Thursday, September 04, 2008

Interesting take.

"We of the North couldn't make it [slavery] pay, so we are convinced that it is the sum of all villainy. Our plan is more profitable; we take care of no children or sick people except as paupers, while the owners of slaves have to provide for them from birth till death. So how we view the issue depends on what kind of glasses we use.

If we of the North were called upon to endure one half as much as the Southern people and soldiers do, we would abandon the cause and let the Southern Confederacy be established. We pronounce their cause unholy, but they consider it sacred enough to suffer and die for. Our forefathers in the Revolutionary struggle could not have endured more than these Rebels.

A nation preserved with liberty trampled underfoot is much worse than a nation in fragments but with the spirit of liberty still alive. Southerners persistently claim that their rebellion is for the purpose of preserving this form of government."

- Private John H. Haley
17th Maine, US

A couple of fascinating points here. Private Haley seems to think that the North's opposition to slavery had little or nothing to do with moral concerns. He last paragraph is one which concisely sums up the views of the South about the war. Much more need not be said.

No comments: