don't want to get into an extended discussion of slavery here, since the
issue is NOT slavery, but whether it was a war of Northern Aggression;
If Harold is right, that NYC profited almost as much from slavery as the
South (which I this is an overstatement) then it would have made no
sense for the states of the North to make war on the South.  In fact,
NOTHING in the Republican platform or Lincoln's policies suggested
making war on the South.  

Now, Harold may be correct in arguing that the North should have
seceded from the nation to forma  free northern nation (this is the
Garrisonian position).  But that is a separate argument.

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386 
[log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 4/10/2007 9:46:57 AM >>>
To Paul and All:

    Surely what Paul says about the early American republic as compared
to 
the C.S.A. is accurate.  Yet, what remains unsaid in this discussion is
the 
cancer at the heart of the Republic declared in 1776 and the
Confederacy 
declared in 1861:  slavery.  The Founders built a republic with a 20%
slave 
population:  disfranchised and exploited.  The C.S.A.'s slave
population 
approached 40%.
    We, north of the Mason-Dixon Line would like very much to lionize
George 
Washington to the denigration of Jefferson Davis but the fact is that
they 
were both large scale planters with slaves in the hundreds.  True
Washington 
put in motion the manumission of his slaves while Davis moved to extend
the 
life of the exploitative system but by 1860 New York City found slavery

almost as profitable as did South Carolina.
    American history is really complicated.  Malcolm X, of all persons,
said 
in one of his last recorded speeches:  "[s]top talking about the
South!!  As 
long as you are south of the Canadian border, you're in the South."

Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Finkelman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 12:11 AM
Subject: Re: End of the War of Northern Aggression


> Ther are three major differences between the 1775 and 1861.
>
> 1:  The people who revolted in 1775 were totally disfranchised; they
had
> no political power; no representation in the Brit. gov.  They had no
> rights, no constitutional protections, and no one from the American
> colonies served in the Brit.  gov.  In the US southerners had
dominiated
> the national gov. since 1789.  The Confed. Pres. had been in various
> cabinets and in the Senate.  No American had served in any British
gov.
> Five of 9 Supreme Court Justices were southerners; No Americans
served
> on any  English court.  Remember, the slogan of the revolution was
"no
> taxation without representation."  The American had no
representation.
> Hard to argue that the South was not very well represented in the
> American Gov.
>
> 2:  Jefferson justified revolution on the grounds that people had to
be
> represented in the gov. (which southerners were in 1861) and that
> revolution was only justified after a "long train of abuses."  Tell 
us
> what were the "long train of abuses" that the South suffered?
>
> 3:  The Americans of 1775 had no mechanism to protect their rights
> because they had no political power; the Southeners had vast
poltiical
> power, including a perpetual veto (to this day) of any
constitutional
> amendment.  The Southerners chose to reject the political process
which
> had served them well. Ironically, had the South not seceded it is
> unlikely that slavery would have ended until the late 20th century,
if
> then.
>
>
> Paul Finkelman
> President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
>     and Public Policy
> Albany Law School
> 80 New Scotland Avenue
> Albany, New York   12208-3494
>
> 518-445-3386
> [log in to unmask] 
>>>> [log in to unmask] 04/09/07 11:22 PM >>>
> As best I can remember, prior to the war of northern aggression, a
bunch
> of
> ragtags turned against their mother country (England) and fought for
> their
> freedom.  The southerners did no different.
>
>
>
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