Ostensibly, the U.S. Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865 (last shot fired June 1865) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War>. However, ‘the North’ never did punish the southerners who took up arms against the Union . Grant was such a sniveling weasel that he did not require Lee to surrender his sword and horse! Then ‘reconstruction’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era_of_the_United_States> gave way to ‘redemption’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redemption_(United_States_history) , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redeemers> through the ‘corrupt bargain’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupt_Bargain> or ‘Compromise of 1877’!
So, when was the CSA brought to justice? Answer: NEVER!
After Lincoln
Northern anger over the assassination of Lincoln and the immense human cost of the war led to demands for harsh policies. Vice President Andrew Johnson had taken a hard line and spoke of hanging rebel Confederates. In late April 1865, he was noted telling an Indiana delegation that, "Treason must be made odious ... traitors must be punished and impoverished ... their social power must be destroyed." However, when he succeeded Lincoln as president, Johnson took a much softer line, commenting, "I say, as to the leaders, punishment. I also say leniency, reconciliation and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived," and ended up pardoning many Confederate leaders.
Although strongly urged by moderates in Congress to sign the Civil Rights bill, Johnson broke decisively with them by vetoing it on March 27. His veto message objected to the measure because it conferred citizenship on the freedmen at a time when eleven out of thirty-six states were unrepresented and attempted to fix, by federal law, "a perfect equality of the white and black races in every State of the Union." Johnson said it was an invasion by federal authority of the rights of the states; it had no warrant in the Constitution and was contrary to all precedents. It was a "stride toward centralization and the concentration of all legislative power in the national government."[24] Johnson, in a letter to Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher of Missouri, wrote, "This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men."
The Democratic Party, proclaiming itself the party of white men, North and South, aligned with Johnson.[26] However, the Republicans in Congress overrode his veto (the Senate by the vote of 35:19, the House by 126:47) and the Civil Rights measure became law.
One of Johnson's last significant acts was granting unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day, December 25, 1868, after the election of Ulysses S. Grant to succeed him, but before Grant took office in March 1869. Earlier amnesties, requiring signed oaths and excluding certain classes of people, had been issued by Lincoln and by Johnson.
That was pretty much it, as for brining the CSA to justice. After that:
The Democrats benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction after the war and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. After Redeemers ended Reconstruction in the 1870s, and the extremely violent disenfranchisement of African Americans took place in the 1890s, the South, voting Democratic, became known as the "Solid South." Though Republicans won all but two presidential elections, the Democrats remained competitive. The party was dominated by pro-business Bourbon Democrats led by Samuel J. Tilden and Grover Cleveland, who represented mercantile, banking, and railroad interests; opposed imperialism and overseas expansion; fought for the gold standard; opposed bimetallism; and crusaded against corruption, high taxes, and tariffs. Cleveland was elected to non-consecutive presidential terms in 1884 and 1892.
And then it was just a matter of the rise of the ‘conservative coalition’
and the success of the ‘the southern strategy’
riding on the notion of “states’ rights”
to get us to where we are now:
The New Civil War!
We are two cultures in one geo-political entity, let’s say a: scientific rationalist materialist (liberal) culture and religious social (conservative) colonialist culture. We have only our history in common and there is nothing important in that, that we can agree on (except to continue to disagree). Liberals base their understanding of the world on scientific observation and logical proof. Conservatives base theirs on religious faith and ‘common sense’. Liberals are idealist, who assert that man and the world is perfectible. Conservatives hold to the notion that all men are born corrupted (‘born in sin’) and that the world is a natural horror to be dominated by men (and their god). Liberals want to use technology to elevate our understanding of ourselves and the cosmos. Conservatives want to use technology ‘to make money’. (Conservatives want to use the whole world to make money!) Liberals are creators. Conservatives are destroyers. (They ARE destroying the whole to make money! Wonder what they think they’re going to do with the money once the whole world is turned into a radioactive industrial trash heap?) Liberals and conservatives have no grounds of agreement and there is no reason for either to compromise their ideals.
(From the point of view of this blog: conservatives are completely f….ed in the mind—and ‘soul’—and liberals must stand their ground and never yield to the evil corruption of conservatism!)
The attack on the federal government by the conservatives represents the ongoing attempt of the CSA (or what’s left of it) to destroy the Union and free the southern states to return to ‘the old ways’. The face of the New Solid South is a tea bagging conservative ‘corporate lobbyist type’ turned congressman (e.g., <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haley_Barbour>) with a plan to bring down the public’s last (albeit weak and sniveling) defense from corporate corruption—the federal government. I don’t know about you, but I hear a lot of southern accents (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Paul>) among these ‘republicans’ and tea baggers (or RATS). Sounds like ‘the ole south’ to me!
Of course, ‘the North’ was never a great bastion of civil rights supporters:
"Forced busing" was a term used by many to describe the mandates that generally came from the courts. Court-ordered busing to achieve school desegregation was used mainly in large, ethnically segregated school systems, including Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; Pasadena, California; Richmond, Virginia; San Francisco, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Wilmington, Delaware. From 1972 to 1980, despite busing, the percentage of blacks attending mostly-black schools barely changed, moving from 63.6% to 63.3%.
(< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Draft_Riots > and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation_busing_in_the_United_States>).
So it was easy for the war to go ‘underground’ and out of sight for most of white amerika. So while The Civil war is no longer a ‘War between the States’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Between_the_States#War_Between_the_States> it is a sustained attack on ‘The New Deal’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Deal> and ‘civil rights’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights_movement>. Secret wars, illegal wars (e.g., Iraq), military spending deficits on secret mil-toys (which are crap and will never see the light of day), Wall Street insider trading fraud, bank credit fraud, and mortgage broker frauds, police intimidation, racial profiling, illegal surveillance on US citizens, and undue use of police force against blacks are all parts of a whole to subvert our country’s ideals (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence>) and take us back to corporate colonies <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_America#Virginia>.
The goals of the conservatives are just two:
(A) plunge the country into debt (which was accomplished by W) and
(B) eliminate the federal government leaving only the CSA dominated military-intelligence-corporate-complex in charge.
Mostly what you’ll see carrying out this process is business suited cotton mouths, but lest you forget, the New CSA is also armed to teeth and read to strike at any time! Their armed groups are now formed into hundreds of militias, gun clubs, training facilities, and loose organizations of thousands of battle hardened conservative men who have returned from our foreign wars from Viet Nam to Afghanistan (as well as ‘secret wars’ throughout Central and South America).
Thus, there’s no reason to celebrate or commemorate The Civil War next Tuesday, since you’re still in it! When it is over, the Chinese will pick over the bones and wonder why amerika went so stupid so fast. What they won’t know (unless they’ve read this blog) is: it wasn’t fast!
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