At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, rebels from the southern states took up arms against our country, firing on the American soldiers defending Fort Sumter. Residents of nearby Charleston sat on balconies and saluted this act of treason with cocktails.
Despite long years of tap dancing and arm waving after the fact, it’s clear that these southerners took up arms against their country in defense of slavery. They were mad that their preferred candidates had lost an election to Abraham Lincoln and decided to try to overturn the results of that election by force of arms because they were afraid of its impact on their ability to own people and steal their labor.
The Chicago Tribune ran an editorial at the time (h/t Abdul) that read, in part:
By the act of a handful of ingrates and traitors, war is inaugurated in this heretofore happy and peaceful Republic! While we write, the bombardment of Sumter is going on; and the blood of the few gallant defenders of the glorious old flag which yet, we hope, floats over that fortress is being poured out for their fidelity to the Constitution as it is, and the Union as our fathers made it!
The people know the cause of the fratricidal strife. The party, which, in the interests of a barbarous institution, has governed the country for the last 40 years, was beaten in the November election. The verdict of the people which does not touch a single one of the rights of any man, guarantied by the fundamental law, forbids the extension of that barbarous institution into national territory as yet uncursed by its blighting presence. This is the cause of the rebellion which months of effort has ripened into the bloody strife this day commenced! This and nothing else — this determination of a meagre minority to rule a powerful majority — this deification of Human Slavery as the guiding principle and polar star of a free people — are the dragon’s teeth which, sown in a pestilent soil, have produced armed men.
Despite modern protestation out of the South that the Civil War was about something, anything, other than slavery; the southerners of the time were quite clear about their reasons. The articles of secession are candid about the desire to preserve slavery and the feeling that the Northern States were insufficiently vigorous in their enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. (States Rights were not, it appears, so sacred when it was time to enforce that law.)
My purpose is not to berate the actions of people who lived 150 years ago. History is crowded to bursting with barbarity. And, for that matter, I’m sure our time will have plenty to answer for when future generations take a look back. But modern day Lost Cause apologists drive me crazy. It seems to me that our country is still wounded by slavery and the Civil War. And, while that wound is gradually scabbing over, it is still festering. I don’t think the wound can really heal until everyone in the country, including the south, recognizes: 1) that slavery was evil; 2) that the Civil War was prompted by a defense of that evil; 3) that the South was beaten; and 4) that it was a good thing the South lost because its reasons for taking up arms against the country were immoral.
Once those lessons have been internalized, I’ll happily concede that a lot of the people fighting for the South were probably decent people who thought they were doing the right thing. Until then, honoring the symbols of their cause and pretending that what they were doing was somehow noble is simply repugnant.
Ugh.
Well said.
I love it when you spiel about the South, Civil War, and slavery. Many thanks!
150th anniversary of Sumter. You knew I couldn’t let that pass without comment.
And if The South had prevailed in the civil war Obama could never be a legitimate president.
It smacks of racism to put this into such stark wording,but I beleive it’s an unstated white southern cultural assumption,and seems to have spread over into a segment of today’s more radical conservatism.
Show some manners, and quit this revisionism.
1. ‘The South’ is capitalized.
2. The South was defending their country from the invading United States.
3. The Left pays loud lip service to ensuring a people’s right to self-determination, until such time as those people actually seek it.
4. If and when that quest for freedom is restarted, disarmed urban hoplophobes stand little chance against men of Southern mettle. It is doubtful that a new secession will be met with many from the North who would dare to tell a Southerner otherwise. That is, mind your place, and quit your taunting, because you know that your ilk didn’t win a thing. Your side fought the war with tough men recently arrived from foreign shores. Soft urbanites left little mark on the battlefields. If you successfully bait the South into a rematch, you’ll wish you didn’t. Lincoln and Grant would have smacked you for being so ill-mannered.
By the way, the United States never recaptured Fort Sumter during its war of aggression.
Manners? Pah. You don’t come to someone else’s place and tell them to mind their manners. Aside from that, thanks for proving my point. The decision to fire on American soldiers is about anything else other than southerners’ desire to own people and steal their labor. How many slaves voted to secede?
I only quibble with the recogniztion of part 2.
If people from “the South” want to think their secession was about state’s rights, and can’t bear to live with the idea that some of their not so great-great-grandparents were on the wrong side, I won’t waste my time arguing with them. I think it is a waste of your time too, Doug. Clearly you aren’t going to change Jefferson Davis’s mind, and he isn’t going to change ours. Like Ross and Rachel on Friends, you just have to recognize that “we were on a break” and leave fault behind.
Leaving slavery behind for a minute, the question of whether a state, or states, should have the right to secede from this great union is a fascinating question, especially now.
I saw a poll where some appallingly high percentage – like 40% – thought that the Civil War wasn’t fought because of slavery. I think that’s reason enough to speak up about the fact that it was.
As “T” put it, the desire to put slavery to the side when considering the Civil War is a little like trying to ignore the fact that water is wet in order to appreciate its other qualities.
The secession question was answered in blood. And the answer was “no.” There may have been a different response if secession had been attempted for other reasons. But the South went all-in on the slavery question.
Hey Jeff Davis, how would the “South” as a “country” (your words) have done with individual states and their states’ rights? After all, wasn’t it Jefferson Davis who said “If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a theory”? As Davis knew (and who better but he to know?), the theory of states’ rights could have never survived long as a confederacy of states the way it was formed as a union with a similiar Constitution to the United States — even if there had not been a civil war — because the individual states would have seceeded from the Confederacy into individual states to protect their own states’ rights. And even if the rebels had not fired on the US Fort Sumter to start the Civil War on 12 April 1861, there would have eventually been a war over all the land out west as there would be no way the United States would allow the Confederate States to have that land for free.
I find 40% to be an unbelievably high number.
I’m not interested in the secession for slavery question. That question has been asked and answered. The more interesting question (at least to me) is what if a state doesn’t want Obamacare, or some other federal monstrosity, can they run for the hills?
From the “Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union”
Sounds like it was a pretty big reason to have a war over.
“men of Southern mettle”?!?
I about fell out of my chair laughing.
Oh, but to be able to post pictures here.
Apparently a lot of other people are confused as to whether the question has been answered. Here (pdf) is the CNN Opinion Research poll from this month.
On this question, only 45% of Republicans thought slavery was the main reason for the Civil War. Only 41% of Tea Party supporters thought slavery was the main reason for the Civil War.
Interestingly, white women were the most apt to sympathize with the Confederacy (27% versus 20% for men). I’ll blame a Gone With the Wind factor for that.
Another one that caught my eye – People who supported or were neutral as to the “Tea Party” were 26-27% likely to sympathize with the Confederacy versus 15% among those who had negative views of the “Tea Party.”
The problem with a poll like this is that people who don’t like the question will say it was about “state’s rights”, when they really mean the “state’s rights to slavery”.
Of course Tea Party types admire the leaders of the South. They feel that they have a lot in common with them, as neither one is a big fan of the govt. of the United States of America. You know, the whole enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing.
Careful about sweeping generalizations. I have great sympathy for the ‘Tea Party types’, but I’m no admirer of the South. It’s the same kind of thought process as you ostensibly attack.
Speaking of racism and sweeping generalizations, and lest we get too carried away with the righteousness of all things Northern, Indiana of course is hardly exemplary. Lynchings in Marion, the Klan, hey how about this from the 1851 Indiana Constitution:
http://www.in.gov/history/2858.htm
So, as much as I really dig the spiel against the South, it gets to be that everybody’s face has at least a speck in the eye, if not a plank. Few are innocent, but some are more guilty than others.
To quote Morton Marcus, “Indiana is the middle finger of the South thrust up into the North.”
[Here Tipsy reconsiders and omits the parts of his reply that try to make the point that history is messy, reasoning that Bloggers are entitled to indulge pet peeves in their blogs.]
