Civil War question?

Question

Do you think the draft for military service during the civil war violated civil liberties or was the need for defense more important?

Answer 1

I'm sorry, but what part of the Constitution guaranteed the right to not be drafted?
The draft was enacted through legal means. Those that refused on moral grounds, conciencious objectors (like the Quakers & the Amish) were excluded.
Note that both sides in the conflict had enacted the draft. However the Union did not mandate service for the duration, even though most of the troops re-enlisted.
On both sides, having sufficient property excluded a man from the draft-money in the north, owning more than 10 slaves in the south.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

The only thing bad about the draft in the Civil War was the fact that you could purchase a replacement for your self, can't imagine how the powers then thought that out considering the fact that the person you purchased was also subjected for the draft and of course the draft had nothing to do with defense but solders to fight and preserve the Union.

Answer 4

The draft at any time is constitutional and while it may violate some people perceptions of civil liberties it is not illegal or unconstitutional. It is basically a call up of the militia as defined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; the militia is not the military, military reserve components or the National Guard-they are specifically exempted from being in the militia-U.S.C. 47 defines militia.

Answer 5

I don't think it violated civil liberties. The Union needed to be saved. I do think the $300 that someone could pay to buy their way out of the draft was uncalled for.

Answer 6

Without the Union, there would be no civil liberties. The need for defense is often more important.

Answer 7

Umm...are any drafts justified? I think every able man should fight at least 2 years if we are at war..but it's also there choice...because it's a free country.

Answer 8

I believe drafts are justified, there comes a time when a country needs their able bodied citizens to fight.

Answer 9

no it did not it was need for defense

Answer 10

The need for defense? By the Union? From the Confederacy?

The intent of the Confederate States was never to invade the Union, we just wanted to leave the Union. Ironically the Southern Soldier was fighting for the US Constitution for which they held great reverence.

It was the Yankee disrepect for the Charter that drove the South to abandon the Union.

Even Lincoln understood as evidenced by this quote:

"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question it's methods or throw light upon it's crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."

Yet, he did as his masters wanted.

In the end, the South wound up at the mercy of the northern Bankers and their corporate allies.

Lincoln possibly did violate civil rights of his own citizens but he had already violated the rights of every citizen of an entire independent and sovereign people.

After the first engagements, all on Southern soil so therefore the Union Army constitued an invading force, Lincoln realized that to defeat the CSA, he would need far more manpower than the current Union forces had. Trouble was, it was difficult to get Northerners to rally round the war cry, "Sign up to die for your corporate masters". Hence the war cry became "Save the Union". Even that was not enough, so it became, "Emancipation".

The war cry of the South was and remained throughout, "Liberty for self, hearth and home".

You should know that the "noble" Yankee cause was not to free the slaves as racism in the North in the 1860's was virulent.

"The Emancipation Proclamation caused a desertion crisis in the United States Army. At least 200,000 Northern soldiers deserted; another 120,000 evaded conscription; and another 90,000 Northern men fled to Canada to evade the draft, while thousands more hid in the mountains of central Pennsylvania 'where they lay beyond the easy reach of enrolling officers."
The Confederate War, Gary Gallagher, 1998, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press:

Abraham Lincoln, as cited in "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln," Roy Basler, ed. 1953 New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press:
"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races -- that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races from living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

"Constitutional Problems under Lincoln," James G. Randall, 1951, Urbana: University of Illinois Press:
"Among the unconstitutional and dictatorial acts performed by Lincoln were initiating and conducting a war by decree for months without the consent or advice of Congress; declaring martial law; confiscating private property; suspending habeas corpus; conscripting the railroads and censoring telegraph lines; imprisoning as many as 30,000 Northern citizens without trial; deporting a member of Congress, Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, after Vallandigham - a fierce opponent of the Morrill tariff -- protested imposition of an income tax at a Democratic Party meeting in Ohio; and shutting down hundreds of Northern newspapers."

The Glittering Illusion: English Sympathy for the Southern Confederacy, Sheldon Vanauken, 1989, Washington, DC: Regnery/Gateway.
"...So Englishmen saw it. Lincoln's insincerity was regarded as proven by two things: his earlier denial of any lawful right or wish to free the slaves; and, especially, his not freeing the slaves in 'loyal' Kentucky and other United States areas or even in Confederate areas occupied by United States troops, such as New Orleans."

Abraham Lincoln, as cited in "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln," Roy Basler, ed. 1953 New Brunswick, N.J.,: Rutgers University Press:
"Send them to Liberia, to their own native land. But free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit this."

