June 29, 2005
Historian, Novelist Shelby Foote Dies at 88
Nick Owchar in the Los Angeles Times:
Southern novelist and historian Shelby Foote, who chronicled Mississippi Delta life in his fiction and created a panoramic history of the Civil War, died Monday in Memphis, his wife, Gwyn, said Tuesday. He was 88.
Best known for the courtly eloquence he brought as commentator to Ken Burns' 1990 PBS documentary, "The Civil War," Foote belonged to a rich tradition of Mississippi storytellers that included William Faulkner, Walker Percy and Eudora Welty.
It was his appearance in Burns' film, enthralling its 40 million viewers with his battlefield's-eye-view of the war, that first gained this singular American storyteller the recognition of a wide audience.
"One of the reasons why that documentary worked itself into the bloodstream of this country is because of Shelby," Burns said.
Slight of build, his gray beard trimmed close to the jaw, Foote vividly evoked the horrors of 19th century warfare, such as the hail of bullets that cut men down at Shiloh, as well as war's smaller moments — days when rations ran so low that soldiers ate sloosh, a wretched mixture of cornmeal and bacon grease. And he did it with a charming mellow voice tone that seemed dipped in Delta mud.
More here. [Thanks to Winfield J. Abbe.]
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Each time Mr. Foote made a comment in the series "The Civil War" I eagerly awaited his next one. This remarkable man from Mississippi, helped to enlighten ignorant generations of Americans who have been told the Civil War was moe about slavery than about big government. The United States was formed as a limited government following a violent revolution. There was nothing in the original Constitution preventing states which joined from late leaving. A number of them, either by votes of their legislatures or popular votes, voted to secede because of gross unfairnesses on them which the government at the time either failed to address or even was responsible for. Voting is a peaceful act. It was the United States government, under the direction of Abraham Lincoln, which sought to use force to prevent their peaceful desires from being accomplished. The situation may be compared to a tenant renting a premises and failing to pay rent when due. The landlord then directs the tenant to leave. If the tenant fails to comply with the directive and seeks to continue to occupy the premises without paying the rent due, other means are required to evict the tenant from the premises. Force is then used, after the tenant, in most states, is permitted by most governments to live rent free for about 6 months and possibly even destroy the property.
A visit to the cemetery at Vicksburg, Mississippi is a very moving experience. There are monuments there from all states of the union at the time. A proper memorial to the memory of Shelby Foote would be that all Americans resolve that no further destruction be permitted of the many monuments of the Civil War to those very courageous and brave souls who gave their lives to defend the principle of limited government. Unfortunately, they lost, and today, the United States government is so powerful it contradicts the very reasons for its founding, and our elected so-called "representatives", of all political parties, did this to us. The United States Supreme Court even increased its powers even more just the other day by rendering land ownership virtually meaningless. Mr. Foote is a shining example of the courage of his forefathers and the courage we must all display in respecting those who placed their lives and fortunes on the line for limited government, in the face of political correctness and financial interests run amok, by many of the gutless cowards of today, 2005.
Posted by: Winfield J. Abbe | Jun 29, 2005 7:14:51 AM
The problem with people like you, Winfield, is that you love to pretend that the Civil War had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery. Now, we all know that it had to do with much much more than slavery. But when you avoid the issue altogether, and limit your conversation to issues of limited government and so forth, you expose yourself as just another miserable racist.
It's a lovely thing that great historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and William Tecumseh Sherman gave good ol' boys like yourself the whoopin you deserved. As a gutless coward of today I'm pleased to reflect that you lost and your world is dead, dead, dead. I'll hoist a frosty beverage to the memory of John Brown this July 4th and be sure to utter your miserable name as I do.
And finally, a quote from the honorable General Sherman: "My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom."
You sir, are clearly in need of a few more humblings before you reach the promised land of wisdom. You shame the memory of Mr. Foote with your bigoted garbage.
