Posted on 03/05/2008 6:38:02 PM PST by Rebeleye
Does the Confederate battle flag represent heritage or hatred? The answer is yes. It represents a heritage that included hatred.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.mywebpal.com ...
But the Southern states did not avail themselves of that legal way of leaving. So their actions were a rebellion.
Or if you still insist that it was a rebellion, then the term “ War for Southern Independence” would apply.
Perhaps. Certainly more so than "War of Northern Aggression" would.
The threat was to the expansion of slavery into the territories, and Lincoln's speeches and the 1860 Republican platform make their opposition to that abundantly clear. None of the Republican leaders were under any illusions that they could end slavery in states where it existed any time soon. The need for a constitutional amendment to accomplish that made it impossible. But they did believe that the flawed Dred Scott decision could be overturned and would certainly had worked towards doing that.
The south chose independence and that’s when the hostilities began.
Hostilities began when the confederacy chose to bombard Sumter. Prior to that there had been no hostile acts on the part of the federal government.
If you believe “Honest Abe Lincoln”, he stated as much 16 months after the initiation of the conflict.
Stated what?
If someone claimed that the Cherokee nation was moved off their land and placed on a reservation, in order to free the slaves, it would seem to make it a noble cause but it would not make the assertion true. Freeing the slaves was not an official goal of the north until the emancipation proclamation; 20 months after the onset of war. Abraham Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery but officially he expressed a strong desire to maintain the union as it was. I don’t know how much clearer he could be, as he was in his letter to Horace Greeley, as I have cited earlier.
“The Stars and Stripes flew over slavery for 80 years before the Rebel Flag was ever conceived. Shall we get rid of that, too?”
Perfect. That ought to be the final word on this subject.
Please refer to his letter to Horace Greeley as cited earlier.
And I never said it was. But in your original post you questioned the claim that the war was about slavery. I'm merely pointing out that from the Union perspective it was not about slavery and never was about slavery. But from the confederate perspective it certainly was.
As a general rule, I don’t use that term (even though my Great-Grandma did), because it is meant to be insulting, just like “War of the Rebellion” is insulting to me.....
I think that the proper statement would be that “to the majority of the Confederate Leadership, slavery was the main issue”.....not to the average citizen or soldier.
Respectfully, I must disagree. The mess we are in now is living proof it DOESN’T work.
Spare me...
I must admit you have a very good point. Perhaps if were still done the way it was intended.
Notwithstanding the faults and failures of our nation, the United States of America is the country that more people are trying to enter then leave. I think that says a lot.
then leave = than leave
It was the confederate leadership that took the average citizen or soldier to war to begin with.
Spill chick want ketch awl miss takes.
Where to begin? The number you're looking for is 3/5ths. There were few if any black votes in those days. It was a matter of slave states getting representation based on the number of all free persons + 3/5ths of "other persons" (that is slaves).
And as a compromise the measure was proposed by Northerners to appease Southerners, especially Georgians and South Carolinians who might have walked out if they only were allocated Representatives based on their free White population. It wasn't that the Northerners were trying to force anything on the South.
The ONLY reason that slavery was an issue AT ALL was because of the sanctions and tariffs the North forced on the South.
And that's nonsense as well. Some historians have argued that the reverse was true: that anti-tariff agitation was a result of concern about preserving slavery. We don't have to go that far, though.
Slavery was a live issue then, and there was much support for it in the South. Many Southerners worried about whether slavery and White supremacy could survive. In some states one couldn't even discuss abolition publicly or distribute abolitionist literature.
So obviously slavery was an issue in 19th century America. Indeed, for some time, slavery, its survival and its expansion were the issue.
Right, I'm sure they were all up in arms about all that in 1860. Try looking at history with the eyes of the people who actually made it.
No it was in fact the States exercising their right to separate themselves from a Union that no longer represented their interests. That’s a secession not a rebellion.
integral....sorry
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.