Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Understanding The Civil War More Clearly

Outstanding. I wish I would have had you in one of my classes.

Sic semper (?)

Tyrannis?

always

Absolutely agree, and whenever I've said that slavery was the primary cause behind the Civil War, I meant the threat to the economics of slavery in regards to the South. The morality of slavery was behind a lot of things in the North, but the South was viewing economic ruin for not only slaveholders but the financial institutions as well. Think Great Depression... The South almost stayed part of the British Empire 90 years earlier due to attempts by the Founders to end slavery with the founding of our nation.

But the Fugitive Slave Act (and many other federal maneuvers) still shows, in my mind, that the talk of State's Rights was mostly propaganda put out by the Southern Democrats to rile up the "common" man. Ones who had no slaves but the South needed for political support and soldiers. The wealthy politicians and ruling class had the most to lose, much of the common folk were so bad off that a Great Southern Depression would have hardly been felt. So they needed to make the the average Joe feel threatened by them "Dam Yankees". The South used federal power just as aggressively as the North did prior to the war, but Democrats have always been good at using the "lie often enough and everybody will believe it" strategy and they did it aggressively in the South. Just read the New York Times or watch CNN today, the Dems are still good at it.

The Civil War did end much of the State's Rights due to things like the 14th Amendment, mostly due to Supreme Court decision making (as was said by others) rather than ole Abe directly. Some good things resulted (such as 2A being binding on the State's as a recent example), but far too much power centralized in the federal gov't.

Good thread, btw.

Nobody going to take a crack at this question?

the Wormley House hotel in Washington D.C.

I confess to looking it up. Interesting read on how that came to be.
Hayes vs Tilden

You went and did what Historians are supposed to do. Look for an answer.

I have always thought there is some irony somewhere in a bunch of politicians meeting at a place called Wormley to make a back room political deal.

Another question that gave a lot of my students grief on exams:


What post-bellum event led to the first concerted reconciliation efforts between the North and South? Why?

Another great book for the reading list:

http://www.amazon.com/Origins-New-S...49&sr=1-1&keywords=The+New+South

Another good one for the reading list. It offers an interesting look into the post-bellum Southern mindset. It also makes the liberals queasy which is always a good thing.


http://www.amazon.com/Clansman-Thom...;keywords=the+clansman+thomas+dixon+1905

HBB


do you believe that NBF started the klan?

pretty interesting read from a good writer
http://youwereliedtoabout.com/nbf.htm

The Spanish American War?

Thanks for posting that. A very interesting read.

The roots of the American Civil War really go back to England. England was composed of very different ethnic groups that had very different ideas of government.

These groups immigrated to North America and made up the dominant groups in the various areas of America. The English Civil War had many men in Massachusetts going back to England to fight for parliament and the Roundheads. The southern colonies remained loyal to the Crown.

Slavery was the catalyst and the issue de jour that caused the American Civil War, but the sides had been chosen long before and they were two peoples who did not like each other.

I have never seen any conclusive evidence/source material that confirms he did.

I think it may be a case of Forrest made a very good Boogerman for elements both North and South to pin it on.

Correct. It was the War O' 98. Now why? What elements in that war drove the reconciliation?

HBB

Back in the 70's I remember my American History textbook (went to school in Minnesota/or the North). In Junior High said that the cause of the Civil war was slavery and tariffs. When I got to high school the textbook was silent about the tariffs. I always thought it was interesting how my textbooks changed from 7th grade to 10th grade. Just an observation I notice in school how recorded history changed.

A common foe, imperialistic nationalism, and so on and so forth. It was the first instance of significant numbers of US troops being in the south since Reconstruction. Lots of southerners and northerners fought together and formed relationships. Plus, with no standing army to speak of, the government was still heavily dependent on volunteers and HAD to foster a feeling of reconciliation to get the south fully on board and behind the effort.

Changes like that are common in HS textbooks. I once saw a History text that was used in some districts in OH, PA, and NY that never mentioned anything about the Civil War but the cause was slavery and Lincoln saved everything in the section on the war.

There was no mention at all of Lee, Grant, Jackson, etc. Only a brief mention of Gettysburg focused almost entirely on Lincoln's address was it for any of the battles.