THE REBEL FLAG

[Blindgreed1]

For Gunnar.

March 26, 1861

Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, delivered the Confederate Corner Stone speech to a packed house at the Athenaeum in Savannah, Georgia.

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. [Applause.] 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. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind — from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics; their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just — but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails. I recollect once of having heard a gentleman from one of the northern States, of great power and ability, announce in the House of Representatives, with imposing effect, that we of the South would be compelled, ultimately, to yield upon this subject of slavery, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics, as it was in physics or mechanics. That the principle would ultimately prevail. That we, in maintaining slavery as it exists with us, were warring against a principle, a principle founded in nature, the principle of the equality of men. The reply I made to him was, that upon his own grounds, we should, ultimately, succeed, and that he and his associates, in this crusade against our institutions, would ultimately fail. The truth announced, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics as it was in physics and mechanics, I admitted; but told him that it was he, and those acting with him, who were warring against a principle. They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal.

He said a lot more -- all equally unambiguous as to what the Confederate States were fighting for and against.

That's just the way it is, or was...

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/libra...h-excerpt/

This may come as a surprise to you HoTD, but the seceeding states were not really very well united to begin with. In fact, of the four that tendered a "Declaration of Causes" (which by the way was not required to seceed) all differed greatly. Georgia being the highest percentage of seceeding due to the slavery abolishment. As it is today, things arent always as cut and dry as they seem on the surface HoTD and no ammount of cut and paste from public speeches from that era will ever explain the underlying causes, but in a nut shell: The North abolished slavery which was easy for the North to do. They didn't rely on slave labor or cotton and tobacco crops to pay the bills. The North put their hands around the throat (and deep into their pockets) of the South and squeezed hard in order to force the South into compliance. Now if i'm a regular non-land owning southerner who never owned a slave and my family doesn't have food to put on the table because of the North's hands around the neck of the South economy, you'd better bet your ass I'm taking up arms over it.