Walter Williams: Wrong on Secession

vanity ^ | 4/3/02 | Self

[CharacterCounts]

On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 pm, April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.

Other than a typo regarding the name, what part of history am I wrong about?

[one2many]

Pink I am waiting for you to show where I agreed. C'mon Pink. Where is it Pink Squid Little?

[one2many]

Friend:

I, unlike others here, would never attack you on a typo. I am not a woman.

Ape Linkum had set this up from the beginning. Do you really not know of that?

[CharacterCounts]

Sorry, forgot to source the statement.

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.

[Poohbah]

A point that none of the neo-confederates quite get.

The Southron aristocracy was perfectly willing to start a war to get their way in 1861. Suppose that they had been allowed to peacefully depart. The fun would've REALLY gotten underway after that. They would probably DEMAND territory from either the Western US, or from Mexico, on pain of war. The former would start a war between the Confederacy and the Union; the latter probably would have kicked off World War I some forty to fifty years ahead of schedule.

[CharacterCounts]

Ape Linkum had set this up from the beginning. Do you really not know of that?

Sure, and Poland made Hitler invade.

[ancient_geezer]

I will simply cite Article I, Section 10, and demand payment in gold or silvr coin.

That is one case I would really like to see :O)

[r9etb]

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.

Both are agencies of the tyrannical FedGov. Of course they'd make such scurrilous claims. ;-)

[r9etb]

I liked you better when you weren't arguing by insult.

[Poohbah]

Hasn't been repealed; there is no way the state can force me to accept anything but gold and silver to settle any debt they owe me. And "pollution credits" aren't any sort of legal tender, as I cannot walk into a store, throw some pollution credits on the counter, and walk off with goods.

[r9etb]

Ape Linkum had set this up from the beginning. Do you really not know of that?

Considering that serious friction had been building between Free and Slave states since before the Missouri Compromise of 1820(!!), and militant secessionist movements were well established by the time of Clay's Compromise of 1850, I fail to see how Mr. Lincoln can be blamed for anything but the inevitable fight.

Note, BTW, that most of the secessionists went about their business in a rather cowardly fashion -- during the iterregnum between Lincoln's election and his inauguration. In hopes, apparently, that Abe would accept it as a fait accompli.

[one2many]

As usual; you are interjecting yourself without having all the facts. Sorry that it is that way with you.

[one2many]

You haven't a martial bone in your body cannon fodder.

[Poohbah]

When I read the history of the Civil War, I keep rembering a phrase I read years ago: "The long fuse already lit."

[ravinson]

Dozens of countries, including the possessions of the British, French, and Spanish empires ended slavery peacefully during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ONLY in the United StateS was warfare associated with emancipation

So what would you (or DiLorenzo) advise Lincoln to do? Send a note to the Confederates saying he wanted to end slavery in America without bloodshed like the British, et. al did and expect that to convince the fire-eaters down South who put a value of $3,000,000,000 on their slaves?

The Brits paid slaveholders about £200 per slave, but they could get away that cheaply because the British slaveholders were few far between -- spread out in Colonies throughout the world. The $3 billion value placed on the slaves by the Confederates is about equivalent to $57 billion in current dollars, but as a percentage of the GDP it would be about $3 trillion in current dollars. How far do you think Lincoln would have gotten in Congress with a proposal to pay the slaveholders that kind of money?

[CharacterCounts]

Do you resort to Ad Hominem attacks with everone who disagrees with you?

[Poohbah]

That's been my experience.

[CharacterCounts]

My experience is that Ad Hominem attacks are indicators of a losing argument.

[Poohbah]

Actually, he made a very solid case that there was no power of unilateral secession granted to the states in the Constitution prior to discussing the militia issue.

You may not LIKE it, but your dislike does not prove a priori that the arguments are wrong.