Posted on 12/19/2019 8:38:38 AM PST by robowombat
read later
I’ve been reading a lot of Texas history. Civil War/Reconstruction/Readmission (?) created real Constitutional problems....not easily dealt with.
Not trying to take any sides, or pick any fights, as I know lots of folks here feel strongly about this topic and many others.
I’m just saying.....that era of history was fraught with real difficulties socially, legally, constitutionally, etc. Even good people with rational moral impulses could strongly disagree. And have good reasons for their disagreements. Nothing easy bout that time period.....
bfl
I think Sherman liked Southerns just fine...it was Confederates that he disliked.
Any honest historian (there are some) would agree that the era of Reconstruction from 1866 to 1877 is the most complicated in US history and the one that defies any simple analysis. There are so many conflicts and were multi causal in nation. There is no simple narrative of good versus evil that is beloved by Americans.
As a recovering Yankee now gratefully assimilated to Tennessee, I say Sherman, Sheridan and Grant may take their places in the Lower Kingdom, if God so judge.
Thank you for posting this.
Up until now, I had a tiny bit of respect for WT Sherman.
This letter opened my eyes to the fact that he is no different than a George Soros or any other liberal trash that advocates for ‘good little obedient citizens’ over those who are native born and have real grievances that are being ignored.
This gem sealed it:
“No man would deny that the United States would be benefited by dispossessing a single prejudiced, hard-headed and disloyal planter and substitute in his place a dozen or more patient, industrious, good families, even if they be of foreign birth.”
Sherman would be a wonderful modern version of Michael Bloomberg with a Che Guevara touch of slaughter.
“The Government of the United States has in North-Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war — to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything . . . and war is simply power unrestrained by constitution or compact. If they want eternal warfare, well and good; we will accept the issue and dispossess them, and put our friends in possession. Many, many people, with less pertinacity than the South, have been wiped out of national existence.”
Unreal!
War is hell.
Quite real
The very DNA of the Deep State.
Also realpolitik, writ large. And, in historical terms, comparatively merciful; some nations would simply have hung every rebel in a similar situation.
They keep blacks on the hook of government handouts for their votes instead of bales of cotton for the mills of England. Demand the import of cultures alien to our country's founding principles and voting rights for non-citizens. Propagate insane ideas contrary to basic human biology and millennia of universally accepted behavior. And to help accomplish their goals have destroyed an education system that was once the envy of the world.
Sherman lived and worked in the South for many years before the war. So even if one disagrees with everything he wrote you can't say he didn't know his enemy first hand. He was also stationed as an Army officer in California. And if any place needs the kind of cleansing a Sherman would provide today, it's there.
He was just a plain old evil man.
His ‘mercy’ was such that he knew he could never get away with a wholesale slaughter of Americans, and not have it fly in his face, with the consequences eventually leading to his own neck swinging from the gallows.
America was a firm Christian nation back then. Not even the Yankee vets would have gone along with that 100%. His restraint from doing that is evidence of that culture.
Sherman was a war criminal. Period.
The Johnny Reb contingent sure are a whole bunch of fun, aren’t they?
Upon being asked his reaction to being called out of retirement to head up the Navy during WWII, Admiral King said “when they get in trouble, they send for the sons of bitches.” (He denied saying it but agreed with it.)
I suppose that Sherman was a real son of a bitch. (This business about not really owning land except at the pleasure of the US Government is a real crock! Of course, he also did not believe in self-government if I am reading that correctly.)
Yes, you read that correctly. Sherman was an ax behind glass that you break only in case of war.
This is one of the many reasons you never, ever, allow a military to run the government. It’s also why our Founding Fathers insisted that our government be by The People and For The People (Private Citizens) and that the military reports to The People.
Sherman loathed private citizenry and their power under the Constitution. He fancied himself a Caesar or Napoleon I see based on this letter.
That’s the best summation I’ve yet seen. Kudos
The key point in this article is not any quote, but the date: 1863. Sherman wrote that letter smack in the middle of a bloody war. So the harsh language he used must be judged from that perspective.
Many on the left want to smear historical figures based on today’s morality. I have always argued that was wrong. A person should be judged within
the context of his times. A general in the middle of a war is going to say harsh things about the enemy. I would not expect otherwise.
“No man would deny that the United States would be benefited by dispossessing a single prejudiced, hard-headed and disloyal planter and substitute in his place a dozen or more patient, industrious, good families, even if they be of foreign birth"
Not that the pure immmorality, and completely unconstitutional, stain of slavery didn't need to be eradicated, but, this person sounds exactly like today's Globalist-Marxistss 😲.
well said
In a real sense, the “nation” ceased to exist once the Southern secessions began. Yet, the “nation” continued to act, as it were, and then tried to “reassemble” (it’s difficult to say what exactly, legally speaking, the returning states were...). Are the states readmitted with the same rights they had before? It’s all very complicated.
And out of that rose the constitutional revolution that is the post-civil war amendments.
among other things
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.