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re: Robert E. Lee has been misrepresented by regressive "historians"

Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:30 pm to
Posted by geauxbrown
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2006
19493 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:30 pm to
quote:

k no. States rights to own slaves.
Shut up with the states rights argument. It's 2017, grow up


How about the fact that Congress demanded that the south only sell its cotton and other raw materials to the North at under inflated prices?
How about that Congress taxed the south heavily on those sales?
Sure sounds a lot like why we broke away from Great Britain.

In the end, the South should have listened to Lincoln and not been so hasty to make war. By the outbreak, southern preachers were preaching pro war sermons, pointing out that Abraham, Jacob and others in the Bible all owned slaves. I believe that Lincoln did have a plan to slowly wean southern slave owners away from slavery and allow them to sell their goods at fair market prices. However, Congress had no interest in listening to the south or trying to help the south.
Posted by mizzoubuckeyeiowa
Member since Nov 2015
35536 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:30 pm to
It was a cause, Ulysses S. Grant said, that “was, I believe, one of the worst for which people ever fought…”

The Confederate Constitution says expressly that slavery can NEVER be abolished. NEVER. It also decrees that any newly acquired territory is automatically slave territory.

And as for "State's rights" what hogwash.

States in the new Confederacy couldn't decide their own course.

“To the old Union they had said that the Federal power had no authority to interfere with slavery issues in a state. To their new nation they would declare that the state had no power to interfere with a federal protection of slavery.” - Historian William C. Davis

The Confederate constitution decrees that any newly acquired territory is automatically slave territory.
This post was edited on 5/22/17 at 5:31 pm
Posted by monsterballads
Make LSU Great Again
Member since Jun 2013
29267 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:38 pm to
quote:

There you go again, passing judgement on folks who lived and died over 150 years ago.



evil is evil no matter the timeline
Posted by monsterballads
Make LSU Great Again
Member since Jun 2013
29267 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:39 pm to
quote:

It is absurd to me that people have been taught that the Civil War was fought because of slavery.


read the declarations of secession from each state. it's pretty clear as to why each state decided to leave.
Posted by mizzoubuckeyeiowa
Member since Nov 2015
35536 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:47 pm to
quote:

read the declarations of secession from each state. it's pretty clear as to why each state decided to leave.


A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery– the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.

It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion

Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.


Just mind-boggling. Nobody wanted to get a redneck by actually working.
Posted by AUsteriskPride
Albuquerque, NM
Member since Feb 2011
18385 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:47 pm to
quote:

Lee was completely in it for states' rights. 100%.
He was fighting for Virginia. His personal decision had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery either way. As Virginia went, so went Lee.


C'mon man, argue it all you want, but it's common sense, you're going to do what will benefit you most financially. To do otherwise is illogical.

I don't understand the need to try and separate support for slavery and state's rights. Both can happen simultaneously, especially as it was a necessity for the financial security of many at the time.
Posted by KiwiHead
Auckland, NZ
Member since Jul 2014
27561 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:49 pm to
The North had a lot to answer for when it came to stoking Southern passions. Northern textile mills certainly liked the cheap price of Southern cotton at below market prices, but the big landowners were definitely not suffering in any way due to it.

What the North ended up objecting to ....the straw that broke the camel's back was the Fugitive Slave Law that basically gave Southern bounty hunters free range all over the country to retrieve runaway slaves. On its face it would seem not that big a deal...helping someone retrieve stolen or missing "property". The thing was, that it forced Northerners to actually be complicit in turning over slaves or face prison time. It forced the non slave states to enforce the bondage that they objected to. It led to nullification in places like Wisconsin .

Sometimes little things make big splashes and this was one of them
Posted by AUsteriskPride
Albuquerque, NM
Member since Feb 2011
18385 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:49 pm to
quote:

As did many union officers.


Did I infer anywhere in my post they didn't?
Posted by MrCarton
Paradise Valley, MT
Member since Dec 2009
20231 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:49 pm to
quote:

Hence why they seceded.


Another bullshite reply. I am shocked. You wonder why I emoji your bullshite.


quote:

Incorrect. It wasn't until the late-19th century that the Republican Party began to adopt this idea.

I do appreciate your ad hoc Wikipedia research though. Most impressive.



