In Their Own Damn Words
Dec. 20th, 2010 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinOne hundred fifty years ago today, December 20, 1860, the secession convention of South Carolina formally declared itself out of the United States.
Tonight, and in the months to come hundreds of celebratory balls across the South will be held in honor of the beginning of the bloodiest four years our nation ever endured. These celebrations will attempt to reinforce the myth that secession was undertaken for the sake of freedom, liberty, state's rights, or some other noble reason.
These are lies. South Carolina made no bones about it:
Of the eleven states which seceded (and two which held rump legislatures or secession conventions in exile after the first summer of the war), four formally passed, in addition to ordinances of secession, declarations of the causes of secession. (The above comes from the document passed by South Carolina; the other three states were Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas.) A fifth state (Florida) drafted a similar document in its convention but never finalized it. Some of the other states included reasons for secession in their ordinances.
All of these documents are available online today.
The ordinances of secession for the thirteen Confederate states (counting Kentucky and Missouri, not counting Arizona or Indian Territory/Oklahoma, both of which were also Confederate): http://www.constitution.org/csa/ordinances_secession.htm
The official declarations of causes: http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html
Florida's draft, unofficial declaration of causes: http://civilwarcauses.org/florida-dec.htm
There are other resources not online- many of which are in this book, but I won't go into them just now.
Going through all these documents, here are the number of times each reason for secession is invoked:
OVERALL:
(NOTE: In the above documents, Louisiana and North Carolina gave no reason whatever for secession; Tennessee also gave no official reason, but unlike most of the other states explicitly did NOT claim the right of secession, but rather of revolution)
SLAVERY-RELATED REASONS: 57
Republican/Abolitionist Acts or Opinions Hostile to Slavery: 10 (5 times by Georgia, 1 time each by SC, MS, FL, AL and TX)
White Supremacy / Black Inferiority: 8 (4 times by Texas, twice each by Florida and Georgia)
Northern Obstruction of Fugitive Slave Laws and Extradition of Abolitionists: 7 (3 times by Georgia, 1 time each by SC, MS, FL and TX)
Obstruction of Slavery in Federal Territories: 7 (4 times by Georgia, 1 time each by SC, MS and TX)
Election of Abraham Lincoln: 7 (twice by Texas, once each by SC, MS, AL, FL, and GA)
General Defense of Slavery: 5 (MS, GA twice, TX twice)
John Brown: 4 (MS, FL, GA, TX)
Abolitionist Literature: 3 (SC, FL, TX)
Kansas: 2 (FL, TX)
Black Civil Rights in Free States: 2 (SC, MS)
Right of Sojurn and Transit of Slaves Through Free States: 2 (AL, GA)
(Note: I spent an hour reading through the journal of the Arkansas Secession Convention. If I'd included those resolutions here, I would have added one each to Republicans, White Supremacy, Fugitive Slave Laws, Abraham Lincoln, Territories, and Black Civil Rights- at LEAST. And I haven't even gone digging for Virginia, Tennessee or North Carolina.)
NON-SLAVERY REASONS: 16
Federal Coercion (post-Sumter): 4 (VA, AR, MO, KY)
Federal Subsidy of Northern Industry (esp. fisheries and coastal navigation): 4 (three times by GA, once by FL)
Tariffs: 3 (FL, GA, TX)
Border/Frontier Defense: 3 (all TX, though I could have added AR to this- see note above)
The Rights of the Minority in a Republic: 1 (FL)
Internal / Coastal Improvements: 1 (GA)
State's Rights (except in defense of secession itself): ZERO
I'll further note that, far from defending the general doctrine of state's rights, the documents harp on about how the North has broken the federal compact by, in effect, nullifying federal law and denying the South their rightful share of federal protection of slaveholder's rights. The South wanted the Northern states to buckle under Federal authority- to the point of demanding the right to linger indefinitely in free states without losing their slaves. The South wanted the federal government, in effect, to strike down state laws abolishing slavery!
So remember, as we celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the truth from the mouths of those men who started it: the breakup of the Union, and the resulting war, was started by rich white men upholding the ancient principle of SLAVERY- and nothing else.
Remember... and never let the people holding their balls forget it.
