The Marxists, and those brainwashed by
the Marxists, have long contended the reasons for the War of Northern
Aggression to be different from what true history reveals. They slander our
flags, calling them symbols of racism, and call our heroes traitors. Here we
will answer and debunk those myths.
MYTH #1 - The war was all about freeing the slaves.
TRUTH – The war had nothing to do with slavery. The proposed
Corwin Amendment, by Congressman Thomas Corwin of Ohio, would have FOREVER prohibited
the abolition of slavery if the seceded states would but rejoin the union and
ratify the amendment. The South refused.
Why? If it wanted to protect slavery you
would think the South would have jumped on this. Besides this, the
Crittendon-Johnson Resolution stated that the war was not for the “purpose of overthrowing or interfering
with the rights or established institutions of those states”.
On July 22, 1861, the U.S. Congress passed a joint
resolution stating the purpose of the war:
“Resolved…That this war is not being
prosecuted on our part in any spirit of oppression, not for any purpose of
conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the
rights or established institutions of those states, but to defend and maintain
the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof and to
preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several
States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war
ought to cease.”
This is further proof that the war was NOT fought over
slavery. The North did, however, conquer
and subjugate the South, and the war they initiated and waged against the South
was both unconstitutional and treasonous.
It was fought to force the legally seceded South back into the union for
the purpose of continuing the collection of excessive tariffs, which
economically damaged the South, but was of economical benefit to the northern railroads
and industrialists.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln stated that he would
continue the collection of revenues “by force if necessary”. He wanted the money that the South had been
paying into the federal government. The
South was footing over 85% of the tax burden but only had 1/3 of the
population. The Northern industrialists
and bankers were reaping the benefits of this. Also, if the war was “all about
slavery”, why was it that Union General Grant had slaves, but Confederate
General Robert E. Lee had none? Why was
West Virginia (which was illegally and unconstitutionally formed) allowed to
cede into the union on the condition that it could keep its slaves? Why was Union General Fremont’s order freeing
slaves in Missouri countermanded by Lincoln and the slaves sent back to their
masters?
Why were there more union soldiers that owned slaves than
there were Confederate soldiers that owned slaves?
Also, not one single letter has been found written by Union
or Confederate soldiers stating that they were fighting to “free the
slaves”. Numerous Confederate letters
state that the Confederacy was fighting for independence and in defense of
their homes and families. Only about 3%
of Confederate soldiers owned slaves, so what were the other 97% fighting
for? Were the 97% who did not own slaves
fighting so that the 3% who did own them could keep them? Of course not.
Also, if it was about “freeing the slaves”, then why didn’t
the federal government free them in the six states that remained in the
union? That would be Kansas (2),
Nebraska (15), Kentucky (225,483), Missouri (114,931), Maryland (87,189), and
Delaware (1,798) – 1860 Census.
"Amend the Constitution to
say it should never be altered to interfere with slavery."
-- Abraham Lincoln, 24 December
1860, presenting his stand on slavery to the Senate
"We didn't go into the war to put down slavery, but to
put the flag back; and to act differently at this moment would, I have no doubt,
not only weaken our cause, but smack of bad faith..." Abraham Lincoln
“The sole object of this war,” said Grant, “is to restore
the Union. Should I become convinced it
has any other object, or that the Government designs using its soldiers to
execute the wishes of the Abolitionists, I pledge you my honor as a man and a
soldier I would resign my commission and carry my sword to the other side.”
-Democratic Speaker’s Handbook, p. 33
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corwin_Amendment
MYTH #2 - The South wanted to protect and perpetuate slavery
to the western territories.
