"Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled."--Articles of Confederation, Article II, March 1, 1781
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"For even the novice historical student, a study of Jefferson could not be conjoined with the likes of Hamilton. And to attempt to link Jefferson’s philosophies with either Lincoln’s or Hamilton’s is akin to mixing ice cream and mud. It doesn’t hurt the mud but it plays hell with the ice cream."--Paul H. Yarbrough
"Anyone who has read The Real Lincoln (or scanned the ,"King Lincoln Archive" at LewRockwell.com) would not be surprised at all to hear that Lincoln was hated and reviled by most of the "great men" (and the Northern masses) of his time. As Tagg hesitantly admits in his Introduction, Lincoln was widely criticized in the North as a "bloody tyrant" and a "dictator" for his "arbitrary arrests, the suspension of habeas corpus, and the suppression of newspapers . . ." More specifically, imprisoning tens of thousands of Northern civilians without due process for verbally opposing his policies; shutting down over 300 opposition newspapers; deporting an opposing member of Congress; confiscating firearms and other forms of private property; intimidating and threatening to imprison federal judges; invoking military conscription, income taxation, an internal revenue bureaucracy, and huge public debt; and ordering the murder of hundreds of draft protesters in the streets of New York City in July of 1863 are all good reasons why Lincoln was so widely despised."--Thomas DiLorenzo, How the Lincoln Myth Was Hatched
In his first Inaugural address (March 4, 1861), Abraham Lincoln said: "Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you."
Lincoln said all of that and plenty more all the while coordinating a plan to start a war. This isn't the only magnificent lie Lincoln spewed; we see this same level of lying on April 1, 1861 when Lincoln (through secretary of state William Seward) assures the intermediary to the Confederate Peace Commission, Judge Campbell, that though Lincoln wants to supply Fort Sumter he will not do so.
Planning to supply or reinforce Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Habor, South Carolina, would be an act of war. As you will see below, Lincoln is going to make an attempt to supply Fort Sumter after making it very clear that he is not going to resupply Fort Sumter."Senator Douglas, though opposed to secession, had argued in the United States Senate that South Carolina was entitled to the possession of Fort Sumter; General Scott had advised its evacuation; and Secretary Seward had practically promised that it should be given up. The South, therefore, thought that a peaceable solution was in sight. But President Lincoln, after a period of indecision, decided to provision the fort, and on 8 April 1861 so informed the Governor of South Carolina. The South had not desired hostilities;" From the 1907 AMERICANA; A Universal Reference Library - volume 15, pg 977 link to source
note: Lincoln's plan all along was to send ships. There was no, "period of indecision".Why should not the government of the United States recognize the government formed by the States that have seceded? It is, beyond dispute, a government de facto, and it has always been a feature of our foreign policy to recognize governments de facto. No matter how they may have been formed,—whether by the people displacing a despot, or by a despot overcoming a people; no matter whether established in peace or in war,—we have always been ready to acknowledge their legality, and to institute amicable relations with them. Why should this practice be departed from in the case of the Southern Confederacy? The States composing this Confederacy, it is true, were recently a portion of our own territory; but they now occupy a position of complete independence. Three or four fortresses, garrisoned by mere handsful of men, constitute the sole foothold of our government within their limits. The people of these States, driven to desperation by the incessant warfare of abolitionism upon their most cherished rights, have withdrawn themselves from among us, and resolved henceforth to lead a separate national existence. It would be highly desirable to secure their voluntary return to their old allegiance; but, so long as anti-slaveryism rules the North, such a consummation is impossible. There are but two alternatives left: we must conquer them, or we must recognize their independence.
