In Their Own Words: Now That We're at the 150th Anniversary of America's "Bloodies Day," Let's Briefly Revist The Cause...

Last night we had the great pleasure of listening to Harvard President and History Professor Drew Gilpin Faust deliver her wonderful "Reflections of a Civil War Historian" lecture (2011 NEH Jefferson Lecturer) at the commemoration to the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Harpers Ferry. Was more than thrilled to hear Prof. Faust mirror my often repeated assertion in response to the question about historical revisionists proclaiming how America’s "Grand Terrible Drama" was somehow fought over the notion of "States rights;" and that answering that question is not an obscure or abstract undertaking – that one simply needed to look at the actual, contemporaneous written words of those participants. We don't need to look to fanciful excuses made years and decades after the fact, but rather to the participant’s various "Declarations" of secession--telling the world exactly why they were seceeding.

Texas for example, in its February 2, 1861, "Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union," would, in typical loud and proud fashion, (as only a Texan like little Ricky Perry can) declare how:

"In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color-- a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States."

Like that? The real and contemporaneous words from those who started the whole thing and their assertion was that enslaving another human being was an intrinsic good, and that masters were somehow "beneficent" – nay, even "patriarchal." Our Texas friends went further to chastise the very notion of a "doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color—a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind." They even went so far as to up the ante, declaring how the very idea was "in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law."

In any event…bully for them for speaking their clear, unequivocal (albeit racist) mind – in their own words!

It's a darn shame their supporters (those same supporters who continuously tell us how much they worship Declarations of Independence) don't share that same courage and instead, are compelled to fashion elaborate and fanciful excuses…

Here's a copy of Drew Gilpin Faust’s lecture: Telling War Stories: Reflections of a Civil War Historian

Here's a link to the Texas "Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union:" Declaration of Causes of Seceding States

BTW and if interested, I did something along the lines of slavery and "the plainest revelations of Divine Law" awhile back: The Bible and Slavery

"The present seems to be the most propitious time, since the commencement of the war:" Robert E. Lee's Maryland Campaign

On September 3, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, lacking the military strength to attack Washington, D.C., directly, yet embolden from what can only be characterized as a series of brilliant military victories culminating in the the September 1, 1862, Confederate victory at the Battle of Chantilly that brought an end to Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Northern Virginia Campaign (which included the August 28 - 30, 1862, Union defeat during the Battle of Second Manassas) coupled with the Union defeat the previous month during Union Maj. Gen. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign (March through July 1862 – who could possibly forget McClellan and his famously bad case of "the slows"?), wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis how:

The present seems to be the most propitious time, since the commencement of the war, for the Confederate Army to enter Maryland. The two grand armies of the U. S. that have been operating in Virginia, though now united, are much weakened and demoralized. Their new levees, of which, I understand, sixty thousand men have already been posted in Washington, are not yet organized, and will take some time to prepare for the field. If it is ever desired to give material aid to Maryland, and afford her an opportunity of throwing off the oppression to which she is now subject, this would seem the most favorable. After the enemy had disappeared from the vicinity of Fairfax C. H. and taken the road to Alexandri[a] & Washington, I did not think it would be advantageous to follow him further. I had no intention of attacking him in his fortifications, and am not prepared to invest them. If I possessed the necessary munitions, I should be unable to supply provisions for the troops. I therefore determined while threatening the approaches to Washington to draw the troops into Loudon, where forage and some provisions can be obtained, menace their possession of the Shenandoah Valley, and if found practicable, to cross into Maryland.
 

Original unknown: http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=111

Lee ordered his 55,000 man Army of Northern Virginia north through the Shenandoah Valley for the purpose of invading the north into Maryland; thus beginning the first of three separate Confederate invasions of the North (in the eastern theater).  Lee’s purposes were varied: to resupply his army in an area untouched by the war that was destroying the Virginia countryside; to increase his troop count by the thousands of Marylanders he just knew were chomping at the bit to rise up and fight their Northern oppressors; to severe the Baltimore & Ohio railroad supplying Washington; and most importantly, to draw the Union Army into the open for a decisive victory that would pressure Lincoln into negotiating an end of the war.

150 years ago today, advance elements from Lee's Army crossed from Leesburg, Virginia through White’s Ford, across the Potomac River and into Maryland through Point of Rocks and headed north toward Frederick, Maryland…

Wonder how that whole thing turns out?