[Sherman Logan]

Accurate but very one-sided history.

Lincoln said the war was about whether a government of, by and for the people could “long endure.”

It seems indisputable that any consensual government that can be broken up by any sufficiently strong minority can indeed not endure very long. Such governments would probably split and resplit till the small units left became a prey to despotic governments subject to no such challenge. To expand on the words of Franklin, if the states didn’t hang together, in the long run they would assuredly hang separately.

It is the second greatest tragedy of American history that we fought our greatest war against ourselves, but the responsibility for that war lies with those who precipitated it, the fire-eaters of the South who worked for a generation to exacerbate tensions between the sections. They also managed to convince (white) southerners that slavery was not an evil to be put in the way of eventual extinction, as the southern Founders believed, but rather a positive good to be protected and spread.

[TheBigIf]

Disgraceful article. Shame on Williams. The Confederate democrats absolutely were fighting to destroy the rule of law and to deny United States citizens equal rights to representation for all. Their succesors (the progressive democrats) continued to do the same. Next maybe Williams could write an article about how blacks served in the KKK. Absolutely pathetic and shameful article.

[central_va]

“An observer in Charleston at the outbreak of the war noted the preparation for war, and called particular attention to the thousand Negroes who, so far from inclining to insurrections, were grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of shooting the Yankees.”

I can definitely relate to that sentiment.

[Altura Ct.]

Good for Mr Williams.

[stevem]

Something tells me if Walter Williams lived in antebellum Georgia he might have thought it bitter vetch, indeed.

He is certainly right about one thing. There were black Confederate soldiers. Even Ken Burns showed such photos, and that must have hurt him sincerely to have to show such a thing.

In seems to me I read somewhere that there were free blacks who owned slaves in those days. I'd have to search my archives, but I suppose if I found such to be true I would be considered revisionist.

[STONEWALLS]

....Williams is correct...1861-1865 was not a civil war...it was a war of secession and partition....we’ve had three of those so far: 1776,1832,1861...those were based on politics...the coming one will be tribal, and if I were betting on it; the Southwest will be where it will start.

[Joe Boucher]

mark,
I was taught in school that a white man in the south could send one or two slaves to represent him in the case he was drafted in to the army.

[Shooter 2.5]

And there were jews who helped the Nazis.

A handful of deluded people doesn’t erase the millions who fought on the Right side.

[BroJoeK]

Williams' argument that some (few) free blacks fought for the Confederacy is all well and good -- if the evidence shows it happened, then so be it. Facts are facts.

But his further argument, at the end, about a supposed "states' right to secede," is bogus to the max.

Sure, anyone can carefully select a quote from Madison or another founder, but there are as many or more other quotes saying legitimate secession can only be by mutual consent, or in the event of "usurpations" and "abuses" of Federal power.
Secession was not legitimate "at pleasure."

And yet in 1860 there had been no "usurpations" or "abuses," and the Deep South did secede "at pleasure."
This made their secession unconstitutional.

Then seizing Federal properties and shooting at Federal forces made it "insurrection" and "rebellion."

The rest is history...

[mac_truck]

Terms like 'served' in the Confederacy and 'marched alongside' the boys in Grey are typically used by historical revisonists to describe what were essentually black slaves assigned to unarmed manual labor jobs for the Confederate army.

[Constitution Day]

Excellent article! Thanks for posting it.

[sionnsar]

ping

[Rappini]

Just remember the slave ships didn’t fly the CSA flag it was the Stars and Strips.

[stainlessbanner]

Dixie ping

(thanks sionnsar)

[Zionist Conspirator]

All the so-called "unconstitutional acts" of President Lincoln occurred in the context of a war ("civil" or not). He did nothing whatsoever to provoke the Deep South to secede other than to be elected. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee seceded after Lincoln called for troops to bring the seceded states back into the Union, but the first seven states seceded before Lincoln had even been inaugurated. He had done nothing, and could have done nothing, to provoke these secessions.

Lincoln had no intention whatsoever of interfering with slavery where it already existed, and the Deep South knew this. They basically had a hissy fit because a Republican had been elected President and their dreams of eventually expanding slavery into the new territories and throughout the entire Union was symbolically threatened by this outcome.

If Abraham Lincoln was a "Republican In Name Only," what in the name of all that is reasonable is a "real" Republican supposed to be???

[Lee'sGhost]

Thanks for posting. The inability of some to acknowledge the simple truth Williams has written is exactly the same as liberals who will not acknowledge the truth about...anything.

It is sad that so many good FReepers lose the ability to acknowledge truth when it comes to this one topic.