Re: Help design the ideal Presidential candidate

Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Nate Edel <archmage@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > Moreover, the British resorted to the use of force first, and before
> > Independence was even (at least formally) on the table.
>
> I thought which side fired "the shot heard round the world" was still
> in dispute.

Which side fired the first shot at Concord (or Lexington?) is far less
relevant than that the British decided to march their troops out into the
countryside to seize arms being held there.

> If you're referring to the Boston Massacre, that was several years
> before the revolution began.

No, although in a general sense it shows a willingness for the British to
use force to escalate the situation.

> > ... and instead proceeded unilaterally to sieze federal property
> > before Lincoln was even inaugurated.
>
> The way I always heard it, the federal government had agreed to
> evacuate Fort Sumter, but then attempted to surreptitiously reinforce
> and resupply the fort.  South Carolina's government took the attempt
> as evidence of bad faith, and opened fire to prevent the fort from
> being reinforced and resupplied.

There was certainly significant provocation on both sides at that point;
the
initial seizures happened earlier, and were what drove the remaining
federal
troops in the area to Sumter (from Fort Moultrie, per wikipedia) and there
were some other incidents of violence where seizure was resisted.

-- 
Nate Edel                               http://www.cubiclehermit.com/
 preferred email  | 
 is "nate" at the | "I do have a cause, though. It is obscenity.
 posting domain   |  I'm for it." - prologue to "Smut" by Tom Lehrer