Monday, April 11, 2011
Civl War Anniversary--some thoughts
As we start the 150th anniversary of American’s greatest tragedy, some straight-talking quotes from a self-described southerner and historian.
“Today, a new battle for history is being waged, with political conservatives casting the Civil War as a struggle against Big Government, with only tangential connections to slavery. These neo-Confederates contend that one can honor the South’s heritage without condoning its institutionalized racism. But as a historian and as a Southerner, I believe that is a losing cause. Without what our seventh vice president, John C. Calhoun, called the South’s “peculiar domestic institution,” there would have been no Civil War. There can be no revision of this inescapable reality. . . .
At such a charged moment, we must remember our nation’s history fully, not selectively. If we truly want to be faithful stewards of the past, Americans need to recall what the war was about: slavery and the definition of human liberty. And the Civil War’s true legacy is not about Big Government or today’s political skirmishing—it’s about a nation’s obligation to live up to the best part of itself. Slavery was an evil, and it had to be defeated.”
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The southern cause was about states' rights verses the union's stronger centralized power. Slavery, on the other hand, was an evil institution that was rightfully challenged and nearing its end. I'm convinced slavery was practiced on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, with Yankee owners proving stealthier out of necessity. Fact is, the nation's capitol was built by forced slave labor.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. It was about state's rights to maintain slavery, and fear that the feds would outlaw it. Even if slavery was maintained on both sides, slaves built the capitol, etc. that doesn't change anything. IMHO, without the slavery issue, there would have been no civil war. The controversy over slavery was a sine qua non of the Civil War. I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
ReplyDeleteIn his "cornerstone" speech of Mar. 21, 1861, CSA Vice-President Alexander Stephens conceded that slavery was the cause of the Civil War.
ReplyDelete"The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions—African slavery as it exists among us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away... Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it—when the "storm came and the wind blew, it fell."
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech
I've personally heard and witnessed the racist attitudes from all socioeconomic levels in the deep south. This outward cultural display, however, was mirrored by a vicious undercurrent racism up north.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of southerns' thinking at the time was not about a desire to preserve slavery, but rather of not being compensated for what they considered private property. For this reason I'll agree, the fight was over the ownership of human livestock. It's a disgustingly intolerable legacy that was not uniquely southern.
44: Thanks for the comment. Racism is not unique to any group. No group, not even minorities, is totally free from prejudices of various sorts about other groups of human beings. It is a pox which effects all. This is one of the great curses of homo sapiens.
ReplyDeleteWe pass through our lives engaged in a series of behavior rental agreements (jobs), whereupon we elect to perform certain duties in return for compensation. The theft of that right was/is an abomination against humanity and those who stole it were evil men engaged in the worst manifestation of greed in the history of our nation. Any sugarcoating of this horror story is unacceptable and the "glass houses" argument is a patronizing con.
ReplyDeleteNo patronizing here Sir. You've just defined our country's founding fathers as "evil men". Please be careful when throwing the next rock.
ReplyDeleteI'll throw that rock at anyone who earns it . . . "founding father" is no free pass for amoral deeds.
ReplyDelete