Origins of the Republican Party and Economic Roots of the Civil War [View all]

[bucolic_frolic]

Last edited Sun Nov 9, 2014, 05:18 AM - Edit history (1)

Perhaps some would be interested in learning more about the opposition party.
This is my quick take. A lively thread might teach us something useful in the struggle.
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Origins of the Republican Party

Civil War history is not my forte. So playing fast and shallow with my opinion ... Conventional wisdom says the Civil War was about slavery. But that was a sideshow, albeit a very moral one. In "Rule by Secrecy" author Jim Marrs clearly states that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was a timely political move to prevent Russia (***see corrections in thread below***), with its troops in Mexico City, and Britain with its Atlantic Fleet doing business with the South, from entering the conflict on the side of the Confederacy. Neither power could politically weather a European storm on the side of slavery.

Fort Sumter was not about slavery. It was an economic event, after the deep South's endurance of 40 years of heavy U.S. tariffs on northern manufactured goods, raising costs to the south. Succession had been threatened before, it just wasn't organized or widespread, it was a state by state event.

The roots to understanding all this is in the creation of the Republican Party. Northern lawyers for manufacturers and railroads wanted protectionism and needed a front man for the new political party. Abe Lincoln was a railroad lawyer paid 4 figure fees to defend railroads, a huge sum in those days. He was given prime acreage in Iowa (but don't quote me), gifts that would launch ethics investigations today. And Lincoln was a gifted mind. He could talk eloquently about freedom and opportunity. To the masses, it sounded like civil rights, jobs, and prosperity. His business backers knew it was about profits and monopoly. Exploitation and enslavement to the system was not yet in the lexicon.

That's what sets the rules for society. Little groups of lawyers. Antitrust? Free markets? Marketing and pricing? Inheritance taxes? Tax code loopholes? Tax code complexity? (Blame the tax lawyers). Somehow these exploitative rules are never removed and rarely simplified. Only business seems wealthy enough to challenge the tax code and buy political influence to reduce regulations.

If you take nothing else away from this diatribe, search and learn the origins of the creation of the Republican Party. Lincoln was the first political front man, whether he was in on it, or not. Within 20 years, Jay Gould and that bunch were playing with gold and money, influence that reached into the Grant administration.

Think, people, think. Exploitation is about to wratchet up a few notches in 2015. The 1% are reaping the rewards and motivating with the stick.

I strongly recommend Thomas DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln


And this article:
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo53.html

and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Blaine