It must be tempting for the puppet in the White House to opt for war in eastern Europe rather than admit that his war on Covid and his Build Back Better plans are rubbish. All politicians look to “save face” when big mistakes are made. Any attempt to support Ukraine’s stupid-ness (something the US democrats were highly involved with when Obama was leading things in 2014) would easily shift to an all out war involving Russia.
For the geographically challenged, NATO’s promise in the early 1990s has be repeatedly broken to the point where NATO is not on Russia’s doorstep.
Moon of Alabama has an article out that outlines the latest lie around Russian build-up on Ukraine’s borders.
There is fear in Russia that the U.S. is egging the Ukraine into a renewed active conflict with its renegade eastern Donbass region and thereby into a war with Russia.
…
The Biden administrations war mongering towards Russia may be seen to be free of cost. But it takes only one miscalculation in Kiev or some unforeseen incident in the Black Sea region and the situation could seriously escalate.
Moscow’s narrative is that the Western powers are deliberately fueling Ukraine’s revanchist instincts by arming it and encouraging President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is fighting for political survival, to believe that with Western support, a window of opportunity is opening to recapture the lost territories in Donbas and Crimea and thereby redeem his pledge to be his country’s savior.And second, as Moscow sees it, the rising tensions with Russia have become a convenient alibi to involve NATO directly in Ukraine’s security and make it a template of the West’s containment strategy against Russia.
It does seem similar to Bush II wanting to complete what Bush I did in Iraq, is being repeated now with Obama II (Biden) wanting to complete what Obama I did in the Ukraine in 2014.
Russia has stated that it would intervene in the Ukraine should Kiev decided to invade Donbass. It would be the end of the Ukraine Moscow has said. (Russia would likely end up with taking the majority Russian east and south of the Ukraine. The rest would end up as a landlocked agricultural Nazi infested enclave.)
The Kremlin has also multiple times complained about the ever increasing amount of NATO activities near its border. A U.S. study confirms those activities:
There were some 2,900 incidents between NATO and Russian forces between 2013 and 2020. The three-year moving average increased by more than 60 percent over this eight-year timespan.
Of course, NATO will accuse Russia of doing what they are in fact doing, that is what politicians do, time and again, which is why they always fail and war is always one stupid mistake away from reality.
Moon of Alabama outlines the lie below:
The U.S. for its part has claimed that Russia is assembling more troops at its borders with the Ukraine. The claim is false. The Ukrainian defense intelligence chief recently provided a map with a table which shows that Russia has current only 40 Battalion Tactical Groups (ATG) at the ready while during the last ‘Russia invades’ scare in April it had 53 BTGs ready to go. How 25% less troops at the ready are supposed to a new danger is not clear to me.
There is hope that Biden (Obama) will come to his senses and save face by choosing this off-ramp …
The Saker detects signs of secret negotiations between Washington and Moscow that may be at the core of the announced Putin-Biden summit:
Since a Presidential summit is only organized once both sides have already come to a general agreement, at least in principle, on at least some issues, if Putin and Biden do meet, that means that both sides have worked out at least the outlines of some kind important deal (not just empty statements, as was the case the first time around, at least officially).
In his recent speech Putin said “it is imperative to push for serious long-term guarantees that ensure Russia’s security in this area, because Russia cannot constantly be thinking about what could happen there tomorrow“. If Biden is willing to not only give guarantees (the Russians, understandably, have *zero* trust in western promises, written or oral) but also to actually take actions, probably mutual, coordinated and verifiable actions by both sides, then a war in Europe could be avoided, rather easily in fact.
Will Biden undo the total mess created by Obama and Trump and their Neocon handlers?
Maybe.
This is all blow-back of typical US intervention in places where it puts the American Empire’s nose .. seems that you can’t fix stupid.
It was not that long ago, maybe 4-5 years, that Captain1776 and myself both found out that we each knew NO ONE who thought like us. In searching for like-minded individuals in our circles, we could not even name ONE name of a friend or associate who saw society and government for what they really were. Few had the combination of moral principles along with impassioned sharing with others the many ways government has failed the people.
We tried at guessing percentages, not just in our state (only one of 50 so-called “united” States) but just in our county of 200K. Were there 2,000 (1%) like-minded individuals in our county that we never came in contact with? We were doubtful.
