Monday is Robert E. Lee day in Alabama.

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Nick M

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Thats correct, the primary issue was states rights, as new states were being added to the union.

States have no rights. States have authority. They are not the same thing. They are authorized (authority) to act in God's name. And selling people against their will is not authorized.

People have rights. The state has authority to defend those rights.
 

Nick M

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Why you even include the United States Government is beyond me.

I don't do doubt that for one second.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article. I.

Section. 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.


Article. II.

Section. 1.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Maybe you missed it. But the articles of confederation was tossed aside. The small quotes have been adopted, whether you like it or not.
 

Ktoyou

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TH gives a realistic and practical response to this topic. Lee did what seemed his first allegiance, to the Old Dominion.

POTD!
 

Nick M

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It was part one’s the time, and we all know George Washington held slaves, as did Thomas Jefferson.

So what. Lee went to war for the side that said they can own human beings against their will. You posted a strawman argument in the most classical sense. You tore down something that is not being argued. Robert E Lee is a despicable man and should not be honored.

Thank God for men like General Sherman and Colonel Montgomery.
 

Town Heretic

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So what. Lee went to war for the side that said they can own human beings against their will.
Both sides said that for a great deal of the war.

Robert E Lee is a despicable man and should not be honored.
You're peddling ignorance and you're wrong.

Thank God for men like General Sherman and Colonel Montgomery.
What Sherman did and turned a blind eye to could qualify him as a war criminal.
 

Ktoyou

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I don't do doubt that for one second.



Maybe you missed it. But the articles of confederation was tossed aside. The small quotes have been adopted, whether you like it or not.

Under Federalist No. 39 you are correct.
The South did not start slavery, yet they came too late of hour, dependent on it.
Goodnight
 

tetelestai

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I'm more astounded by what you believe and conflate and refuse to consider. But that's life for you.

Lee committed treason.

"I think that Lee should have been hanged. It was all the worse that he was a good man and a fine character and acted conscientiously. It’s always the good men who do the most harm in the world." - Henry Adams
 

Granite

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You sound like a modern man judging out of context. You could as well call Lincoln a racist or Sherman a war criminal.

We judge in retrospect, TH. And you'd be right about both Lincoln and Sherman (frankly, the general would probably agree with you).

Lee resigned his commission and went home to defend Virginia against incursion.

He betrayed his oath, his army, and his country. No amount of revisionist spin changes that.

The notion of a Union you hold and Lincoln declared wasn't one popularly accepted and iron clad in the time of that war.

Understood. But those who rejected the notion were consistently wrong.

Wrong on both counts, but you'd have to understand what he fought for and what he never did...then you'd know why Grant protected him following that war and why the people who had the power to charge, try and execute had no desire to for the most part.

Maybe because over half a million corpses hadn't left anyone in a real blood-letting mood when all's said and done.

Of course it was about slavery, the expansion of it at any rate.

Not many southerners have this kind of honesty.
 

tetelestai

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He betrayed his oath, his army, and his country. No amount of revisionist spin changes that.

Correct.

One thing you will never see those who defend Lee and the Confederacy bring up is Article I Section X of the United States Constitution:

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.


As we see above, Confederations are explicitly banned.

However, nothing stopped Lee and the rest of his Confederates from ignoring the Constitution.

Also, the Article above from the Constitution proves Angel4Trught and her "state rights" wrong. Many things an independent nation is capable of doing are banned for states.
 

PureX

Well-known member
Also in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi.
They honor their haters and losers, while the rest of the nation honors a lover of peace, freedom, and a winner of human rights.

Some people just can't grow and learn.
 

Town Heretic

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We judge in retrospect, TH. And you'd be right about both Lincoln and Sherman (frankly, the general would probably agree with you).
In order, agreed (but that requires us to distinguish between our different contexts), not by the light of his day and it's iffy, but likely true of a great many men celebrated as leaders in a great many wars.

He betrayed his oath, his army, and his country. No amount of revisionist spin changes that.
No, he didn't. Lee resigned his commission and with the withdraw of Virginia was no more a traitor in fact (outside of the debate) than anyone moving to a foreign nation and defending its flag. The revisionism here is applying our modern understanding and context regarding what states were entitled to do by the light of the settled question.

Understood. But those who rejected the notion were consistently wrong.
Well, that was sort of the argument being settled on the field at first, if over the issue of expanding slavery to new American land holdings.

Maybe because over half a million corpses hadn't left anyone in a real blood-letting mood when all's said and done.
That wasn't Grant's reasoning and he was fairly clear about defending Lee. I doubt you'd have gotten many or any of the generals on the Union side to have collected him for a firing squad. But allowing that the moment can mitigate all sorts of things should inform us in our present zeal, don't you think?

