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Was the Confederacy a
viable state? Could it have survived as a nation? If so, what
made it viable? If not, what did it lack?
The 2008 Dick Crews Debate
posed the question: The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the
Confederacy a Viable State? Five speakers presented on how the
Confederate States of America won its independence and how
it did or didn't survive. Below are the texts of those
five arguments, along with moderator William Vodrey's opening remarks, presented in the order the speakers addressed the
Roundtable.
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Debaters Hans
Kuenzi, Thomas Stratton-Crooke,
C. Ellen Connally, Paul Burkholder
and Peter Holman |
Opening Remarks
By William F.B. Vodrey -
Moderator
Many of you have probably heard the
old children’s rhyme:
For want of a nail the shoe was
lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
“What if” is a question as old as
history itself. The earliest known piece of alternative or
“counterfactual” history was written by the Roman historian Livy,
who speculated more than two thousand years ago, around 25 B.C., in
his Ab Urbe Condita (“From the city having been founded”)
about what might have happened had Alexander the Great attacked Rome
and not expanded his empire to the east. It might not surprise you
to learn that Livy decided the Romans would’ve kicked Alexander’s
ass, if it came to that.
More recently, in 1931, Winston
Churchill wrote, “If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg."
Other noted authors and historians to ask “what if” have included
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hilaire Belloc, Mark Twain, Vladimir Nabokov,
MacKinley Kantor, John Keegan, Stephen Ambrose, Stephen W. Sears,
David McCullough, James McPherson and Philip Roth. Alternative
history - the tantalizing question of “what if” - is even at the
core of that beloved Christmas classic, It’s A Wonderful Life,
which asks us, just what would have happened if George Bailey
had never been born?
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
The Confederacy Was NOT a Viable
State
A Captain-Less Raft Floating On a
Sea of Problems
By C. Ellen Connally
We are faced tonight with a
question – a burning question in the minds of most of you - was the
Confederacy a viable state? It is the conundrum of the hour, a
question that historians and Civil War buffs will argue into time in
memoriam but tonight, we the Great Debaters of the Cleveland Civil
War Roundtable will provide the wisdom and the knowledge so that all
of you can answer the question and decide the fate of we the humble
debaters.
I intend to prove beyond a
reasonable doubt that the Confederate States of America was not a
viable state; not in its beginning, not in its end and not in the
minds of a sufficient number of its citizens to allow it to survive
as a nation.
The Confederacy was a captain-less
raft. It was so crowded with internal problems that its sinking was
inevitable. The class conflict among and between its diverse
citizens resulted in a lack of the necessary nationalism that was
needed to compel the Confederacy into a real state. The
internal problems – social, economic and legal - were
insurmountable. Any critical analysis of the Confederacy will
clearly show a flawed state based on flawed principles whose
citizens would have come begging back to the glorious Union.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
The Confederacy WAS a Viable State
The Myth of a Weak Confederacy
By Paul Burkholder
I think most of us
would agree that, with a not too absurd twist of fate, there were
several points before 1865 when the Confederacy could have won its
independence. The Confederacy’s best chance for a viable
independence with the least absurd twist of fate occurred in the
fall of 1862 when Lee was invading Maryland, Bragg was invading
Kentucky and Lord Palmerston’s government in London was seriously
deliberating English intervention.
IF Lee’s Special Order No. 191 had
NOT fallen into Union hands, McClellan would have been blind to
Lee’s troop deployment and very likely unable to prevent Lee’s
moving on Washington, Baltimore or Philadelphia. Just as
significantly, Lee’s non-defeat at Antietam would have left the
Emancipation Proclamation locked in Lincoln’s desk and the Union
cause without the moral high ground that ultimately obstructs
European intervention.
Additionally, IF Bragg seizes
Louisville at that same time rather than bypassing it as part of a
misbegotten plan to install a Confederate governor in Frankfort,
defeats at Perryville and Stones River are averted and Kentucky is
perhaps drawn into the Confederacy.