I wasn't talking about the republican party. I appreciate your assumption though. Most impressive...

quote:

And yet you agree with me that the North would have eventually legislated slavery out of existence with the admittance of the western territories as free states into the Union...


Slavery, in that form, will eventually be legislated out of every place on earth. Again, just more bullshite that doesn't challenge either of my points.

quote:

You are creating a complex narrative to avoid admitting a simple truth, that the south seceded for many political and economic reasons and lincoln was the personification of those issues.


quote:

Where have I ever avoided this truth? I merely stated that slavery was the primary cause of secession. Which it was.


Virtually every reply has been an avoidance of this truth. Before you know it, a confederate space program with the mission of colonizing mars for slavers will be the new "primary issue" of the confederacy. My contention was that with or without slavery, that conflict would have occurred, and I bolstered that statement by showing that the south could have kept slavery and stayed in the union, but chose against it. Then I explained why they would exit the union, suddenly and at great cost, despite having the option to take the most slaver friendly road possible. The one offered by Lincoln. The reasons are numerous, and are not merely extensions of the legal ownership of slaves.

Your rebuttal to that was that the south wanted to expand slavery in the future, so they left the union and started a war with a competing nation with the long-shot hope that they could compete with the much more powerful union for those regions. Of course that is a stretch by even a basic analysis. Even more so when one can read formal and informal documents outlining the much more pressing issues, complaints, and predictions of those living in the south. Many of which were realized days into Lincoln's presidency, during the war, and after the war. You haven't addressed any of those points, but instead chose to focus on the racism of a Georgia resident, and largely independent and extremely small scale incursions into south America. You ignored Georgia's formal letter outlining specific injustices against the slaveholding states and those not tied to seafaring and industrial interests. A huge portion of that document had nothing specifically to do with the rights of the slave owners and slave states, but general discontent with the aforementioned interests that could not be solved politically due to a large scale shift in political power in all three branches. A shift most obvious when Abe won office without appearing on the ballot of 10 southern states. You boil all of that down primarily to slavery, when the evidence is that slavery was one aspect of reason for secession.

quote:

Obviously the South can't expand westward once they have seceded. Hence why they had the Latin America plan in their back pocket. Once war was enjoined the dynamic changed. If they had come out on top there was a good possibility they could have held onto the Arizona territory as well as gained control of the New Mexico territories from the Union.


There is no possibility, because as you said, the dynamic changed in a very predictable way. As I argued, this "back pocket" plan was out of necessity AFTER they seceded, they did not secede in order to overtake South American geography, or to preserve slavery. To believe that this was the South's primary reason for secession is to ignore an enormous amount of other very important political and economic reasons, some of which I have already covered.
This post was edited on 5/22/17 at 5:51 pm
Posted by RandySavage
Member since May 2012
30851 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:55 pm to
quote:

Please explain


The Confederacy was trying to withdraw from the Union to run their states the way they saw fit.

Immigrants, the ones that get criticized, are trying to force their way in and take advantage of a system while refusing to respect the customs and values of the system they are using to get away from their own failing situations.

One trying to get out and be left alone, one trying to force their way in and be catered to. Pretty simple and big difference that should be easy to see.
Posted by JonTigerFan11
Member since May 2016
867 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 5:56 pm to
"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." -Abraham Lincoln
Posted by magildachunks
Member since Oct 2006
32482 posts
Posted on 5/22/17 at 6:01 pm to
quote:

One trying to get out and be left alone, one trying to force their way in and be catered to. Pretty simple and big difference that should be easy to see.


So...are Mexican descendants from territories won in Mexican-American war allowed to fly the Mexican flag without your judgement?

After all, it is their heritage.
Posted by Roaad
White Privilege Broker
Member since Aug 2006
76505 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 2:00 am to
quote:

Yes, but slavery was condemned in Lee's time.
Meh, by northerners.

Where Lee lived in VA, it wasn't really condemned.
Posted by Roaad
White Privilege Broker
Member since Aug 2006
76505 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 2:03 am to
quote:

still didn't make it moral
was it considered moral then, though?

