Airstrip One
Completely Effed
Okay, so, moving from market liberalism onto political liberalism...Before and during the Civil War, the Democrats were fighting for states' rights, while the Republicans were fighting for government overreach and Abolitionism. Which side sounds more capitalist?
Dems in 1861 apparently commanded the English language as solidly as they do now in 2020. The term they were looking for (in the 10th Amendment) was state's powers, seeing as how to Constitution makes no mention of such a term as state's rights. In applying their doctrine, however, they did so in typical Dem fashion, which was predictably inconsistent/dishonest and self-serving. The fugitive slave laws violated the supposed state's rights of free states, but Dems demanded that the north enforce them, anyway. James Buchanan attempted to use the bully pulpit in an attempt to intervene in the Kansas territory's establishment of a state constitution, and to promote the minority Lecomption constitution that was supported by the Democratic Party (there was even a concerted effort to commit voter fraud by rushing Dems from outside of the territory into Kansas to vote for/support the Lecompton government).
Republicans, meanwhile, never attempted to force abolition upon the south by unconstitutional means. The goal was to spread abolition westward, and contain it to the south. They even proposed a compromise amendment guaranteeing the right to slavery in the southern states. This was all rendered moot when the south idiotically seceded, and then attacking the US, thus initiating the Civil War, and enabling Lincoln to use his war powers to deal with the issue.
Last edited: