Lost Cause Rant.

jgoodguy

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Southern statesmen and newsprint repeatedly stated during secession and during the war that slavery was the “mere occasion” or “immediate cause” of secession, meaning there was a more fundamental cause of secession of which slavery was the most recent example. That fundamental cause was 70 years of Northern infidelity to the compact around which the States were united. That infidelity was spawned by a New England cultural imperialism and a yankee sectionalism and cupidity that sought to dominate the country both politically and economically.
That slavery was not the CS ultimate object is easily proven not just by Southern words but more importantly by Southern actions. “Actions speak louder than words.” Take Lincoln for an example. He was a typical dishonest politician. He first stated, “I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it.” Then when it became politically expedient he claimed that the South thought “slavery was right and ought to be expanded.” Lincoln sought to play upon Northern racism to coalesce a political following that feared blacks expanding into what was a primarily a lily white North and West. He used this tactic knowing full well that Calhoun and 40 Southern congressmen had in a letter to their constituency, explicitly disavowed any desire to expand slavery. Lincoln was merely playing the slavery card for political gain. This dishonesty was best displayed in his actions which revealed his abstract “antislavery” moralizing held no real humanitarian concern for the slaves. Even his EP was a “war measure” that contained no plan whatsoever to care for the freedmen whom he said must “root hog or die.” His desire to keep slavery out of the territories was no moral line in the sand. He was determined to keep blacks, both slave and free out of the territories, and in doing so keep Southern voters out too. His desire to keep slavery bottled up in the South was a strategy to create an excess of slaves in the South that would eventually lead to their becoming worthless, and no longer supported by the masters. Then they would either “die out” landless and penniless, or at least then Southerners would agree to allowing the black folk they had grown up with to be colonized out of necessity. This is how Lincoln’s actions belayed the true meaning of his antislavery.
It is in this context that Southern “proslavery” must be understood. This is why the Mississippi Declaration of Secession laments that the North “seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.” Southerners believed slavery in the abstract a violation of natural law just as much as Lincoln. But unlike Lincoln, Southerners held a genuine humanitarian concern for the slaves, and knew that natural law also dictated that when the abstract ideal cannot be achieved, you must do what causes the most good and least harm. The slaves were not abstractions to Southerners, they were almost half the Southern population who lived cheek to jowl with them on a daily basis. And given the corner into which the North had backed the South by being unwilling to absorb any of the social costs of allowing freed slaves to migrate North or West, Southern “proslavery” argued that slavery was the best means of managing so large a population of destitute people in a humanitarian and economically feasible manner within the boundaries of the Southern borders alone.
In the case of the South, its actions clarify its words about slavery. There is abundant proof in the actions of the CSA after secession that slavery was NOT the motive for secession. The CSA turned down the infamous Corwin Amendment. It turned down the offer to keep slavery made in the Emancipation Proclamation. It turned down the suggestion at the Hamptons Road Peace Conference that by returning to the Union it could defeat the proposed 13th Amendment ending slavery. Even in words throughout the war, various Southern leaders and newsprint stated explicitly that slavery was not “the cause” for which they seceded and fought. Both in actions and words the South made clear that “preserving and extending” slavery was not its cause. Its cause was INDEPENDENCE.
Another post-secession ACTION proving slavery was not the CSA secession motive is the following corroborating 1861 – 62 evidence from both foreign and domestic sources. As difficult as emancipation was going to be, the South was so determined to gain independence that it was willing to do it even at the high economic and social cost of freeing the slaves and trying to accommodate them within the CS borders alone. The South knew it would need foreign support to win its war for independence. It also knew that a barrier to that support was the institution of slavery. So as early as November of 1861, there is primary source evidence that the South was willing to endure the immense difficulties of emancipation if it meant obtaining recognition and military support from France and Britain.
A British paper called “Once A Week,“ dated Nov. 30, 1861, provides an early indication of Southern willingness to emancipate: “Slavery is doomed, on any supposition; and the Confederate authorities are already saying publicly that the power of emancipation is one which rests in their hands; and that they will use it in the last resort. This is a disclosure full of interest, and hope.” (Slavery, Secession, and Civil War; Charles F. Adams, pg. 304).
Note that this was written only seven months after the war began. If the CS utimate object was “preserving and extending slavery,” would ending slavery even be considered? That would be preposterous!
Additional evidence reveals as the war escalated that the CS considered it “last resort” time, and started making that offer to end slavery as early as 1862. On April 8, 1862 the “South Australian Register” reports: “A Southern Bait.— It is understood, in that indirect but accurate way in which great facts first get abroad, that the Confederacy have offered to England and France a price for active support. It is nothing less than a treaty securing free trade in its broadest sense for fifty years, the complete suppression of the import of slaves, and the emancipation of every negro born after the date of the signature of the treaty. In return they ask, first, the recognition of their independence; and secondly, such an investigation into the facts of the blockade, as must, in their judgement, lead to its disavowal. — ‘Spectator.’” (South Australian Register, Tuesday, April 8, 1862, page 3, BRITISH AND FOREIGN GLEANINGS).
One month later, in “The Daily British Colonist,” page 2, May 29, 1862 we read: “The rumors of interference by France and England in American affairs are received, and it is even asserted that the South, in return for the intervention, will guarantee the emancipation of her slaves.”
From these foreign papers we find out something is in the works regarding Confederate emancipation. By July 15, 1862, we find out from a domestic source. Seven Union loyal border State Congressmen write emphatically in a letter to Lincoln that the CS offer to end slavery is reality. Informing Lincoln why they support his own offer for compensated emancipation in the Union loyal Border States, they give the following reason:
“We are the more emboldened to assume this position from the fact, now become history, that the leaders of the Southern rebellion have offered to abolish slavery amongst them as a condition to foreign intervention in favor of their independence as a nation. If they can give up slavery to destroy the Union; We can surely ask our people to consider the question of Emancipation to save the Union.” (Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833 – 1916: Border State Congressmen to Abraham Lincoln,Tuesday, July 15, 1862).
These seven Union loyal border State congressmen had no reason to lie to their President in affirming the CS offer to end slavery as a “fact now become history.” Even though such a plan would by nature be highly secretive, these border State congressmen were in a position to find out about such a secret CS plan because the seceded States were in constant contact with them in attempts to persuade them to join the CS cause. Someone in the CS spilled the beans, and now the secret was being revealed to Lincoln. It must be asked is it mere coincidence then that Lincoln had just met with these same border State congressmen on July 12, 1862, and the very next day he drafted his own plan of emancipation with which he surprised Seward and Welles that same day? Is there any doubt that Lincoln’s EP was an attempt to head off this CS emancipation offer and prevent France and Britain from allying with the CS? Food for thought! And this need for secrecy is why we don’t find a Confederate paper trail regarding this offer.
Later on in 1865, we find the same CS offer to end slavery still being made in the Duncan Kenner mission when Lee surrendered. (For further information on the Kenner mission see: http://archive.org/stream/jstor-1915097/1915097). The CSA had all along been willing to end slavery in spite of the great sacrifice it would mean. A sacrifice Judah Benjamin explained as follows: “The sole object for which we would ever have consented to commit our all to the hazards of this war, is the vindication of our right to self-government and independence… For that end no sacrifice is too great, save that of honour.” (Judah Benjamin to John Slidell explaining the Kenner mission, Dec 27, 1864.).
One thing is for certain, this willingness to end slavery proves the South did not secede “to preserve and extend slavery” as the popular narrative claims. Rather, it sought to gain independence from an unfaithful partner, and the fundamental American right to a “government by consent of the governed.”
 