TRUTH – Well, that myth is beyond absurd. Common sense
refutes this myth. By the very act of
seceding from the union and establishing its own country, the South locked
itself OUT of any rights to territories belonging to the U.S. The Confederate
Constitution outlawed the importation of slaves, so if it wanted to “protect
and perpetuate” slavery, why did it outlaw the importation of slaves? Slavery was dying out in the South and there
were five times as many abolition groups in the South as there were in the
North. The South wanted to be done with
slavery and many had already freed their slaves. If the South wanted to
“protect slavery”, it had only to stay in the union where it was already
protected. The South was working towards
gradual emancipation so that the blacks could gradually be prepared to enter
society as free people. The ending of slavery in the South was a byproduct of
the war, not the cause for it.
MYTH #3 - The South started the war by firing on Ft. Sumter.
TRUTH – The firing on Ft. Sumter was what Lincoln had
planned on. He lied when he said that he
would not resupply the forces there. If
Lincoln abandoned the fort, he risked legitimizing the Confederacy. Northern sentiment was mostly in favor of
recognizing the newly formed Confederacy.
Lincoln needed to change that opinion.
He crafted the plan of resupplying the troops there, knowing the South
would not permit this and fire the first shots. Remember, the one who fires
first is not necessarily the aggressor, but the one who causes that shot to be
fired. Lincoln wrote to Lieutenant Gustavus Fox, “You and I
both anticipated that the cause of the [Federation] would be advanced by making
the attempt to provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail; and it is no
small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the
results.” Lincoln provoked the firing on Ft. Sumter according to
plan. Now he could launch his war on the
Confederacy, illegal as it was.
(“The Real Lincoln”, by Charles L.
C. Minor, pages 88, 256, 257)
MYTH #4 – The secession declarations prove the South seceded
to protect slavery.
TRUTH – While several of the Declarations do mention
slavery, and the states call themselves “slave states”, these documents have to
be interpreted in the context in which they were written. You have to get into that period of history
to understand their meaning. For decades the South had been the victim of
slander, lies, and propaganda at the hands of the Northern press, authors, and
even pastors. Radical abolitionists in the North promoted violence and
insurrection to end slavery, and they were all for killing off white
slaveholders, but never mentioned the black slaveholders in the South. (Oh yes, they most certainly existed. Didn't learn that in school, did you?)
“Four seceding
Southern states published some form of declaration of their reasons for
secession. These were South Carolina,
Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. Many
modern academic allies of the Northern War to Prevent Southern Independence
have recently taken up the cry that because these declarations have many
references to slavery that they are proof that the war was all about
slavery. First of all, however, there is
a difference between the cause of the war and the causes for secession. The cause of the war was Lincoln’s call for
75,000 troops to invade the Southern states.
This invasion immediately triggered four more states secessions –
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas – in addition to protests
from the governors of Kentucky and Missouri, and unrest in Maryland.
In addition, the
substance of the secession declarations must be interpreted in their
political/economic and constitutional contexts.
The Northern Union had become an oppressive government dedicated to
Northern regional dominance and almost exclusively Northern economic
prosperity. States Rights were the
primary bulwark against this Northern regionalism. Many modern apologists for the Union cause
also fail to recognize that these declarations, following South Carolina’s
example, were building a legal case against Northern breaches of the
Constitution. Moreover, much of the
language of these declarations was a protest against the constant inflammatory
distortions and repeated attacks on Southern honor by radical abolitionists in
Congress and in the Northern press.
The Mississippi
declaration included an admission of its economic dependence on slave
labor. However, over-dramatizing this
admission in accusatory terms fails to recognize a genuine dilemma. Many Southerners, probably a majority,
would have gladly rid themselves of slavery.
But how could it be done without destroying the economies of the major
cotton producing states and severely damaging New York banking and shipping
interests? Many also saw the necessity
of preparing the slaves to compete in a free economy before emancipation. Many would have followed the British model of
gradual emancipation with compensation to slave owners.
What the
secession declarations prove is that Southerners had strong reasons to believe
that their political rights and economic welfare were unsafe under Northern
political dominance.”
(“The Un-Civil War”, by Leonard M. Scruggs, pages 27-28)
MYTH #5 – Secession was treason.
