Card #1: The War was fought over slavery.
Card #2: Lincoln freed the slaves.
Card #3: End of Story – Any Questions?
Well, yes. Wars are not fought over other peoples’ labor systems. They are fought over the control of energy resources. May we bring up the flash cards for Algebraic Equations and apply them to a comparison between England’s War to Prevent Colonial Independence in 1776 and the United States’ War to Prevent Confederate States’ Independence in 1861? Please pay attention as we develop these cards, which will be based upon an understanding of Mercantilism as an economic system for the control of energy resources.
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#1 - Myth - 'honest' Abe stated clearly that he would do whatever was necessary to 'preserve' the Union, including allowing slavery.
ReplyDelete#2 Abe only 'freed' the slaves in the South and waited nearly 2 years to do so. useless grant didn't free his slaves (up north) until well after the war was over.
"Nuff said.
:)
DeleteTime for the Prozac, guys. Here's a cup for your drool.
ReplyDeleteThe official fiction is cited as for the causes of Civil War, does give comfort, a sense of moral superiority and a comfortable lie that it was a "righteous and just" war by the North to free the slaves from those evil, racist, backwards Southerners. The reality is not so two dimensional and simplistic. Nations go to war for more or less the same reasons that people are willing to murder other people. A willingness to commit murder in order to steal what the other guy has. Or a desire to have power and control over another man's life and property.
ReplyDeleteEconomics is a boring and difficult to understand topic for most people especially if you start talking theories and stats. Nobody (aka the experts) are going to willing admit that the real reason for the North invading the South was economic in nature. Industrialist, bankers, and the Federal government were not going to lose large sums of money by letting the South leave the Union. All wars are banker's wars. Still there is the need to maintain the official fiction that we send our young men off to war for noble and heroic reasons. BS
Freeing the (negro) slaves was a worthy thing to do. Yes, slavery is evil. But, there are those details of just how do you propose to do it, and have you thought through the possible consequences. There is thing called unintended consequences. And there is the thing called NIMBY; Not In My Back Yard. Free the Negro! But keep him away from MY neighborhood. Nor can I imagine all those "niggers" who were former slaves suddenly having a deep love and appreciation for "whitey" who thought keeping them as slaves was a good idea. It is easy to speak about doing the right and moral thing, until it means YOU will lose large sums of money.
Lincoln's well know speech, while beautiful in wording is pure nonsense when you stop to think about it. Why was the South forced at gun point, and waged war upon to be forced to remain in "the Union", if Lincoln really did believe in the notion of "government by the people, for the people"? A more consistent and logical action would have been to let the Southern States leave the Union and let them form their own separate country (CSA). And to hold out the offer for any state to rejoin the Union should they change their minds. But certain interests would have lost large sums of money and the federal government would have lost a source of tax monies. That left the federal government with only one course of action. Time honored. Wage war and lie about the reason for waging war. We in our present day have to continue to perpetuate the official narrative as to the causes and reason for the Civil War. To question the official line would mean asking some very difficult questions. All hell would break lose if people were to ask the what if: What if The South did have the right to secede from the Union? What if Lincoln was wrong for invading the South? What if there was no justification for that war? What if slavery in the USA was already a doomed institution and it was only a matter of how soon it would be abolished?
Wars are very messy affairs. The victors are not quite the good guys as they like to paint themselves as and will have things they would rather not talk about. The defeated, they not quite the bad guys are they are portrayed.
Thank you and agreed.
DeleteThat's a great Lincoln quote. Power corrupts.
ReplyDeleteLord Acton.
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