It was obvious to us that this is not the natural state of man (men or women) but something that comes from wrestling with the truths we know and the lies we see time and again. Looking into the history of government or any of its heroes tends to reveal what these actors are really about.
Fast forward those years and now we find ourselves on the other side of a “crisis” (real or imaginary, novel or planned) that showed just how far both society and government has “progressed” (regressed?). Nothing like a crisis to peel back the onion to expose the true core, condition and characteristics of our true core.
In a recent article by Winter Oak we find ten things (at a minimum) that have been learned along the way. Let us take these a few at a time and just reflect.
Item #1
Our political system is hopelessly corrupt. Virtually all politicians are hopelessly corrupt. No political party can be trusted. They all can be, and have been, bought.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, in your heart you KNOW this to be true right? I know, not that it would have really changed anything because the American political party only allows us a choice of two people of their own choosing. Come on now, think about it one second at least. You saw the rallies, you know your friends and family, and you still think this 2020 election in the US was free of trickery? Sorry to burst your bubble, this trickery has been around for ages as even JFK’s own father encouraged and financed a common laborer to run for the same office his son was running for ONLY because he had the same name as his son’s opponent thereby splitting the opponent’s vote. As FDR said:
Okay then, with #1 out of the way and seeing clearly that voting does NOTHING I do hope the next election you do not vote for the lesser of two evils BUT think about how a slew of NON-VOTING might be taken by the establishment and government. Knowing what we know now, millions of votes CAN and WILL be fabricated out of thin air just like the USD$ that are printed daily, but I digress.
The next four can be easily taken on as a group of four (items 2-5):
Democracy is a sham. It has been a sham for a very long time. There will never be any real democracy when money and power amount to the same thing.
The system will stop at nothing to hold on to its power and, if possible, increase its levels of control and exploitation. It has no scruples. No lie is too outrageous, no hypocrisy too nauseating, no human sacrifice too great.
So-called radical movements are usually nothing of the sort. From whatever direction they claim to attack the system, they are just pretending to do so, and serve to channel discontent in directions which are harmless to the power clique and even useful to its agendas.
Any “dissident” voice you have ever heard of through corporate media is probably a fake. The system does not hand out free publicity to its actual enemies.
If you have been reading my blog you should by now understand the real meaning of the word “democracy”, and that is “mob rule”. Nothing at all good can come out of this. When the s**t politicians that rise to the top in our very dysfunctional and evil political system (with two wings, one red and one blue) you can expect them to mouth words that are negated by their very actions. Watch what they do, no not trust what they say!!!
“…democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” James Madison, Federalist Papers Number 10
Do I disrespect the working class in this country for backing the orange man? No, because he said the things that connected these masses with how they were feeling. The America they knew growing up is evaporating before their eyes and their hope was this politician who like Obama, promised a whole lot before he became president and delivered little. To show how much out of touch Trump still is in his political role, he is most proud of being the FATHER of the vaccines that have saved millions of lives in this country.
“I am the father of the vaccine. It was a miracle, it saved tens of millions of lives. Pausing the J&J vaccine was stupid!” – Former President Donald Trump
But I digress yet again. Trump had the opportunity to make good on his promises but instead went down the political road ignoring the very people that put him in office. At a critical point in March of 2020 he ignored sound council regarding the pandemic/plandemic and initiated Operation Warp Speed. This operation to vaccinate” ALL of America is something he would like as his legacy. Sorry, just another politician (99%) who gives the rest (1%) a bad name.
Number 6 of this list has to do with society. There is no way you can not see this. In fact, now that mask mandates have been dropped by the CDC you will continue to see this:
Most people in our society are cowards. They will jettison all the fine values and principles which they have been loudly boasting about all their lives merely to avoid the slightest chance of public criticism, inconvenience or even minor financial loss.
I know for myself, there have been many friends, acquaintances and co-workers who had the brain-power to evaluate what this season was all about and instead believed it all as if they had drank the Kool-Aid themselves.
