I truly enjoy studying the history of the cause of the Civil War. My claim to fame on the subject is while I was in college, I rented an apartment in the home of the grand daughter of Governor Thomas Moore. His official portrait hung over her fireplace. I spent a lot of time sitting with her listening to her stories, which were quite fascinating. I wish I knew then what I know now as I would have taped her and captured all of her memories. I never knew her exact age but she was probably somewhere in her 90’s when she died. The home was beautiful, on Audubon Park in New Orleans, I hated leaving there but after she died her kids (who never came to see her) sold everything. They were in their 60’s and you could tell they were thrilled she was gone because they were finally able to inherit her money, which was quite a bit I might add.
The pertinent aspect to what happened back then is wether the Constitution was adhered to or not. I believe it was not and you believe it was. If the Federal government had prosecuted Jefferson Davis on the crimes he was charged with the issue would have been answered but he was not prosecuted. There are a number of sources who were intimately involved with the case back then that claim the government chose not to try him as there was a very strong possibility that they would lose the case. Just for academic sake, imagine that Davis was found not guilty of treason because it was not unconstitutional to secede.
I don’t think I have ever heard anyone refer to what occurred as regime change, no State tried to change the regime of the United States.
Prior to the firing on Ft. Sumter, the majority of Tennessee was against secession, afterward, it past by 108,339 votes for secession to 47,233 against secession. Eastern Tennessee was against it, the rest of the state was for it. Georgia voted for secession, there are claims there were voting irregularities in some counties. Keep in mind that the Constitution of the US was barely approved in many of the states, with only 5 having a super majority.
I am not for or against the north or the south in this conflict. I do however believe that these events started us down the path that we find ourselves on today where the Constitution is regularly disregarded and its’ meanings so twisted and perverted that no Founder, if brought back to life today would believe he was in the United States.
Well said!
Well said indeed! That is my position exactly!
Tennessee might well have reversed itself in the post Sumter 2nd election. But the process was so irregular, I believe that we cannot know for sure. With an alien army, the CSA, already invited in and widespread voter intimidation in the more slavery-oriented regions, there is cause to doubt. But no matter how the people would have voted in a free election, it was not for Governor Isham Harris and his political henchmen to disregard the February vote, the last vote on record, and take it upon themselves to invite the Confederacy to overrun the state.
I think the general lack of super majority support for Secession came back to haunt the CSA late in the war. The hardcore true believers of the Confederacy had volunteered early and tended to be sent to the immediately critical Virginia theater. The reluctant warriors tended to be more in the West and that's where the Confederacy fell apart while the do or die boys were still fighting for a stalemate in the long battle for Richmond. And the presence of a large unenthusiastic segment created a critical base for erosion of the general support for the war when the going got tough.
I think the disregard of the Constitution that you rightly decried would be a danger no matter what path Lincoln took. The heirs of the Confederacy, the southern Democrats of the New Deal era, were generally as much for intrusive government as anybody when they thought it could further their states.
It's a pleasure debating differing POVs with somebody who appreciates the history.