Please....

Slaves weren't entitled to "civil liberties" in the South prior to the War.  They were property.  They had no more rights in the North.  So I wish everyone would quit whining about that from their 21st century PC vantage point.

The free press dominated the South.  Cf Calender's sensational story on Jefferson's affair with his slave and the other press sensationalism in the South of that ilk.  The only repercussions were the occasional civil lawsuits.   No one went to jail. 

My ancestor James Duke of Richmond was a notorious Union spy during the War of Northern Invasion.  See, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy by Elizabeth R. Varon.  He was twice arrested by the Confederacy, held for a short period and released.  No torture.  No hanging.  Can you imagine what would have happened to him if he had been caught as a Southern spy in Washington, D.C.  Instant death.

The sad violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and a free press pre-War came with the Alien and Sedition acts....Federalist and Northern legislation, not Southern.  Jefferson and Madison were appalled by the legislation.

During the war there was plenty of atrocity by both sides to go around.  CF Sherman's march through Georgia.  See also War Crimes Against Southern Civilians by Walter Brian Cisco and Upon the Altar of the Nation..A Moral History of the Civil War by Harry S. Stout.

Lincoln was undoubtedly the American Caesar and the most tyrannical president in our history.  His ranking by many as our greatest president is a joke. 

JDS




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