I mean, on the cusp of the war the anti-slavery sentiment was probably getting pretty loud. . . But again, you are labeling something using modern morality.
Posted by WhiskeyPapa
Member since Aug 2016
9277 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 3:59 am to
quote:

The Union controlled the Ohio River from the beginning of the war and they also controlled Kentucky. The Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers both empty into the Ohio in Western Kentucky. Both rivers were navigable for more than half way upstream. For the Cumberland that was Nashville. For the Tennessee it was Florence/Muscle Shoals. When you can drop 40,000 men into Nashville close to the geographical center of the Confederacy with relative ease that should have alarmed Davis and Lee. When you could then float down the Tennessee o the Alabama/Tennessee/ Mississippi border and en move another 60,000 men into that area. It's a huge problem....add to it that Farragut is taking New Orleans at he same time, the South has a major problem and the battles in Virginia just become a needless but bloody exercise in futility.


Those are really good points. The insurgents held Nashville less than a year. Tennessee was exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation entirely because Union forces were all over it.

There is this myth about the Rebellion not at all grounded in facts. Far from "You fought all the way Johnny Reb," it was: "We could hardly keep you in ranks, Johnny Reb." As much as one quarter of Lee's army on the Incursion into Maryland was absent, straggling, or gone home. The Richmond government went to a Draft a full year before the Federals did. As much as 1/3 of the Rebel army were drafted and many reenlisted to avoid the ignominy of -being- drafted. It was hard for the rich planters to sell the poor whites on the idea -- " The government is trampling your rights!" And then draft them, or force them back into service after being paroled by the federals.

The rebs enlisted a bunch of guys for 12 months. They were not inclined to stay past that. They were forced to stay, arbitrarily reenlisted. The federals signed up many of the original lot for -3- years. So they had a big mass of guys, especially in the Army of the Potomac, many thousands, whose terms expired in the Summer of 1864. The bulk of them voluntarily reenlisted that summer and probably saved the country by doing so.


In late March 1865, Lee lost half his "ration strength" in ten days, from 60K to 30K. At the same time, rebel forces in North Carolina refused to leave the state.

The facts are not very comforting. I guess the myth is better.

Bruce Catton's monumental trilogy is still a great source.





This covers a lot of the social and economic factors along with a narrative of the fighting.
This post was edited on 5/23/17 at 4:09 am
Posted by WhiskeyPapa
Member since Aug 2016
9277 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 4:07 am to


You won't find any ignorant rant about "Export cotton taxes" in BCF. Ignorance is definitely bliss I guess.

Posted by WhiskeyPapa
Member since Aug 2016
9277 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 4:17 am to
quote:

Your rebuttal to that was that the south wanted to expand slavery in the future, so they left the union and started a war with a competing nation with the long-shot hope that they could compete with the much more powerful union for those regions. Of course that is a stretch by even a basic analysis.


Well, you know. One southerner can lick 10 Yankees, or 20!

The rebs made the same mistake the Imperial Japanese did. The Japanese overlooked the fact that by 1941 the United States had 10 new fast battleships being built and a dozen new Essex class carriers, later expanded to two dozen.

"The Yankees won't fight, so it won't be a problem."

Posted by WhiskeyPapa
Member since Aug 2016
9277 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 5:08 am to
quote:

I mean, on the cusp of the war the anti-slavery sentiment was probably getting pretty loud. . . But again, you are labeling something using modern morality.


By 1860, moral opinion around the world was flowing strongly against human chattel slavery. Except, to steal a phrase of Churchill's - in the abodes of the guilty.
Posted by NC_Tigah
Carolinas
Member since Sep 2003
123945 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 5:50 am to
quote:

I don't understand the need to try and separate support for slavery and state's rights. Both can happen simultaneously, especially as it was a necessity for the financial security of many at the time
Right. But this thread is not about that. Try as some might to conflate rationale of Virginia to secede vs Lee's rationale to remain loyal to his Virginia, this thread is about the latter.

In that regard, Lee well understood impact the war would have on his family financially. He also planned to free his own slaves in under two years. He did so early in the war, 2-3yrs before slaves in the North were released.

From a personal stance, Lee stood to benefit infinitely more by standing with the Union. Arlington would have remained his. He very likely would have been compensated for release of his slaves, rather than releasing them as he did in 1862 without compensation. He would have been elected President of the US, had he chosen to run at the end of Lincoln's tenure.
Posted by monsterballads
Make LSU Great Again
Member since Jun 2013
29267 posts
Posted on 5/23/17 at 7:20 am to
quote:

was it considered moral then, though?



of course not.

quote:

modern morality.


is a cop out.
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