North Country Girl wrote on 04/24/14 at 17:22:42: "no one who thinks the civil war was about slavery or treason hasn't a brain cell in their head."
What else would you call a rabble uprising of slave owning people determined to destroy the United States of America??
Sometimes I wish the USA would have let the south go. 150 years later the south is still a thorn in America’s side, sucking in more Federal dollars than they pay in taxes. They are welfare states of which the northern states are unfortunately obligated to pay their way.
I am very certain you would not be willing to anything different from me. But you owe it to yourself to consider digging beyond 5th grade social studies to find the truth about that time period. The south, the war was never about "destroy the United States of America". That is utter non-sense, and you do you self a dis-service by saying such things.
The war was over STATES RIGHTS. The states lost. Notice I did not say the south lost, that is self-evident, the STATES lost, all states, and the power they once had has become the property of the Federal government. To me it really is rather an interesting topic: for instance The question:
Is the Constitution meant to limit the Federal Government? meaning that all powers not assigned by it are kept for the states?
OR
Is the Constitution a foundation, on which new powers not otherwise assigned to the states is defaulted to the Federal government.
That ONE question... still unanswered by law.. was the basis for the South to see their position as legal.
As to rabble: Robert E. Lee, as well as generals on both sides were anything but rabble. These were BY ALL ACCOUNTS the best of the best From the US Military Academy at West Point. It is a great loss, that so much talent (again on both sides) was wasted on such a war.
Now... if you really want to read something interesting.. and I leave it to you do find such. Read what the Supreme Court wrote AFTER the Civil War as the correct LEGAL position of the Union, and for the United States of America.
As to South sucking down federal dollars.. so true! Yet, you can credit that with the failed Reconstruction Era.... and the death of Abraham Lincoln. The vast bulk of southern men from the war died or left. The people running the south are all carpet baggers. That is northerners that came in with dollars to continue the pillaging. It continues to this day, (in effect) with all dollars drawn out of the south and sent up to the north east to land owners.
History is written by the winner. But in time... and with digging, it is possible to find more truth than is offered to school children. It makes the time no less though, nor does it clear up a "right and wrong" side. Slavery was no more an issue to that war than Tea ( Boston tea party) was to the US revolution.