I have always took the slapping of a label on RFKA as a way to throw it back in his face. The irony I see is he justifies how he is not the label given him, yet has no issues putting a label on others. He will jump at every opportunity to try and label someone, even if it means showing his hypocrisy in the process.
Before the civil war, states were considered sovereign, it wasn't until AFTER the civil war that the Supreme Court ruled the United States was a sovereign entity. Winners get to make the rules.
Hey man, you're still here? Martyrdom attempt didn't work out for you? The Dung Beetle is a joke, no doubt. That was established a few years ago. I'm just amused that people are so obsessed with him that they contradict themselves any chance they get (the labels, judging his character based on his post, claiming he's on their ignore list and starting threads about him, etc.). But I'm just teasing Nigel. It could be worse. His weekly post counts specifically dedicated to the dung beetle could be in the triple digits. He could be Carlos.
I've argued this for a long time but most people want to make it only about slavery. I get irritated when it becomes bogged down to only about black people's history of slavery as though no other races, or nationalities, were slaves at one time or another. By the way, the book you mentioned is available from Amazon. I just ordered a copy for $14.35. :up:
Do you feel that the war would have happened anyway if the northern states were in favor of maintaining and expanding slavery?
Possibly. The whole thing, from the history that I've read, got it's start from the Federal Government continuing to screw the South with their low pricing for goods produced in the South. Obviously, slavery did have it's hand in the matter. To what extent early on I cannot remember. I'll read what I can find and ruffle more feathers later.
Yes. Several states in the south wanted to sucede. Slavery issue or not. See my suggestion that is was more about agrarian vs industrialism.
Doesn't change the fact that it was an amnesty (not a pardon of traitors) for a sovereign entity's officer corps.
Probably not. Lincoln's election precipitated the seccession of the southern states primarily because of the Republican party's position on that particular issue. Confederate apologists can frame it as a matter of state's rights all they want, but the right in question was that of the rich and powerful to maintain an economic system based on an immoral practice. The writing was on the wall. If slavery was wrong for one part of the nation, how could it continue in the remainder? If Breckenridge, who advocated compromise, had won the election, the Civil War could perhaps have been avoided. Slavery would likely have ended in this nation not too long after, as it's economic viability waned and hired labor became a better option.
Slavery would have ended regardless. It was unsustainable. The war hastened the end. It could have been done without war by simply refusing to purchase goods from slave states and the system would have collapsed. Too many non-agrarian population centers benefited from the lower price available through slave labor.