TRUTH – Secession being legal was taught at West Point from
William Rawle’s “Views on the Constitution” published in 1825. It was used as a text book for one year and
remains in the library today. Americans who oppose secession for the Southern
states find themselves bed partners with the communist generals of Yugoslavia
and communist hard-liners of the former Soviet Union. What was condemned in 1861 was sanctioned by
the Republican Party in 1991 when Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia withdrew his
country from the Soviet Union’s orbit, but Jefferson Davis and his fellow
Southerners are called traitors for doing the same thing.
The 10th Amendment protects a states’ right to
withdraw from the union. If a state voluntarily joined, it can voluntarily
withdraw.
New England threatened to secede over the War
of 1812, yet no force was threatened against them to remain in the union. Our Founding Fathers knew secession was a
right held by the states.
“Among the Founding Fathers there was no doubt.
The United States had just seceded from the British Empire, exercising the
right of the people to “alter or abolish” — by force, if necessary — a despotic
government. The Declaration of Independence is the most famous act of secession
in our history, though modern rhetoric makes “secession” sound somehow
different from, and more sinister than, claiming independence.
The original 13 states formed a “Confederation,” under
which each state retained its “sovereignty, freedom, and independence.” The
Constitution didn’t change this; each sovereign state was free to reject the
Constitution. The new powers of the federal government were “granted” and
“delegated” by the states, which implies that the states were prior and
superior to the federal government.”
“After Lincoln’s illegal War of Northern Aggression,
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was arrested and placed in
prison prior to a trial. The trial was never held, because the chief justice of
the Supreme Court, Mr. Salmon Portland Chase, informed President Andrew Johnson
that if Davis were placed on trial for treason the United States would lose the
case because nothing in the Constitution forbids secession. That is why no
trial of Jefferson Davis was held, despite the fact that he wanted one!
Because of our progressive-liberal public education system,
many Americans now believe the myth that secession is treasonable. The
Declaration of Independence was, in fact, a declaration of secession. Its final
paragraph declares inarguably the ultimate sovereignty of each state:
That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be
free and independent states; that they are absolved of all allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of
Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and
independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract
alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which
independent states may of right do.
Following the Declaration of Independence, each colony
established by law the legitimacy of its own sovereignty as a state. Each one
drew up, voted upon, and then ratified its own state constitution, which
declared and defined its sovereignty as a state. Realizing that they could not
survive upon the world stage as thirteen individual sovereign nations, the
states then joined together formally into a confederation of states, but only
for the purposes of negotiating treaties, waging war, and regulating foreign
commerce.” Charles Pitts
If secession was not legal, why did the U.S. Congress try to pass an
amendment making it illegal AFTER the Southern states seceded?
(“The South Was Right”, by James Ronald
Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy, pages 195-217)
Not one Confederate was charged
with treason. Jefferson Davis waited two
years in prison and wanted to have his case tried in court because he knew he
would win.
Salmon Chase, the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court told Lincoln’s boys that if they were to bring ANYTHING or
ANYONE of that Confederation before the Court, and I quote,
“THAT
WHICH YOU WON ON THE BATTLEFIELD WOULD BE LOST IN THE COURT-ROOM!”
MYTH #6 – The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves.
TRUTH - You say, “His Emancipation Proclamation freed the
slaves! That proves he was against slavery.” Lincoln’s words: “I view the
matter (Emancipation Proclamation) as a practical war measure, to be decided
upon according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the
suppression of the rebellion.” He also wrote: “I will also concede that
emancipation would help us in Europe, and convince them that we are incited by
something more than ambition.” At the time Lincoln wrote the proclamation, war
was going badly for the Union. London and Paris were considering recognizing
the Confederacy and considering assisting it in its war effort.
All one has to do to debunk this myth is to actually read
the Proclamation. It “freed” slaves in areas NOT under federal control, but
expressly left them in bondage where it actually could have freed them.
Numerous union troops deserted after the Emancipation Proclamation was made
public.
