Controversial Ga. lawmaker punished for Civil War mailer (military, teachers)

[ATLTJL]

Mississippi's second paragraph almost made me cry. Even back then, they were the worst of the worst.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by pemgin

well, benton's constituents elected him. Ralston did the right thing, but he's one guy. How many hundreds or thousands of morons voted benton into office?

21,810.

[bryantm3]

people in general deify and idolize important historical figures and this is generally not a healthy thing to do, it gives you a warped view of reality. our country has a very nasty history, starting at the very beginning. acknowledging that isn't the same as admitting defeat and saying our country has to have a nasty future. on the contrary, admitting the truth about the sins of the past allows us to see that we aren't automatically immune from wrongdoing just because we're america, and can help us to build a better future. our history should serve as a lesson, not as an ideal. we just have to keep our eyes on each other and towards the light.

[chiatldal]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.

Declaration of Causes of Secession

I got mine...where are your receipts.....?
Got plenty more where that came from too.

Here's more

The Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens the VP of The CSA

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens wiki

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth"

It gets no more literal that's the Vice President

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by chiatldal

Here's more

The Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens the VP of The CSA

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens wiki

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth"

It gets no more literal that's the Vice President

Any person who denies that slavery was the root cause of the Civil War is of the same ilk, cut and persuasion of those who deny the Holocaust, 9-11, Sandy Hook, etc.

[primaltech]

It was because it was about slavery that it was also about money and wealth and prestige and power, because slavery was the driver of the not yet very industrialized southern economy.

The white southerners knew that abolition and black equality would be bad for their own immediate selfish interests, and thus held on to and convinced themselves of racist viewpoints as justification.

It was all BS excuses. They supported slavery because the slaves' suffering and misery was their immediate prosperity and luxurious life.

For that, the southern leaders and politicians were horrible people, and they deserved to lose that war, and that entire immoral and selfish fight about enslaving human beings. I don't have southern lineage, but even if I did, I'd still think that.

The people more just caught up in it that were not evil, were the common young confederate soldiers, and the honorable and home state-loyal generals like Robert E Lee and such (I believe he opposed slavery.)

I just think it's important to note that the politicians and aristocrats and their position being evil doesn't make it a good thing that all those southern men died. It's tragic, and to some degree they should be honored for being loyal to their home state and fighting for their home state. To some degree.

The civil war was predominantly about slavery, and most of the other stuff it was about, was related to slavery.

Slavery was horribly, wretchedly morally wrong. The war thankfully quickened abolition, which was probably inevitable eventually anyway, peace or war. Most white people were rightfully becoming fed up with the practice of slavery. Only those with a direct interest in the practice were trying to justify and cling on to it.

[arjay57]

There's an argument that the north didn't go to war to end slavery, but there is no question that the south went to war to preserve it.

Good move by David Ralston.

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by primaltech

For that, the southern leaders and politicians were horrible people, and they deserved to lose that war, and that entire immoral and selfish fight about enslaving human beings. I don't have southern lineage, but even if I did, I'd still think that.

The people more just caught up in it that were not evil, were the common young confederate soldiers, and the honorable and home state-loyal generals like Robert E Lee and such (I believe he opposed slavery.)

I just think it's important to note that the politicians and aristocrats and their position being evil doesn't make it a good thing that all those southern men died. It's tragic, and to some degree they should be honored for being loyal to their home state and fighting for their home state. To some degree.

.

Robert E Lee did not oppose slavery, he just didn't think a war would solve the slavery issue. He was more or less like let "his" God, time and the universe end it on its own. The perception of Robert E Lee being against slavery is the result of re writing history and white washing. Which is a perfect example of why folks like Tommy Benton who try and revise history need to be stopped dead in their tracks, I fully believe 1000% that people like that know exactly what they are doing. He is attempting to lay the foundation of the bamboozlement. Let people like that teach our children and in 100 years those lies will become accepted as facts and actual history. Robert E Lee was a complicated individual, he wasn't a raging firebrand for slavery like a lot of others at that time, but he wasn't no saint either. He was born into a wealthy family that had slaves for generations. And the lie that is accepted as truth now is that his father freed his slaves before REL was born. Not true, REL's father was an inept businessman who had squandered all of his assets including his slaves by the time REL was born. He didn't give them up willingly, he had no choice to, he sold them to simply save his own ass. REL ended up marrying into George Washington's family ( I believe he married his niece or granddaughter) and surprise surprise the Washington family still had a network of plantations and slaves at that time. After marrying into the Washington family he ended up inheriting his father in law's slaves when he passed, and even though his father in law left in his will for REL to free the slaves upon his death, he still didn't do it. He only did it after he used their labor and sold others for a period of years in order to pay off his own family's debts along with his wife's family. It wasn't like he was some moral man who all the sudden realized "hey this wrong, let me stop doing this immediately". Nah. Not even close. Good thing about studying history from that time is the fact that they wrote everything down back then. You can actually read REL's own writings and see for yourself per his own words. His whole stance on slavery and Black people as a whole was basically that slavery was evil, and that White people would have to square that with their souls one day, but at the same time he thought that Black people were an inferior race that needed to be enslaved in order for them to be domesticated and to convert to Christianity. His personal beliefs were very similar to the founding principles of the Southern Baptist Denomination. "hey Black people, we enslaved you, but come over here and worship our God anyway because its still in your best interests...."

[DreamerD]

I was taught and many other millenials were taught that the civil war was not about slavery. When I heard that, I knew it was bullsh++ and was shocked that no one seemed upset to hear the lies. But then again, when you have a bunch of liars in Texas governing whats written in textbooks thats what you get. I am pretty sure most states still get their books from texas. It is an attempt to whitewash history so that eventually slavery is never spoken of in school.

[DreamerD]

People fail to realize that slavery made the u.s. what it was then and what ir is today. Teachers abd textbooks are not talking about slavery the way they should.