Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
My “Rewriting American History” column of a fortnight ago, about the dismantling of Confederate monuments, generated considerable mail. Some argued there should not be statues honoring traitors such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, who fought against the Union. Victors of wars get to write the history, and the history they write often does not reflect the facts. Let’s look at some of the facts and ask: Did the South have a right to secede from the Union? If it did, we can’t label Confederate generals as traitors.
Article 1 of the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the war between the Colonies and Great Britain, held “New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States.” Representatives of these states came together in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a constitution and form a union.
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During the ratification debates, Virginia’s delegates said, “The powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression.” The ratification documents of New York and Rhode Island expressed similar sentiments.
At the Constitutional Convention, a proposal was made to allow the federal government to suppress a seceding state. James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” rejected it. The minutes from the debate paraphrased his opinion: “A union of the states containing such an ingredient (would) provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a state would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound.”
America’s first secessionist movement started in New England after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Many were infuriated by what they saw as an unconstitutional act by President Thomas Jefferson. The movement was led by Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, George Washington’s secretary of war and secretary of state. He later became a congressman and senator. “The principles of our Revolution point to the remedy — a separation,” Pickering wrote to George Cabot in 1803, for “the people of the East cannot reconcile their habits, views, and interests with those of the South and West.” His Senate colleague James Hillhouse of Connecticut agreed, saying, “The Eastern states must and will dissolve the union and form a separate government.” This call for secession was shared by other prominent Americans, such as John Quincy Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy III and Joseph Story. The call failed to garner support at the 1814-15 Hartford Convention.
The U.S. Constitution would have never been ratified — and a union never created — if the people of those 13 “free sovereign and Independent States” did not believe that they had the right to secede. Even on the eve of the War of 1861, unionist politicians saw secession as a right that states had. Rep. Jacob M. Kunkel of Maryland said, “Any attempt to preserve the union between the states of this Confederacy by force would be impractical and destructive of republican liberty.” The Northern Democratic and Republican parties favored allowing the South to secede in peace.
Northern newspapers editorialized in favor of the South’s right to secede. New-York Tribune (Feb. 5, 1860): “If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861.” The Detroit Free Press (Feb. 19, 1861): “An attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful, could produce nothing but evil — evil unmitigated in character and appalling in extent.” The New-York Times (March 21, 1861): “There is a growing sentiment throughout the North in favor of letting the Gulf States go.”
Confederate generals were fighting for independence from the Union just as George Washington and other generals fought for independence from Great Britain. Those who’d label Gen. Robert E. Lee as a traitor might also label George Washington as a traitor. I’m sure Great Britain’s King George III would have agreed.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
How ironic the left in California want to secede.
While I’m not a civil war buff, the southern states made a real effort to be independent from the rest of the union. These civil war generals were legitimate. They were not traitors.
But the leftists, and brain washed liberals, believe removing 150 year old monuments, will improve their lives. What would improve their lives the most would be to get a job, and quit bitching about how life isn’t fair.
This is where the modern day Carpet Baggers come in. White folk who run shit hole cities like Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Camden, NY. Instead of straightening things out, they throw gasoline on the fire. Anything, just to be in power.
Brilliant Dutch.
Perfect, on the heels of the report.
The main reason I think all of the Generals from Civil War I should be removed is to make room for the Generals from Civil War II.
Are you going to lay your life on the line Jimski, or send your children out to die?
He will put his life on the line – so will you, and all the rest of us, because the Socialists / communists will have it no other way.
Some of them realize they will be putting their FELLOW Socialists / Communists lives on the line. Many will not realize they are putting THEIR OWN lives on the line.
Elites, whether Capitalist, Socialist or Communist, tend to think OTHERS will die to accomplish their aims. Some are correct; but once the chaos is loosed, plenty of activists, counter-activists and innocent lives are lost. Elites also die, but plan not to; no plan survives contact with the enemy, however.
