I’d be real careful…the South is not totally innocent here of denying ones Constitutional liberties, any more than Lincoln. You can read “The South was Right” all you want, but you don’t have to look too hard to see Southern folk could act just as badly.

One can look at incidences that took place during the Secession crisis in the South, where being labeled a “Abolitionist” would get you run out of the State, or worst, hung. I recommend reading: Editors Make War, Southern Newspapers in the Secession Crisis by Donald E. Reynolds. The chapter “by the light of the Texas flames” tells a sad story of murder and mayhem in Texas. This came about after stories/rumors of fires in communities being set by so-called conspirators sent from the north to end slavery in the state. We will never know how many folk were murdered from “vigilance” committee’s actions with no proof whatsoever.

A newspaper agent in Memphis set up a news depot in Camden Ark. and was noted to accept 50 copies of Horace Greeley’s anti-Southern “Tribune” paper. A vigilance committee road into Memphis and boarded a steamer and forcibly took the agent off, (the Captain protested) and arraigned the agent back in Camden, and “proved” he was an abolitionist, sentenced him to hang.

1862…The Great Hanging in Gainesville, Texas is another infamous piece of history where the Southern folk didn’t play well to folk’s constitutional rights… http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/jig1.html

AFTER the war southern folk could be again, just as unbending towards constitutional rights as the Lincoln Government was. The incidences that are too many to discuss here with the KKK, would make for some harsh reading…

I may seem the “Devil’s advocate” too much at times on this BB, but it’s an eye opener when you realize that folk acted badly on both sides. We need reminded of it from time to time to keep things in a more truthful perspective.
Respectfully:

Kevin Dally