MYTH #7 – The South treated blacks terribly.
TRUTH - From, “The Truths of History”, pgs. 92, 93.
The South claims that race prejudice has been, and now is,
far greater in the North than in the South.
In his “Democracy in America”, De Toqueville, the French
writer, says;
“Though the
electoral franchise has been conferred on the negroes in all the free States,
if they come forward to vote their lives are in danger. Negroes may serve by law on juries but
prejudice repels them from office. They
have separate schools, separate hospital wards, and separate galleries in the
theaters. In the South it is quite
different with the negro. Undoubtedly,
the prejudice of the race appears to be much stronger in the States that have
abolished slaves than in the States where slavery still exists.
White carpenters,
white bricklayers, and white painters will not work side by side with the
blacks in the North, but do it in almost every Southern State unless Northern
men among their workmen oppose it.”
Negroes left their homes in Alabama to work in Illinois, but
many were killed and others driven from the State. Were the murderers of those Negroes ever
brought to trial?
One Republican said: “If any more
Negroes come to Illinois, I will meet them on the border with gatling-guns!”
Mr. Seward, March 3, 1858 said: “The white man
needs this continent to labor in and must have it.”
The Legislature of Kansas, the home of John Brown, said:
“This state is for
whites only.”
In 1850, 1855 and 1865, Michigan refused suffrage to free
Negroes.
In 1864 no Negro could vote in Nevada.
“In Illinois
(Lincoln’s State) no Negro nor mulatto was allowed to remain in the State ten
days. If a Negro came into the State he
was to be sold at auction.”
In twenty-seven counties of Indiana no Negro was allowed to
live. If any white man encouraged him to
come to the State he was fined.
In Boston the Negroes are segregated.
In Ohio the Negroes were warned if they did not segregate
some dire calamity would befall them.
In New York City and Washington City this question of
segregation is of serious import today and under constant discussion.
No Negro can live in Oregon.
As to the condition of the slaves in the South under the
institution of slavery, Major-General Quitman, of New York, an army officer who
was stationed near a Mississippi plantation before the war, says in a letter to
his father:
“Every night she
has family prayers with her slaves. When
a minister comes, which is very frequently, prayers are said night and morning,
and chairs are always provided for the servants.
“They are
married by a clergyman of their own color, and a sumptuous supper is always
prepared. They are a happy, careless,
unreflecting, good-natured race-who left to themselves would degenerate into
drones or brutes. They have great family
pride and are the most arrant aristocrats in the world.”
(“The Secession War in America,” by J.P. Shaffull, published in New
York, 1862)
By the above accounts, blacks were treated well in the South
and horribly bad in the North. There
were laws against the mistreatment of slaves, though it did happen, it was not
common. The “Slave Narratives”, compiled during the Great Depression by
Northern journalists, proves that the blacks living in the 19th
century South (at least the vast majority of them) were happy and content with
their lives and the way they were treated. Why?
Because it was not whips and chains as the Yankees and Hollywood have
portrayed it to be. There was mutual
love, respect, and kindness. White and
black relations in the South at that time were quite good. Common sense and integrity actually existed
with both races then. What happened to
all that? Reconstruction.
MYTH #8 – The Confederate Flag is a symbol of racism and hate.
TRUTH - No historical document exists to support that this
flag represented hate, slavery, racism, deceit, infamy or repression. Not one
flag of the Confederacy was ever described in its placement to represent
anything other than the Confederate States of America.» No Confederate ship
ever ran slaves.» The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) adopted the battle
flag as part of its logo in 1896, long before “hate” groups began to abuse the
flag, and they condemn misuse of any Confederate flag.» The KKK and other
“hate” groups didn't use the flag until late 1950s/early 1960s. In his book
“What They Fought For, 1861-1865,” historian James McPherson, after reading
more than 25,000 letters and over 100 soldier diaries from both sides of the
War for Southern Independence, concluded that Confederate soldiers "fought
for liberty and independence from what they regarded as a tyrannical
government."