5fish

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I think he forgot the Cornerstone speech by Alexander Stephens...


Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science

snip...

The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutionAfrican 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."
 

5fish

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here examples of Articles of Secession: Charts show the topics of the articles...

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/reasons-secession#:~:text=Every state in the Confederacy,their break from the Union.&text=Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and South,decision to leave the Union.

snip...

Two major themes emerge in these documents: slavery and states' rights. All four states strongly defend slavery while making varying claims related to states' rights. Other grievances, such as economic exploitation and the role of the military, receive limited attention in some of the documents. This article will present, in detail, everything that was said in the Declarations of Causes pertaining to these topics.



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5fish

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All this willingness to end slavery for foreign recognition came late in the war...

https://www.americanforeignrelation...sue-and-the-end-of-confederate-diplomacy.html

Jefferson Davis and Judah Benjamin understood that survival depended on European support and that this support would not be forthcoming without altering the Confederate position on slavery. In November 1864, Davis presented to the Confederate Congress a plan to employ forty thousand slaves in noncombatant military service to be followed by their emancipation. While this proposal was being considered, he dispatched Duncan F. Kenner of Louisiana to Europe on a secret mission with instructions to offer European governments a promise of emancipation of the slaves in exchange for recognition. Napoléon, then deeply involved in his Mexican policy, declined the offer and replied that France could not act without British concurrence. When Kenner made the same proposal to the British government, Palmerston rejected it out of hand, informing Kenner that Britain would never recognize the Confederate States of America. Confederate diplomacy in Europe had come to a dead end.
 

jgoodguy

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All this willingness to end slavery for foreign recognition came late in the war...

https://www.americanforeignrelation...sue-and-the-end-of-confederate-diplomacy.html

Jefferson Davis and Judah Benjamin understood that survival depended on European support and that this support would not be forthcoming without altering the Confederate position on slavery. In November 1864, Davis presented to the Confederate Congress a plan to employ forty thousand slaves in noncombatant military service to be followed by their emancipation. While this proposal was being considered, he dispatched Duncan F. Kenner of Louisiana to Europe on a secret mission with instructions to offer European governments a promise of emancipation of the slaves in exchange for recognition. Napoléon, then deeply involved in his Mexican policy, declined the offer and replied that France could not act without British concurrence. When Kenner made the same proposal to the British government, Palmerston rejected it out of hand, informing Kenner that Britain would never recognize the Confederate States of America. Confederate diplomacy in Europe had come to a dead end.
Lots of stuff missing, thanks for your posts.
 

O' Be Joyful

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The turd always smells just a bad, despite which end you pick it up from.
 
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