Jophiel wrote:
The other aspects of the Confederacy tie back to slavery. State's rights? Slavery. Economic issues? Slavery. Government intrusion? Slavery.
Slavery was the issue of the day, so yeah. If it had been about whether people should wear purple or green hats, then you'd be arguing that the battle flag represented the evils of wearing a particular color hat. Sometimes, you have to step back and realize that the specific issue at hand isn't the whole picture.
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The articles of succession for the various states often state in explicit terms that they hold the black man to be an inferior species.
So, like this quote?:
Jefferson Davis wrote:
I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.
I'll grant you that, I suppose. Again though, it's just the specific social issue they were dealing with at the time. And at the risk of cross thread shenanigans, it's similar to the SSM issue in that in the course of fighting for a given "side" on said social issue, you can sometimes tread on important freedoms that are lost along the way. In the case of the Civil War, that was the turning point where federal power trumped state power (a trend which continues to this day). In the case of SSM, it's a radical change of the definitions of liberty and rights themselves. Those things last long after the issues which cause them fade away. I think it's important to recognize that at some level.
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This whole "Well, it wasn't really about slavery" nonsense is revisionist bullshit by a bunch of people who want to paint over the horror of their ancestors with some mythical Camelot story of antebellum nobility and honor against a terrible foe. It was about slavery. Get over it.
Again. It was about the balance of federal vs state power. The issue at hand was slavery. It really is important to see a distinction between those.