From: Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@w...>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 04:32:59 GMT
Subject: Re: Georgian Yeast
> In the Confederacy's case, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (where Um. Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to the Northern slave-owning states (Kentucky, basically, IIRC. There were some more but I forget them, (Maryland?) and only in Kentucky was there a significant number of unmanumitted slaves). It was in this durned furriner's opinion, a masterpiece of RealPolitik. Others might call it outrageous hypocracy, to free "their" slaves not "ours". The loyalty of Kentucky was rather shaky, but this shored it up. A.Lincoln was a great statesman, but again IMHO not because he was a moral paragon: far from it, he had a grasp of political expediency unmatched by anyone except possibly Otto von Bismark. He saw that although the southern states, individually or in combination, had every constitutional right to secede, such a move would destroy the USA as a viable entity. Both the CSA and USA would be at the beck and call of the European superpowers. So to hell with the legality, the end justifies the means. That he's gone down in history as "The Great Emancipator" is just one of those little ironies. Cynics would say that it's because the Victors write the history books. I prefer to say that (as Salvor Hardin said?) he never let morality get in the way of doing the right thing. Because his actions, for whatever reason, resulted in the abolition of that "peculiar (-ly odious) institution", which I think no-one with 2 neurons that fire consecutively could possibly say was anything other than a really good outcome. The tragedy is that a lot of morally unimpeachable people (Robert E. Lee being merely the most famous) saw the US Constitution as being sacrosanct, and their first loyalty being to their state rather than a monolithic and usurping federation. Thank God they lost though. US history - especially from 1770-1820 - has always interested me. Australian history is even more colourful, but rather less bloody. And less well-known. I suspect few non-Aussies on this list have heard of the Eureka Stockade, or the Rum Corps and the coup d'etat against Bligh (yes, THAT Captain Bligh, as in HMS Bounty and all that). Many might know of Pitcairn, but few know of Norfolk Island. And Ned Kelly for that matter - how many people outside Oz got the significance of that part of the opening ceremony? This is a pity, as the events of Australian history can provide many an inspiration for the Tuffleyverse. Imagine planets way beyond the explored rim inhabited by ESU mutineers (even secondary colonies from them)... isolated planets taken