Civil War History Incomplete

The brouhaha about putting a statue of ML King Jr. on top of Stone Mountain reminded me of the need for a display of the complete and accurate history of the Civil War, beginning with the cotton exports to England in the 1800s. This trade brought most of the revenue to the US Federal government and made it possible for imports from England to be feasible.  Without the cotton exports, the English ships delivering luxury items and machinery to the US would have no return cargo to pay for the trip back to England.  English ships would deliver goods to Boston and then sail down to Charleston and Savannah to pick up cotton to ship back to London.  At the time that benefitted the US federal government with tariff revenue and the Southern plantation owners who became wealthy. The federal blockades of Southern harbors were an unconstitutional act of war committed by the Federal government against the sovereign Confederate States.

 

The increase in this tariff in 1859 cut out the Southern plantation owners profit completely. This tariff increase was pushed through by Northern Congressmen who never liked their Southern counterparts.

 

The US Constitution gave states the right to secede from the union.  The mistake that started the secession was the passage of the tariff increase.  A thorough examination of this vote should be thoroughly covered in a Civil War Memorial building in Stone Mountain Park. This would clarify where we really are with respect to States Rights and our failure to comply with the US Constitution (as written).

 

The fact that our Constitution and Bill of Rights declared “all men created equal” and the continuation of slavery and indentured servitude should have been settled by easing these slaves into sharecropping and indentured servants to similar room and board payment for labor. Debtors’ prisons were also counterproductive and should have followed the same model.  These reforms could have been made sometime between 1789 and 1860 to resolve this inconsistency. It would have required outlawing any further sale of slaves or registering indentured servants. Those who were slaves or indentured servants would have been offered the room and board model or should have been free to go. This is another issue that should be thoroughly gathered and displayed in Stone Mountain Park.

 

All of our wars should be dissected in a similar way. World War I seemed totally avoidable to me. If a crazy Frenchman were to shoot Prince Charles of England today, it is not likely that England would declare war on France. They would all find the culprit, have a trial and send him to jail for life. But with identical circumstances, Germany declared war on Serbia and started World War I and that set the scene that caused World War II.

 

The Vietnam War began in 1955 and ended in 1975. The Middle East Wars began in 1948 and continue to today. Protracted wars are not good for the long term health of any countries’ economy and neither is any form of socialism or dictatorship.

 

History has always been written by the folks who win the wars.  But eventually, the entire story needs to be told.  If it is not, important lesson are not exposed.  We complain that history repeats itself. And maybe it does this because we are shallow and sloppy in how we teach history. That’s why education cannot be entrusted to or funded by governments.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader