Interview with civil war soldier in 1947

[Wheeler]

The best answer to your question is to read each states decoration of succession. To me doing so revealed that slavery was by and large the biggest issue.

Constitutional or not, no man has any "right" to own another. I don't care what any written document has to say about it. Given the option between letting it die out in a few decades, or a bloody civil war, I think a bloody civil war is the better option.

It’s interesting the parallels between slavery then and gun ownership now. There’s a lot of folks that think the same of gun owners now as they do of slavery owners back then, up to and including your opinion of a written document.

The War Between The States has nothing to do with freeing the slaves. If that were the motivation to invade the South then why not set the example and free those slaves owned in the North? Because those behind the war didn’t really care about the plight of the African Slave, it was simply a power grab in which over 600,000 Americans died.

 

[Chatsworth]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting

 

[Nedro]

Thanks for posting. I still believe people should be judge by the time they lived in, not by today's standards.
I also enjoyed the articulate speech this man used, reminds me of my grandparents and great grandparents. I'm 72 now and can only hope to be as aware as this man at his age.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

The War Between The States has nothing to do with freeing the slaves.

Nothing to do with it?

How about reading mississippi's succession from the united States. They start it out by saying their cause is directly related to african slavery. And go on to describe how important african slavery is not just to them, but the world itself.
I guess they just didn't know what they were talking about.

I know there was many issues at hand. And lincoln was a tyrant who himself cared little about slavery.

But, there's no doubt in my mind after reading each states cause for succession that slavery was at the forefront of there cause for succeeding. They repeat it over and over again.

And ultimately, succession was the cause for the war. So to say slavery had nothing to do with it is quite frankly just being ignorant of well documented history.

 

[Wheeler]

Nothing to do with it?

How about reading mississippi's succession from the united States. They start it out by saying their cause is directly related to african slavery. And go on to describe how important african slavery is not just to them, but the world itself.
I guess they just didn't know what they were talking about.

I know there was many issues at hand. And lincoln was a tyrant who himself cared little about slavery.

But, there's no doubt in my mind after reading each states cause for succession that slavery was at the forefront of there cause for succeeding. They repeat it over and over again.

And ultimately, succession was the cause for the war. So to say slavery had nothing to do with it is quite frankly just being ignorant of well documented history.

You continue to focus on one point to the exclusion of all others. Referring to the various definitions of secession doesn’t explain why the North invaded not why the North didn’t free their slaves until after the war. If that’s your only talking point then I’m just going to bid you a good day, because repeating yourself as Infiniti isn’t a discussion. Cheers.

 

[palmettomoon]

Reading periodicals of the day leaves no doubt that romantic as it may seem, 600,000 poor white Yankee bigots didn't enlist and march South to free the negro from bondage and 400,000 poor white Southerners didn't take up arms to keep them there.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

You continue to focus on one point to the exclusion of all others. Referring to the various definitions of secession doesn’t explain why the North invaded not why the North didn’t free their slaves until after the war. If that’s your only talking point then I’m just going to bid you a good day, because repeating yourself as Infiniti isn’t a discussion. Cheers.

I believe the North invaded to keep the south part of the union. I know lincoln made it clear that he wasn't at war to free the slaves but rather to keep the union.

I know that there's many writings where union soldiers express that they were not fighting to free negros.

As far as the emancipation proclamation, I know that it was more of a war strategy, insuring the southern slaves they'll be free if they come north and the northern slaves they'll be free if they fight the south.

Lincoln didn't have the legal authority to free the slaves though, only congress could pass such a law. Which they was bound to do. The south knew well that congress was going to pass legislation to free the slaves, and lincoln who was elected by the abolitionist would certainly sign such legislation into law.

So the south said screw that we're keeping our slaves, and left. The north said no screw you you can't leave.

So yeah, technically the war was fought over the separation. But the separation had everything to do with slavery.

So to say the war had NOTHING to do with slavery is just ignorant.

To say soldiers in the war were not fighting for slavery is probably absolutely true. I'm sure most from the north weren't personally fighting to free slaves. I'm sure most from the south weren't personally fighting to keep them.
But young soldiers are easily manipulated.

 

[jeep78]

It had nothing to do with slavery. History tells all we need to know.

When was the Emancipation Proclamation, before the fighting started?

Hardly, it was a political move by the Lincoln admin done to keep the British from entering the war on the side of the South. BLM back in the day.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

iT hAd nOtHinG tO dO wiTh sLaVeRy

Confederate States of America - Mississippi Secession
A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.
In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.

That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution, a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove.

The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory.

The feeling increased, until, in 1819-20, it deprived the South of more than half the vast territory acquired from France.

The same hostility dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico.

It has grown until it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of the United States had jurisdiction.

It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion.

It tramples the original equality of the South under foot.

It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.

It advocates negro equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst.

It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice.

It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists.

It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.

It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives.

It has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security.

It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system.

It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression, and leaves us no room to hope for cessation or for pause.

It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood.

Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.

Our decision is made. We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; and for the reasons here stated, we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it.

So I wonder what mississippi meant when they said

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-"

 

[jeep78]

iT hAd nOtHinG tO dO wiTh sLaVeRy



So I wonder what mississippi meant when they said

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-"

Like I said, look at WHEN the north decided to free the slaves.