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Were Confederate Generals Traitors?
Creators ^ | June 28, 2017 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 06/28/2017 11:20:43 AM PDT by Sopater

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To: RegulatorCountry
I’m going to point out that Robert E. Lee inherited the slaves that he held and freed them years before the war began.

And I'll, respectfully, point out that you are in error. That Douglas Southall Freeman detailed how Lee owned slaves much of his adult life, before his father-in-laws death. That Lee, in fact, freed the last of the slaves from his father-in-law's estate in December 1862 and not years before the war.

I’ll also point out that the Federal government offered him command of their army, which he refused because he could not take up arms against his family, friends and neighbors.

Which has what to do with his views towards the races?

He was an honorable man.

In many ways yes he was. But he was also a man of the times and not perfect in any way, shape, or form.

Regarding Lincoln, there are more than a few cites and quotes that highlight the error of your statement. He believed black people to be inferior.

And as I pointed out, if Lincoln is open for condemnation for those opinions then aren't the Southern leaders open for condemnation as well since their views towards blacks were even worse?

He said he’d keep slavery if it meant keeping the Union together.

He also said he'd free them all if that meant keeping the Union together.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a military document, intended to foment insurrection in the “rebel” states of the Confederacy...

That claim is just plain idiotic.

...it did not free any slaves outside of it in Union states.

Constitutionally he could not do that.

Is this the behavior of an opponent of slavery? No, it is not.

If you would take the time to read Lincoln's speeches and writings then you would realize that he was, in fact, a strong opponent of slavery his entire life. How many of your Southern leaders really opposed it themselves?

181 posted on 06/29/2017 3:46:42 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: jeffersondem
Victors’ Justice.

Loser's whining.

182 posted on 06/29/2017 3:47:29 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: jeffersondem
Then we can forever dismiss the notion that the North fought for some high moral cause like “freeing the slaves.”

Are you finally prepared to admit that? After all this time and innumerable posts pointing that out to you? We should write this date down.

183 posted on 06/29/2017 3:49:04 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: jeffersondem
George Washington Carver.

Oh well what the heck, I can probably come up with dozens of Southern leaders of today whose views towards blacks are heads and shoulders about those of Lincoln. But let's keep the selection to the period of the Southern rebellion, shall we?

184 posted on 06/29/2017 3:51:03 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

The war was not begun over slavery as both sides had vested interests and there were slaveholders as well as slaves on both sides, that is the point.

Your statement that claiming the Emancipation Proclamation was a military document intended to foment insurrection in the seceded states of the Confederacy is idiotic, is in and of itself idiotic. Read, woman (or at least you come across that way to me, certainly don’t mean to assume your gender or anything).


185 posted on 06/29/2017 4:01:00 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry
The war was not begun over slavery as both sides had vested interests and there were slaveholders as well as slaves on both sides, that is the point.

The Southern leaders of the time would disagree with you.

"The South had always been solid for slavery and when the quarrel about it resulted in a conflict of arms, those who had approved the policy of disunion took the pro-slavery side. It was perfectly logical to fight for slavery, if it was right to own slaves." [John S. Mosby, Mosby's Memoirs, p. 20]

In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery, the greatest material interest of the world.
--Mississppi Declaration of the Causes of Secession

What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession? This reason may be summed up in one single proposition. It was a conviction, a deep conviction on the part of Georgia, that a separation from the North-was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery. -- Speech of Henry Benning to the Virginia Convention

"History affords no example of a people who changed their government for more just or substantial reasons. Louisiana looks to the formation of a Southern confederacy to preserve the blessings of African slavery, and of the free institutions of the founders of the Federal Union, bequeathed to their posterity." -- Address of George Williamson, Commissioner from Louisiana to the Texas Secession Convention

"Our people have come to this on the question of slavery. I am willing, in that address to rest it upon that question. I think it is the great central point from which we are now proceeding, and I am not willing to divert the public attention from it." - Lawrence Keitt

Your statement that claiming the Emancipation Proclamation was a military document intended to foment insurrection in the seceded states of the Confederacy is idiotic, is in and of itself idiotic.

If you read the Emancipation Proclamation you will see is explicitly condemned slave uprisings, and the fact that there were none relating to the proclamation is further evidence that no such uprisings were part of the plan.