Buy more food, bandages, weapons and ammunition. You are going to need them, sooner or later.
as usual dr walter nails the point. if only one northern state chose not to send their men for the sake of the union things would have been different. from a mid westerner view that peculiar institution certainly hardly worth a life. after yearsof being the principal source revenues, resentment grew as jackson shut down any thought of separation. yet a man’s first call was to his state. did maryland or deleware get to make their decision? maybe lincoln’s actions and words deserve a further look. blockades are considered an act of war.
Antifa = American Taliban
Koko,
actually that Taliban were the good guys.
That was propaganda, “fighting the Taliban”…
fighting them against their prohibition of the
poppies market. And now that crap is brought in
and distributed to 7th and 8th graders. If the
immunizations don’t take them down, the carfentanyl
mixed in the heroin will.
Some school play in Virginia pales in comparison.
Maybe there will be a time for us to get even, but now
is the time to prepare for some hard times ahead.
Prepare for the worst, pray/hope for the best.
The War was over until Reconstruction II started in 1964; it’s time to run all the real Traitors, Carpetbaggers and Scalawags out of the South like they did 1877!
Why run them out? They will make wonderful lamp post decorations as well as crow food.
Let us remove all reminders of the last Civil War, and purge all memory to make room for the new statues of the key figures of the next one.
The real tragedy of the war of northern aggression is that the wrong side won. The southern states had every legal right to secede. I wonder if old “Honest Abe”, a lawyer, knew that. He, along with his generals, is a war criminal and mass murderer. How fitting that the currency with Abe and Grant’s faces is worth toilet paper. I would very much like to take a giant shit on Grant’s tomb and wipe my ass with his face. I’ll throw in a golden shower for the gilded statue of Sherman in NYC.
The North needed the $$$ generated from Southern
production to survive in trade. Slaves? Ugly business.
Yet the US had a tiny fraction of black slaves compared to the
rest of the world. US made up for it with a few generations
of Chinese, Irish, and other powerless. We aligned with GB
at some point and watched Australia, and SA to be populated
with White slaves/just doing the work of the Crown, don’t ya
know.
I believe SA, Saudi Arabia (v. South Africa) still have a slave
system. Many of them are kidnapped children.
Stupid question!!!
They were heroes in their own right.
Not only do the winners write the histories, they also get to steal your ancestral home and make them into cemetaries.
Arlington National Cemetary was, before the Civil War, the ancestral home of Robert E. Lee’s wife’s family.
The Union officer who held Sumter and was promoted from captain to general in 48 hours was the specific person who took it and made it into a cemetary.
That Lincoln had nothing to do with it beggars belief, especially when it appears Lincoln’s son paid the Lee heirs 75000 ounces of gold around 1900.
My view is that the Civil War occurred primarily because the South started intruding into the New York cartel’s territory as cotton became such a successful industry (due to the cotton gin).
Prior to that point, the New Yorkers (and New Englanders) profited from a range of slavery related activities including slaves and cotton – transport and financing of same.
As the South grew wealthier and sought to vertically integrate its operation – the financial (and thus political) backing of New York against the abolitionists (who were unsurprisingly Northern manufacturers who used machinery much more than manpower to create) switched over to side with their geographic peers.
Consistent with my personal view that most such conflicts are started due to much more mundane reasons: someone needs a distraction or wants to make a name for themselves.
Actually, before the war of northern aggression, the South was the richest part of the country. The tariffs from the sea ports in the South were in jeopardy if the south seceded. Lincoln couldn’t tolerate that.
Not exactly true.
The South was making the most money, but there were generations of more wealth generated in the North prior to the rise of King Cotton.
Really speaking, it was the 20-30 years before the Civil War.
By 1850 – the South was generating 80% of the world’s cotton supply and supplying all of Britain’s clothing mills. The few remaining economic data available show that cotton was providing something like 80%+ of the United States’ entire exports.
