Posted on 06/19/2006 6:35:38 AM PDT by since 1854
Today, Americans celebrate “Juneteenth” – when in 1865 slavery finally ended throughout the entire United States. Sadly, few people know that Juneteenth was a high water mark for African- Americans. Soon after that great day, the Democratic Party defeated the Reconstruction policies of the Republican Party, postponing the civil rights movement until the 1950s.
An important fact which most history books ignore is that Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 running mate was a Democrat, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. And so after Lincoln’s assassination, it was a Democrat who would be President of the United States for the first four years after the Civil War. That first President Johnson did all in his power to prevent African- Americans from experiencing Lincoln’s “new birth of freedom.”
(Excerpt) Read more at republicanbasics.com ...
The death of Lincoln also allowed people who wanted retribution against the south to gain power.
That's a myth from Democrat history books. The reason Confederates were worried when Lincoln was shot was that the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, had been vowing to hang the rebel leadership if he were President. Once in office, however, he quickly reconciled with his fellow Democrats.
In contrast, the Republican leadership at the time -- Stevens, Sumner, Trumbill, etc. -- were, for example, opposed to the death penalty for all cases, including sedition/treason. Far from wanting vengeance, they wanted the slave system completely uprooted. Most southern whites could not even vote prior to Republican Reconstruction.
Every single republican candidate should remind people in every speech that the democrat party was the party of slavery, and the republican party was formed to fight slavery.
Very well said.
Welcome to FR
But "Juneteenth"? Doesn't its Ebonic intonation suggest it's not inclusive?
That we let that great history slip between the cracks for many years is no reason not to reclaim our rightful heritage.
I thought that's what I said.
The South lost the War..remember? It's always good to be on the winning side... All things considered, they ended up in much better shape than if, say, they were part of Europe, for example.
Lincoln was known for wanting to rebuild the south, not punish the south.
Reconstruction ended as a result of a compromise made to elect Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to the presidency over the Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden had won the popular vote and a plurality of electoral votes but some remaining electoral votes were in dispute. A commission was set up made of 5 Senators. 5 Representatives and 5 Supreme Court Justices -- 8 Rs, 7 Ds -- to adjudicate the matter. A compromise was reached in which the disputed electoral votes were given to Hayes in return for the end of Reconstruction.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_election.html
Better not to mention this.
Ended slavery AND passed the Civil Rights Act.
If it had been left to dims like Al Gore, Sr. and the toon's mentor, Fulbright, there would have been no Civil Rights Act. Yet somehow the msm was allowed to appropriate the civil rights issue for the left and has never been seriously challenged on the truth.
Johnson went very easy on the revanchist Southern plantation owners, so the argument that "people who wanted retribution " benefitted from Lincoln's death is incorrect. By the time Grant took over, the anger from the War had dissipated greatly.
Many of us are still slaves to the system. Freedom ain't free.
I love the headline of this article!
For all practical purposes, Reconstruction ended when the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in 1874. They then vowed to withhold appropriations from the Army unless remaining occupation forces were withdrawn from the South. By the time of the Compromise of 1877, Democrats were back in control of most of the former Confederacy, except in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, where a few companies of soldiers kept the elected Republican Governors in office. Hayes did agree to withdraw those soldiers -- fewer than 1,000 total -- from those state capitals and allow Democrats to evict the Governors. That's all the Hayes concession to Tilden amounted to. Of course, had Tilden won, it all would have happened anyway.
February 23rd 1807 is the equivalent day for the UK.
Slavery was always uncommon in Britain itself, but it took until 1833 to completely emancipate all slaves in Empire territories.
You really can't compare Republicans or Democrats back then with those of today.
Interesting article. Very one-sided presentation of historical facts, but interesting.
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