You're Confederate ... But Don't Know It?

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grannysoo

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You're Confederate ... But Don't Know It?
by Charley Reese

Most of the political problems in this country won't be settled until more folks realize the South was right.

I know that goes against the P.C. edicts, but the fact is that on the subject of the constitutional republic, the Confederate leaders were right and the Northern Republicans were wrong.

Many people today even argue the Confederate positions without realizing it.

For example, if you argue for strict construction of the Constitution, you are arguing the Confederate position; when you oppose pork-barrel spending, you are arguing the Confederate position; and when you oppose protective tariffs, you are arguing the Confederate position. But that's not all.

When you argue for the Bill of Rights, you are arguing the Confederate position, and when you argue that the Constitution limits the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, you are arguing the Confederate position.

One of the things that gets lost when you adopt the politically correct oversimplification that the War Between the States was a Civil War all about slavery is a whole treasure load of American political history.

It was not a civil war. A civil war is when two or more factions contend for control of one government. At no time did the South intend or attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. The Southern states simply withdrew from what they correctly viewed as a voluntary union.
They formed their own union and adopted their own constitution.

The U.S. government remained intact. There were just fewer states, but everything else remained as exactly as it was. You can be sure that, with as much bitterness and hatred of the South that there was in the North, the Northerners would have tried Confederates for treason if there had been any grounds. There weren't, and the South's worst enemy knew that.

Abraham Lincoln's invasion of the South was entirely without any constitutional authority. And it's as plain as an elephant in a tea party that Lincoln did not seek to preserve the Union to end slavery. All you have to do is read his first inaugural address. What Lincoln didn't want to lose was tax revenue generated by the South.

As Northern states gained a majority in both houses, they began to use the South as a cash cow. Here's how it worked: Most Southerners who exported cotton bartered the cotton in Europe for goods. When the protective tariffs were imposed, that meant Southerners had to pay them. To make matters worse, the North would then use the revenue for pork-barrel projects in its states. The South was faced with either paying high tariffs and receiving no benefits from the revenue or buying artificially high-priced Northern goods.

Southerners opposed pork-barrel spending. Their correct view was that, because the federal government was merely the agent of all the states, whatever money it spent should be of equal benefit. Their position on public lands was that they belonged to all the people and the federal
government had no authority to give the lands away to private interests.

Northerners had announced they would not be bound by the Constitution. What you had was the rise of modern nationalism fighting the original republic founded by the American Revolution.

So, regardless of where you were born, you may be a Southerner philosophically.
__________________
 
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D
 
Frankie":hzuwmyp4 said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D

You and I know that aint gonna happen, Frankie.
 
Frankie":3snbjbvy said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D


Oh I think we all know we lost the war. But still proud to be from the South.
 
Lammie":3r8amqe0 said:
Frankie":3r8amqe0 said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D

You and I know that aint gonna happen, Frankie.

Is what is true and right determined by the outcome of a war?
Confederates are not the ones twisting facts. Grannysoo just pointed that out.

Two or three years ago the Southeastern Louisiana University History Dept. presented a college level course on these matters via public television. One of the professors was born, raised, and educated in the New Jersey, New York area. A born and bred yankee. Once he started his own research and uncovered the true facts, he reached a conclusion. As to the educational system he came up in he said, THEY LIED TO ME.

It is/was not the Confederates twisting facts.
 
Lammie":psvpmazq said:
Frankie":psvpmazq said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D

You and I know that aint gonna happen, Frankie.
me too... but for different reasons mostly cause im part of the problem not the solution . and dont start calling me a ignorant redneck you'll only make me blush :p
 
But I like to make you blush!!

Now, don't go getting your collective skivvies in a wad. My Great Grandfather, (people in Dad's family tended to have children late in life...) was a Confederate Soldier, right off the boat from Ireland. I am right fascinated with all things Civil War. Would like to visit all the battlefields one day. I am as proud of my Southern heritage as anyone else. I'm about as country as they get. I don't feel like debating States Rights with anyone right now. I have to go feed chickens.

No offense intended.
 
Frankie":3t4zk81w said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D


I read it three times and failed to see anywhere Grannysoo said the south won the war.

Cal
 
I'll seek to put in a word, before this gets locked.
My semi-informed opinion is that when young Abe rode a flatboat to New Orleans from Illinois, carrying Illinois products to the sea, he formed the strong opinion that the USA could not thrive without control of that artery. The Confederacy would have extorted a price (a tariff) for access to the Mississippi.
Yeah, slavery was a secondary issue. Lincoln was willing to trade, emancipation for union. It didn't happen, sadly. Slavery was, however, the torch which started the fire. None of the other issues would have moved the North to war. The abolitionists were a powerful force in Northern politics.
The 40 or so years leading up to the war were like a marriage going sour. Both sides danced around the issue because they knew they were going to the poorhouse if they separated. In the end, it just had to be the way it was.
Every time I think about that war, I think of the incredible loss of life. I can't really imagine what people were like back then. Their tactic was assault with waves of men. Ghastly.
The North was not gracious in victory, and the South really didn't get revenge until about 1980, when all those Michiganders with trailers started showing up in Atlanta and Dallas and Houston.
My ancestors, from Ky, apparently fought for the Confederacy. One of my cousins has the rifle with the CSA engraving. Legend is that he fought at Chickamaugua, the "battle above the clouds". A lot of the soldiers were "one and done" and that may describe my ancestor.
I tend to focus more on our agreement than our disputes. We are way better off as a whole than in parts.
 