Tonight, and in the months to come hundreds of celebratory balls across the South will be held in honor of the beginning of the bloodiest four years our nation ever endured. These celebrations will attempt to reinforce the myth that secession was undertaken for the sake of freedom, liberty, state's rights, or some other noble reason.
These are lies. South Carolina made no bones about it:
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to (steal) the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
Of the eleven states which seceded (and two which held rump legislatures or secession conventions in exile after the first summer of the war), four formally passed, in addition to ordinances of secession, declarations of the causes of secession. (The above comes from the document passed by South Carolina; the other three states were Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas.) A fifth state (Florida) drafted a similar document in its convention but never finalized it. Some of the other states included reasons for secession in their ordinances.
All of these documents are available online today.
The ordinances of secession for the thirteen Confederate states (counting Kentucky and Missouri, not counting Arizona or Indian Territory/Oklahoma, both of which were also Confederate): http://www.constitution.org/csa/ordinances_secession.htm
The official declarations of causes: http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html
Florida's draft, unofficial declaration of causes: http://civilwarcauses.org/florida-dec.htm
There are other resources not online- many of which are in this book, but I won't go into them just now.
Going through all these documents, here are the number of times each reason for secession is invoked:
OVERALL:
(NOTE: In the above documents, Louisiana and North Carolina gave no reason whatever for secession; Tennessee also gave no official reason, but unlike most of the other states explicitly did NOT claim the right of secession, but rather of revolution)
SLAVERY-RELATED REASONS: 57
Republican/Abolitionist Acts or Opinions Hostile to Slavery: 10 (5 times by Georgia, 1 time each by SC, MS, FL, AL and TX)
White Supremacy / Black Inferiority: 8 (4 times by Texas, twice each by Florida and Georgia)
Northern Obstruction of Fugitive Slave Laws and Extradition of Abolitionists: 7 (3 times by Georgia, 1 time each by SC, MS, FL and TX)
Obstruction of Slavery in Federal Territories: 7 (4 times by Georgia, 1 time each by SC, MS and TX)
Election of Abraham Lincoln: 7 (twice by Texas, once each by SC, MS, AL, FL, and GA)
General Defense of Slavery: 5 (MS, GA twice, TX twice)
John Brown: 4 (MS, FL, GA, TX)
Abolitionist Literature: 3 (SC, FL, TX)
Kansas: 2 (FL, TX)
Black Civil Rights in Free States: 2 (SC, MS)
Right of Sojurn and Transit of Slaves Through Free States: 2 (AL, GA)
(Note: I spent an hour reading through the journal of the Arkansas Secession Convention. If I'd included those resolutions here, I would have added one each to Republicans, White Supremacy, Fugitive Slave Laws, Abraham Lincoln, Territories, and Black Civil Rights- at LEAST. And I haven't even gone digging for Virginia, Tennessee or North Carolina.)
NON-SLAVERY REASONS: 16
Federal Coercion (post-Sumter): 4 (VA, AR, MO, KY)
Federal Subsidy of Northern Industry (esp. fisheries and coastal navigation): 4 (three times by GA, once by FL)
Tariffs: 3 (FL, GA, TX)
Border/Frontier Defense: 3 (all TX, though I could have added AR to this- see note above)
The Rights of the Minority in a Republic: 1 (FL)
Internal / Coastal Improvements: 1 (GA)
State's Rights (except in defense of secession itself): ZERO
I'll further note that, far from defending the general doctrine of state's rights, the documents harp on about how the North has broken the federal compact by, in effect, nullifying federal law and denying the South their rightful share of federal protection of slaveholder's rights. The South wanted the Northern states to buckle under Federal authority- to the point of demanding the right to linger indefinitely in free states without losing their slaves. The South wanted the federal government, in effect, to strike down state laws abolishing slavery!
So remember, as we celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the truth from the mouths of those men who started it: the breakup of the Union, and the resulting war, was started by rich white men upholding the ancient principle of SLAVERY- and nothing else.
Remember... and never let the people holding their balls forget it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 11:30 pm (UTC)As you can imagine, things are a tad strained at the the moment. I... don't think I'm willing to let this drop for the sake of our friendship.
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Date: 2010-12-21 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 02:26 am (UTC)