• themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Don’t even grant the premise. The State’s Rights argument is entirely bullshit. The secessionists controlled the federal government and slavery was federal law. It was abolitionists in Wisconsin and Vermont that were freeing escaped slaves, and new territories wanted to vote to determine whether slavery would be law. The South opposed their right to do so. Lincoln had not threatened to free the slaves before the war, he just wasn’t willing to enforce the federal Escaped Slaves act. That was all it took for the southern states to try to leave America.

        But you don’t have to take my word for it.

        [A]n increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. . . .

        The only time secessionists invoked a state’s right to do anything was to secede.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      It is, but not very often outside of the American south. (They prefer “The War of Northern Aggression” though.)

      • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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        8 months ago

        Any time you hear that phrase unironically, ask what war that is, and then go “oh you mean the Rebellion of Southern Cowards? That’s the only way I’ve heard it phrased other than civil war”

        I may not be a descendant of William Tecumseh Sherman, but I grew up in the same area, and maybe it’s just something about the water or the geography but I really feel an urge for Southern BBQ and a brisk walk to the ocean when Southern Cowards start speaking up again.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 months ago

          And yet despite that, I would say that the two best things from the South were invented by black people- the music, from blues to jazz to rock and roll and soul food. Not the best revenge, but still some good revenge. A hell of a lot more people listen to rock music than listen to music invented by white people.