Posted by: morgan meis | Jun 29, 2005 8:17:41 PM
thank you, mr. meis, for your evisceration of winfield j. abbe's post. well done.
ps: why is he always so long-winded and incoherent?
Posted by: anon | Jun 30, 2005 3:11:26 AM
In my 1972 World Almanac, published by Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc., N.Y., page 674, the following statement is made regarding Secession of States:
"South Carolina voted an ordinance of secession from the Union, repealing its 1788 ratification of the U.S. Constitution Dec. 20, 1860, proclaimed in effect Dec. 24. Other states seceding in 1861 and their votes in convention were:
Mississippi, Jan. 9, 1861 by 84 to 15
Florida, Jan. 10, 1861, by 62 to 7.
Alabama, Jan. 11, 1861, by 61 to 39.
Georgia, Jan. 19, 1861, by 208 to 89.
Louisiana, Jan. 26, 1861 by 113 to 17
Texas, Feb. 1, 1861, by 166 to 7, ratified by popular vote Feb. 23, 1861; for secession, 34,794; against, 11,325.
Virginia had delayed action, but when President Lincoln called for troops after Sumter fell it voted for secession April 17, 1861, by 88 to 55, ratified by popular vote May 23, 1861; for secession 128,884; against 32,134.
Arkansas, May 6, 1861, by 69 to 1.
North Carolina, May 21, 1861, voted secession but refused by two-thirds vote to submit it to people for ratification.
Tennessee, May 7, 1861, entered a military league with the Confederacy; popular vote, June 8, for secession, 104,019; against 47,238."
Of course slavery was an issue in the events which led up to the Civil War, as were many other issues as well. Of course slavery was horrible. But it was tacitly accepted at the signing of the original constitution. If they had sought to address the issue then, they would likely have not gotten a constitution.
The supreme court of the day even said it was "legal".
It seems to me that what Mr. Meis is saying is that the use of force by the United States government of the day was therefore justified against the other member states who chose to secede through voluntary votes, notwithstanding that blacks there and women in all states were excluded from voting. How does the direct or indirect killing or maiming of thousands of people atone for the horror of slavery, which had been going on many years before the Civil War? I say the actions of the United States Government were just as hypocritical as those Mr. Meis is so indignant about.
Is not this type of attitude little more than "an eye for an eye"?
Today, 2005, we have similar emotional issues around. The killing of innocent children at the whims of a woman, for example, or the sexual abuse of innocent children by representatives of the Catholic Church. The full force and power of a very powerful federal government is now used to "protect" the rights of some women to kill a fetus and to prevent, with a few exceptions, the Catholic Church, which in earlier times threatened Galileo Galilei with torture and burning at the stake for expousing the truth about the Sun centered planetary system, the Catholic Church from facing criminal prosecution for the criminal acts of many of its representatives around the country, while it enjoys vast amounts of income from its constitutionally protected freedoms.
For what it is worth, Mr. Meis, one of my greatgrandfathers was an officer in the Minnesota Volunteers, and it was their regiment which was beaten in Tennessee as documented in a book commissioned by the Minnesota Legislature about the battles of the Civil War.
We have a current governor in Georgia who is a former Democrat turned Republican. He was mainly elected because the former governor lost because he would not permit a public referendum on the state flag.
After promising such a public vote on the issue, the vote which was provided excluded the only flag most people wanted to vote for. This decision was made for politically correct, selfish, financial interests. I do not care what the flag is, but I think if a politician promises to permit people to vote on the issue, he should follow through with that promise.
The Civil War and the issues surrounding it were very serious to those living at the time. Most of the lowly soldiers fighting in that war did not own slaves.
And it is interesting to speculate whether the U.S. government at the time could have received the necessary support for this use of violence against members of the same country had women been provided the right to vote then. This was a man's world in North, West and South.
Winfield J. Abbe
150 Raintree Ct.
Athens, GA 30607
706-543-3356
Formerly of Sierra Madre, California 1943-1966
Posted by: Winfield J. Abbe | Jun 30, 2005 7:24:08 AM
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