Saturday, December 20, 2008

Hoorah For The Bonnie Blue Flag That Bears A Single Star...

I am currently in the middle of my traditional Christmas cookathon but thought that I would stop to observe two significant historical events that happened on this date.

In 1803 the Federal Government did something RIGHT for once with taxpayer money. Paying around $20.00 a square acre to Napoleon Bonaparte for 1 MILLION square miles of territory. The Louisiana Purchase gave the young United States the Mississippi River as well as a path to the Spanish West. The beginnings of Manifest Destiny started on this date.

In 1860, the sovereign state of South Carolina believing what was written in the Declaration of Independence, declared that the "ties that bound them together" with the Federal government were severed. By this act of secession, events were started that plunged this nation into a four year long Civil War, the effects of which are to a degree are still felt today.

2 comments:

Don M said...

I don't think they believed what was in the Constitution. If that was so, they could have filed suit. Instead, they opened fire, and, with other traitors, raised an Army.

Michael W. said...

Don,

History is funny. Ten people can look at a event and draw ten different conclusions as to the facts.

I think the Civil War was one of the greatest tragedies that ever happened to this country, but "I" believe that the people of South Carolina felt that they DID have the right to secede. After all, we had in a way seceded from the authority of the British crown less than "four score and seven years" before. -grin-

The first shots were not fired until the following April when Federal forces attempted to reinforce and supply the garrison at Ft. Sumter.

It's all a moot point since the war solved the argument for once and all in 1865.