This thread isn't about pride or the lack thereof in Gettysburg or where somebody lives. It's about similarities between then and now that should give everybody pause. It's about freedom and about those who consistently trod upon it.
Originally Posted by the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy
You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.
Yah, personally I don't think either side ought be proud of a day so many Americans were killed or wounded in battle without a foreign enemy.
I feel like that. These kind of things are a never ending effort to make two wrongs make a right which never works.
The south was practicing slavery, which was legal at the time and has been practiced since the beginning of time and is still practiced today. The people of the "free and independent states" voted to secede over it and start their own country, likely also legal.
The north prosecuted an illegal war against the South to prevent secession.....later on adopted the guise of "ending slavery" which is little more than a cover up. But they won and history is written by the winners. So you have the Federal Behemoth of today which can cram things like sodomite marriage and gun control down the throats of the states. But "states rights" is not a panacea either. Not if you were a slave in the south prior to 1865 or if you are a guy who wants to legally carry a pistol in New York City or any number of other Yankee cities today. States can get things wrong too.
The real problem is mankind tends to gravitate toward tyranny for whatever reason.
"Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants". --- William Penn
Yah, personally I don't think either side ought be proud of a day so many Americans were killed or wounded in battle without a foreign enemy.
I feel like that. These kind of things are a never ending effort to make two wrongs make a right which never works.
The south was practicing slavery, which was legal at the time and has been practiced since the beginning of time and is still practiced today. The people of the "free and independent states" voted to secede over it and start their own country, likely also legal.
The north prosecuted an illegal war against the South to prevent secession.....later on adopted the guise of "ending slavery" which is little more than a cover up. But they won and history is written by the winners. So you have the Federal Behemoth of today which can cram things like sodomite marriage and gun control down the throats of the states. But "states rights" is not a panacea either. Not if you were a slave in the south prior to 1865 or if you are a guy who wants to legally carry a pistol in New York City or any number of other Yankee cities today. States can get things wrong too.
The real problem is mankind tends to gravitate toward tyranny for whatever reason.
Good post RJY. I'll add to it by saying also that the Northern states had become concerned that the South was becoming too wealthy because of it's agricultural based economy, almost exclusively cotton, and was afraid that the South would no longer be able to be kept "in line" by the North. I believe in States Rights, and believe they're just as important today as they were in 1860.
I'm a southerner by blood on both sides of my family. Both fought for the right side. That said, if the right side hadn't lost and we were in the Confederacy today, my guess is that somehow things would have gotten just as upside-down as they are now. Trading Federal rule for state just creates 50 smaller tyrants in place of one big one. But, the closer you are to the government, the better. The county commissioner knows he might get his ass kicked if he gets too far out of line. School board members know they will. Governors, know they won't.
Written during the heart of the Civil War, this is one of Abraham Lincoln's most famous letters. Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune, had just addressed an editorial to Lincoln called "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," making demands and implying that Lincoln's administration lacked direction and resolve.
President Lincoln wrote his reply when a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation already lay in his desk drawer. His response revealed his concentration on preserving the Union. The letter, which received acclaim in the North, stands as a classic statement of Lincoln's constitutional responsibilities. A few years after the president's death, Greeley wrote an assessment of Lincoln. He stated that Lincoln did not actually respond to his editorial but used it instead as a platform to prepare the public for his "altered position" on emancipation.
Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley: Dear Sir.
I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 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. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.
[quote=jaguartx]In your dreams, but you're making progress in Atlanta, Houston, Austin. Glad you're proud. You may as well support the BLM crowd. Progress, remember.
What the phucqk are you talking about? Gawd you're going looney.
My comment is commentary on how silly arguing if Northern or Southern dem cities are worse. Take your liberal accusations and shoove it, please. [/quote
this is what's funny....arguing who has the biggest shcithole cites....doesn't matter what state you live in ...a schithole is a schithole….
let heads explode on this....maybe statues coming down is a good thing...it always seems to bring up hard feelings amongst the older crowd
whenever this topic comes up......you can always sense the underlying hate...….Americans killing Americans is probably not the best scenario….this shoud trigger some good name calling....lol...…..bob
This thread isn't about pride or the lack thereof in Gettysburg or where somebody lives. It's about similarities between then and now that should give everybody pause. It's about freedom and about those who consistently trod upon it.
Originally Posted by the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy
You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.
Fascinatingly prescient....
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
The Southerners keep blaming us for a war they lost 100 years before we were even born.
I think it's fair to blame them for importing all these Negroes, instead of hiring white people, to pick their cotton. For the sake of the 2% of Southerners who owned plantations, we have been left with a lawless horde with low IQs and lack of impulse control.
Don't blame me. I voted for Trump.
Democrats would burn this country to the ground, if they could rule over the ashes.
The small ones are such Lil darlins !
[/quote 