A review of With Malice Toward Some: Treason and Loyalty in the Civil War Era by William A. Blair (University of North Carolina Press, 2014) and Secession on Trial: The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis by Cynthia Nicoletti (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Was the act of secession in 1860-61 treason? This is one of the more important and lasting questions of the War. If so, then the lenient treatment of Confederate officers, political figures, and even the soldiers themselves following the War was a great gesture of magnanimity by a conquering foe never seen in the annals of Western Civilization. If not, then the entire War was an illegal and unconstitutional invasion of a foreign government with the express objective of maintaining a political community by force, an act that represented the antithesis of the American belief in self-government regardless of Abraham Lincoln’s professed admiration for government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
More @ The Abbeville Institute
No, indeed not. Secession is a 10th Amendment power and a natural right. Congress was unbalanced and the Republican party dominated every decision. Lincoln's election secured that for the next four or most possibly eight years. Lincoln did in fact, support secession years prior to his election, yet he then made an order to arrest several politicians after they made stands for the constitutionality of secession. The North benefitted from the high tariffs they imposed upon the South, but the South had no chance to reduce these tariffs to a beneficial amount. They fought for the rights given to them by their states and by their constitution. How about our founding fathers? If they were not for secession, we would not be a separate country, but luckily, they were for secession. We seceded from the English Empire and became independent states who then called themselves The Confederacy until we ratified the Articles of Confederation and then the constitution. Also, before ratifying the constitution, three states out of the first thirteen reserved the right to secede.
ReplyDeleteNot only was joining the Union voluntary by vote, you did't
have to stay in the Union. Gov aggression is the problem. Git er' done.
Lincoln did in fact, support secession years prior to his election,
DeleteThanks and I remember that.
Your comment was so good, that I copied it and posted it on my FACEBOOK page (i.e., "https://www.facebook.com/writesong"), along with a copy of that "Wanted Poster" of Abraham Lincoln.
DeleteThanks but I didn't see it....?
DeleteYou have to scroll down the page, as I have a lot of stuff posted there.
DeleteI'll leave it alone for a while, as this morning, I'll be keeping a scheduled appointment at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they'll put me in a room overnight at the Ramada Inn.
It's a three-hour drive from here, through the mountains, with heavy snowfall all the way.
No, I no longer drive.
A guy from my ward in The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the "Mormon" church) generously volunteers to take me there and back.
So, I won't be back home until Tuesday night.
As you scroll down my FACEBOOK page, please enjoy looking at all the other interesting, patriotic, and humorous items that I've posted.
Thanks and what did you do with your truck?
DeleteIsn't that what Reagan stated that government isn't the solution
ReplyDeleteto our problems but gov is the problem for our problems or something like that.
See ya............
Good memory.
Delete