Those who study in depth the Civil War understand that the key issue was not slavery, but states' rights. The Confederacy was made up of states which had joined the Union freely and believed it was constitutional to leave the Union freely.
The United States was split over the question of centralized power vs. the power of the states to determine laws. Slavery, always immoral, would have gone away with the fall of the old regime in the South of Irish and English landowners, who would have been pressured by laws being passed in England to abolish slavery. That Lincoln abolished slavery was a necessary action, but the problem was that at the same time, by not working with the states, he increased greatly power in Washington forever, setting precedences under which we suffer today.
Most of the people in the United States do not understand the "balance of power" issue which formed the Constitution, and which has been eroded by almost every president in the Twentieth Century.
The Executive branch was to be one of three, not one above all, except in rare cases.
The recent flush of hatred against the Confederate flag and anything Confederate ignores the other issues of identity for Southerners, who still fiercely cherish states' rights. This identity must not include slavery or prejudice, which sadly, it has. But, prejudice against any minority group (and soon the white populace will be the minority) is always gravely sinful, a great evil found in every area of America, not just the South.
I do not agree with the Confederate flag flying over a state capitol, but I do agree with a state's rights.
I agree that it is constitutional to secede. The United States must be seen as a group of people with shared values. But, this is changing rapidly.
Some people are calling for the destruction of memorials to fallen Confederate soldiers. This is absurd, as those men died just as valiantly as those in the north. Some people want Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson taken out of history books. This is not only silly, but hiding history from future generations.
These were men who decided against the Union. We honor Washington and Jefferson and they had slaves. Why the rush to get rid of Confederate history? America has been created by many different kinds of people and many different belief systems. Slavery is a black spot on our history, but we cannot deny this happened. And, who decides what truth gets passed on and which groups are pushed out of history? The good can be ignored and never studied just as much as the bad.
For example, will memorials to Catholics be the next target if ssm is approved?
Why not?
Will the Vatican flag be taken out of churches?
Caligula has to be one of the most horrible leaders of all times, but we do not expunge him from the history books. And so on.
History is made up of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Who is to decide which personages are dropped from a curriculum?
Over ten years ago, in my job as a curriculum consultant, I researched various history books used in high schools. In several American texts, Stonewall Jackson was not mentioned at all, and Robert E. Lee was given one small paragraph.
Margaret Sanger, the great baby killer, whose push for abortion has killed more people than in all the wars Americans have ever fought in, or more slaves tortured and killed by slave owners, was featured on two pages, side by side.
See the problem? Americans are losing touch with reality because of ideologies.
Slavery is a horrible, great evil, never to be tolerated, but to not study those on both sides of the debate is to allow a few people to decide what is our heritage and what is not. We cannot deny the past and we should be able to examine the military genius of some Confederate generals without agreeing with slavery.
Ideologies kill truth.
Period.
(P.S. State's rights with the apostrophes indicates one state's rights--states' right indicates plural).