While sitting in a Barnes&Noble a while back I read the majority of a good book by Stephen King … a book with a boring title, “On Writing“.
King said that he never tries to “think” of something interesting to write. Considered that as requiring too much effort. Instead, he said he gets virtually all his ideas by intensely observing everyday life. He then relates a story of him watching his mother licking and pasting stamps in her Green Stamp book. He was in high school at the time, and wrote a short story titled — “Happy Stamps” — whereby a man named Rodger counterfeited Green Stamps, instead of money, in hopes of getting “free” toasters and other trinkets. He submitted it to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine … and was promptly rejected. By the time he got his first story published he literally had a bedroom wall full of rejection letters. But, he said, he firmly held steadfast to his belief that the best stories come from observing the real world. That worked out pretty well for him.
Anyway, that’s basically how I come up with these “questions”, and pic essays, and other writings. So, today, the One America News station is running stories all day about how great FDR was, commemorating his death which occurred on this day back in 1945. They’re also running Abe Lincoln shit. Voilla! Food for a new question of the day!
Question #1: How do you feel about Lincoln’s assassination?
Question #2: How would America have changed IF Lincoln served his second term to completion?
Me? That fucker was responsible for hundreds of thousands of dead and injured. Glad he got popped. He got what he deserved.
Regarding the second question, I really have no idea. Which is why I’m asking it.
1) John Wilkes Booth was 4 years and 2 days late (12Apr1861-14Apr1865). 2) He’d been no better but I’d reconsider if historians could show he planned to Court Martial Gen Sherman for Barbarity like we did the Nazis.
1- He got off easily, his death was more humane than how the hundreds of thousands died on the battlefields and those during Shermans march.
2- Maybe he would have got his way and deported all african-americans.
1. Lincoln unleashed his armies upon the civilian people of the Confederate States of America in the name of money. May he rot in hell. A true scoundrel.
2. I’m not sure, but he was the original U.S. imperialist IIRC, so perhaps we would have progressed further down that road more quickly. But then , what difference at this point, does it make? The race hypocrite is dead.
I don’t know how to answer the questions directly. Abe’s assassination was so long ago, hard for me to feel one way or another about it.
Every time we went to Disneyland, there on Main St. was the exhibit called, “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.” Every time I saw that theater, it made me think of this great line: “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how’d you like the play?”
I recently found a conspiracy website showing how the pictures of the accused in Lincoln’s murder were all staged, and how there’s no way that Booth acted alone, etc. etc. Interesting to look at the photos and read the guy’s presentation, but impossible for me to know if there’s any truth in his thesis. I like to read all the kooky conspiracy stuff, even if I can’t form an immediate opinion on it.
As far as what would have happened, I don’t know, either, but it’s my understanding that slavery, as a system, was on its’ way out, anyway, due to economic factors. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, and so forth.
Question #1: How do you feel about Lincoln’s assassination?
– I feel I can sympathize with the enraged southerners whose land had been ravaged, plundered, and torched by northern troops under Lincoln’s command. But I think that it may have been counterproductive on a short-term basis as it generated the perception that southerners were violent brutes and that the war was right after all.
Question #2: How would America have changed IF Lincoln served his second term to completion?
– I’m not sure that Lincoln being alive would have really blocked efforts by ex-Confederate states to enact black codes. The Democrats did what they could to keep blacks “in their place” in the immediate months and years after the war. Even with Lincoln alive, change would have been painstakingly slow, as it was as it actually happened.
However, I do believe that the centralization of government at the federal level and the further moving away from Constitutional governance would have been even more intense. Lincoln ruled as a dictator and he set a precedent. This is the one side of the legacy of the Civil War era that many Americans are too quick to overlook.
i am on the same page as rhs, yet my view is the south was well within their rights to leave, john c calhoun made a good case for states rights.
The greater question would be what the USA might look like had Lincoln lost the election in the first place? Had the Confederate States been allowed to peacefully succeed would their nation state have lasted the test of time? If they had who would be the stronger nation today? What would the makeup of the world look like given the events of the 20th century? Chew on that for a while.