Here, Mr. King tells it well.
Before you attack the Confederate soldiers' Battle flag, see
how Old Glory will compare: http://www.vdare.com/fallon/confederate.htm
The Confederate Flag and the United States Flag are judged
by different standards and criteria, and are not held to the same levels of
accountability. In analytical science and weights and measures, comparisons are
made against known standards. However, in politics comparisons are never made
in a fair and impartial manner. In order
to understand the hypocrisy, ignorance, and bias that have been directed
against the Confederate Flag, it is necessary to use the U.S. Flag (Stars and
Stripes) as a standard of comparison. The purpose of this comparison is not to
berate or disparage the U.S. Flag, but is to prove that the Confederate Flag
has received unfair and unequal treatment.
The genocide and racial cleansing of the American Indians took place
under the U.S. Flag. Their land was taken without fair and just compensation.
Indians died by the thousands as they were forced on to reservations and
subjected to starvation and deadly diseases. The Trail of Tears endured by the
Cherokee is an example. In the American West, cavalry troopers murdered entire
villages including babies in their mother's arms.
The U.S. Flag Flew over an unconstitutional and criminal war
conducted against The Confederate States of America. Abraham Lincoln conducted
this war for the benefit of wealthy Northern industrialists. Atrocities against
Southern civilians and military are listed in the book, The Uncivil War: Union
Army and Navy Excesses in the Official Records.
Furthermore, slaves were imported from Africa to America primarily by
five Northern States: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and
Rhode Island. The Confederate Flag was not involved in the importation of
slaves.
Finally, the U.S. Flag flies over a nation that has murdered
an estimated 42 million babies by abortion. Confederate leaders would never
have voted for abortion or nominated judges that would legalize abortion. Political Correctness has been used to
attempt bans of The Confederate Flag from schools, parades, public and private
property, and even historical monuments and sites. The Confederate flag represents
Constitutional Limited Federal Government, States Rights, Resistance to
Government Tyranny, and Christian Values and Principles. To say that it represents
racism and bigotry is a negative and shallow interpretation comparable to
saying the U.S. flag represents the genocide of the American Indians and
abortion. James W. King
Let it also be noted here that it was Northerners, New
Englanders to be specific, who built the slave ships and transported their
cargo of human flesh to the U.S. and sold them to Northerners and Southerners.
It was the North that grew and perpetuated slavery, not the South. Slavery died in the North because it was not
as useful in an industrialized society as it was in an agricultural one, and
Northerners refused to work alongside of blacks. The North invaded the South to force it back
into the union to continue the collection of excessive and unconstitutional
taxes. The South wanted only to be left
alone. The Confederate soldiers fought
an illegal invasion in defense of their homes and families. The union soldiers burned homes, barns and
crops. They raped the women, black and
white. They killed animals. They looted homes
and stores. During Reconstruction, which
was nothing but a military dictatorship, the schools had to teach what the
federal government told them to. This is
where the Marxist rewritten history begins. This is when the animosity between
the races began due to the Yankees stripping whites of their rights and placing
blacks in superior positions over whites. The history was rewritten to cover up
the truth about Lincoln and his war crimes, and to cover up the truth of why he
waged an illegal war. While the military phase ended in 1865, the political,
economic, and social phases continue today.
Cultural genocide continues to be waged on our history, symbols, and
culture. A union held together with bayonets is not a union. The South is full
of Yankee transplants and Southern turncoats and scalawags glad to do the
bidding of the globalists and Marxists, trampling on the memory of those brave
dead, black and white, who fought in defense of their homeland. The lies and
propaganda continue. Those who slander the South, blame it for slavery, and
slander it and its symbols are clearly ignorant of true history. We went into the War a free people, and came
out as slaves on the government plantation.
Jeff Paulk
Col. Daniel N. McIntosh Camp #1378
Tulsa, OK
