Neal Boortz Quotes

Eggleston was an accomplished writer who had served in the Confederate army of the Civil War. 20 year after the war he wrote a series of articles for the prestigious Northern Atlantic Monthly trying to convey the war from the Southerner’s point of view.

This newspaper editorial has historical importance for two reasons. First, it is yet another proof that the sole reason for southern secession was slavery. Second, note the implication that Lincoln had Negro ancestry. As that could be the only reason that he would hold his views on slavery. This disreputable tactic of slandering opponents who hold different views have extended to German ancestry in WWI, Catholic religion, communist affiliation, and in one of the more recent examples, the accusation—believed by a number of Americans, that President Obama was a secret Muslim.

This is an important quotation because it shows that slavery was the principle reason that the South succeeded and began their rebellion. In the early 20th century, there was a movement to make the Confederacy and the Southern rebellion more noble by promoting the idea that the Civil War was fought by the South for more lofty reasons than greed and slavery such as States Rights, original construction, different economic philosophies and the like. This was a more noble cause then the right to deny other human beings their rights, to own other human beings who they could beat, torture, sexually use and even murder them was a pretty selfish and demeaning reason to have started a rebellion that would then cost more Americans their lives than any other American conflict. The succession documents and others of the Southern States and the Confederacy make it clear that slavery was THE issue and fleeting references to any of the others were only made to complain about the potential effect on abolition and the refusal of the abolitionist states to cease aiding and protecting fugitive slaves.

This is an important quotation because it shows that slavery was the principle reason that the South succeeded and began their rebellion. In the early 20th century, there was a movement to make the Confederacy and the rebellion more noble by promoting the idea that the Civil War was fought by the South for more lofty reasons such as States Rights, Original Construction, different economic philosophies and the like. This was a more noble cause then the right to deny other human beings their rights, to own other human beings who they could beat, torture, sexually use and even murder them was a pretty selfish and demeaning reason to have started a rebellion that would then cost more Americans their lives than any other American conflict. The succession documents and others of the Southern States and the Confederacy make it clear that slavery was THE issue and fleeting references to any of the others were only made to complain about the potential effect on abolition and the refusal of the abolitionist states to cease aiding and protecting fugitive slaves.

The Texans wanted independence from Mexico and this quotation illustrates their three possible alternatives. Most Texans wanted to join the United State, but the United States was not very enthusiastic about having Texas. In a sense, Texas was made up of the malcontents, failures and riffraff from the United States. Many felt the nation was good to be rid of them. So initially, Texas was an independent republic. However, public and elite opinion began to change, and finally Texas was admitted.

Kentucky was a slave state but public opinion was not clearly in favor of secession. Governor Magoffin was a Southern sympathizer and wanted Kentucky to secede with the other slave states. However, the education level of Kentucky was greater than those of the deep South and the State Legislature and many Union patriots were generally pro Union. Only 16% of Kentucky were slaves. The economy of Kentucky was much more involved with the Northern States than the other Southern states. The legislature rebuffed the Governor’s call for a secession convention. Then Magoffin demanded that President Lincoln remove the Federal Troops that had been stationed in Kentucky. Lincoln did not want the Southern forces to occupy Kentucky and then use their occupation to pressure the State into joining the confederacy. Also, Lincoln took the position that as long as Kentucky was a state of the United States, they were obligated to assist in putting down the rebellion. At this time, the Kentucky Congressional Delegation was overwhelmingly pro Union, as was the new State legislature which had such a pro-Union majority that they could override the Governor’s veto. Less than two weeks later, September 4, 1861, Confederate Major General Leonidas Polk tried to occupy Kentucky as Lincoln had feared, and the Legislature asked the Federal Government to send more troops and eject the Southern forces from the South of Kentucky. Kentucky Confederate sympathizers formed a rump government and voted to secede, and despite Jefferson Davis’s concerns that the State Legislature was being bypassed, Kentucky was accepted in the Confederacy. The result was that there were Kentucky military units in the Confederate Army and in the Union Army with the latter being in the majority. Kentucky was on both sides. This delicate balance and that of Maryland was why Lincoln did not include those states in his Emancipation Proclamation.

The early Union military leadership was so poor and timid that it was not clearly demonstrated that a Confederacy was not viable until later in the war, and the Southerners possessed an extraordinary capacity for ignoring reality and self-delusion, that it was not demonstrated until Grant’s major victories and Sherman’s March through Georgia and the Southern East Coast that an independent South was not going to be.