It was so sad to see, but also so enlightening. They acted like politicians in that you had to wait to see what they did when this crisis, and the government’s response, hit and not rely on the years of what they had said. Their principles were tossed aside so fast that I have only one word to describe them. Sheep. Now Jesus did not hate sheep, in fact, He had compassion for them but at the same time He did not expect any different behavior from them. I guess I have too high expectations then.
The balance of these (7-10) has to do with various arms of government. Yes, even science (Medical Industrial Complex) has made their bed with government .. so here we go:
The mainstream media is nothing but a propaganda machine for the system and those journalists who work for it have sold their sorry souls, placing their (often minimal) writing skills entirely at the disposition of Power.
Police are not servants of the public but servants of a powerful and extremely wealthy minority which seeks to control and exploit the public for its own narrow and greedy interests.
Scientists cannot be trusted. They will use the hypnotic power of their white coats and authoritative status for the benefit of whoever funds their work and lifestyle. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Progress is a misleading illusion. The “progress” of increasing automisation and industrialisation does not go hand in hand with a progress in the quality of human life, but in fact will “progressively” reduce it to the point of complete extinction.
Mainstream media’s history (Project Mockingbird vintage 1950s) should be known even pre-Covid, and the police issue (tied to politicians they can never be focused solely on public safety done correctly) the same and surely should have come as no surprise.
The rather new item is that of the science community that I belong to but am highly embarrassed by. While I have seen the corporatist leanings for some time (I actually left the military in the 1980s thinking that private business would be different, but I was wrong for the category of large businesses) I found that especially beginning with Pharma’s backing of Obamacare that pushed mandatory insurance and associated premiums on our youth who were NOT sick, as a very sick and selfish move towards their own long-term profits. While they claim there heart is with patients, they are actually most in love with big government and this past season has solidified that allegiance.
The “progress” that government has brought society has been laced with awful side-effects that can easily taint one’s own soul if one is not careful. Although I am fond of automation myself, I do know that any tool used wrongly can be manipulated to be an enemy of humankind.
As I wrote in this blog the last time, the Great Spiritual Reset is underway and the positive of this is that maybe the ‘church’ (ekklesia – the people who really follow Jesus) can impact with their love of others in. As this past 14 months have given us all new eyes to see others and government with, we are all wiser to those who might pretend to embed themselves in our circles as insurgents to report back to elements of the state.
The so-called progress has brought us all into a technocratic police state that is obsessed about geting real-time data on all subjects in the homeland called America. The 1st century church based in homes operated very well in the presence of the Roman Empire’s police state. We shall see if America’s new tools will allow them to be better oppressors of the people. Time will tell.
As I have explained for decades, a Tower of Babel has no common ground. There are no shared values, no shared culture, no shared holidays, no shared history. In their place is the cultivated hatred taught in public schools with critical race theory, the NY Times 1619 Project, and reinforced with sensitivity training in corporations, universities, and the US military. This means there is no basis for law. Whatever law exists is seen as a tool of the ruling race, not as something to respect.
One consequence is that the public interest disappears because there is no public interest—only the interests of the races, genders, classes. As has been clear throughout history, the lack of ethnic homogenuity means multicultural states are dysfunctional. They have no common basis.
White liberals will dispute this even as they live in an increasingly dysfunctional multicultural state that is thoroughly disunited and themselves spread disunity with their screams for death to Trump supporters.
The American people had a good thing going, and they stupidly let it be taken from them.
Yes, the masses are stupid and the twelve year indoctrination that most of us have in government schools seems to seal the deal on that, but this too can be used for good as well going forward. There are plenty of people that can be approached to see things for what they really are.
After having protected themselves while working class were exposed to the virus, the vaccinated Zoomers now want Vaccine Passports where immunity from prior infection does not count, despite stronger evidence for protection. One more assault on working people.
So the American Empire does what Robert E. Lee prophesied about ..
To the empire whose previous 70+ years of global intervention has accomplished, these are all coming home to roost. In this unfolding environment, anyone seen as opposed to the state will be seen as a threat. Hang on y’all .. and trust and hope that God can get us through the next season of this nation and this world.
Find your like-minded friends and cultivate those relationships for the days to come.
Just because we are seeing these things out in the open (finally) in the 2020s should not mean that they have not been here (but hidden better) in the previous years and decades in the USA.