It is possible—though highly improbable—that we might be able to subjugate the seceded States. We might regain possession of their fortifications, occupy their towns and cities with military forces, and hold their territory by the power of arms. But this could only be accomplished—if accomplished at all—by the expenditure of a vast amount of life and treasure—by the destruction of an immense amount of property—by the annihilation to a great extent of trade and commerce. During the progress of our attempt at conquest, bloodshed, rapine, and conflagration would hold a Saturnalia; brother would strike the sword at the heart of brother, and father would speed the bullet to the brain of son. A scene of horror would be presented which we shrink from contemplating. And, supposing our attempt at conquest to be successful, what then? We should, certainly, have prevented a diminution of the extent of our public domain; but would such a result compensate us for the evils that had been done? And the people of the conquered territory, would they entertain for their conquerors that feeling which all citizens should entertain for their government, and without which feeling any government should at once cease to have existence? Would they not be exasperated to the highest degree, and, if that exasperation were not permitted to be openly manifested, would they not hug it to their souls in secret, and, upon every opportunity, give vent to it by the means of bloody insurrections? Would it be possible, for any great length of time, to keep a people so feeling in subjection? And, besides, what benefit to us would be a people so held? Would they add to our strength governmentally, or to our position morally, or to our ability pecuniarily? Would they not, most decidedly, be to us, in every way, a terrible detriment?
There is but one reply to these interrogatories, and that reply demonstrates most conclusively that an attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful, could produce nothing but evil,—evil unmitigated in character and appalling in extent.
Now for the other alternative. By recognizing the independence of the Southern Confederacy, we should, to a considerable degree, disarm its people of the hostility they naturally feel towards the people of the North, and, in this improved state of feeling, the details of a peaceable separation could easily be arranged. The public property could be distributed, and the public debt apportioned, in an equitable and satisfactory manner; commerce between the two sections could be rendered entirely free of restrictions; in every respect, with the single exception of government, we could be as one people; and, in case of assaults by foreign Powers upon the rights of either, defence should and would be made the common cause of both. Enterprise would develop the resources so lavishly bestowed by nature, industry would reap the rewards of its labors, and tranquillity would pervade the land. And, in the course of time,—when the fanaticism which now sways the North shall have disappeared, and the names of its apostles be held in universal execration,—the South and the North might again unite their political destinies, and, re-united, march forward, hand in hand, in that glorious career which the Almighty, it would seem, has marked out for our race.
Shall we not recognize the government of the seceded States? The administration soon to be inaugurated at Washington will have this interrogatory to answer at the very outset of its existence, and upon its answer will depend the weal or woe of thirty millions of people. A reply in the negative will be pregnant with disaster; and a reply in the affirmative we scarcely dare to anticipate. But let us hope for the best; and, if the worst shall come, let the world be made aware that the responsibility therefor should rest entirely upon the shoulders of the republican party. What the verdict of posterity will be upon the calamities resulting from the carrying out of the atrocious doctrines of that party, it requires no prophet to predict. Far be it from the democracy to have the slightest participation in the disgrace of that verdict.
