Recent personal study of several New York State Volunteer U.S. Army Regiments during the Rebellion has caused some among us to rethink the fundamental validity of that "War to save the Union." Two separate and equal countries––perhaps not a bad idea that arrives 150 years too late. Two countries in what is now called the USA, call them the United Confederation of American States (holding strong state's rights in a pro-business conservative land); and the other––an imperial federal government United Federal Socialist States of America (a strong federalism nanny state and liberal leftist “progressive” land). And slavery would have turned to dust under its own weight––been gone for many decades in both of these two new republics. The abomination of slavery would have soon failed without fighting that terrible War of the Rebellion that may have cost over 800,000 American lives and unknowable American treasure.
Many, perhaps most, union military recruits in 1861 and 1862 did not sign-up to free the slaves––or even to save the union. These Private Soldier Volunteers were mainly farm boys––boys who essentially became mere cannon fodder in the view of so many incompetent union colonels and generals. They went to this fight largely because they were told it was the manly thing to do... coupled with very strong feelings of military rage spewing from pulpits and political stages. And this Rebellion was certain to be a very short anyway. Volunteer recruits received an enlistment "bounty" of perhaps $100-$300, an enlistment bonus supported in Upstate New York by the various townships. The bounty given to some late war recruits was even higher at $500 for enlistments as short as one year. In 2012 dollars, that cash enlistment bounty is in the $2500-$7000 range. And tax-free dollars too! I suspect this tidy sum was very attractive to most of those relatively poor Upstate New York farm boys.
AMENDMENT X to the United States Constitution (part of the Bill Of Rights) should be more prominently cited in a new United Confederation of American States Constitution: “The powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This God given right, and the other nine vital God given rights specified by the Bill of Rights, shall not be infringed. And there would be no such necessary provision set forth in the new national supreme United Federal Socialist States of America Constitution. The corrupt United States liberal federal judiciaries today seem committed to increased Federalism and largely ignore the clear and expressly written Bill of Rights Amendment X. Liberal left progressiveness can take full control with this socialist form of activist judiciary. And we conservatives will sharply disallow such unelectable judicial activism.
So my basic thought today is really a couple of simple questions. With complete knowledge of the present state of the union, who among us truly thinks that massive number of farm boys a century and a half ago would volunteer to fight this “War To Save The Union?” If those volunteers could entirely understand and grasp the full impact of how this country has morphed into the liberal socialist society in those future 21st Century days––would they choose to fight and die to preserve this union of increasing liberal progressivism? Perhaps likely not.
