After slashing an army officer who tried to grab him, Booth jumped from the box and onto the stage — a stage on which he had performed as an actor many times — and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants) — the South is avenged." He then hobbled out of the theater on a broken leg (he broke it in his jump), mounted a horse and made his getaway.
Lincoln died the next morning, becoming the first U.S. president to be assassinated.
The South was anything but avenged by Booth's actions. Lincoln, through his generals, had waged total war on the South. There was apparently little concern over the killing of women and children, and the South was plundered for its resources and its homes and farmland were torched and livestock slaughtered and fed to Northern soldiers, leaving Southerners destitute.
Some 850,000 people died as a result of the war, the equivalent of close to 9 million people in today's population.
Lincoln made war on the South not to free the slaves, as the Lincoln cultists continue to proclaim. He stated in his inaugural address that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." He also wrote in a letter to Horace Greeley:
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."What Lincoln wanted to save was the system of protectionism and the inflow to the federal treasury of tariff money imposed on the South. He was a former Whig, bankster lobbyist and crony capitalist who pushed for the reprisal of a national (central) bank.
In addition to asserting that he would not interfere with slavery, in his inaugural address he threatened the Southern states with invasion if they did not comply with terms of the Morrill tariff, passed by Congress and signed by President James Buchanan two days before Lincoln's inauguration. The bill raised the tariff rate from 15 percent to 37.5 percent and expanded the list of items, essentially tripling the tax burden. The South was paying about 80 percent of the tariff and most of the money collected was spent on Northern projects and interests.
"The power confided in me," he said, "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 force against, or among the people anywhere."
As Lincoln historian Thomas J. DiLorenzo writes, Lincoln was essentially telling the Southern states, "‘We are going to make tax slaves out of you and if you resist, there will be an invasion.' That was on March 4. Five weeks later, on April 12, Fort Sumter, a tariff collection point in Charleston Harbor, was bombarded by the Confederates. No one was hurt or killed, and Lincoln later revealed that he manipulated the Confederates into firing the first shot, which helped generate war fever in the North."
Because Lincoln died days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, signifying the de facto end of the war of Northern Aggression, there was at the time an ongoing Lincoln hero-worship in the North. He was at the height of his popularity. This, combined with the fact that the Radical Republicans controlled government and were able to, as the victors, write the history of the war, a cult of Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator" and saver of the Union took root and grew and continues to dominate today — thanks in no small part to the U.S. (non)education system.
But what Lincoln did during the war with his unconstitutional invasion of the Southern states, the suspension of habeas corpus, the suspension of elections, and the interference with state politics was to create the ridiculous notion that anything the U.S. does is justified so long as it is couched in the term of spreading "freedom" around the globe, even if that freedom must be installed at gunpoint.
THANKS TO LINCOLN, GOVERNMENT COULD FROM THEN ON DO WHATEVER IT WANTS, TO WHOMEVER IT WANTS, WHEREVER
AND WHENEVER IT WANTS TO, AS LONG AS IT PRETENDS IT'S DOING IT FOR THEM - AKA: "FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"
AND WHENEVER IT WANTS TO, AS LONG AS IT PRETENDS IT'S DOING IT FOR THEM - AKA: "FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"
Lincoln's conquering of the
south effectively destroyed the 9th and 10th Amendments and any power
the states had to check the federal government.
In doing so it paved the
road for the imperial presidency under which we suffer today.
In dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to nationalize industries in order to coerce them into producing needed materials. In addition to granting the president this power, the DPA — passed in 1950 as the U.S. was ramping up to fight the Korean War — empowers the president to impose wage and price controls, settle labor disputes, control consumer and real estate credit, establish contractual priorities, and allocate raw materials towards national defense.
Even though the U.S. is not involved in a major war, this is the second time Trump has invoked the DPA. He first used it in 2017 to classify two sets of products as "critical to national defense." President Obama invoked it in 2011 to force U.S. telecommunications firms to disclose what Chinese-manufactured hardware and software they were using.
This indicates how eager presidents are to use any and all powers granted to them and why the Founders created an executive presidency with little power to begin with beyond executive power and be commander in chief of the armed forces.
Even as most governors have complied with Trump's suggestion that they destroy their economies and shut down all production and travel over the coronavirus, some reporters have queried the president over why he hasn't ordered a nationwide shutdown. Trump claims he has the power to do so, but would rather not because he "cherishes the Constitution."
But nothing in the Constitution gives him that authority any more than the Constitution granted Lincoln the power to do what he did.
The Constitution has essentially been meaningless for 155 years since Lincoln, and subsequent presidents have continued ripping it to ever-smaller shreds... Trump included.
Yours for the truth,
Bob Livingston
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter®
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