There is something that exists in the South that I believe does not happen in other parts of the country. Actually, I have spoken with people living in the Northern and Western States who never experience those wrapped up in what we call the "lost cause." Thankfully, as an academic, I do not encounter many because once you get past a certain level of studying history, that mentality tends to weed out...that being said, there are scholars out there who perpetuate and support the fantastical and glorified myth of the Old South and that is truly frightening.
Last night, I unfortunately...had an encounter with someone deeply immersed in the lost cause mentality...the idea that the South was indeed protecting its rights and honors to leave a tyrannical union if they so felt like it. Now there have been those who have attempted to argue the right of secession through the Constitution and those of us who argue against that logic, but in truth...that part has little to do with the whole story. That is beside the point though...regardless...the states rebelled, a war was fought and one side won. People can cling to this mystical world of hooped skirts and chivalric honor all they want to, but the plain fact was that 19th century Southern prosperity was birthed on the backs of human beings deprived of every human right our natural laws afforded them as they were forced to labor, serve, and die at the whim of another person. The war, the glorious fight for Confederate freedom...was a war fought by very rich men and placed in the hands of a public that followed them... to maintain that economic lifestyle and that was it. The states rights argument, sure...they were fighting for states rights, but I find it pretty annoying that when the states rights argument is brought up, they forget that the rights they were fighting for was the rights to keep an institution of human bondage. Just look up the Missouri Compromise or bleeding Kansas and read about what states rights were being haggled in the halls of congress prior to the outbreak of the war and how the election of a man who they knew was against the spread of slavery into the west subsequently ushered in that separation that they incorrectly felt they had the right to initiate.
Back to last night...
I had a man tell me that the first domestic terrorist in our United States was Abraham Lincoln and that he didn't fight the damn war to free those (I will not type that word but it starts with an N). He said it so angrily that it was arresting...especially since I did not solicit any information about his opinions on a war that started over 150 years ago. To be perfectly honest, I do not really enjoy discussing the Civil War simply because people get so emotionally invested in something they most of the time have no real concept of or want to understand beyond the myth they believe and its really uncomfortable for me... because I feel like, what is wrong with people?? So no, I do not delve into the world of "heritage not hate" or "we should be proud of those who fought"... I do not buy into it, I do not want to, and frankly I think it is a caustic and dangerous practice that further maintains a regional divide that truthfully hurts social relations in our country.
Listen I know Lincoln sent troops into the border states in 1861 and I am sure that somehow you can justify calling him a "terrorist" for doing so in your own mind, but he was the president of the United States in a time when there was a huge and dangerous war looming on the horizon...and presidents can do some pretty powerful things like suspending the writ of habeas corpus when they feel there is a need for it...is that always the smartest move, I do not know. I am of the mind that regardless of what Lincoln did in those last few days and weeks of tense buildup, the frenzy of fighting for the cause had already swept up those in power in states like South Carolina, that it mattered not what Lincoln did, they wanted a war.
And yes, Lincoln did not set upon the goal of massive emancipation at the onset of the war, but that is not some well hidden Unionist secret...that was pretty obvious. Lincoln cared about the Union first and fixing the disease of slavery second, he hated the institution, he spoke out against slavery...but he understood the complexities involved and truthfully felt a gradual demise of slavery would be more conducive for everyone...now did that change as the war progressed and as Lincoln and the rest of the North slowly evolved their abolitionist feelings? Yes. Does that diminish the fact that in the end the War ended a disgusting and depraved institution that should have never had the ability to thrive within the birthplace of the U.S. Constitution...No.
So weird crazy man who used a horrible racist slur and called Lincoln a terrorist... I know you think I should... "move my butt up to New York City" if I disagree with your flawed and dangerously uninformed logic and I also am aware that you are increasingly agitated at a world that does not condone the belief and expression of the ideologies you hold so dear and you feel that we are violating your freedom of speech by looking with shock and concern at you when you say these disgusting and horrible things...but if you understood that constitution that you THINK you hold dear (when it is convenient)... you would understand that just because you have the right to say whatever you feel worthy of utterance, does not in any way mean there are not consequences that come along with it.
Some historians say that the Civil War is still being fought today and days like today... I believe it.
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