With Lee in Washington, Baltimore
or Philadelphia, Bragg in Louisville and the Emancipation
Proclamation in Lincoln’s desk drawer, I believe the Confederacy
enters 1863 as an independent state. But, was the newly independent
CSA viable?
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
The Confederacy WAS a Viable State
Follow the Money
By Hans Kuenzi
For purposes of this debate, I have
assumed that the Confederacy survived the Civil War as an intact
sovereign nation. This may have occurred in a number of ways:
through victory on the battlefield, as the result of some domestic
calamity or due to the intervention of a foreign power. In any case,
it is my position that with the conclusion of hostilities, the
Confederate States of America would have not only survived but
thrived as an independent republic.
Any analysis must begin by
considering the territorial size and likely borders of the two
neighboring American states. Although the United States was much
larger, the Confederate States of America was comprised of a great
deal of valuable property in terms of the resources which could be
grown upon and extracted from the land. From the standpoint of
organization, the Confederate States had also established all of the
bureaucracy necessary to manage and efficiently govern the country.
The social fabric and institutions
of the South were very strong, perhaps even stronger than in the
North. The Confederates also had the political experience necessary
to adapt to any changes the future might bring. The Confederate
Constitution looked very much like the Constitution of the United
States. The governance of the nation would be conducted by educated
leaders with means that had proved successful in the North. The only
question remaining is whether the Confederate States of America
would have enjoyed the economic fortunes necessary to thrive as a
nation. Clearly, it would have.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
The Confederacy Was NOT a Viable
State
'Too Small for a Republic...Too
Large for a Lunatic Asylum'
By Peter Holman
After the order of
secession had passed the South Carolina legislature in December
1860, the old anti-nullification attorney James L Petigru was asked
if he would now, at last, support his native state. “I should think
not!” he replied. “South Carolina is too small for a republic and
too large for a lunatic asylum!” And that, despite the fantastical
notions we discuss tonight, is the key to answering the question –
was the Confederacy a viable state following their victory of 1865?
Seven states had seceded by
February 1, 1861: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. These seven could not form a viable
nation – their human, social and material resources made them too
small for a republic and too large for a lunatic asylum.
After the firing on Fort Sumter and
Lincoln’s call for troops, four more states seceded: Virginia,
Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee. Now the size might be right
– even the social, human and material make-up might be right for a
nation if allowed to depart in peace – but war was joined and the
brute fact of war ensured that the confederacy could not become a
viable nation regardless of success on the battlefield
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
The Confederacy WAS a Viable State
The Second Shot Heard 'Round the World
By Thomas E. Stratton-Crooke
The “genesis” of the
Civil War may be found at the time of the American Revolution which
began in 1776. Therefore it might be construed by some to say that
the Civil War started in 1776.
“By the rude bridge that arched the
flood
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled.
Here once the embattled farmer stood
And fired the shot heard 'round the world.”
The question that now begs the
answer is when was the second shot fired heard 'round the world? And
the answer of course is as night follows the day April 12, 1861 at
Fort Sumter.
The concept of viability is caught
up in the concept of unity. I.E. the viability of all the people in
all the states since the power of the nation is derived from the
power of the people which is the underpinning premise of the
Constitution of the United States of America. Remember please we are
speaking unity not disunity. We are speaking peace not war. We are
speaking of conciliation and reconciling acts of kindness. We are
speaking of winning the peace as a greater factor than winning the
war. Wars are not won per se. Might is right. In 1813 the British
outlawed slavery because the British were doing everything in their
power to gain back their colonies in recognition of the greatest
blunder in history in losing the United States of America. E
Pluribus Unum.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
Epilogue: At the conclusion
of the debate, the Roundtable members chose Peter Holman's argument
as the most persuasive. In fact, in considering all votes cast for
each of the five debaters, the Roundtable members indicated - by a
margin of three to one - their opinion that the Confederacy was NOT a viable state.
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