powers and which requires that everything granted shall be expressly and minutely described. Even the 10th Amendment, which was framed for the purpose of quieting the excessive jealousies which had been excited, omits the word "expressly," and declares only that the powers "not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people," thus leaving the question whether the particular power which may become the subject of contest has been delegated to the one Government, or prohibited to the other, to depend on a fair construction of the whole instrument..Its nature, therefore, requires that only its great outlines should be marked, its important objects designated, and the minor ingredients which compose those objects be deduced from the nature of the objects themselves." -- Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland.

[DoodleDawg]

Properly, it was called,"The War of Northern Aggression!"

More properly it was called, "The War of Southern Rebellion".

[BillyBoy]

Learning the Lost Cause as a kid might explain why some post pro-confederate comments on this board (though I think its more of a "my great-great-great-great-granddaddy was a HERO and couldn't POSSIBLY have fought for a pro-slavery government!" pride in your ancestors thing) but the Senate candidate being a CSA fan boy is probably just him wanting to pander to the neo-confederate crowd for votes.

[DoodleDawg]

Not a single republican owned a slave and that was true in the North and South.

No it wasn't. Some prominent Republicans in both Delaware and Maryland were slave owning Republicans.

[jeffersondem]

“It’s probably good you got that off your chest.”

It was good preaching. I’ll say that.

Think I will continue.

[DoodleDawg]

Some say the North fought to preserve their ability to collect import taxes. Lincoln for example.

Oh really? Are you sure Lincoln didn't go to war to deliver the mail?

[itsahoot]

Some prominent Republicans in both Delaware and Maryland were slave owning Republicans.

Then Tell De Sousa he is offering a 10,000 reward for anyone who can prove it. One guy took the challenge saying Grant inherited one, but truth was he was a Democrat at the time.

[lastchance]

“I would discuss this further but do not want to open myself to accusations of Islamaphobia.”

[jeffersondem]

“Not a single republican owned a slave and that was true in the North and South.”

Sounds like you are repeating something D’Souza thought up.

Don't worry, you and he are not under oath here.

[WashingtonSource]

Yes the elites were married to slavery. Tragically.