Posted on 04/05/2005 11:27:48 AM PDT by Crackingham
Confederate heritage groups got excited when Gov. Bob Riley's annual proclamation designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month dropped a paragraph saying slavery was the cause of the Civil War. The groups were pleased because they consider that description of slavery historically inaccurate. Their excitement, however, was short lived.
"It was a mistake," said Jeff Emerson, the governor's communications director, on Monday. He said he did not know how the mistake was made.
Emerson said the governor was unaware of the deletion until The Associated Press contacted his office. The governor quickly reissued the proclamation with the paragraph on slavery restored, and posted it on his Web site.
"That makes Bob Riley look very inconsistent and inept," said Roger Broxton, president of the Confederate Heritage Fund.
State Rep. Oliver Robinson, House chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, was pleased that Riley withdrew the version of the proclamation that makes no mention of slavery.
"To me, the members of the Black Caucus, and the majority of black citizens of Alabama that would be a disgrace," he said.
For many years, Alabama governors have signed proclamations designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. When Riley became governor in January 2003, he used the same proclamation as his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman.
It contained a paragraph that says "Our recognition of Confederate history also recognizes that slavery was one of the causes of the war, an issue in the war, was ended by the war, and slavery is hereby condemned... "
Here's how it worked. "King Cotton" was the largest revenue-generator for the ante-bellum Federal government of a primarily agrarian society. Since the Revolution, Federal revenue was raised through taxation (tariffs) on American goods sold to foreign markets (exports) and on foreign goods sold to Americans (imports). This practice aided northeastern industrialists (price supports for manufactured goods made and sold within the US) at the expense of southern farmers (slaveholders who needed field hands for growing and processing cotton sold to European mills). Over time, the population of the northeastern states overtook the southern states, setting up an imbalance in Congressional representation. Since the southern farmers paid most of the taxes, they were appalled at the direction governmental policy took (heavy tariffs and abolitionism)in opposition to their economic interests. After many attempts to reconcile these conflicting positions, the southerners simply gave up and left the United States compact, creating their own Confederate States in the interests of preserving their freedom. The institution of slavery was only one item in the list of grievances the southerners had with the Federal government.
Well, I think that listing it as ONE of the causes is accurate......hopefully you don't include me in your "moonbat" group :)
I consider McPherson and Catton in the same category.
Idiots.
"Surely."
You know, it's entirely possible you're correct. It's also entirely possible that my college professors "processed" the information for a general studies class. (I am an engineer, not a historian). It's also possible my memory is faulty, but at least I'm willing to listen and be educated. This information isn't essential for my work, nor my daily life, but I am curious, and like to know facts, not someone's version of the truth.
What seems certain is that you have a very arrogant and condescending way about you.
I can be educated on this topic. As for you, well, you have a much steeper hill to climb.
Ditto, I'm impressed with your knowledge of this. Do you have any suggestions if I wanted to research this on my own at a later time?
"...you need to understand that tariffs, under the US Constitution, can not be and have never been applied to exports, from the South or anywhere else."
Simply wrong.
Which all goes to show that you don't know your history. As already stated on this thread, American tariff rates at the time secession began were at an all-time low and had gotten there thanks in large part to Southern political support. So you'd have us believe that the South started breaking away from the rest of the nation at a time when the tariffs they wanted were the law of the land. I'm constantly baffled that people get these oddball notions that tariffs led to the Civil War. Apparently, these are the people who don't read their history. Instead, they prefer to just make up nonsense out of thin air.
From ditto:
"...you need to understand that tariffs, under the US Constitution, can not be and have never been applied to exports, from the South or anywhere else. They are only applied to imports..."
From bowzer313:
"...Federal revenue was raised through taxation (tariffs) on American goods sold to foreign markets (exports)..."
Ok, I'm confused.
"...you need to understand that tariffs, under the US Constitution, can not be and have never been applied to exports, from the South or anywhere else."
Simply wrong.
I just asked about this! Thanks. So, if you are correct, even though I didn't study 40 years of conflict and legislation, I was more correct on this point than fellow freeper ditto?
