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That's not even true. The confederacy also stood for the cause of self-determination, and the right of a state to remove itself from the union that it had volun

That's not even true. The confederacy also stood for the cause of self-determination, and the right of a state to remove itself from the union that it had voluntarily entered.

softwaredoug 6y ago
Remove themselves, so they can own slaves. Read The Cornerstone Speech[1]: that "Our new government['s] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man." Don’t fall for Lost Cause mythology.[2] 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech#Speech_title https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech#Speech_ti... 2 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederac...
- rayiner 6y ago
  The Cornerstone Speech is required reading: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/cornerstone-speech https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/cornersto... > The prevailing ideas entertained by [Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew." > 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. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. Two things jump out: 1) someone defending secession in 1861 unambiguously calls out the founders for mostly believing that slavery was evil; and 2) it's an early invocation of "science" against the "zeal above knowledge" of (overwhelmingly religious) abolitionist "fanatics."
  - bhupy 6y ago
    The Cornerstone Speech is really important, and I'm surprised it isn't more well known. A lot of progressive dogma rests around the (incorrect) notion that the entire American experiment was white supremacist by design / from the beginning. This historical revisionism is strikingly similar in its ignorance to the "Lost Cause" narrative that the CSA was about "states rights" and not slavery.
fpgaminer 6y ago
The second and third (final) confederate national flags were white to represent the supremacy of the white race: > In explaining the white background, Thompson wrote, "As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_State...) It's absolutely clear that the confederate was about white supremacy. It's also hard to argue that the confederate was about self-determination in any way when their very constitution is a litany of laws banning things, like a state's rights to regulating slave ownership. > No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed. This idea that the confederacy was founded for any other reason than slave ownership is absurd and a complete fabrication, unfortunately perpetuated by Texas school books used throughout the United States public schools.
- philwelch 6y ago
  One might say the true final Confederate flag was the white flag of surrender.
jcranmer 6y ago
> the right of a state to remove itself from the union that it had voluntarily entered. Funnily enough, CSA's constitution not-quite-explicitly didn't grant the Confederate states that right. I have yet to find a "state's right" that the CSA argued for that they didn't then refuse to grant to their own states.

That's not even true. The confederacy also stood for the cause of self-determination, and the right of a state to remove itself from the union that it had voluntarily entered.

softwaredoug 6y ago

Remove themselves, so they can own slaves. Read The Cornerstone Speech[1]: that "Our new government['s] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man." Don’t fall for Lost Cause mythology.[2] 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech#Speech_title https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech#Speech_ti... 2 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederac...

rayiner 6y ago
The Cornerstone Speech is required reading: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/cornerstone-speech https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/cornersto... > The prevailing ideas entertained by [Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew." > 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. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. Two things jump out: 1) someone defending secession in 1861 unambiguously calls out the founders for mostly believing that slavery was evil; and 2) it's an early invocation of "science" against the "zeal above knowledge" of (overwhelmingly religious) abolitionist "fanatics."
- bhupy 6y ago
  The Cornerstone Speech is really important, and I'm surprised it isn't more well known. A lot of progressive dogma rests around the (incorrect) notion that the entire American experiment was white supremacist by design / from the beginning. This historical revisionism is strikingly similar in its ignorance to the "Lost Cause" narrative that the CSA was about "states rights" and not slavery.

fpgaminer 6y ago

The second and third (final) confederate national flags were white to represent the supremacy of the white race: > In explaining the white background, Thompson wrote, "As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_State...) It's absolutely clear that the confederate was about white supremacy. It's also hard to argue that the confederate was about self-determination in any way when their very constitution is a litany of laws banning things, like a state's rights to regulating slave ownership. > No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed. This idea that the confederacy was founded for any other reason than slave ownership is absurd and a complete fabrication, unfortunately perpetuated by Texas school books used throughout the United States public schools.

philwelch 6y ago
One might say the true final Confederate flag was the white flag of surrender.

jcranmer 6y ago

> the right of a state to remove itself from the union that it had voluntarily entered. Funnily enough, CSA's constitution not-quite-explicitly didn't grant the Confederate states that right. I have yet to find a "state's right" that the CSA argued for that they didn't then refuse to grant to their own states.