4. The Soviet educational system sought not to enlighten but to indoctrinate young minds in proper government-approved thought.
Currently, cash-strapped universities nationwide are hiring thousands of diversity, equity, and inclusion staffers and administrators. Their chief task is to scan the admissions, hiring, curriculum, and administration at universities. Like good commissars, our diversity czars oversee compliance with the official narrative that a flawed America must confess, apologize for, and renounce its evil foundations.
If you have not seen this attribute in action lately, you must be living under a rock .. or on your own 160 acres somewhere off-grid .. if so, bless you. I am jealous!
The other nine are impressive, so visit the article above that starts out with this as their numero uno:
1. There was no escape from ideological indoctrination—anywhere. A job in the bureaucracy or a military assignment hinged not so much on merit, expertise, or past achievement. What mattered was loud enthusiasm for the Soviet system.
Wokeness is becoming our new Soviet-like state religion. Careerists assert that America was always and still is a systemically racist country, without ever producing proof or a sustained argument.
This transition did not start with Obama, or with FDR, or Wilson, or Lincoln .. it came this way starting way back in the late 1700s when the 13 independent colonies suddenly lost their nerve and decided they needed a leader, like a king only different.
They all knew their Bibles and KNEW of what God had warned the Israelites with they asked for a king ( 1 Samuel 8:10-18 ):
Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
Feeling like slaves yet?
Well, this dependence on a king seems embedded in our DNA, as a majority of the people, the mobs, cry for someone to tell them what to do and keep them safe.
I like how Gary Barnett (writing on Lew Rockwell’s site) calls into question the “Very Notion of ‘Leadership’“:
Leadership? What a curious term for any intelligent man to utter. How many times throughout my life have I listened to the masses clamoring for someone to lead them? Actually, the most prevalent attitude amongst the people is a desire to find the best ‘leader,’ and the epitome of this phenomenon is the ludicrous idea of voting. This process is continuous, and stretches from the heights of the presidency to the choosing of the local dogcatcher. It seems that the quest of men is to not rely on their best judgment or even on their moral beliefs, but to seek out others to follow instead of trusting self. This dilemma has caused much harm, and allowed for the worst among us to control the human narrative.
Can you argue with Gary on this one? As Kevin in ‘Home Alone’ would say:
I don’t think so
Gary continues to outline how this happened in the thirteen former British Colonies after the 1783 Paris Peace Treaty was signed:
Since the beginning of this country, or more accurately, the beginning of the end of this country, that time when the political class came up with a ruling document called the Constitution, ownership of the people by a governing body has been the prevailing state of existence. Throughout our history, this has become more evident with every passing administration. And what has been the people’s only recourse? They have been allowed by their rulers to pick a new pre-selected master (leader) every four years. They always get the ‘leader’ they so desire and deserve, and to this day, this process of voting, the epitome of absurdity, continues without question. Given this scheme, is it any wonder that a fake virus pandemic has brought this country to its knees?
Slaves/sheep that chose their bondage deserve to be on their knees. This seems to be the sad default of the mad masses that call “America” their home.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Make no mistake about it; looking for leaders can only assure defeat. Each and every person needs to become his own leader, his own ruler, and needs to stand on his own two feet. With progress in that direction, the fake ‘leaders’ can be eliminated, one by one, and then some semblance of freedom can be restored.
“Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.”
~ Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre — Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.156, SUNY Press
Self responsibility is the key characteristic that needs to be passed from generation to generation.
If you have been on the “short-view” train (typical American has a very short attention span that also matches their span for the latest fad or fear the media has for them) for the past four years with impeachment, Covid-19, BLM/Antifa, ’20 Election, Election Fraud and “Capitol Insurrection” themes, you might be thinking, “what happened to America in the last four years“. If this is you, you might want to soak up some US history that you will not hear in the text books you would read in government schools (public, private primary or secondary education).
Real history is very important, but finding that can be challenging. Napoleon Bonaparte (1768-1821) was spot on when he said:
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Those of you as old as I (three score and a few more) might think of the 1960s and 1970s as a time when the three network news hours had the unbiased truth. Sorry to burst your bubble, Project Mockingbird’s declassification has shed that myth to pieces. Since then several deep state actors have added credence that the “news” has been “narrative” for some time. Imagine how a younger me laughed at those in the Soviet Union that believed in their state news source Pravda, when in fact, the Russians were probably laughing at me!
