Comments on: Confederate Candor on Slavery

By: RonFCCC

RonFCCC — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 05:13:02 +0000

What Southern leaders feared, probably rightly, was that the avowed purpose of Lincoln and the Republicans to limit the expansion of slavery into the territories and new states would inevitably lead to the eventual death of slavery. New free states would mean greater anti-slavery representation in Congress. For them it was all about protecting slavery, as their own documents justifying their secession clearly say.

By: Donald R. Shaffer

Donald R. Shaffer — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:35:48 +0000

Hi Margaret. Nice points on Ex Parte Merryman and whether the alleged conversation ever took place. As I indicated in the piece, it is doubtful the conversation ever took place (I can’t imagine McClellan letting himself be lectured by a Confederate scout), but it is a succinct and eloquent statement of Confederate motives for secession that flies in the face of later denials by ex-Confederate soldiers that they were fighting for slavery.

By: Margaret Blough

Margaret Blough — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 07:34:24 +0000

For a record of the time, it’s great although i sincerely doubt the conversation took place. Somehow, it doesn’t sound like McClellan (one point needs to be made; at that time there was no Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus. Before the current federal court system was created, Supreme Court justices were assigned to circuits and acted as lower court federal judges. Chief Justice Taney, not surprisingly, assigned himself the circuit that included his home state of Maryland. In was in that capacity that he ruled on Ex Parte Merryman.).

By: Cheryl Cayemberg

Cheryl Cayemberg — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:42:26 +0000

Nice post! I’m sure that there must be some rather blustering newspaper editorials in the South at the time that will prove the point even if the conversation cannot be verified! Thanks for posting!

By: Brad

Brad — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:26:16 +0000

Despite evidence to the contrary, many Southern sympathizers still deny that they sought for the right to keep human beings enslaved and try to clothe it in more eloquent goals. As your article points out, the actual evidence is to the contrary.