Re: Editorial in the April 14 St. Joe Telegraph
From: lflinch@stjoelive.com
I wish someone would write a rebuttal to Harrison Hartley’s editorial on the Civil War that appeared in the St. Joe Telegraph . Harrison is a friend of mine and I hope to remain his friend. Also read Mike Bozarth’ s editorial which in my opinion is much closer to the truth.
My opinion is included at the end of this email which I hope Mike will print next week.
Larry Flinchpaugh
http://stjtelegraph.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/stjtelegraph-22-15_page-2.pdf
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To: St Joseph Telegraph, LTE
From: Larry Flinchpaugh
Watch: Rachel Maddow Attacks Nullification on YouTube first. (Google It)
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and a large segment of the American people don’t understand that Nullification and the threat of Secession is part of our "Checks and Balance" system that assures the states that the Federal Government does not violate states’ rights. Abraham Lincoln was wrong in not allowing the Southern states to secede in 1860. This unnecessary war resulted in over 620,000 people being killed and thousands more to be injured. It caused both the Northern and Southern citizens to suffer needlessly. Further suffering was endured by Lincoln imprisoning, without trial, anyone that spoke out against the war. (Suspension of the "writ of habeas Corpus")
Even though "slavery" was an issue in the Civil War, it was not the cause. The most common rallying call in the North was "Preserve the Union", not "Free the Slaves". We should be highly distrustful of those historians who refer to the War Between the States as the Civil War and claim that the war was fought to free the slaves. They often claim that the Emancipation Proclamation” freed the slaves. What they fail to point out is that the “Proclamation” only applied to the Southern states that had slaves. I have been unable to find a list of any slaves who were freed by the Proclmation. I am not sure what they would have done with them anyway. Illinois, Lincoln’s home state, had passed a law that no more Negroes could enter the state. Doesn’t it seem strange that the U.S. was the only country in the world that had to resort to a Civil War to abolish slavery!
Actually, the main cause of the Civil War, (War Between the States), was the North ignoring states’ rights. The South was being harmed by unfair taxes and tariffs that favored the North. The president and congress could have corrected this inequity without going to war with the South.
Even the name "Civil War" is misleading. In a Civil War one side is attempting to take over the existing government. That is not what the Southern states were trying to achieve. They only wanted to secede to protect their states’ rights. A better name for the Civil War would be “The War of Northern Aggression.”
Most of us were taught in school that the South was wrong in seceding from the Union. But in reality, the Southern states had the right to secede, same as we have today. The states voluntarily joined the Union (not through conquest) and have the right to secede voluntarily. Abraham Lincoln’s dictatorial actions completely disregarded the Constitution and set the stage for future presidents to continue ignoring the rights and sovereignty of the individual states.
Larry Flinchpaugh
