Posted on 12/22/2002 7:56:45 AM PST by GeneD
After the "emancipation proclamation" 2,000 yankee officers and 30,000 enlisted men left the federal army. They did not sign up to "free the slaves" and when Lincoln & Co. tried to turn the war into just that, the troops started defecting.
Besides that, the emanciplation proclamation did not free any slaves north of the Mason Dixon line (or below it for that matter). Wonder if the revised history of the Gettysburg park will mention that?
What use are these? I imagine they are completely unPC- let's just burn them and save some space.
And where the capitol building was being built by slaves.
That's what I asked. But of course the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as well as the Supreme Court's Bob Jones decision, shows that sometimes it doesn't matter whether something is public or private.
The existence of hard-core secessionist sentiment predating and even trying to precipitate Lincoln's election indicates that secession in many states was more than just a defensive reaction to the election and Lincoln's policies. The ground was being prepared for years in advance.
One certainly can -- and probably ought to -- distinguish between the first wave of secessions and the last which did have more of a reactive character. Doing so indicates that Southerners, like Northerners, were far from united about what to do. But to leave enthusiastic secessionism and radical Southern nationalism out of the picture is to miss an essential element.
Don't forget the draft riots in NYC. Seems to me that started up about that same time, and for the same reason.
Besides that, the emancipation proclamation did not free any slaves north of the Mason Dixon line (or below it for that matter).
Technically, it purported to free only those slaves in areas not then under federal control. Areas which were (and a number of them are specifically enumerated therein) were excluded.
The EP totally failed to impress the leaders of the British Government, one of whom was heard to remark that Lincoln was abolishing slavery only in those places where he had no authority to do it, while preserving it within his own jurisdiction. But it found traction enough with the British public, and the Government eventually came to heel. That was the point, after all.
When the Upper South refused to secede, Lincoln had in fact won a huge political victory, as Seward, unlike Lincoln, realized. But Lincoln proceeded to throw that victory away. The Lower South was not in a position to make a go of it, economically. Had the Lower South been allowed to secede peacefully -- as Seward and many others wanted -- it would probably have had to sue for readmission to the Union inside a short time.
The war, which ended up costing 600,000 lives, was thus unnecessary, and only ended up being precipitated by Lincoln's hasty actions, which were just bad statesmanship -- Lincoln totally misunderstood what Southern Unionism meant. The Southern Unionists opposed secession, but they were totally unwilling to use force to compel seceding states to stay within the Union.
You must have the same response software as Walt.
My point is in short - I don't believe this BS about "Southern bias" at the National Parks. My son visits Gettysburg a lot, I'm going to email this Reuters article to him and will be interested to get his take on it.
The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination – that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.
Well, you can surely understand why the powers that be don't like that.
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.