In a message dated 10/13/99 4:52:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
[email protected] writes:

<< Subj:     War and Genealogy
 Date:  10/13/99 4:52:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:  [email protected] (Greg Simmons)
 To:    [email protected]
 
 I am sorry to see the Civil war discussion going on. What are
 ancestors did cannot be changed. What we can do now that we are here is.
 No one wants to cast blame on who or what happen during that time.
 
               One note what the Confederate States of America did was
 treason. They elected their own President and Vice President as well as
 come up with their own Constitution as well as not allow any one else
 who was not a member of their Confederate states to run for political
 office in the states that belonged to the confederates.
 
           They also with drew from the Federal Government almost all
 representatives as well as take over federal property in the southern
 states and call the property their own because it was in their state.
 They established their own tax system and would not allow the Union to
 tax them. They also sought finical help from other countries to supply
 their Confederates states of America. 
 
          When the war was over zealous leaders of the Union wanted to
 try the leaders of the South for treason. To heal the country though the
 president knew he would have to pardon the leaders and accept them with
 open arms back into the union with no punishment for them. Although the
 soldiers of the Confederates were looked down on by Union soliders and
 leaders after the war, they should have been given the open arms of
 welcome. It is not wrong to disagree on points of view on items. 
 
              It is wrong how ever to go to war and fight on these points
 of war as was done in the Civil war. It was Civil and not just a state
 issue. When the federal government is effected it becomes federal. I am
 not casting blame here just stating the facts that are recorded by
 documents from the south and North. We can disagree on issues but to
 kill over those issue's is not a very good ideal. 
 
            I hope we can put this issue to rest and go back to what this
 list is about Genealogy. I am from Illinois and am tracing my ancestors
 who came from SC in 1778 to 1799. In the Laurens Co. Area. They are:
 
 1)William Harvey
 2)Littleberry Harvey
 3)Thomas Harvey
 4)James harvey
 5)Philemon or Philip Harvey
 6)John Holcombe Harvey
 7) Charles Harvey
 
       All were brothers and lived in the Little River area of what was
 Laurens Co. SC.. 
 
                 Greg Simmons
 _________________________________ >>


Greg,

You are a piece of work. You are declaring the Civil War discussion over and 
before actually adjourning the discussion, you produce a summary of the usual 
Yankee version of Lincoln's War, which you state as fact. (ho ho ho).

A book review printed in last Sunday's Washington Post had an interesting 
summary of the statistics. It made reference to Lincoln and pretty well 
credited Lincoln with going to war and seeing 620,000 Americans die and the 
Southland devastated just so that the Union would not split on his watch. 

The Southern version would state that the Constitution of the United States 
grants powers to the Federal Government only as specified in the Constitution 
and all other powers go to the States. This principle is known as "States 
Rights" and has been a cornerstone of Your and my Constitution since the 
beginning.  There is no Federal power to prevent secession, and being silent 
on this issue, the States are given the right to decide.  

Possibly Lincoln thought he was putting down an insurrection?  But the states 
formally acted to secede and, as you so eloquently stated, formed their own 
government, printed money, initiated a system of taxation (with 
representation), raised an Army, and proceeded to build a nation.

Lincoln, I suspect, could not deal with the blow to his ego and see the 80 
year old USA divided on his watch. Constitutional Lawyers (strict 
constructionists) would likely side with the South in accepting its peaceful 
approach to declaring its freedom.  Liberals interpretations can't be 
predicted. The South acted constitutionally.  Lincoln did not.

Lee and other Army personnel acted quite honorably by resigning from the Army 
of the USA, and signing up with the Army of the new nation being formed.  
There was no treason here, Sir. Only playing fast and loose with the 
Constitution by Lincoln.

Now comes the crunch. A good hostage negotiator today would probably advise 
much more tolerance at Ft Sumpter before firing to drive the occupying forces 
out. By a review of the outcome, it might have been a better decision to 
delay firing that first shot, though the Union Army was unconstitutionally 
occupying southern property. All of this could have been settled peacefully 
and should have been. Unfortunately it was not.  But please put the 
responsibility for those 620,000 death squarely on Mr Lincoln's head where it 
belongs.  He foiled a peaceful and legal action to build a new nation and he 
is responsible for the outcome.

Frankly, I love to study these events to understand why my great grandfather  
(Francis Marion Kerbow) enlisted in the Army of the Confederacy along with 
two of his brothers and his eldest son, and fought to defend his family farm 
in the Atlanta area and saw his youngest brother killed at Gettysburg.  What 
motivated him to do that other than to defend his nation against an invading 
Army.  This IS genealogy in my book. BTW, the Kerbows came to Georgia from 
Edgefield, SC after the Revolutionary War... another war where the people of 
a geographical area declared their freedom from an oppressing government.

As a school boy in Dallas, I learned to recite the Gettysburg Address and I 
learned to say, "Lincoln was the Greatest president because he freed the 
slaves"...  Maybe he freed the slaves, maybe not, but that was not the main 
issue in the Civil War, though certainly by today's standards, slavery is 
unconcionable.  But GREATEST President? Yankee brainwashing!!! I was 
brainwashed back in school, but today I see these facts through different 
glasses and I am satisfied that I am sorting out truth, even though it is 
contrary to the history written by the victors.

George B. Williams
Manassas, Virginia

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