Flacking for the Secesh 0

As soon as General Lee handed his sword to General Grant in Appomattox almost a century and a half ago, the campaign to whitewash (you will pardon the expression) the role of slavery in the Civil War began. Slavery had lost, and its proponents moved rapidly to “distance themselves”–as today’s idiom would have it–from the word.

It was about (pick the flavor of the decade) states’ rights/incompatible economic systems/agriculture vs. industrialization. When I was coming along, “incompatible economic systems” was in vogue.

The campaign of spin and deceit continues today.

In the Roanoke Times, H. A. Goodman points out that the truth is in the founding documents of the Confederate States of America and suggests that more persons should read them:

While the U.S. Constitution does not mention the word “slavery” and does not include the word “God” (aside from the signatory section where dates in that era were preceded by the “Year of our Lord”), the Constitution of the Confederate States evoked the power of God to legitimize its right to hold slaves.

It begins by “invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God” and goes on to clearly state clearly that slavery will be an integral part of a new federal government:

“In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected bye Congress and by the Territorial government . . . . …”

Anyone who claims that the Civil War was fundamentally about anything other than slavery is a hypocrite and a liar and likely wants to sell you a bill of goods.