An Un-glorified Rendition of the Civil War
Joe Scarborough of MSNC released a tweet recently about Robert E. Lee and the Civil War that is so idiotic that it would bring me great pain to repeat here. While I was taught if you can’t say anything nice about anyone don’t say anything at all...so here goes. Which side of the bed Scarborough wakes up each morning determines whether he is deranged or delusional. Often times I’m not sure he wakes up at all. But his tweet stuck in my craw like a hair on a biscuit. Anyone who attempts to defend the constitutional principles of the CSA (research Jeffersonian democracy), flag of the Confederacy and even Robert E. Lee are called bigots, racists, murderers, unchristian, Nazis and (insert the latest slander engineered by the intolerable Left). Then I was reminded that most people only get the glorified rendition of the Civil War through grade school and collegiate textbooks. While Ken Burns’ documentary on the War was great it also greatly left out war crimes committed against the South contrary to any normal conventions of war. Let’s fly past the textbooks and look back to news articles, diaries, constitutions and other accounts from the times to examine some of what happened…some happening right here in the Shoals and North Alabama.
The War Was All About Slavery
“People who say slavery had nothing to do with the war are just as wrong as people who say that slavery had everything to do with the war…believe me no soldier on either side gave a damn about slavery…the Southerners thought they were fighting the Second American Revolution, Northerners thought they were fighting to hold the Union together.” – Shelby Foote (noted Civil War historian). “I look upon the present crisis as a war of sentiment and opinion by one form of society against another form of society.” – Sen. James M. Mason of Virginia (served 1847-1861). “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 do it.” – letter from President Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley. The Constitution had not been amended in sixty-one years and the Emancipation Amendment was the first amendment in 61 years and the first amendment that had anything to do with people’s private property. The people of the South saw this amendment coming and said they wanted nothing to do with the Union and wanted to get out of it. Other considerations regarding the economy such as tariffs intended to protect Northern industry against the Southern industry upset many in the South. Which is a lengthy policy debate for another day. The “Old Gray Lady” better known as the New York Times was quoted in the Richmond Whig of April 9, 1861, just before Ft. Sumter: “Slavery has nothing whatever to do with the tremendous issues now awaiting decision. It has disappeared almost entirely from the political discussions of the day. No one mentions it in connection with our present complications. The question which we have to meet is precisely what it would be if there were not a Negro slave on American Soil…” [emphasis theirs] Only after the tide of war seemed to turn against the North in 1862 did President Lincoln cling to the issue of slavery, using it against the South as a moral cause to rally northern support for the war.
The Constitution of the Confederacy
“We, the people of the Confederate States, each state acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a more permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” – Preamble to the Confederate Constitution. The Confederate Constitution prohibited the Congress from appropriating money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce. It was intended to stop the federal government from taking money collected from everyone and using it to pay for one region’s development. This idea sounds familiar in today’s tax reform discussions. The only internal improvements justified were the work on harbors and rivers, but the improvements had to be paid for using money collected from the people navigating them. Another aspect involved the expenditure of funds by the Congress requiring a two-thirds super-majority of a congressional vote. How much better off and less debt would the U.S. be in if we had this requirement? The President was to be elected for one term of six years with no re-election afforded. Neither the 1787 Constitution nor the Confederate Constitution mandate slavery. Neither had the power to establish or disestablish slavery anywhere. No Article, Section or Clause established slavery or disestablished slavery. Chief of Staff and retired general John Kelly was absolutely correct in his statement that in the times of secession people – particularly those of the South - viewed allegiance to their state above that of the union. All the above information is (as all information in this writing) available on the same Internet Al Gore created or claimed credit for.
The Northern Code and Slavery in the North…no not Jim Crow Laws or the Southern Code
“[R]ace prejudice seems stronger in those states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists, and nowhere is it more intolerant than in those states where slavery was ever known.” – Alexis De Tocqueville (French political theorist and sociologist), Democracy in America (1835). Although taxed in New England, Northern freemen, like slaves, could not vote there in early colonial times, they could in the plantation colonies. Free blacks were required to work on roads a certain number of days a year in Massachusetts, at the discretion of the local selectmen. They could only use ferries under certain conditions in New England. In South Kingstown, Rhode Island, they could not own horses or sheep. In Boston, they could not carry a cane unless they were unable to walk without one. Both Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818) abolished slavery by their constitutions. And both followed the Ohio policy of preventing black immigration by passing laws requiring blacks moving into the state to produce legal documents verifying they were free and posting bond to guarantee their good behavior. The bond requirements ranged as high as $1,000 which was prohibitive for black Americans in those days. Anti-immigration legislation passed Illinois in 1819, 1829 and 1853. In Indiana such laws were enacted in 1831 and 1852. Michigan Territory passed such a law in 1827; Iowa Territory passed on in 1839 and another in 1851 after it became a state. Oregon Territory passed such a law in 1849. (That was missed in the popular Oregon Trail computer game back in the 1980s.) Blacks who violated the law faced punishments that included advertisement and sale at public auction (Illinois, 1853). When the Civil War ended 19 of the 24 Northern states did not allow blacks to vote. Nowhere did they serve on juries before 1860. They could not give testimony in 10 states and were prevented from assembling in two.
