Dear editor:
If I am so shockingly ignorant of the Constitution as Carl Ford claims, then by all means he should have refuted the recorded facts that I illustrated to him with relative ease. Instead, he responds with the usual liberal mantra of "we may have to agree to disagree," meaning he cannot defend an indefensible position. No, Mr. Ford, I will not agree to disagree what is codified in the U.S. Constitution and which was written in plain and intelligible language.
The very issue of coercing any of the sovereign states (nations) was rejected unanimously by the framers of the Constitution and no such power was further delegated to the federal government after it became the supreme law of the land when the ninth state approved its ratification in 1788. Again, I challenge you to show me where in the Constitution it delegates the power to the federal government to levy war on a sovereign state (nation).
There is an old saying, when you point a finger at someone, three more are pointing right back at you. Yes, it is true Jim Crow existed in the South before and after this illegal war, just as Jim Crow also existed in the Northern states both before and after this illegal war, so what's the point?
I disagree with Mr. Ford's assessment that the secession of 11 Southern states would have crippled this country. The United States existed when there were only 13 states and it would have existed when there were 23 states left in 1861. Great Britain was certainly not crippled due to the success of the American states in 1783. Nor would the government of the United States been crippled if the Southern states had succeeded in repelling the attacks of the North in 1861-1865. I fail to see how Ford can claim the North would not remain free since the Constitution and Bill of Rights were still intact.
Even though I believe in the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, I will not be an accomplice to place a plaque at the Confederate monument to commemorate a criminal who committed the murder of a Hot Springs businessman in his own home. Unlike Mr. Ford, I do not support criminal behavior and my sympathies will always extend to the victims and their families regardless of race, ethnicity or religious background.
Loy Mauch
Bismarck
Editorial on 06/21/2017