Thanks Roger! I owe you one.
Good post Doug as evidenced by the amount of comments (now can you please install a robust comment system like Disqus?).
A lot of other commenters have responded on the core topic, so I thought I would address a different aspect of “Jefferson Davis” thread. Point #4 “disarmed urban hoplophobes stand little chance against men of Southern mettle.”
People seem to think that the overthrow of the government is somehow a valid reason for the personal ownership of guns. That if there were to be a revolution today that somehow magically we would drop all of our modern technology and decide the winner based on bar fight rules with muskets in fields.
It is often said the military likes to fight the last war, same here on an individual basis. This is the era of Stuxnet and drones, and I know which side I would bet on if it came down to beefy southern boys (er overweight, smokers) vs. 4Chan and Anonymous taking down every public utility and creating general digital mayhem in the south…
Muscular, young boys with shooting skills honed on the farm, is a great romantic image, but it is about as much of a fairy tail in the modern world as other romantic images like one room schools providing a great education, or the landowner tilling a few acres passed down from his dad supporting a family.
Amen to Roger, Morton Marcus, and Doug. History is messy. I’ve learned a whole lot of ‘taken to task’ lessons on the dangers of black/white outlooks- and I say this as the idealist you (Doug) know me to be. We’re all flawed human beings. The North’s victory and subsequent Proclamation and Amendment were wonderful advances, and that is worth celebrating. It is valuable, though, to be mindful of the baggage and not make it seem like it isn’t lurking in the closet somewhere.
Excellent thread. :-)
Apparently South Carolina requires its schools set aside a time each day for students to say the pledge of allegiance. Even those parts about “one nation” and “indivisible.” How about that?
SECTION 59-1-455. Time for pledge of allegiance required. [SC ST SEC 59-1-455]
Beginning with the 1991-92 school year, all public school students, commencing with grades kindergarten through and including high school, shall during the course of each school day’s activities at a specific time which must be designated by the local school say the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Any person not wishing to say the “Pledge of Allegiance” or otherwise participate in saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” is exempt from participation and may not be penalized for failing to participate.
A person who does not wish to participate may leave the classroom, may remain in his seat, or may express his nonparticipation in any form which does not materially infringe upon the rights of other persons or disrupt school activities.
Who you callin’ “hoplophobe”, you maledicent balatron?
Though now you mention it, I have been considering the eventuality some, and I figure we leave our shootin’ arns at home, and just figure out a way to lower the temperature across Dixie to 30º F. Those of you not killed off in the morning commute will surrender by nightfall.
Of course that’s assuming we’d repeat the mistake of not just letting you go, then buying up the place for pennies on the dollar after y’all have tried self-governing without all the Federal handouts for a while.
Doug, you dunce, the Confederates were Americans. Did your History lessons fail you so badly that you never learned for what the acronym CSA is shorthand?
And do drop that tepid canard about this being someone else’s place, as if one can ever insulate oneself from dissent. If you’re big enough to say it, you better be man enough to publish the reproof.
Well Jefferson Davis, I suppose your proposition that southern secessionists were “Americans” during their rebellion for slavery is valid in the same sense that Chileans and Canadians are “Americans” too.
And, if you would like a history lesson, perhaps you would consider changing your little moniker. I seriously doubt the “real” Jefferson Davis would have stooped to the level of your juvenile attempt at reproof.
The people the Confederates enslaved were Americans too. And, incidentally, I doubt anyone asked them whether they wanted to depart from the United States. Not sure where you’re going with that.
Oh-oh, the Yanks are closing in. Take a tip from the real Jeff Davis and skedaddle. Preferably in woman’s clothing. Since we know how much y’all revere tradition.
Love that secession vote in Crimea. Also brewing are wonderful secession elections in Venice, Quebec and Scotland.
It’s a human right for people to leave their political bonds and form new ones. Tyrants try to suppress this right, but the People always have it.
Eventually, we’ll again see an exercise of it in these lands.