Edwynn
Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008 Status: offline
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On a lighter note; my GG Grandad, of direct Irish import, fought on the side that most people living in Macon Ga. at the time would have. At the cessation of hostilities, the Union Military Government (because there is always a Military Government for some spell afterwards in any of these situations) decreed that all citizens had to sign an Oath of Loyalty to the Union. The Irish bartender refused this offer, and spent a year in prison as result. This because Federal expenditures did not have the luxury then that they do now, and one year of incarceration was all they could afford at the time. I'm sure that many here would find some justification, exoneration, vindication, etc. of various current views on Federal spending today, but the two completely time-different countries, two completely different economic landscapes, and two completely different worlds altogether should tell us of the inadequacy of such attempt. I do not at all mean to make light of the horrendous situation in this country during the hostilities and in the immediate aftermath. I just find it somewhat amusing, relatively speaking, my GG Grandad and the Union Military Government standing toe-to-toe in their "standing on ceremony" 'who blinks first' competition in this episode. In any case, I never got anything out of my Aunts and Uncles and Grand Aunts and Grand Uncles other than that the outcome of this affair was the only proper one to be obtained, and I never heard or even 'sniffed' any subtle indication that another outcome was the way it "should have been." I wonder sometimes why it instantly curdles my blood when I hear any of this 'South gon' rise again!' crap, but then I remember once when one of my Grand Uncles bolted upright from his chair (when I was very young) in response to somesuch idiotic comment from some visitor. He didn't say anything, he just glared. I was too young to understand his response then (or any meaningful understanding of what the idiot in question had said), but I certainly understand it now. Frivolous and stupid comments on such a horrendous episode in our history should not be abided in any way. I hope that my anecdote above will be taken not as adventure into that territory, but rather as a relatively inconsequential, albeit humorous, account of one small aspect of the denouement.
< Message edited by Edwynn -- 7/5/2013 4:54:03 AM >
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