A House Divided: Are We Headed Towards Another Civil War? by Felicia Tweedy
On January 27, 1838, a young man gave a speech in Springfield, Illinois, before the Young Men’s Lyceum. This speech would be one of the earliest recorded speeches of the man who would become one of the greatest Presidents of the United States, President Abraham Lincoln.
This speech followed a couple of terrible race related incidents in St Louis and southern Illinois, that resulted in the death of a free black man, Francis McIntosh, and a well known abolitionist, Elijah Lovejoy.
People tend to think of the Civil War as something that became an issue and exploded over night, when in fact it was a long simmering issue in the newly formed United States. Even during the founding of our Country, slavery was an issue. Thomas Jefferson had included an anti-slavery passage in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence which was removed.
But our Nation’s Civil War didn’t spark just because of the issue of slavery.
Today’s society likes to simplify the American Civil War as a war based only on slavery when in fact it was a much more complex issue. While the Northern States had outlawed slavery (excluding the “Border States”) by 1860, few were ready to go to war to free black people who still were not viewed as truly equal. The North had benefitted economically from slavery in the South. Further, although Lincoln knew the 13th amendment was necessary to guarantee the abolishment of slavery, he knew many, even in the North, wouldn’t be so keen on changing the Constitution over slavery.
Despite a degree of economic interdependence, the Civil War headed toward inevitability the farther apart the North and The South became in ways of life, values and how they saw the world. After Lincoln’s election, words could no longer bring about a compromise or an agreement .
The South, which would secede from the Union, did so because they felt the federal government had become intolerable and threatened their way of life they practiced for over 250 years. They felt the Federal government was encroaching on what were their “State’s rights,” in essence their own sovereignty within States united for mutual benefit. The South felt the growing sentiment against slavery in the North was a threat, not only to their way of life, but their economy, because the freeing of slaves would be ruinous for both. In fact the election of “Yankee” Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was one of the final actions that cemented the South’s decision to leave the Union. Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office March 4, 1861. The first shots of the American Civil War were shot at Fort Sumter a little over a month later on April 15, 1861.
So what does all this history from 160+ years ago have to do with the state of our Country today? Well, quite a lot, actually.
I don’t say “we are on the verge of another civil war” to shock you or to be controversial. As a lover of history, especially American history, I look to the lessons our past has taught us and I look at the world around me today.
I heard someone on a news show the other day say something that stuck with me. Basically, the quote said “when a society loses shared values, it loses its freedom”. How true is that?
We can look back to the years and decades before the American Civil War where “shared values” were lost, primarily over the issue of slavery (which speaks to larger issues of values) and what the role of the federal government should be in dictating to the States. The South demonized the North, demonized Lincoln, who would end up losing his life over these very issues, and the North looked down on the South, for their different way of life, their defense of the use of slaves and an economic system dependent on them.
In the face of such differences and when words no longer work, when two sides can’t see each others humanity, nor come to a compromise or an understanding, many times in history, the next step is that of physical violence.
Right now we have a group in this Country that is already in a virtual civil war with the rest of the Country. It’s been playing out and building for many years. Compared to the differences leading up to the Civil War in 1861, there are many more differences present today. Personally I feel the North and South had far more in common in 1860 than the two sides we have in our Country today have, and that is what is both alarming and serves as a a dire warning.
If this was just some rogue extreme group, most would ignore it or brush it off. This group, however, is being backed not only extreme anti-American groups within our country, but also by foreign influences and money as well. To top it off, we have a major political Party that is supportive this group, the Democrat Party.
I have tried on many occasions to have conversations with those who subscribe to this far Left corrupt ideology that supports the riots going on in the streets in LA, and with those, trying not to seem so extreme, are playing them down. In the end there is just no reasoning with them. Their feelings become facts, law and order is evil, and virtue signaling has replaced intelligent arguments. I walk away frustrated, feeling like the only thing I have left to do is physically smack the person. I didn’t, of course, but this is what I’m talking about. As this divide deepens, when common sense and the simple things that make a Nation sovereign and secure, which bands a Nation together, are deemed as oppressive and evil, how do you come to a compromise and live side by side?
The riots in LA are a preview of what’s to come. More of this will happen because those behind it and those who have bought into it aren’t even about issues like immigration, BLM, Palestinians or whatever issue they’ve hijacked this week. It’s ultimately about sowing discord and chaos and tearing America apart.
We have people in our streets waving flags of foreign nations like Mexico, people wearing the head scarf that Hamas is known for, and I even saw someone with the flag of the Soviet Union. Unless we, as a majority of Americans, can squash this uprising and put an end to it once and for all, we may well be heading fast toward another civil war in this Country.
These riots themselves can trigger a larger issue. There are threats against President Trump and threats of other violence and destruction.
Recently, the Governor of California, who has overseen one of the greatest periods of decline in what was once the Golden State, my former home State, came on National TV addressing Californians, and instead of condemning what was going on, he took more time attacking President Trump for bringing in the National Guard. He stoked fears that lead to more unrest and added gasoline to the fire. He is an elected Governor of the largest State of the Union and a leading contender for the Democrat nomination for President.
Most days I feel we live in a Topsy Turvy world. What is right is wrong, and what is wrong is right. Our society can’t go on like this and America will not survive if this is the world we continue to live in. This is the biggest threat to the United States right now. If we are not a truly “united” United States, we don’t have to worry about a foreign threat.
Which brings me back to Abraham Lincoln and that speech I mentioned at the start of the piece. It was his words in 1838 that gave a window into the future. He warned about what would be the undoing of America. He saw the storm coming, well before he was ever a candidate for President.
From that speech, these are Lincoln’s words from 23 years before the first shots of the Civil War rang out. 160 years after the end of the American Civil War, as we are quickly racing towards a similar dilemma.
Lincoln asked, “How then shall we perform it?
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
