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How the Civil War Could Have Been Avoided
vanity | 10/31/01 | vanity

Posted on 10/31/2001 4:13:33 AM PST by smolensk

Being one who definitely thinks that our Civil War was an unnecessary loss of life and property, I have finally figured out how the South could have averted war, and stopped Northern aggression in its tracks.

You see the South possessed a 'secret weapon' that it didn't realize it had. What the South should have done, in the late 1850's, is to have realized that slavery was a dying institution anyway and that it could get by for the time being with half or a third less slaves than it had.

The South could have granted immediate freedom to half of its slave population with the condition that after manumission they couldn't remain in the South, but would have to move up North. If politically astute, the South could have 'spun' this relocation requirement as simply a way of spreading 'diversity' to the North.

With this, the abolitionist movement up North would have stopped 'dead in its tracks', in my opinion, and over 700,000 lives would have been saved, and all slaves would have been gained freedom anyway before 1900 due to international pressure.


TOPICS: Editorial; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: dixie
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To: smolensk
Finally. Thank you.
221 posted on 11/05/2001 12:09:30 PM PST by tpaine
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To: tpaine
I just KNEW you would respond to that! You are the type that has to get in the last word. Just so you know that I am not that type - no matter what you post, I will not respond to you - so you have the last word. Enjoy it and hope it makes your day. Consider it a gift from me.
222 posted on 11/05/2001 12:15:03 PM PST by smolensk
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Comment #223 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
Your arguments are never on point. I ask a question or make a comment and you call my family names. Very adult of you.

Your commentary reminds me of an old law school joke. When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you don't have the facts, argue the law. When you don't have the law, argue for justice. Since you don't have the facts, the law or justice, it seems you resort to baseless namecalling. Grow up.

224 posted on 11/06/2001 11:10:36 AM PST by JD86
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Comment #225 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
see 224 above
226 posted on 11/06/2001 7:30:13 PM PST by JD86
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To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
Re: your 190

So where did you
get that ILL DEUCE?

Let me know and I will provide
equally appalling counterpoint.

227 posted on 11/07/2001 6:32:59 AM PST by LadyJD
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Comment #228 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
Thanks for the confimation; I suspected that it was fantasy. We both know "anything" (witness WJC recently) can be "read into" the Congressional Record.

If you want to salvage a degree of credibility then give me cites. I will take it from there.

229 posted on 11/07/2001 3:20:34 PM PST by LadyJD
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Comment #230 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
Say what!!??

Oh never mind, you are obviously off your medication again.

231 posted on 11/07/2001 7:17:15 PM PST by LadyJD
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To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
Still badmouthing the South and lawyers.....why don't you give it a rest? The Lady asked you a question and you respond with name-calling.....surely you can do better than that.
232 posted on 11/07/2001 7:20:21 PM PST by JD86
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Comment #233 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
"Clinton was a southerner who did that too"

Which one, hill or bill?

I could just as easily (and meaninglessly) say that yankees were traitors to their state governments as you can say that southerners were traitors to the federal government. Since we live in a nation under two equally sovereign governments, State and Federal, and one Constitution, the only thing you can be a traitor to is the Constitution. We do not invest our souls in government, as other nations do. Government is derived from the People. IT is our slave. If the Constitution protects the rights of people in the states to secede, (and it does) loyalty to the Constitution means you don't fight a state to keep it in the Union, or else you're a traitor to the Constitution. When Americans go to war, they fight for the Constitution, not their local or general government. The CSA and each state in the South was fighting for the principles in the American constitution, duplicated in the CSA's Constitution which they had established and were going to live under had they been successful. They are not traitors unless they're fighting against the principles in the Declaration of Independence and the laws in the Constitution. The Southerners were therefore not traitors.

234 posted on 11/17/2001 7:48:47 AM PST by H.Akston
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To: smolensk
What the South should have done, in the late 1850's, is to have realized that slavery was a dying institution anyway...

Bad assumption. Thirty years eariler, maybe, but with the growth of King Cotton in the deep south, by the 1850s, both the price and the demand for slaves was booming. It was a very profitable business.

235 posted on 11/17/2001 7:53:02 AM PST by Ditto
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Comment #236 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
The key you're missing is that secession is not prohibited by the Constitution. No violation of Constitution = no treason. Also, the Declaration of Independence says ANY government may be thrown off by the people when it is deemed to be hostile to their rights. The States were the original political entities that made this declaration.

You didn't answer my original question - which "Clinton" was a southerner - hill or bill?

237 posted on 11/18/2001 3:05:23 AM PST by H.Akston
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Comment #238 Removed by Moderator

To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
Didn't you know that the People of each southern state had a convention and directed their representatives and Senators to secede? Here: Read Jefferson Davis' last speech before the Senate where he describes the convention that Mississippi held.
239 posted on 11/21/2001 2:42:46 PM PST by H.Akston
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Comment #240 Removed by Moderator


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