That 20-30 year period is where the antebellum Southern mansions were largely built, but the rest of the South had yet to see much benefit from the economic rise. This was starting to change, though, as the vertical integration of cotton operations (crop finance, insurance, harvest, transport, shipping, brokerage, etc) as well as secondary industries (shipbuilding) was starting to occur – hence my view stated above on the angry New York middlemen that were feeling the threat of being cut out. The shift on New York voting patterns is quite clear as well.
It’s difficult to label the Confederate Generals as traitors since, according to the US Supreme Court, the Confederacy never existed! (Essentially, Robert E. Lee was the leader of a band of LARP enthusiasts, just with real bullets).
“the ordinance of secession, adopted by the convention, and ratified by a majority of the citizens of Texas, and all the acts of her legislature intended to give effect to that ordinance, were absolutely null. They were utterly without operation in law. The State did not cease to be a State, nor her citizens to be citizens of the Union.”
Texas vs. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1869)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/74/700
If I had the time, I could make a pretty good argument in 1000 words or less to the fact the low down satanist skunk, Boston born YANKEE TRAITOR Gen. Albert Pike was a big reason the south was strip-mined under the covert plans of masonic forces. RAT BASTARD.
A civil war is generally defined as two or more parties fighting for control of the government.
The southern states were not trying to control the US government – they just wanted to be left alone.
Anonymous, that’s same thing the South wants today, leave us alone, leave our statues alone. Problem is, a lot of that is happening today through governments in southern states.
And to keep their monies at “home.”
If we remove all vestiges of slavery then slavery didn’t happen and the cry for reparations can go unheard.
I think the reparations have been and are continuing
to be paid.
If Lee was a traitor he could or took command of the union armies and ran them into the ground, honest abe offered him the command, no ? Could of handed DC to the rebels right there with a few mishandled formations and liason with southern forces.
That or Abe was the traitor which is it ?
case closed
honorable men caught in dishonorable times
monger
Lee’s Virginia went with the south and yes, he was first choice to lead the Union troops. Without doubt he was a mason as were most generals on both sides. Lee was bloodline which should tell you all you need to know:
https://www.famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=4640+robert+e+lee
We can’t have Civil War 2 because Civil War 1 never officially ended. Jefferson, not traitor Lee, was the only person who could sign an official surrender document, and he never did. President Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, simply signed and EO declaring the war over in 1868. That said Lee was not only a traitor to the United States, he was a traitor to the Confederacy by disobeying Jefferson’s orders and meeting with Grant at Appomattox. Virtually all of the Confederate Generals were slave owners, and Nathan Bedford Forrest made himself a millionaire by buying and selling slave families. He commended himself by always explaining that he kept the slave families together. How Christian of him. Folks whether anyone can admit it or not is immaterial. The facts are that the black people of that era were woefully mistreated. Why anyone can defend this type of activity is beyond me. The statues should come down, and will be taken down, and we will be lucky if the cities are not burned down too. God help us all when the ugimmes run into the streets foaming at the mouth to bring justice upon us for their ancestors troubles. thanks
Hondo, you can’t apply attitudes of today to the past. The majority of people at the time thought slavery was fine, including, not only in the South, but Lincoln and Grant and in the northern states. There were plenty of slaves and slave traders and transporters in the north when the war started. And stated by others, few southerners actually owned slaves. Only the rich could afford them.
I believe Lee knew it was a lost cause fom the begining. In an 1861 letter to his son, Lee wrote
“I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a
dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all
the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything
but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all
constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort
to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of
our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and
forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many
guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every
member of the Confederacy at will.”
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Lee_Evils_of_Anarchy.pdf
The winners decide who the traitors are. If you don’t like it , DON’T LOSE!
We’re the Founding Father’s traitors?
I’m sure the Brits of that era would have said “YES!!”.
In other words, it all depends on perspective … where your ass sits.
Personally, I think the Southern Generals were great men.
Hey Stuck,
Guess what? You are a great man in this time.
Hope you are coping. The Mr. has to go back and
forth across the country to manage parents. You are
not alone. And good luck to the oldsters. And the Mrs.
Is she using those pretty lavender dishes? Hope yes.