Re: Civil War arguments
 

I can't believe so much sympathy is given to a group of rebels that chose to wage war on our country. Disgusting.

Re: Civil War arguments
 

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I would also say that the North legally had the right to conquer the south after a secession, for the same reasons that the south could secede.

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Where does the right of conquest come from?

How can you argue that, essentially, one group has a right to free association on the one hand, and then immediately turn around and say another group has a right to subjugate that group?

Re: Civil War arguments
 

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I can't believe so much sympathy is given to a group of rebels that chose to wage war on our country. Disgusting.

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Uh, the north waged war against the south.

Re: Civil War arguments
 

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So, thoughts?

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Republicans proclaiming their sympathy for the Confederacy -- how utterly predictable.


q/q

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What Republicans?

Re: Civil War arguments
 

I would normally write a detailed answer, but after yesterday's hissy fit about governments, I am going to write a simple one.


Machineguns, bomber planes, and tanks give people the right to do anything they want. In the case of the Civil War: muskets, cannons, and horses. Do you see why?

Re: Civil War arguments
 

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I would normally write a detailed answer, but after yesterday's hissy fit about governments, I am going to write a simple one.


Machineguns, bomber planes, and tanks give people the right to do anything they want. In the case of the Civil War: muskets, cannons, and horses. Do you see why?

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No, sorry, I don't see why.

Re: Civil War arguments
 

Sounds like might makes right is his argument.

Re: Civil War arguments
 

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Here is some incriminating evidence as to Lincoln's true motives.

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"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388.


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You cannot seriously be suggesting that the topical meaning here reveals Lincoln's true motives. Lincoln was the most gifted orater of his time, and maybe the most gifted orater in American History. His motives are QUITE unclear in an open letter... that is a letter to Horace Greely sent to a bunch of newspapers. Read the Lincoln Douglas debates.... He says some things that would make most of us blush...but then again he was running for President and had to campaign in Slave States too, which is why Lincoln's message varries a lot based on his audience. But to think that emancipation of all slaves in America was not high up on Lincoln's list is just absurd....According to that argument, the South must have just made a big blunder in seceding... the leaders must have been the stupidest people on the planet.... "You mean you wouldn't have made us give up slavery... We just wasted over 300 thousand of our most fit men...Woops...I'm sorry...my bad...yeah, really fealing guilty about that one" Not all that plausible IMHO, especailly coming from the party whose whole rease to be was to end slavery.

Re: Civil War arguments
 

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I can't believe so much sympathy is given to a group of rebels that chose to wage war on our country. Disgusting.

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Uh, the north waged war against the south.

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Technically yes, but that doesn't dissuade me from my point. Not to mention that the South drew first blood.

Re: Civil War arguments
 

I think that it is clear that the South had a right to secede, simply because there was no consitutional prohibition of same. But it is also clear that there was a moral imperative to end slavery in which the North had also been complicit to some degree. Nevertheless, it is clear from reading about the lives of many southern military leaders, including Lee, that they did not like slavery but were also unwilling to fight against their native states. We today in the US have a far greater sense of federal unity than citizens living in either the North or South in 1860 did.

"This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."
-Abraham Lincoln