While in the 20th century we think of the Federal Reserve’s creation in 1913 as the start of the undoing of America, we actually have to look a LOT further back to see a parallel theme to today’s media panic censorship to preserve a narrative. Consider the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act that I outlined in a previous post where I said:
It was in fact the US Government’s (called General government in those days, now labeled the Federal Government) over-reach that set-off a push back politically:
The conflict became obvious when President John Adams pushed through the 1798 Sedition Act, making it a crime to speak ill of the President or Congress. Since it was harshly enforced for some of the mildest criticisms, strict constructionists respond. Among them was future President James Madison who is known as the Father of the Constitution. He denied that the Supreme Court was the ultimate authority on States Rights. This can be seen from the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions he helped write with Thomas Jefferson condemning the Sedition Act as unconstitutional.
Jefferson’s presidential victory in 1800 guaranteed that the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act would be eliminated ..
Since 1798-1800 we also had a major censorship produced ONLY by the Executive Branch of the US Government from April to July 1861 (Lincoln refused to call Congress into session until 04JUL1861) when Habeus Corpus (right to a quick trial) was suspended and tens of thousands of people were imprisoned for as little as being accused by a 19th century “Karen” of saying something against the Lincoln Administration. Hundreds of presses were destroyed and associated newspapers closed down by the US government for words said.
By the 1930s after the Banking coup arranged by a 1910 meeting at Jekyll Island was firmly in place, the Progressive Left was swept into power with FDR’s 1930 election. While Republican presidents and majorities in congress have come and gone, they have done little but offer a Democratic-Lite agenda to the people of the US. Whether it was New Deal Lite offered by the Eisenhower Administration in the 1950s or Obamacare Lite under the Obama administration when the GOP had control of both houses, the Republicans are basically liars that never stand on principle. The Democrats may be evil, but the Republicans have proven themselves stupid.
Listen to some of Brion McClannahan’s Saturday podcast (30 min) for some eye-opening insight into past trends and what we may expect in the future:
So here are some quotes starting from back in the 1930s that help underscore how BOTH parties in government see “We the People”:
The world is divided in to three classes of people: a very small group that makes things happen, a somewhat larger group that watches things happen, and the great multitude which never knows what happened.
– Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, 1931 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Ninety years ago, the people were already seen as know nothings!
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
– Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, and Secretary of State under Gerald Ford
We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.
— William Casey, CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
– William Colby, former CIA director
Is there any doubt that 40 years AFTER the CIA director said this statement that anyone with an IQ should depend on public media (MSM) for knowing what is happening in the world around them domestically or internationally?
If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government’s ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.
– Bill Clinton
The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people.
– Bill Clinton
We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.
– Bill Clinton, U.S.A. Today, 11 March 1993
… and so many people LOVED Bill …
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.
– George W. Bush, 43rd US President
.. and GW Bush, such a nice Christian man. Geez.
Two centuries of lies have yet to convince the masses that their government really does not care for them, Archie Bunker was right:
Now y’all know .. now get on with the next season of your lives (family, friend, neighbors) and prepare for what is coming ..
“.. They have surrendered, and this proud fortress [Fort Sumter], that was attempted to be a fortress for despotism, has now become, as its name indicates, a fortress for our independence. Besides one of their most scientific officers on the 26th of last December escaped from what he [Union Maj. Gen Anderson] called a weak fort and untenable, and went over to this strong and powerful position, because he could maintain himself, and because it was pronounced the key of our harbor. He left Fort Moultrie because it was untenable and at the mercy of Sumter. He chose Sumter as his fortress…” – Gov. Pickens of South Carolina 13APR1861I am continuing the theme that the US government has lied us into all wars, even the War on Covid-19 (to cover up the financial bubble being burst in parallel). We were lied to about the rationale for the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War and here we will talk about the so-called ‘American Civil War’.
Character Flaw: US Government Has Lied Us into War of 1812 All the Way to the War on Covid-19
As I have mentioned before, “civil war” is a misnomer due to the fact in a true civil war both parties want to be in power of the WHOLE country after the war is complete. With this war, more appropriately called the War Against Southern Independence, the southern states had no eyes on any of the northern territory or states.
