I am curios about this issue of the war. If it wasn't about slavery, than why were the southern states so outspoken about expansion of slavery in the territories. Why were they concerned about having to add state for state free and slave? What other issues caused them to wish to withdraw from the union? I have southern ancestors who fought in the war. I am comfortable discussing the issues, yet the flag does stand for a group of people who wished to continue and expand an economic system that justified the legal ownership of one human by another, with those owned having none of the rights we all accept as fundamental and granted to us by our constitution. So fly the flag and discuss the issues... let us stand up and say how wrong our ancestors were, to believe that such a system could possibly be consistent with the bold and radical concepts that the declaration and the constitution brought forth. They were men tied to the past, not able to face the tremendous growth through immigration and industrialization that was slowly but surely making their society an anachronism. Would we be a stronger, freer society today if we had accepted the idea that a state had the right to secede? I don't fault them for being victims of their time, their culture and their prejudices, but I do make sure as I educate my children that I try to teach them to avoid that very trap of being locked into the past as we rush into the future and a world that changes every day

I find it hard to understand how it can be that on the one hand a country can champion the cause of one race, while at the same time try to destroy another race. Trail Of Tears? I think this war, like most others were probably more for economic reasons than any other. Glenda ----- Original Message ----- From: <Westsnwest@aol.com> To: <Southern-Trails-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 12:39 AM Subject: Re: [SouthernTrails] Flying the Confederate Flag > I am curios about this issue of the war. If it wasn't about slavery, than > why were the southern states so outspoken about expansion of slavery in the > territories. Why were they concerned about having to add state for state > free and slave? What other issues caused them to wish to withdraw from the > union? I have southern ancestors who fought in the war. I am comfortable > discussing the issues, yet the flag does stand for a group of people who > wished to continue and expand an economic system that justified the legal > ownership of one human by another, with those owned having none of the rights > we all accept as fundamental and granted to us by our constitution. So > fly the flag and discuss the issues... let us stand up and say how wrong our > ancestors were, to believe that such a system could possibly be consistent > with the bold and radical concepts that the declaration and the constitution > brought forth. They were men tied to the past, not able to face the > tremendous growth through immigration and industrialization that was slowly > but surely making their society an anachronism. Would we be a stronger, > freer society today if we had accepted the idea that a state had the right to > secede? I don't fault them for being victims of their time, their culture > and their prejudices, but I do make sure as I educate my children that I try > to teach them to avoid that very trap of being locked into the past as we > rush into the future and a world that changes every day > > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history > learning and how-to articles on the Internet. > http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library > >