Not many southerners have this kind of honesty.
Perhaps not with an outsider, though you might be surprised. I think what's happened for many is conflating the fact that most Southerners who fought for the Confederacy didn't fight for the cause of the wealthy and entitled and confusing that with an overreaching truth for that war. So they're right about the sentiment and motivation and wrong on the issue.
 

tetelestai

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with the withdraw of Virginia was no more a traitor in fact (outside of the debate) than anyone moving to a foreign nation and defending its flag.

Er, no.

The withdraw of Virginia into a Confederacy was a violation of the Constitution of the United States.
 

Granite

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In order, agreed (but that requires us to distinguish between our different contexts), not by the light of his day and it's iffy, but likely true of a great many men celebrated as leaders in a great many wars.

Sherman strikes me as a self-aware monster. I digress.

No, he didn't. Lee resigned his commission and with the withdraw of Virginia was no more a traitor in fact (outside of the debate) than anyone moving to a foreign nation and defending its flag.

Tet's already covered this: he violated the Constitution and the oath he took as a soldier.

That wasn't Grant's reasoning and he was fairly clear about defending Lee. I doubt you'd have gotten many or any of the generals on the Union side to have collected him for a firing squad.

He was warmly regarded. Doesn't change what he did.

Perhaps not with an outsider, though you might be surprised.

I certainly would hope so.

I think what's happened for many is conflating the fact that most Southerners who fought for the Confederacy didn't fight for the cause of the wealthy and entitled and confusing that with an overreaching truth for that war.

They still were in the wrong. The foundation of their nation was the white man's supremacy over the black.
 

Town Heretic

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Sherman strikes me as a self-aware monster. I digress.
I think there was the war he'd have rather and the war he had, but it doesn't excuse knowingly allowing and failing to prosecute and punish those within his ranks who violated any civilized rule of war. Understanding the same can be said for a great many on either side of the conflict.

Tet's already covered this: he violated the Constitution and the oath he took as a soldier.
Tet missed the mark, as per my answer.

He was warmly regarded. Doesn't change what he did.
And yet...or, I think that's the difference between your modern context and Grant's.

I certainly would hope so.
That's been my experience, but it's anecdotal, if a large anecdote experientially speaking.

They still were in the wrong.
Not to their minds, but that's what wars tend to decide.

The foundation of their nation was the white man's supremacy over the black.
The economic heart of the nation was fueled, knowingly, by the agrarian products of the South acquired on the backs of slaves and the molasses to rum to slaves bit wasn't just a catchy song in a Revolutionary War musical. The North profited, built much of its economic might by the light of that sad institution's output and made no effort to liberate anyone until the war was well on.

Or, our Yankee cousins did not begin their part of the conflict to free a single soul. Romanticizing that is as errant as pretending the war wasn't fought on the issue of slavery's expansion.
 
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PureX

Well-known member
It was the proposal to end slavery that caused the south to secede from the union, and it was the act of secession that caused the civil war. So the war was in fact fought over the issue of slavery, no matter how you want to try and say it wasn't. The individual's reasons for fighting, I am sure, were many. But the instigation for it all was the poison of slavery.

And choosing to honor a man who fought to preserve slavery by destroying the United States of America on the same day as the rest of the nation honors a man who finally, 100 years later, managed to make us face our racism and bigotry as a nation, and end it, is just another example of the south seceding from the union once again to honor it's racist and slave-keeping past.
 

tetelestai

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Tet missed the mark, as per my answer.

I agree with Abraham Lincoln's interpretation of the Constitution, you agree with Jefferson Davis' interpretation.

Earlier, I posted a copy of Article I, Section X (BTW, your link never mentions Article I, Section X)

Here is the first sentence:

"No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation"

It's hard for me to understand how the above sentence isn't explicit, and how the Southern states weren't in violation of it.
 

Granite

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It was the proposal to end slavery that caused the south to secede from the union, and it was the act of secession that caused the civil war. So the war was in fact fought over the issue of slavery, no matter how you want to try and say it wasn't. The individual's reasons for fighting, I am sure, were many. But the instigation for it all was the poison of slavery.

And choosing to honor a man who fought to preserve slavery by destroying the United States of America on the same day as the rest of the nation honors a man who finally, 100 years later, managed to make us face our racism and bigotry as a nation, and end it, is just another example of the south seceding from the union once again to honor it's racist and slave-keeping past.

Couldn't agree more. This is a deliberately provocative insulting slap in the face.
 

tetelestai

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It was the proposal to end slavery that caused the south to secede from the union, and it was the act of secession that caused the civil war. So the war was in fact fought over the issue of slavery, no matter how you want to try and say it wasn't. The individual's reasons for fighting, I am sure, were many. But the instigation for it all was the poison of slavery.

And choosing to honor a man who fought to preserve slavery by destroying the United States of America on the same day as the rest of the nation honors a man who finally, 100 years later, managed to make us face our racism and bigotry as a nation, and end it, is just another example of the south seceding from the union once again to honor it's racist and slave-keeping past.

:thumb:
 
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