In fact, we do need to separate out a few things here. Secession itself did NOT cause this war. Slavery, protected under the US Constitution, did not trigger this war even though it was pointed to in secession documents to cover the South’s legal exit.
The South wanted their secession to be constitutional in order to deprive the North of a pretext for invasion.This made it impossible for the Southern states to argue that they were seceding because of the tariff.The tariff was a federal issue.The Constitution gave the federal government the right to pass tariffs.So the real reason the South was leaving the union left the South with no constitutional argument.On the other hand, slavery was a state’s right guaranteed by the Constitution.This caused the South to seize on the noncompliance of some northern states with the federal law requiring the return of run-away slaves and make a constitutional issue out of it. This argument then appeared in some of the secession documents of the southern states. – Paul Craig Roberts
So we need to understand that the southern seven states that had seceded had voted on secession AND had withdrawn peacefully.
Southern Independence was indeed achieved as these seven states formed a confederation that Jefferson would have been happy with and saw as inevitable since the early 1800s.The Confederate States of America even took their peaceful approach a step further, they offered to pay the US for the federal property (forts, etc) in the south! Beyond this, they even sought peace negotiations even offering European leaders to be a neutral party as part of this peace conference. Lincoln ignored all of this to preserve his notion that this was an insurrection only and that the states were still part of the union.
In a neat case of Throwback Thursday, try on this Lincoln quote from 1847:
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
Imagine that, by 1861 Lincoln changed his mind, placing expediency and power over principle. The commensurate politician!
So fast forward to late 1860 and early 1861 when things were happening fast-n-furious, most people with standard high school history probably believe that the firing on Ft. Sumter was the first hostile act of the war.
“FAKE NEWS” Just a little research shows that it just ain’t so. From DEC1860 to APR1861 some definite acts of aggression were made:
The first act that torpedoed trust in the relationship between federal units still in occupation of forts in the southern seven states AFTER the state seceded occurred when Major Robert Anderson, who commanded the US troops at Sumter, had of his own discretion moved the troops from Ft Moultrie, an indefensible position, to Ft Sumter in the night of 26DEC1860. He had done so without the direction of President Buchanan, and because the Carolinians were unaware of this, they received the information as a signal that the US intended to forcefully maintain possession of Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston harbor.. Although the South Carolina state troops refrained from attacking the fort, this action by US troops was regarded as an act of war.
Florida seceded on 10JAN1861 the very day the US commanding officer in charge of the Pensacola Bay fortifications transferred his command from Fort Barrancas to Fort Pickens. He made the decision to transfer his forces after hearing rumors that the people of Florida were going to seize all of the forts around Pensacola harbor and also that all of the forts in Mobile Bay, Alabama had already been taken. On the night of 13JAN1861 ten men were seen outside of the fort. These men from the Florida State guard were scouting the area to find out more information about the fort and it’s defenses when a shot was fired, a return shot was fired. These were the first shots of the War Against Southern Independence.
President Buchanan had ordered a reinforcement of the Fort and the USS Star of the West, loaded with supplies and additional troops, set out for Charleston. Cooper says that Buchanan attempted to rescind the order, but it was too late. The ship was already underway so word of this never reached the command. As with the relocation of troops to Sumter from Moultrie, this attempted resupply was likewise received as a hostile act by the Carolinians whose forces fired warning shots at the vessel on 13JAN1861
As the Confederate government was formed in FEB1861, and as Abraham Lincoln took office on 04MAR1861, correspondence between the two entities continued. William H. Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State, ostensibly acted as mediator between the Confederate government and the Lincoln administration. Cooper suggests that Seward had presumed to speak on behalf of Lincoln when no such authority had been delegated to him. In all probability, whether intentional or not, Seward was advancing a delaying action on behalf of the administration while a plan of action was formulated. Correspondence between the Confederate government and Seward went on for several weeks with Seward continually stalling and assuring the South that he was in favor of avoiding hostilities. Although he assured the Confederates that Sumter would be evacuated, he deflected any attempts by their officials to ascertain specifics or details.