Lincoln got popped too late to really alter the course of history IMO. Then again in this country we tend to overly celebrate anyone who gets murdered “in the line of duty” sans the military. Had he served out his term (or more) my thought is he wouldn’t be near the idyllic figure that American text books make him out to be. He would’ve had more time to fuck things up in general. Aside from the travesty of the Civil War battlefield that asshole is the first president to enact an income tax.
I celebrate our founders, not the assholes after them. The real question is how are you going to celebrate the death of FDR??
1. It is part of history; recognize it and accept it just like all the other significant events in history. I prefer to concentrate on the here and now.
2. Irrespective of the Sherman atrocity, Lincoln wanted to pursue a reconciliation and healing of the South into the Union.
“Irrespective of the Sherman atrocity, Lincoln wanted to pursue a reconciliation and healing of the South into the Union.”
That was easy for him given that he was the victimizer and not the victim. Did Lincoln ever mention or seriously consider a reparations program to compensate southern civilians who lost lives or property thanks to northern troops – especially given less than 2% of southern civilians owned slaves?
The Sherman atrocity wasn’t the only one. There were numerous incidents of barbarism perpetrated by northern troops against unarmed, non-hostile southern civilians.
The south never lost a minutes sleep over Abe’s departure from the planet.
If he had lived, I doubt anything would would have changed in regards to the south. We would have had reconstruction and CONTINUE to be reconstructed. Presidents have little to do with changing the agendas of the owners. POTUS puppets do what they are told or else……….Abe found the (or else) a little extreme.
The turning was coming, the war was gonna happen. Abe’s assassination didn’t matter in the slightest on the grand stage of things.
I_S
Lincoln was such a tyrant and gutted so many aspects of the Constitution …. so, I was thinking along the lines that had he lived, he would have continued to do so.
I celebrate FDR’s death the same way I did yesterday. If you guessed “nothing”, you would be correct. How are you celebrating it, Aquapura?
1. too little too late, too bad no Obamacare with free abortions, maybe then his mother would have have saved us all a ton of misery.
2. speculating about it is tough, i could argue he would have done more to gut the constitution but when he died he basically became a martyr as “Honest Abe” and i personally think others were able to accomplish destroying more of the constitution in his name than his own capital would have allowed him to do.
Permission to come aboard your thread, Stucky?
We have a framed drawing on the wall of one of my relatives on my Father’s side, Syd Bergen (Bergen County was named after his family’s original settler, Hans Hansen Bergen who arrived in the 1630’s). He was a rifleman in the 21st NJ Volunteer Infantry, and died in the assault at Marye’s Heights during the second battle of Fredericksburg- Chancellorsville to the Southrons.
Every time I see that drawing I wonder about the cost to our family. That’s six or seven generations back. He never got to marry or have children, just to die in the mud far away from home. And for what? So that 150 years later we can be shamed for our skin? So much for privilege.
Lincoln ruined millions of lives, destroyed the Constitutional Republic, created a Federal leviathan that threatens humanity and guaranteed the displacement and eventual dispossession of the Founder’s posterity by hostile aliens.
No wonder there’s a monument to him in DC.
And that King book is one of the best on writing.
“I celebrate FDR’s death the same way I did yesterday. If you guessed “nothing”, you would be correct. How are you celebrating it, Aquapura?”
Well since the One America News is celebrating it thought you might be too. Wasn’t sure how they made the link from FDR to “Honest” Abe but irregardless I don’t celebrate either man. If I enjoy an adult beverage tonight it’s for myself, not some dead assholes.
Abe attacked the south because the south was kicking the norths ass as far as commerce goes. Think ports of call. Right down the street from me is an lincoln museum. Some folks aroind here are related to the abester too. So I do like I do for religion, smile and go along to get along.
And to the OP above, there is no such word as ‘irregardless.’ As soon as I found that out years ago, I stopped saying it because I felt like it made me sound stupid. I can do that well enough alone without making words up.
1) I was under the impression that Abe went after the South
to save the North from financial ruin. The North owed the banks,
but the $ for payment wasn’t available. Abe sought to tax the South
for the needed $. The South refused and threatened to leave the
fold. Abe attacked them. The slavery thing was just a cover story.