Read, woman (or at least you come across that way to me, certainly don’t mean to assume your gender or anything).

Read my profile and you would see that gender is one of the few things you have been right about.

186 posted on 06/29/2017 4:16:33 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: OIFVeteran

With the possible exception of Baltimore, there was no insurrection or rebellion in the states operating under Lincoln’s authority.

The war began due to the failure of the Republicans to uphold their duty to limit Lincolns actions. They allowed despotic behavior to destroy the peace.


187 posted on 06/29/2017 5:09:28 AM PDT by PeaRidge
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To: OIFVeteran

The Civil War was not an insurrection at all. It was a separatist factional war with clear lines between the two sides. There were no partisans on either side actively warring against either government. For example Copperheads never took up arms but they were active politically and strongly anti war.


188 posted on 06/29/2017 5:16:02 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: DoodleDawg
Every point of yours is based either on ex-post- facto rulings or rationalized by redefining separation as aggression.

No other President abused the Constitutional limits of the office as did Lincoln.

No other Congress failed its charge to uphold the Constitution as did the men there in 1861.

189 posted on 06/29/2017 5:19:34 AM PDT by PeaRidge
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To: central_va

Your third sentence clearly contradicts the first two.


190 posted on 06/29/2017 5:23:10 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: PeaRidge
With the possible exception of Baltimore, there was no insurrection or rebellion in the states operating under Lincoln’s authority.

Parts of Illinois and Indiana were, shall we say, restive at various points during the rebellion. And there were anti-draft riots in New York and Wisconsin. Now whether that was due to "despotic behavior" on the part of Lincoln or just because there wasn't a lot of support for them to begin with is open for debate. And uprisings in the North never reached the level that they did in the South where in spite of Richmond's heavy hand whole counties were in open defiance of the Confederate government and where Davis had to threaten to call out the troops to put down the Bread Riots in March and April of 1863.

191 posted on 06/29/2017 5:24:05 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: PeaRidge
Every point of yours is based either on ex-post- facto rulings or rationalized by redefining separation as aggression.

I would point out that every court decision is ex-post facto. Courts don't rule on something that hasn't happened yet. And every action was done after the South had begun hostilities, not simply when they had announced secession.

No other President abused the Constitutional limits of the office as did Lincoln.

So you say. But court decisions don't seem to support your claim.

No other Congress failed its charge to uphold the Constitution as did the men there in 1861.

Again, matter of opinion.

192 posted on 06/29/2017 5:28:04 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

Rioting is not usually considered an organized partisan resistance war effort.


193 posted on 06/29/2017 5:41:47 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
Rioting is not usually considered an organized partisan resistance war effort.

I guess that would depend on where it is and how widespread it becomes.

194 posted on 06/29/2017 5:43:13 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: rockrr

There was major political upheaval and rioting in the North but no partisan guerilla warfare against FedGov.


195 posted on 06/29/2017 5:43:57 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
You couldn't be more wrong. Eastern Tennessee had to be occupied by the confederates for the duration of the war. Texas hanged a bunch of Unionists soon after declaring secession. There were whole counties that rebelled against the confederate government, ever heard of the “free state of Jones?” You need to read something other then what the sons of confederate veterans put out.
196 posted on 06/29/2017 6:08:28 AM PDT by OIFVeteran
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To: OIFVeteran

To characterize the US Civil War as a partisan guerilla war is preposterous. Stupid.


197 posted on 06/29/2017 6:17:01 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Of course there was. It wasn’t expansive but it was there.


198 posted on 06/29/2017 6:22:37 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: DoodleDawg; jeffersondem; RegulatorCountry; freedomjusticeruleoflaw; central_va; rockrr

The civil war should be remembered as the most embarrassing chapter in American history, where a collection of planter oligarchs unhappy with the results of a fair and democratic election, attempted through overt acts of treason to undermine our democracy and in the process unleashed the most destructive war in the United States’ history, all in an attempt to establish a new Republic founded solely to preserve and protect an institution that kept millions of Americans in chains.


199 posted on 06/29/2017 6:26:45 AM PDT by OIFVeteran
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To: Bull Snipe

“...and that no state could take any action to end the practice. That is why the “State Rights” argument is pure Male Bovine Scat.”

Could you provide the wording of the issue you cite?


200 posted on 06/29/2017 6:36:37 AM PDT by PeaRidge
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