30x90
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- Jan 13, 2011
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BTW, "Lincoln's lack of leadership"?!?! Most of the states that seceded, did so before he was even inaugurated!!!
Lincoln purposely provoked the South into firing the first shot.
Secession was legal and constitutional.
You're lying. He did what he could to try and reconcile with the South. They just weren't willing to listen to anything. That makes it on THEIR heads.
"Lying"?
No. Child, please!...Are you one of the ignorant who thinks the war was about slavery?
The truth is a little different than what you might have learned in middle school.
State sovereignty is a cornerstone of America's political philosophy.That's what Jefferson said when he drafted the Declaration of Independence.
(That the colonies were actually NOT sovereign states didn't matter, though. The truth is that they were British colonies under colonial charters)
The Southern states that seceded used the Declaration of Independence as a precedent. South Carolina reclaimed those sovereign rights on the same grounds that Jefferson had used 84 years beforehand in the Declaration:
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That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The South wanted to be free from unfair tariffs (Morrill Tariff Bill of 1860..South Carolina Tariff of Abominations 1832) and Lincoln's "Spot Resolutions" imposed by the North, so they formed a limited republic that guaranteed individual AND states rights and unlike the republic in the North, didn't insist on subjugating the states that didn't want to be part of it.They believed that states had the right to nullify federal laws they didn't think were in their interest.
The Confederate Constitution preserved what the South saw as the original intent of the U.S. Constitution. Sovereignty belongs to the people of the states. That's how it was in the colonial times and that's how it was under the Articles of Confederation of the U.S.
The cornerstone of the Confederacy was the U.S. Constitution slightly modified.
Slavery?
Right..whatever. Ignorant people continually besmirch the South by claiming they intended to extend slavery. That's not true, though.
The South knew that, even though it was legal and Constitutional (even in the North. See the Dred Scott case of 1857), slavery would eventually end...as it turns out, the industrial revolution was just around the corner and machines were able to do the work of MANY slaves at a much cheaper cost.
The North dispensed with slaves when they were no longer economically viable. Nothing to do with Northern "moral superiority".That position was just a cynical yankee ploy.
Lincoln couldn't have cared less about the slaves, actually.
Lincoln-Douglas debates:
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. "
Robt. E Lee said:
There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy."
remember..slaves were still living in the stone age in Africa at the time.
from Lincoln's first inaugural address:
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it…."
So "REVOLUTION" was seen as a "right"...but not secession...Lincoln was some politician, huh? Sort of like Rahm Emanuel.."Never let a crisis go to waste..."
So..the first shots at Fort Sumter...
The South offered to pay for any federal properties on Southern soil and even offered to pay their portion of the federal debt of the U.S..He refused to meet with Southern diplomats. Two Supreme court justices even attempted to intervene on the South's behalf..Lincoln didn't want to hear it.
Fort Sumter in Charleston and Fort Pickens in Pensacola Florida were the only 2 Federal forts in the Confederacy that hadn't surrendered to the C.S.A.
Fort Sumter was originally built to protect the people of Charleston...but to have it as a Union occupied fort in Southerm territory with its' cannons pointed at Charleston would be an intolerable provocation to the South. Lincoln knew this and reinforced the fort.
The issue wasn't just Charleston harbor..Lincoln vowed to continue to collect "duties and imposts"...tariffs...in the South. Tariffs supplied 95% of the Federal revenue and the Morrill Tariff had more than DOUBLED tariff duties in the South.
The South opposed the tariffs..The North supported them.
On April 6, 1861 Lincoln reinforced the fort.After negotiations between P.G.T. Beauregard and the commander of the fort Major Robt. Anderson broke off Beauregard ordered his artillery to open fire.
Lincoln now had his excuse to wage total war on american citizens. The equivalent today of sending tanks to invade the South, blockade the ports and carpet bomb the cities..of fellow american civilians.
Robt. E. Lee
"Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. "
Men like Lee, Jeff. Davis, etc..would not consider waging war on civilians.
Robt. E. Lee's son, Custis Lee wrote:
"I am opposed to the theory of doing wrong that good may come of it. I hold to the belief that you must act right whatever the consequences. ... "
If following the law of a free republic and fighting a defensive war solely against armed combatants are faults, the South had them...The North didn't , though. Lincoln ignored the law the Constitution and the Supreme Court when it suited him.(suspended habeus corpus and held civilians under military tribunals)
His armies waged war on the farms, livlihoods and people of the South..not just against the army.
There was no "Civil War"..no one was trying to overthrow the government..the South just wanted to do what the colonies had done...what Texas had done...secede legally...
It was truly a war of northern aggression.
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