"A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States," Alexander Stephens , 1870, Philadelphia: National Publishing Co.:
"When asked by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stepehens at the 1865 Hampton Roads 'peace' conference what would become of the freedmen without property or education, Lincoln sarcastically recited the words to a popular minstrel song, 'root, hog or die."

"Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation," Ira Berlin, 1987, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press:
"In an April 16, 1863, letter to the War Department regarding the fate of ex-slaves should emancipation become a reality, Lincoln wrote, ''They had better be set to digging their sustenance out of the ground.”

"Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men," Jeffrey Rogers Hummel; Laissez Faire Books
Former Democratic Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, running for governor, "delivered a speech in May 1863 that accused the President of unnecessarily prolonging the conflict. The Union commander in Ohio" -- never a war zone -- "rousted Vallandigham from his home at night and jailed him. A military court handed down a sentence of confinement for the war's duration, but public indignation forced Lincoln to commute the sentence to exile behind Confederate lines."

Judge for yourself the "Soul" of the South from the words of Lee.

“So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that Slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interest of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this that I would have cheerfully lost all that I have lost by the war, and have suffered all that I have suffered to have this object attained.”
General Robert E. Lee, May 1, 1870

The Confederate Army in front of Lincoln was an integrated force, of Whites, Blacks (both freedmen and servents), Reds and Yellows fighting shoulder-to-shoulder in defense of their families, their homes and their country.

They fought and died out of loyalty to their cause, Independence; out of loyalty to to each other, no matter the race.



The following are excerpts from a history of one of Lee's former slaves.

HISTORY OF THE LIFE
of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee
I was born June 12, 1835, Westmoreland County, Va.; 82 years ago. I was raised at Arlington Heights, in the house of General Robert E. Lee, my master. I was cook for Marse Robert, as I called him, during the civil war and his body servant. I was with him at the first battle of Bull Run, second battle of Bull Run, first battle of Manassas, second battle of Manassas and was there at the fire of the last gun for the salute of the surrender on Sunday, April 9, 9 o'clock, A. M., at Appomatox, 1865.

The following is a list of co-generals who fought with Marse Robert in the Confederate Army: Generals Stonewall Jackson, Early, Longstreet, Kirby, Smith, Gordon from Augusta, Ga. Beauregard from Charleston, S. C., Wade Hampton, from Columbia, S. C., Hood, from Alabama, Ewell Harrison from Atlanta, Ga., Bragg, cavalry general from Chattanooga, Tenn., Wm. Mahone of Virginia, Pickett, Forest, of Mississippi, Mosby, of Virginia, Willcox, of Tennessee, Lyons, of Mississippi, Charlimus, of Mississippi, Sydney Johnston, Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Marse Robert, and Curtis Lee, his son.

The writer of this little book, the body servant of Gen. Robert E. Lee, had the pleasure of feeding all these men at the headquarters in Petersburg, the battles of Decatur, Seven Pines, the Wilderness, on the plank road between Fredericksburg and Orange County Court House, Chancellorsville, The Old Yellow Tavern, in the Wilderness, Five Forks, Cold Harbor, Sharpsburg, Boonesville, Gettysburg, New Market, Mine Run, Cedar Mountain, Civilian, Louisa Court House, Winchester and Shenandoah Valley.

At the close of the struggle, General Lee said to General Grant: "Grant, you didn't whip me, you just overpowered me, I surrender this day 8,000 men; I do not surrender them to you, I surrender on conditions; it shall not go down in history I surrendered the Northern Confederate Army of Virginia to you. It shall go down in history I surrendered on conditions; you have ten men to my one; my men, too, are barefooted and hungry. If Joseph E. Johnston could have gotten to me three days ago I would have cut my way through and gone back into the mountains of North Carolina and would have given you a happy time." What these conditions were I do not know, but I know these were Marse Robert's words on the morning of the surrender: "I surrender to you on conditions."

I was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was never one born of a woman greater than Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to my judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war, but all remained on the plantation until after the surrender.



History of the administration of President Lincoln: including his speeches, letters, addresses, proclamations, and messages. With a preliminary sketch of his life; Raymond, Henry J.; 1864, New York, J. C. Derby & N. C. Miller, pp. 213
Pres. Lincoln's response of September 13, 1862, to a call for a General Emancipation:
"Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? And what reason is there to think it would have any greater effect upon the slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved, and which offers protection and freedom to the slaves of rebel masters who come within our lines? Yet I cannot learn that the law has caused a single slave to come over to us."