America Is Staginga New Civil War

At this time, the American television and print media are all promoting their own 150th anniversary specials about the Civil War. According to the official history, the first gun (or rather, the first cannon) was fired on April 12, 1861, when the South Carolina Militia, part of the Confederates, fired a cannon outside of Charleston Port, on Fort Sumter. Over 80 federal troops were stationed on the island. In two days, Fort Sumter fell, which began the four-year long, bloody war between the North and the South.

In human history, all civil wars, also known as quarreling brothers in Chinese, are bloodier than wars between two countries. The casualties are higher as well. The American Civil War resulted in the deaths of 625,000 people. If converted to America’s current population of roughly 300 million, that would equate to the deaths of 6 million people.

In the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1949 (officially known as the second phase of the Chinese Civil War), approximately 11 million people died, according to some Mainland Chinese history books. Others say that 8,070,000 soldiers in the Kuomintang army were killed.

In the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953, at least 3 million lives, both military and civilian, were lost on both sides. Not to mention that each of the civil wars in various African countries over the past ten years (including civil unrest), have resulted in several hundred thousand deaths.

The American Civil War was so brutal and harsh, so full of hatred, that the separatist militia in South Carolina fired 3000 cannons at Fort Sumter in the span of two days. Fortunately, no one was killed. This recalls to mind the bombardment on Aug. 23, 1958, when the People’s Liberation Army fired 50,000 to 60,000 explosives on Quemoy.

The smoke of the American Civil War has already settled and the cannons at Gettysburg and other old battlefields are rusted and silent. But in a general sense, that civil war has not ceased being fought. It hasn’t even ended.

During the American Civil War 150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the South. 150 years later, America elected a black president, and many white people were very upset, shouting old civil war slogans including “state rights” and “the US government should not interfere in state matters.” Today, the libertarians on the far right of the Tea Party have fully displayed their capabilities, causing the entire political map of the United States to change colors.

The Civil War ended in 1865, and in the 146 years afterwards, over 65,000 books and other works have been published on the subject. In world history there has never been a topic that in the span of 100 years has served as the subject of so many books — nearly one book was published for every day since the Civil War ended.

Even though the vast number of books covering Civil War history flood the world, different historians, including professional historians, folk historians, Northern historians, Southern historians, white and black historians, disagree as to the cause, the result, and the significance of the Civil War. They are miles away from achieving a consensus. Even while commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, scholars of every stripe are endlessly debating the topic.

Orville Vernon Burton, South Carolinian historian and author of “The Age of Lincoln”, agrees with most Southern historians. They believe that the cause of the Civil War was a struggle between the industrialized states in the North and the agricultural states in the South, between federal rights and state’s rights, between more taxes and less taxes, and between two different cultures.

This opinion almost ignores the question of slavery. Considering that there were 4 million slaves in America at the time, approximately the current population of Los Angeles, the question of whether to continue or abolish slavery was the real reason for the start of the Civil War, and was the main reason. Fortunately, in mainstream publications such as Time Magazine, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Smithsonian, historians emphasize that the Civil War was all about whether or not to abolish slavery.

Mainstream media pointed out that historians who sympathized with the separatists are not willing to face the historical truth and causes. They try to generalize or gloss over the facts. There are also some kind, legitimate historians who say that the Southern historians and political theorists deliberately forget. The Southern historians try to block out that disgraceful period of slavery in American history; their goal is to reconcile themselves with the past, because forgetting is a part of reconciliation.

However, there are many complex factors within the struggle to abolish slavery, and not a single factor is completely correct. Those who called loudly for the abolition of slavery were from wealthy states in the North or people who engaged in international trade. At that time, the people on Wall Street and big shots in the northern states mostly exported cotton. Cotton made up forty percent of the United States’ income in terms of trade, yet the cotton was grown by thousands and thousands of black slaves in the South.

But the institution of slavery burdened America’s conscience ever since the founding of the nation. At the same time, it highlighted the double standards, promises in words and not deeds, and the hypocritical nature of the country, especially that of the founding fathers. The slavery issue was already a loaded question at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. At the time, slaveholders including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were unwilling to resolve the matter.

Jefferson, who once said “I cannot live without books,” had over 100 slaves. He even had a relationship with a slave named Sally Hemmings which produced at least one child. Historians emphasize that the founding fathers knew in their hearts that they were leaving a very sensitive issue that they hoped the next generation would resolve. These gentlemen never expected that 84 years later, their kin would be fighting over the issue with a ferocity that cost many lives.

The Civil War solved the separatist issue, but the eleven states which had separated were unwilling to return to the United States. Slavery was abolished; however, in some places in the south, slavery continued for another 30-odd years.

Although Congress passed the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution — which protected the rights of black people — during the Reconstruction period after the war, many forms of discrimination, including Jim Crow Laws, were created in the South, thereby preventing the black people from freeing themselves. Only in 1964, during the Johnson administration, did Congress pass the Civil Rights Act. In 1965, Congress finally passed the Voting Rights Act, allowing blacks to enjoy full citizenship.

America is a country full of contradictions, technologically modern as well as extremely conservative and backward, and even reactionary social ideas. Recently those supporting right-wing politics in the Republican Party and the tea party are insulting the anniversary of the Civil War. They are agitating against federalism (mainly against Obama), against big government, and against immigration. They have even demanded to see the birth certificates of all of the presidential candidates, a demand that is directed towards Obama.

Southern historians have also begun to rant because they can no longer talk about their ancestor’s lost cause. There are no more guns firing in the American Civil War, but the ideological battle has not ended!