Suspension of Habeas Corpus, Jailing of Dissenters and the Press
In 1861 Abraham Lincoln decided to suspend the right of habeas corpus after the arrest of John Merryman for attempting to hinder Union troops from moving from Baltimore to Washington. Then Chief Justice Roger Taney (also author of the much discussed Dred Scott decision) issued a ruling that President Lincoln did not have the authority to suspend habeas corpus. Lincoln did not respond, appeal or order the release of Merryman. (I guess this is the part of law school that President Obama remembered between smoking joints!) This precedent (albeit illegal) should give President Trump authority to arrest federal judges blocking his Executive Actions on immigration. Trump’s actions show that he does understand the Constitution and is not a dictator much opposite the opinion of the Left. But I digress. Five years later, in an unrelated case, a new Supreme Court backed Taney’s ruling declaring that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus and that civilians were not subject to military courts, even in times of war. When Federal troops occupied the entire Washington suburb, Union Colonel Orlando Willcox ordered the Alexandria Gazette to publish a proclamation declaring martial law. Editor Edgar Snowden (relation to Edward Snowden is unknown by this writer) refused and shut down the paper. Union soldiers seized the office, smashed property and allegedly stole valuables. Snowden later launched a new journal, the Alexandria Local News, focusing on “the truth, as far as that can be reached.” Afterwards the rector of an Alexandria church was arrested merely for omitting the customary prayer for the president. Snowden denounced the arrest and Union soldiers set fire to the headquarters of the Local News. Snowden reopened the old Gazette in 1862. Two years later he himself was arrested. Many many more stories of suppression and arrest of the free press by Honest Abe and the Union can be found online. History seems to indicate that Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and Mao studied Lincoln closely. And to think the media today get their long johns in a wad about being called Fake News!
War Crimes by the North Against the South
“Some weeks ago a portion of (Union) General Mitchell's command was stationed at Larkinsville, a small town in Jackson County, Ala., on the Memphis Railroad. While there they pillaged the country as they are accustomed to do everywhere, and of course took and employed as many contrabands as they wanted, and kept them as long as they pleased. But the hypocritical cant of the enemy was most glaringly exhibited, in that after they were done with the negroes, instead of sending them to their owner or taking them away with them, they put them up at auction and sold them. The Yankees bid on them, but they were careful to let them be knocked off to residents who generally were the former owners, or the friends of the former owners.” - The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 04 Jun 1862. On April 28, 1863, the 10th Missouri Calvary of the Union Army, known as the “Destroying Angels,” commanded by Col. Florence M. Cornyn, burned the LaGrange Military Academy, the nearby La Fayette Female Academy, many businesses and homes in what is now known as the Shoals area. In Athens, AL a historic marker on the courthouse lawn states: "Athens Sacked and Plundered: On May 2, 1862, Union troops of the 19th and 24th Illinois and the 37th Indian Regiments commanded by Col. John Basil Turchin went on a rampage through the town. They looted and plundered stores and homes, stealing clothing, jewelry and anything of value, destroying what they didn't want. For months afterward, the soldiers stabled their horses in some of the town's churches, burned the pews for firewood and destroyed the interiors. Col Turchin, born Ivan Vasillevich Turchinoff in Russia, was court-martialed in Huntsville for encouraging these actions, but his wife appealed to Abraham Lincoln for clemency on his behalf. Turchin was promoted to Brig. Gen. one day before the court-martial. In August 1864, Union General Grant order Sheridan to “do all the damage to railroads and crops you can…If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste.” Sheridan declared, “the people must be left nothing but their eyes to weep with over the war…the valley from Winchester to Staunton will have but little in it for man or beast.” The Shenandoah Valley is part of the poor Appalachian Region that has been written about over the years. A Pennsylvania cavalryman lamented, “We burnt some sixty houses and all most of the barns, hay, grain and corn in the shocks for fifty miles [south of] Strasburg…It was a hard-looking sight to see the women and children turned out of doors at this season of the year.” A news correspondent with Sheridan reported, “Hundreds of nearly starving people are going North…not half the inhabitants of the valley can subsist on it in its present condition.” Textbooks give a purified mention of “Sherman’s March to the Sea”, but fail to describe the violence against women, children and the complete destruction of basic sustenance of life of the southern people. YANKEE COMPASSION…The following disturbing account was taken from an 1865 South Carolina Newspaper. “A returned Confederate prisoner, who was confined on one of the Federal Vessels, relates the following incident, which he declares he saw with his own eyes: “A Negro women was on board with a child, which being sick, was rather fretful and lachrymose. Its sobs disturbed a Yankee officer, and he roughly ordered the women to “silence that brat”. The poor creature did her best to do so, but of course did not succeed, whereupon the officer seized the wailing innocent, and tossed it into the sea, where it sank to rise no more.” - Source: Edgefield Advisor, February 01, 1865, Image 3. “Everything associated with the (Memphis and Charleston) railroad had been burned in Tuscumbia, so they had to start from ground zero,” John McWilliams, Tuscumbia city historian, said. “They had to use stage coaches to go to Corinth for a couple of years until the railroad was repaired. “The city was broke, so they tried to sell the South Commons, but the city was sued to stop the sale,” he said. “The Union army had destroyed people’s lives. Anything that could be used to earn money had been burned.” – TimesDaily. These examples barely scratch the surface of the number of war crimes committed by the North against the people of the South.
And to think Robert E. Lee is today considered evil…not a man of character? Defenders of the Confederacy called Nazis?
Southern Son
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We'll have more from Southern Son next week. We're going to ad that we never in our life thought we would be re-fighting the War of the Secession at this point; but here we are. AL.com's Kyle Whitmire calls himself fighting the War on Dumb. That does seem to sum it up pretty well.
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