I don’t want to get into the idea of the US as a union of Sovereign States right now. It is only marginally germane. This is a blog, not a monograph or book. What I want to discuss is faulty logic.
Wake up! Yes, I know history bores you.
After the Great Rebellion there was discussion as to if the recalcitrant States ever left the Union. We touched on this in the recent Benjamin Wade re-run. Lincoln and his faction argued they never left, they were just in rebellion. Others, like Wade, argued the States had to be readmitted.
Lincoln’s unfortunate play date and Johnston’s impeachment put the radicals in charge. The Republicans were the Democrat Squad of their time. They let no obstruction stand in their way even hypocrisy of monumental proportions.
The Constitution says 3/4 of the States must ratify an amendment to make it part of the Constitution. There were enough votes for the Fourteenth Amendment among the Northern States. It wouldn’t pass if the former Confederate States were part of the country.
Wade insisted the Southern States ratify the Amendment before the could be re-admitted.
How could they ratify a law if they are not part of the country?
When it came to putting the Army in charge of Civil Government, the former Confederate states were not full fledged members of the union. If it comes to passing Amendments, then it was hey brother!
Too bad, because as written the Fourteenth Amendment has done more to weaken the Ninth and a Tenth Amendments and made the Federal Government the strong force the founders never intended. That Amendment has been perverted to give rights even its authors never intended. To keep southern States from finding creative ways to deny former slaves their rights, it was written so broad as to cover everything.
What is sad, is civil rights were abridged throughout the South anyway.
I hated studying Reconstruction when I was in school (including college). Now, like the Middle Ages (another subject I had no interest in) I am starting to find it fascinating.
Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with more of this stuff.
Wake up! I’m done now.
5 comments:
I, for one, am glad you pointed that out.
I never knew...
That "never left" was the basis for West Virginia. The Wheeling Convention contended that the secessionist government in Richmond was illegitimate, and that they, backed up by Ohio and Indiana patriots, were the real Virginia.
After the CW, Virginia: "No thanks, hillbillies, just stay there in Wheeling".
I do enjoy your history posts. I consider American history and especially politics to be fascinating. It's nice to hear from an authority such as yourself.......Mike
Hi--it's Jackie in CA, your one liberal reader! :) I too enjoy your history posts. In studying history, I find that there are so many similarities to today; human nature doesn't change much!
Crappy, a decade or two ago a guy tried to pull a WVa is an illegitimate state defense for an excuse not to pay taxes since there was a little know codicil in the Faber …er Virginia constitution that prohibited breaking up the state.
He lost.
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