Rising Hegemon
This coming April will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War.
So in addition to Ken Burns' the Civil War being released on Blu-Ray and being played in advance during a pledge drive it might be good to remember to not let history be sidetracked.
The cause of the Civil War was the determination of a group of wealthy elites that dominated the discourse and politics of a region of the country believed that they had a right to own and control a group of human beings of a different race and maintain -- nay -- spread such a policy in the nation to even more territory.
Period. End of Story.
Prettify, re-write, and/or deny it all you will but at it's heart that is what is was, and all it was about. There are few such clear things in history, if you are here to defend the South and deny it, than you have no greater punishment then living with a lie.
10 comments:
Wealth putting economic self interest before country. No wonder today's Republicans lurve them some Lost Cause.
Let's not sugar coat it. Republicans are anti-American.
but confederate shit is worth more cause there's less of it. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Isn't this happening again 150 years later..elites "owning" the rest of us as we work at 2 jobs to make enough to shop at Walmart...the company store. If only we had the leadership of Lincoln to help us get back on track.
We had that kind of leadership thirty years ago, Anon -- his name was Carter, and we kicked his ass to the curb for Reaganomics.
Reaganomics didn't get passed with my vote. Agreed about Carter.
And that, of course is why Lincoln said this in his first inaugural address
"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."
You are so full of shit.
You can find the original Ordinances of Secession from Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas online. This is where these states laid down their reasons for seceding from the union. If you do a word search for "slave," "slavery," and similar words like "slaveholder," you'll get over 80 hits. Search for "taxes" (one of the reasons now given for secession), you'll get about a half-dozen matches. Look for "tariffs" and "states' rights" (two of the other after-the-fact reasons) and you get nothing.
But don't take my word for it. Here's Alexander Stephens, Jeff Davis' vice-president, contradicting Jefferson's view of slavery as a violation of the laws of nature:
"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth."
The past isn't dead. It's not even past. Wm. Faulkner
vox
I have been involved with ACW discussion on the Internet for 18 years, starting with list serv and moving on to various web sites. The bullshit excuses are the same (see Lincoln quote above as example) The truth is always obvious, straight forward and unimpeachable. But the same morons make the same stupid arguments over and over. Like the teabaggers Southron apologists ignore the truth, discard the evidence and fabricate their own reality.
a group of wealthy elites that dominated the discourse and politics of a region
With the active support, let's not forget, of millions of authoritarian-follower, willfully-stupid, parochial tribal goobers who barely had a pot to piss in, let alone to ever own slaves, because they desperately needed someone below them on the heirarchy to hate rather than face the fact that they were poor white trash being mercilessly exploited by the elites.
Thank FSM there's no political dynamic like that in this country anymore.
Post a Comment