It is impossible to determine whether the telegraphic rumors of proposed armistices by the government with Virginia and Maryland be true. It is certain that they ought not to be true. An armistice at this time means that the southern people, who appear to pay little regard to their constituted rulers, shall get ready for a fight, and that the Federal government shall lose the advantage of the present burst of patriotic and military feeling. We opposed the commencement of hostilities, but we now know no policy, and will listen to no policy, which shall protract the war. We are in favor of the utmost vigor. In war we know only one rule,—that is, to arm and act efficiently. If Virginia and Maryland are to have armistices, let it be with an army of a hundred thousand men upon their soil. Let us lose no advantages. Let us not fail to create all advantages possible. If we are not to have war, if the policy of the administration is to delay hostilities and to finally acknowledge the Southern Confederacy, the people should know it now. The States who are eager to contribute their money to strengthen the arm of the government—the men who are abandoning business, home, families, to offer their lives for the country—should know it. This is no time to talk of armistices and delay, unless the administration intend to back down. If they entertain such a design, we want to know it, and the people want to know it. We have the war. Fort Sumter is taken. The blood of loyal troops stains the streets of Baltimore. A Baltimore mob defies the government and cuts off the most direct communication with the capital. This does not seem to us the time for treating, or for delay. It is the time for vigor. So far the government has been driven to the wall. Action, vigorous, self-assertive action, is the only mode left to recover its prestige, and to inspire confidence at home and abroad in its power. If Maryland is true to the Union she will aid the government to open the Baltimore route; but Virginia has seceded—she is in a state of rebellion. An armistice with her may keep her men back from Washington sixty days, but leaves the pseudo Confederate States ample leisure to perfect all arrangements for attack. In sixty days Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and perhaps other States, will be under the Confederate States constitution—increasing their power of mischief, consolidating secession sentiment, and giving them an importance with foreign nations which will do vast injury to the Washington government. If this is the critical period of the nation’s history, (and who doubts that it is?) it certainly is the very period for the national spirit to rise highest, the national arm to be strongest, and the popular effort to hold aloft the constitution and the laws the most decided. In this we express the sentiment of the people. Let the administration beware lest they disappoint the nation.
The present condition of the North must not be misunderstood. It is a vast upheaval of courage, patriotism, and devotion to the best interests of the nation. It is not a sentiment of attachment to the administration. Not for a moment. It is wider and nobler than that—more practical than that. It embraces all the glorious promise of the American future. It believes in the destiny which will crowd coming centuries with the fame, happiness and wealth of this free people. One administration, one President, one four years’ term, is a speck—an insignificant point—in the far-reaching vision of the popular patriotism. Nothing is to be done for rulers—everything for the constitution. Mr. LINCOLN is not leading this sentiment. No man can lead it. It is a strong and deep current sweeping irresistibly to the future, bearing with it all who will be borne, but overwhelming all who oppose its progress. We wish no mistake to be made. Northern unity is not for the man, but for the nation. Not for Mr. LINCOLN, but the constitution. We will submit to no delays—no procrastinating policies—no armistices, while mobs defy the government and rebels drive her officers from their State. The voice of peace should have prevailed before the sounds of war commenced. When peace was honorable we were for peace; but we never will, even by silence, consent to the dishonor of timid policies—to truces and armistices which are extorted by fear of mobs. All men will bear witness that we held the “blood-letters” of the times of peace up to the execration of the world. And now that these “blood-letters” are, in time of war, sinking into the gentle harmlessness of lambs—now that they are not seen in martial array presenting their breasts to the men whose blood they thirsted for—we deem them equally execrable. The honor of the nation required that this war should never have commenced; but the same honor now demands vigor—victory—the real supremacy of the constitution and the laws.
Arm first and treat afterwards, is now our motto. Nations unarmed and unprepared never secure honorable and lasting peace. We know that no glory is to be attained in this war. We are proud that it is not glory which unites the North—that it is a sober adherence to the best social, material and religious interests of the nation which makes us a unit; but this calm, determined, common-sense spirit will not submit to trifling inaction, or to weak attempts at peace, at a moment when honorable peace is impossible. If this government has power, this is the time to display and use it.
"With scarcely one soldier in twenty in the Southern Armies owning even one slave and with thousands of Northern soldiers being slave owners, is it reasonable to assert that each went to war to fight against his own interests ? Is it not a repulsive thought that any mind could be so constituted as to believe that Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnson and Stonewall Jackson fought their immortal fight to hold some negroes in slavery! Nothing could be more unfair or untruthful than to represent the North as going into the War Between the States as upon some holy crusade to free the slaves from their Southern owners, to whom, it may be remarked in passing, in very large measure they had been sold by this same North and the money not refunded!"--The Gray Book: By Sons of Confederate Veterans (1920)
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” Smedley Darlington Butler., Major General United States Marine Corps, two time medal of honor recipient, Marine Corps Brevet Medal recipient. Author "WAR IS A RACKET"