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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
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To: Orcastraiter who wrote (489645)11/9/2003 2:21:01 AM
From: Johannes Pilch  Read Replies (3) of 769670
 
You commit yet another gross error in reason by contrasting Lee's position to that of Lincoln. Unlike Lincoln, Lee was no policy maker. He was simply a worker-bee executing the will of a Confederacy being led by men such as Jeff Davis and Alec Stephens. (Nevertheless while Lee was not virulently pro-slavery, but he did think slavery was a good disciplinary mechanism for blacks. He was ultimately as detached from knowledge of human identity as were his leaders. This undoubtedly allowed him to make what Scott declared was the 'biggest mistake of his life.') We do not derive the meaning of war from those who follow orders. We most reasonably derive ultimate meaning from those with power to give the orders.

The final flaw in your position here has to do with your treatment of the Emancipation Proclamation (EP). Neo-Confederates very often state with not a little excitement that Lincoln's EP 'never freed a single slave.' They are apparently dishonest or ignorant of the facts surrounding the EP. Even during the war Lincoln recognized the South's right to have slaves. His aim had always been to allow slavery where it existed, but only halt its expansion westward. When he finally decided freeing the slaves was advantageous, he freed only Southern slaves because of a law that allowed the Union to seize the property of its enemies during wartime. This law was brought to Lincoln's attention by a Northern General name Ben Butler. Lincoln accordingly freed slaves in rebellious states and not in border states that had remained in the Union. There was nothing unsavory here or hypocritical at all. Lincoln was simply being consistent with American law.

The Confederate Flag is both a racist and un-American symbol. It is racist because it is linked to a system that officially aimed to oppress blacks "forever." It is un-American because this system literally fought against American - even openly declaring the Declaration of Independence "wrong." If the Declaration of Independence is wrong, then America does not have a right to exist. And indeed the Confederates literally declared in their writings that America had no right to exist. That is both as racist and un-American as is humanly possible.

"The chief and immediate cause of the [Civil War] was slavery." encarta.msn.com
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