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery - "
Wow, thanks for the research. It certainly casts a different light on what I thought I knew.
One thing I do know, now: The Civil War is misunderstood, and not taught very well in our schools and universities.
US Constitution
Article I, Section 9:
Clause 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
I couldn't tell you where to begin, but another poster recommended McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" as a start --- One volume, easy read, that touches on the political, social and economic dynamics that lead to war, followed by a good overview of the war itself, and the tragedies the war visited on both sides. (Just as a note, McPhearson is literally hated by the more "passionate" Neo-confederates. They will tell you he is a Communist, and it is true that he is a particularly far-out lefty academic, but I considered this book to be very "fair and balanced" and in fact devoid of sectional favoritism as far as I can see. From there, if you are still interested, go the Shelby Foote for greater detail.
"Export taxes are unconstitutional. See the following:
US Constitution
Article I, Section 9:
Clause 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State."
Excellent! And that is what I like most about this place. I learn stuff here.
Thank you.
The States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa, by solemn legislative enactments, have deliberately, directly or indirectly violated the 3rd clause of the 2nd section of the 4th article [the fugitive slave clause] of the federal constitution, and laws passed in pursuance thereof; thereby annulling a material provision of the compact, designed by its framers to perpetuate the amity between the members of the confederacy and to secure the rights of the slave-holding States in their domestic institutions-- a provision founded in justice and wisdom, and without the enforcement of which the compact fails to accomplish the object of its creation. Some of those States have imposed high fines and degrading penalties upon any of their citizens or officers who may carry out in good faith that provision of the compact, or the federal laws enacted in accordance therewith.
In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color-- a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States.
For years past this abolition organization has been actively sowing the seeds of discord through the Union, and has rendered the federal congress the arena for spreading firebrands and hatred between the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States.
By consolidating their strength, they have placed the slave-holding States in a hopeless minority in the federal congress, and rendered representation of no avail in protecting Southern rights against their exactions and encroachments.
They have proclaimed, and at the ballot box sustained, the revolutionary doctrine that there is a 'higher law' than the constitution and laws of our Federal Union, and virtually that they will disregard their oaths and trample upon our rights.
They have for years past encouraged and sustained lawless organizations to steal our slaves and prevent their recapture, and have repeatedly murdered Southern citizens while lawfully seeking their rendition.
They have invaded Southern soil and murdered unoffending citizens, and through the press their leading men and a fanatical pulpit have bestowed praise upon the actors and assassins in these crimes, while the governors of several of their States have refused to deliver parties implicated and indicted for participation in such offenses, upon the legal demands of the States aggrieved.
They have, through the mails and hired emissaries, sent seditious pamphlets and papers among us to stir up servile insurrection and bring blood and carnage to our firesides.
They have sent hired emissaries among us to burn our towns and distribute arms and poison to our slaves for the same purpose.
They have impoverished the slave-holding States by unequal and partial legislation, thereby enriching themselves by draining our substance.
They have refused to vote appropriations for protecting Texas against ruthless savages, for the sole reason that she is a slave-holding State.
And, finally, by the combined sectional vote of the seventeen non-slave-holding States, they have elected as president and vice-president of the whole confederacy two men whose chief claims to such high positions are their approval of these long continued wrongs, and their pledges to continue them to the final consummation of these schemes for the ruin of the slave-holding States.
In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
Please tell brownsfan and myself where exports are or have been taxed.
Again, see the US Constitution, Article I, Section 9. EXPORTS ARE NOT TAXED!!!!!
And you go on to prove it. Sorry, slavery was the issue which caused the Civil War. Northerners, BTW, feared competition from slave labor about as much as they felt compassion for slaves.
The Republican Party was founded as the antislavery party and as soon as Lincoln was elected, Secession was assured.
"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable."
Very informative. It strikes me how offensive this is to read, and yet, it was an official, legal document. We don't always progress as fast as we'd like to, but it seems to me we've progressed beyond the point of putting together official documents of this type. Maybe there is hope for us?
"tariffs, under the US Constitution, can not be and have never been applied to exports, from the South or anywhere else"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.