2) FDR? Whatever I learn about him, I immediately forget. He is a
nothing to me. Well he was a crazy elite … I looked to refresh my brain.
FDR had a privileged youth – traveling through Europe each year, learning to sail on his Father’s yacht, living amount the other wealthy New Yorkers, meeting many influential and wealthy contacts and going to exclusive schools. At his death, his estate was worth about $60 million in 2014 dollars, some of it in real estate in several states including his Springwood estate of 800 acres.
http://blog.familymoneyvalues.com/2014/09/roosevelts-wealth-building/
“Permission to come aboard your thread, Stucky?” ———- hardscrabble farmer
Two things I think you know about me after all these years.
1. When I do a shit-fest I rarely mean half the shit I say with my mani-depressive outbursts. So, I’m sorry about all the shit I said to you the other day.
2. I try really hard to not let my royal pissed off-ness to not leak into another thread, and certainly not into following days.
Thank you for your nice post.
Lincolns death…yep he got what he deserved. I just wish it could have been from the front…between the eyes .
I heard tales of Sherman’s time in South Carolina from my grandmother as told to her by her mother . The tales weren’t too kind . In addition I’ve read the letters from the Mayor of Columbia as to the burning of Columbia .He talked of the looting etc by Sherman’s drunk soldiers . Again not a very flattering tale .Sherman was quoted as saying that Lincoln giggled with delight at the tales who told of the “March To The Sea ” .
Sherman was in the area of where my farm is located . I have a friend who is the spitting image of Sherman…they could be twins . His family lived in this area too. I’m pretty his great,great grandma was knocking boot with Sherman .
As to his 2nd term….Lincoln was a Henry Clay protege who would have continued crushing the states until Federal Rule was the norm .
If one believes in reincarnation, perhaps Abe lives today in the body of Fidel.
1. I always thought the entire point was a ‘voluntary union of states’. Lincoln fought a ruinous war that costs hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed the country in the process. Don’t mourn his death.
2. I don’t really think him finishing his second term would have made a difference, he damaged the idea of a republic so much, the train was set in motion. Would he have actually gone through with sending all the black people back to Africa? I highly doubt it. About as likely as trump deporting all the illegals.
Well, Lincoln’s death is ALWAYS a cause for celebration. He was a seriously EVIL fuck. However, when he was whacked, it left a power vacuum in the body politic. So REALLY psycho mofo’s like Thaddeus Stephens took over and REALLY stuck it to the South.
So yeah,
1. Die motherfucker DIE!!!
2. Might have sucked less if he had lived.
There ya go.
Where one stands on Lincoln’s administration of the US depends entirely on where one sits. Would a Confederacy, freely organized and administered under no pressure to conform to the habits of the rump US have been a net plus to the area and people now known as Americans? Impossible to say. Easy to spin possibilities and counterfactual conclusions, but all entirely speculative.
Had Lincoln not been assassinated, would the US be fundamentally different today? Hard to say. He was not optimistic, read his Second Inaugural, where he speculates about whether two hundred and fifty yearsof strife will need to be given for the two hundred fifty years of slavery. He understood the terms of the struggle, and of the Norths “victory”, that is for sure.
One thing is certain: If we knew then what we know now, we would have picked our own cotton and tobacco!
Lincoln wanted to deport the slaves back to Africa. All of them.
Run that through your head and rethink the demographics of this country and ask yourself if him getting killed before he could get that done was a good thing.
Lincoln wanted to pay the slave owners $$$ for the release of the Slaves and have them shipped home -* he argued many times with his cabinet for this solution. Financially many people in the South say the need to create a Working / Middle Class – slavery kept this from happening. when the South left it took 60% of the GDP with it via King Cotton Exports.
1) he asked it – he could have negotiated better at the start. Proof: he tried to persuade states out of the Confederacy via the Emancipation Proclamation.
2) Because of #1 we were “punished” by the Damn Yankee for repayment. GDP / person showed that the south was richer – we just could not sustain the onslaught of corruption.