"HE HIT ME FIRST" !!!
That's the argument a lot of (Neo-Yankee / you lost so put your flag away), folks wish to use.
Yea I guess it's true, the South did fire the first shot, but does this mean they started the war ?
Well if ya ask me and even if ya don't, the South was Provoked into firing the first shot.
Provoked = 1/ to bring something about intentionally. 2 to serve as the stimulus for an activity
Good old Abe Lincoln provoked the South. My Proof ?
From - (http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2009/02/12/mr-lincolns-war-an-irrepressible-conflict/)
Southerners were perhaps not mistaken in their belief that Lincoln had provoked the conflict. As the President wrote with quiet satisfaction to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox, commander of the expedition to Fort Sumter, on May 1, 1861:
"You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt to provision Fort-Sumpter [sic], even if it should fail; and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result."
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We also have from one of Lincoln's good friends this ----
He (Lincoln) himself conceived the idea, and proposed sending supplies, without an attempt to reinforce giving notice of the fact to Gov Pickins of S.C. The plan succeeded. They attacked Sumter it fell, and thus, did more service than it otherwise could."
Senator Orville Hickman Browning's diary dated July 3, 1861
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OK the south fired the first shot, but they didn't start the war !
Agree, agree, agree!
ReplyDeleteDavid, Lincoln's cabinet advised him that resupplying Sumter would provoke, initiate, begin....war.
ReplyDeleteprovoke combat -- initiate civil war
"If it were possible to peacefully provision Fort Sumter, of course I should answer that it would be both unwise and inhuman not to attempt it. But the facts of the case are known to be that the attempt must be made with the employment of military and marine force, which would provoke combat, and probably initiate a civil war, which the government of the United States would be committed to maintain through all changes to some definite conclusion."
William Seward
http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/InitialProb/Seward.FullAd.html
will not war be precipitated
"By sending or attempting to send provisions into Sumter, will not war be precipitated! It may be impossible to escape it under any course of policy that may be pursued, but I am not prepared to advise a course that would provoke hostilities. It does not appear to me that the dignity, strength, or character of the government will be promoted by an attempt to provision Sumter in the manner proposed, even should it succeed, while a failure would be attended with untold disaster."
Gideon Welles
http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/InitialProb/Welles.FullAd.html
inflame civil war
"If the attempt will so inflame civil war as to involve an immediate necessity for the enlistment of armies and the expenditure of millions, I cannot advise it in the existing circumstances of the country and in the present condition of the national finances."
Salmon Chase
http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/InitialProb/Chase.FullAd.html
unwise to make such an attempt
"Sir: In reply to the letter of inquiry, addressed to me by the President, whether, "assuming it to be possible now to provision Fort Sumter, under all the. circumstances is it wise to attempt it?" I beg leave to say that it has received the careful consideration, in the limited time I could bestow upon it, which its very grave importance demands, and that my mind has been most reluctantly forced to the conclusion that it would be unwise now to make such an attempt."
Simon Cameron
http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/InitialProb/Cameron.FullAd.html
beginning a civil war
"I am most unwilling to strike -- I will not say the first blow, for South Carolina has already struck that -- but I am unwilling, "under all the circumstances," at this moment to do any act which may have the semblance before the world of beginning a civil war, the terrible consequences of which would, I think, find no parallel in modern times; for I am convinced that flagrant civil war in the Southern States would soon become a social war, and that could hardly fail to bring on a servile war, the horrors of which need not be dwelt upon."
Edward Bates
http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/InitialProb/Bates.FullAd.html
induce an attack
"As the attempt to supply the fort with provisions without the consent of the authorities of South Carolina would doubtless induce an attack by them, the effect of such an attempt, whether successful or not, would be the early loss of the fort and the destruction or capture of Major Anderson's command. It would therefore, in my judgment, be unwise to attempt to supply the fort with provisions, unless they were sent with such a force as would place beyond all doubt or contingency the success of the enterprise, and also with such reinforcements of men as would insure a successful defense of the fort against any attack which could be made upon it."
Caleb Smith
http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/InitialProb/Smith.FullAd.html
Great quotes, Eddie. Of course, Corey and Rob would find all kinds of excuses for claiming these quotes do not say what they say, or mean what they mean.
ReplyDelete