Abraham Lincoln (The most over-rated president ever) is to narrow minded. "Oh no no no according the the Constitution the Confederates are still apart of the United States". Last time I checked the Constitution was a silly piece of paper binding millions of people to laws signed by thirty nine people. The Constitution is an ambigram, an object that when you look at it from one side you see something different then looking at it from another angle. (Try it out yourself with your name at http://www.flipscript.com/ambigram-maker.aspx ) The people read it one way and the government reads it another way. I'm saying the people of the United States aren't actually free. It is just a cover up to make us look perfect when really we are not. In consequence of the Constitution we have given up our right to be free just by being born on United States soil.
I'm not saying that slavery is right because it isn't. I'm not supporting the decision of leaving the United States because of a newly elected president that wants to stop the spread of slavery. I'm just saying everyone deserves a chance to be free and a chance to change. If the Confederates were still a threat to the United States after they became their own country then we can deal with them without actually hitting ourselves twice as hard if we were still combined.
I wish Lincoln was alive today so that I could possibly understand his point of view.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteYou raise some really good questions. There were a lot of people in the US at the time who said exactly what you are saying--"go away, South. be free. do your own thing." And there are people today who would question why we didn't let the south leave when we could have...
I think what Lincoln was trying to say in his 1st inaugural makes sense though. We are better together than we are apart. Both parts of the country would have suffered economically, more conflict would have broken out, deeper tensions and rivalries would exist if the South had been allowed to secede. Also keep in mind that this was not the first time that the South had tried to secede from the Union. They used secession as a tactic to try to scare the North and get what they wanted. There were also counties in these southern states that did not support secession. For these reasons, Lincoln and the Union fought to keep the Union together.
I really like the parallel you drew between the colonies' fight for independence and the South's secession. It's an interesting connection that I had not considered but makes sense.
Thanks!
Ms. G
NOW GO WRITE YOUR ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECH!!!!