Calman":32lxnfhf said:
Frankie":32lxnfhf said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D


I read it three times and failed to see anywhere Grannysoo said the south won the war.

Cal

The South lost the war. Plain and simple.

The entire point of the article is not who won or who lost. There are no excuses, but there are plenty of fact twisting going on.

When the South lost the war, our entire nation lost.

History is written by the winners.........
 
The South simply lost due to a miscalculation in strategy. The South had the better military at the begining but not the manufacturing. The South took the stance of defense and not Invasion until it was to late, the mass production of the northern factories war machine and US Navy out produced/blockaded the South into submission as far as the war went. You will never get a true southern to submit to the Federalism trumping States Rights. Read Thomas Jefferson's writings as he had a lot of the same fears of federal government getting to strong.
I was fortunate enough to hear how the south was really treated my Great Grandfather was in the 7th Texas Calvary at the seige of Vicksburg, my Great Grandmother was one of the last surviving widows of the Confederacy living to 104. I listened when she talked we have no idea what hard times. I have never had to eat dog dumplings or pee through a rag in a pot to save the amonia nitrate to make powder for loved ones fighting for survival and rights.
 
Calman":2ry0ozju said:
Frankie":2ry0ozju said:
I consider myself a southerner, though some Okies consider themselves more western. But I ain't a Confederate. The Confederates lost that war. It's time they just gave up making excuses, twisting facts, and just admit they lost the war. :D


I read it three times and failed to see anywhere Grannysoo said the south won the war.

Cal
to a true southner it not really the issue whether we lost or not...
 
I think the author's premise is all wrong. The war was not fought over competing theories of government but ultimately over allegiance. The Southerners generally viewed the "Nation" as a loose "confederation" of independent states. They were Alabamians, North Carolinians, Virginians, Texans, etc that had joined together into a loose national government called the United States and when they felt like it was in their best interests they could dissolve that Union and replace it with any other manner of Confederation or just go independent. That viewpoint is over. Most folks generally consider themselves "Americans" now. Alabamian is not a nationality any more. Neither is Texan. There are probably as many people born in Ohio, Michigan, and Guadalahara living there as there are native born Texans. Ultimately the failure that was the Civil War can be laid at the feet of Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson (who wrote the Bill of Rights, though not the Constitution) because they did not legally write into the Constitution a right of Secession (or a legal prohibition against it) making the attempted breakup into a disastrous mess. The Confederacy is DEAD. Leave flowers at the grave and get over it.
 
Ya'll know the saying, history repeats itself an this country is as much divided as it was before the Civil War.
You can draw a line across the nation from the east to west .
It sure looks like the Mason Dixon to me. Strange that the USA with its socialist turned government supports and encourages the states and small country's to break away from the Soviet Union but not here.
The historian's have pointed out that the war was not about slavery but money.
Just follow the dollar.
 
Brandonm22":16v6oaqp said:
I think the author's premise is all wrong. The war was not fought over competing theories of government but ultimately over allegiance. The Southerners generally viewed the "Nation" as a loose "confederation" of independent states. They were Alabamians, North Carolinians, Virginians, Texans, etc that had joined together into a loose national government called the United States and when they felt like it was in their best interests they could dissolve that Union and replace it with any other manner of Confederation or just go independent. That viewpoint is over. Most folks generally consider themselves "Americans" now. Alabamian is not a nationality any more. Neither is Texan. There are probably as many people born in Ohio, Michigan, and Guadalahara living there as there are native born Texans. Ultimately the failure that was the Civil War can be laid at the feet of Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson (who wrote the Bill of Rights, though not the Constitution) because they did not legally write into the Constitution a right of Secession (or a legal prohibition against it) making the attempted breakup into a disastrous mess. The Confederacy is DEAD. Leave flowers at the grave and get over it.
lets don't ......and say we did.... go down to texas and bull doze the alamo, let us know how it turned out for you
 
That is NOT a good idea.

And yes, there still are Texans, thanks. We are our own little country out here. And could, IMHO, function independently. We have all the resources we need and all the space.

I can see that big old border fence keeping out all the Yankees. It might keep us in, but you can do everything short of snow skiing here, so that's okay, too.
 
The South has all the resources its needs, not just Texas. When can we start on the fence.
We can elect our own Southern President, and the yanks can have the one they elected.
Long live the South.
 
curtis":1q4povxs said:
The South has all the resources its needs, not just Texas. When can we start on the fence.
We can elect our own Southern President, and the yanks can have the one they elected.
Long live the South.
long as it aint hank jr.....
 
alacattleman":2w0rw64w said:
curtis":2w0rw64w said:
The South has all the resources its needs, not just Texas. When can we start on the fence.
We can elect our own Southern President, and the yanks can have the one they elected.
Long live the South.
long as it aint hank jr.....

And Willie Nelson. :lol:
 

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