The Virginia Flaggers made a great post, in honor of Confederate History and Heritage Month, quoting from the book “A Confederate Catechism” by Lyon Gardiner Tyler. In the book, Tyler answers commonly asked questions about Confederacy. Here’s an excerpt:
6. Did the South fight for slavery or the extension of slavery?
No; for had Lincoln not sent armies to the South, that country would have done no fighting at all.
7. Did the South fight for the overthrow of the United States Government?
No; the South fought to establish its own government. Secession did not destroy the Union, but merely reduced its territorial extent. The United States existed when there were only thirteen States, and it would have existed when there were twenty States left. The charge brought by Lincoln that the aim of the Southerners was to overthrow the government was no more true than if King George III had said that the secession of the American colonies from Great Britain had in view the destruction of the British Government. The government of Great Britain was not destroyed by the success of the American States in 1783. Nor would the government of the United States have been destroyed if the Southern States had succeeded in repelling the attacks of the North in 1861- 1865. Had the North refrained from conquest, its example would have been felt by Germany and there would have been no World War costing millions of lives. A group of Northern States in 1861-65 assumed the imperialistic attitude of Great Britain in 1776 and Germany in 1914, and substituted the armed fist for the American principle of self-government. Universal peace will never ensue till the principle of self- government, which requires no armies to maintain it, is recognized throughout the world.
(emphasis mine)
Once more for the people in the back: Secession did not destroy the Union, but merely reduced its territorial extent.
This is an excellent rebuttal of the brainless, hackneyed, repeated-ad-nauseam lie that the Confederates tried to “tear the country apart” and “destroy the union.” The Confederates attempted to leave the United States. And there is literally absolutely nothing wrong with that, whatsoever. People have a fundamental right to leave something if they want to. Leaving something is not the same as destroying it. Just as it doesn’t destroy a team, or a friend group, or a get-together, or a party, or a class, or a club, or a company, or an organization, for one person to leave, it doesn’t destroy a country for states to secede from it; it merely makes it smaller. You don’t have a right to force other people to remain part of something against their will. It really is that simple.
View the full post here.