Posted on 01/04/2008 4:44:38 PM PST by Graybeard58
Before the Civil War, some in New Jersey did not share the North's anti-slavery sentiments, and as a major producer of textiles, the state had strong economic ties with the South. At the same time, the state had an extensive Underground Railroad system and backed a strong federal government.
But once the fighting started, New Jersey supported preserving the union and abolishing slavery. More than 88,000 residents fought for the North, and more than 6,000 died in combat. The state contributed 56 infantry, cavalry and militia regiments and five artillery units to the war effort. Munitions plants in Camden and Patterson helped keep the Union military well supplied. New Jersey regiments were in more battles than those of any other state during the war. The 33rd Infantry marched with Gen. William T. Sherman through the heart of the Confederacy. Reasonable people would agree New Jersey did more than its share to end slavery.
Yet none of this matters to the politically correct of today. Deputy Assembly Majority Leader William Payne has sponsored a bill to make New Jersey the first former Union state to apologize for slavery. But Rep. Richard Merkt, R-Randolph, said it best when he observed: "Who living today is guilty of slave-holding and thus capable of apologizing for the offense? And who living today is a former slave and thus capable of accepting the apology? So how is a real apology even remotely possible, much less meaningful?"
Rep. Payne's disrespectful measure ignores how New Jersey paid for its slavery sins with copious blood and sweat from 1861-65. His bill is unworthy of serious consideration.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
Speaking for myself, I’d like to apologize to the Moabites and the Edomites. I’d like to apologize to the Philistines for smoting their big gorilla Samson in what was obviously an unfair fight against a technologically savvy opponent. I’d like to apologize to the Egyptians for drowning them in the Red Sea - I mean, if it wasn’t for our God, they wouldn’t have been forced to chase us across the desert. I’d also like to apologize for the plagues, especially the frogs. I’d like to apologize to the Babylonians for not just accepting their kind offer of houses and farmland. I’d like to apologize to the Samaritans - they really never got a break. I’d like to apologize to the Romans. I mean, all we had to do is stick a big marble head of some politician in the temple. What’s the problem there? Finally, I’d like to apologize to every ethnic group and nation who has been hurt in any manner and method by my ancestors since the creation of the universe. In fact, I’ll apologize forward to any ethnic group or nation who could be harmed or might be harmed by any action, decision, or judgment made by anyone related to me at any moment until the universe is a cold black void.
Are we finally OK with that?
“Who is guilty?”
The simple truth is that everyone who was guilty, or innocent, or victimized by slavery is long dead. Dead. And returned to dust. Why can’t they get that? Are they so desperate for issues to get their panties in a wad over that they have to dredge up what’s been over and done with for more than a century and a half?
Do you suppose that's where Hercules got it's start?
Having read the Constitution many times I have never found anything that says a state cannot depart from the Union. So if this is true why was there a war in the first place that killed over 600,000 solders and who knows how many civilians. If the war was only to free the slaves then one could say any war to free people in the hands of slave keepers is justified. But I see no writing in the Constitution that says a state cannot leave if it wants to. Since that time the Constitution has been second and is going down to third as the Judges take over and pass laws that the Constitution said they could never do.
didn’t a substantial portion of the Union army desert when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
Betcha find it in "interstate commerce" -- probably what they used to ban incandescent light bulbs.
The temperature of the water we frogs are sitting in is rising...
I'm not that "up" on Civil War history but just saying the words "Civil War" on a thread will usually bring in all the experts you want.
Don’t confuse these nutsos with facts. ;)
This apology will them feel good about themselves and that’s all that matters to them.
Nope! As long as race-baiters who benefit by pointing out at the top of their lungs that slavery existed, it will never be enough. Reparations?? If it happens, it will all be spent up and more will be demanded.
It’s simply politics. After apology comes reparations. If people don’t know this, they’re not paying attention. They will wind up paying their hard-earned money to people with tenuous relations to former slaves.
“Having read the Constitution many times I have never found anything that says a state cannot depart from the Union. So if this is true why was there a war in the first place that killed over 600,000 solders and who knows how many civilians.”
This was precisely the question that brought about the war. The Consitituion was silent on the subject. However Lincoln, as well as the majority of U.S. citizens in the North and a large minority in the South , believed that secession, as preached by the Upper Class Southerners, would be the death-knell to the existence of the United States as a sovereign nation.
I know this is a sore point for many of our Southern brethren, but if a state can simply vote itself out of the Union of States by a simple majority vote - then the United States would soon cease to exist. It would become another Europe with each state being essentially an independent country. In fact, during the war, there were some Southern states that considered “seceding” from the Confederacy because of some laws passed by the Confederate Congress (conscription, etc.)that they didn’t like. Once you allow this idea to become legal - then the country would always be in danger of disunion because what state hasn’t gotten upset with the the Federal Government at some point?
Don’t get me wrong, I greatly admire the bravery, courage, and tenacity demonstrated by the Southern people during the war. I even empathize with some of their concerns with the Federal Government. But, secession could not be tolerated by any nation that wanted to continue to exist. There are a lot of arm-chair strategists who claim that Lincoln could have avoided the war if only he had done this or that - but, the truth is, what happened when the Southern states seceeded was a huge castastrope. Lincoln had no choice but to act.
I know Lincoln gets demonized by many people and I don’t want to get into that whole discussion. All I am saying is that if the South had avoided secession, I think we would be a much stronger nation today. The Federal government wouldn’t be as strong as it is and the states would still retain much of their power that was lost during the war. Once war begins, particularly a civil war, all bets are off on what is “legal”. Lincoln did, right or wrong, what he felt he had to do in order to win the war and retain the Union.
So, to answer your question YOUGOTIT, you are right that the Constitution does not prohibit secession. As mentioned before, it was silent about that issue. Common sense would seem to say that allowing it would be to provide the means for national suicide. That was the question that the Civil War sought to answer.
It matters not what NJ or anyone in it did in 1861. No one alive should be taking blame or credit for what happened.
This is another testament to the monumental egos of liberals if they think they can do so.
IMO though, that doesn’t apply to libs in this case. This is simple pandering, nothing more. White libs are sitting in the back rooms of their exclusive clubs laughing their asses off that any black person takes this apology baloney as heartfelt.
When will they get their justice/reparations?
Personally, I am indisposed to apologize for anything that happened so far before I was born that I don’t know anyone who ever knew anyone who ever knew anyone else who had anything to do with it one way or the other. I also do not know anyone who will be better off for being apologized to for something they did not experience, nor know anyone who did. This kind of legislation is just the sort of crap that legislators nowadays favor so they can pretend to be doing something worthwhile for the money they are paid, instead of taking on the sort of problems and challenges that good government ought to consider. At the moment, the main body of persons who deserve an apology from government are the citizens it spends so much time indelicately screwing, and not some bunch of people from long ago and far away who won’t even twitch in their graves no matter what government does now.
It could not have nearly as strong a fe'ral government as it does now, certainly, but why would it not be possible for the U.S. to hold together with a limited government like the one it was supposed to have in the first place?
“didn’t a substantial portion of the Union army desert when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation?”
Nope.
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