Lincoln’s First Inaugural included the following myth that shocked the seven southern states who knew for fact that voluntary union meant voluntary disunion: “.. No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances … In doing this [rejoin the union] there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. ” – A. Lincoln on 04MAR1861
NOTE: Back on December of 1861, Anderson had informed President Buchanan that, due to his relationship with the Mayor of Charleston, as well as with the town merchants, he had access to all of the food necessary to keep his troops fed. This relationship only came to a halt with Lincoln’s inaugural address which the South received as a threat of invasion.
Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address 04MAR1861
15MAR1861 Lincoln called a cabinet meeting and asked each member of his cabinet to submit in writing their view of what should be done with regards to Fort Sumter. Every member, except Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, voted against resupply and voiced their opposition to send reinforcements.
By 18MAR1861, a press laid clear what was ahead for the region: “.. The ‘Boston Transcript’ presented the underlying Republican argument for a Federal conquest of the Confederacy: specifically to keep prices of manufactured goods high by ensuring collection of Federal import taxes , not only in seceded States, but in Federal States as well. The Confederate Constitution prohibited all but modest taxes on imports, far below the Federal tax rate, which Republicans would soon triple on average: The Transcript argued “it is apparent that the people of the principal seceding States are now for commercial independence.
20MAR1861 United States Senator James A. Bayard of Delaware began a three day speech on the prospects of war and the legality of secession. He began by offering a resolution in the hope of avoiding what he predicted would be a long, bloody conflict. It read: “Resolved by the Senate of the United States, That the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, has full power and authority to accept the declaration of the seceding States that they constitute hereafter an alien people, and to negotiate and conclude a treaty with “the Confederate States of America” acknowledging their independence as a separate nation; and that humanity and the principle avowed in the Declaration of Independence that the only just hosts of government is “the consent of the governed,” alike require that the otherwise inevitable alternative of civil war, with all its evils and devastation, should be thus avoided.
Senator Orville Browning, a close friend and confidant of Lincoln’s, advised him: “In any conflict…..between the government and seceding States, it is very important that the traitors shall be the aggressors, and that they be kept constantly and palpably in the wrong. The first attempt……to furnish supplies or reinforcements will induce aggression by South Carolina, and then the government will stand justified, before the entire country, in repelling that aggression, and retaking the forts.”
So President Lincoln in deciding the Sumter question had adopted a simple but effective policy. To use his own words, he determined to ‘send bread to Anderson’; if the rebels fired on that, they would not be able to convince the world that he had begun the civil war.
After Lincoln maneuvered the South into “firing the first shot” on 12APR1861, in a 01MAY1861 letter to Gustavous Fox, who commanded the naval detachment charged with resupplying Sumter, the following:
You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt to provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail, and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result.
Mission Accomplished, Lincoln had successfully provoked war while, in his mind, maintaining the appearance of a non-aggressor. FDR took note of this in 1940 many months before Pearl Harbor in DEC1941.
At this point war was still not a sure thing, but Lincoln used the firing on federal property, even though no man was killed, as his justification to keep Congress from meeting until he had called up volunteers and prepared for war on the south.
The only reason a War for Southern Independence was needed was because the northern states invaded the south. The north, under Lincoln’s leadership would not let the south go and would call their action the putting down of a general insurrection. I have plenty of previous posts (post, post, post, post, post, post, post, in 2020 alone) that touch on much of the lead up to this war.
Remember US Senator James A. Bayard who spoke eloquently with logic back on 20MAR1861 to anyone who would hear. Later in 1861 when his son-in-law went off to fight for the Union Army in this War Against Southern Independence he again spoke wisdom:
“In embarking on this war therefore, you enlist in a war for invasion of another people. If successful it will devastate if not exterminate the Southern people and this is miscalled Union. If unsuccessful then peaceful separation must be the result after myriads of lives have been sacrificed, thousands of homes made desolate, and property depreciated to an incalculable extent. Why in the name of humanity can we not let those States go?”
Today, here in the awesome year of 2020, I ask the same question about portions of California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota and much of the New England states, can’t the United States federal government honor the possible roadmap shown in the 1990s by the USSR and peacefully split into many republics that can “serve” their own cultures the best?
