charles adams, in his excellent when in the course of human events

The great value of Charles Adam's book, When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession, is that it shows in careful historical detail that slavery did not cause this great tragedy.

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Is Charles Adams the world’s leading historian of taxes?

But the rest of the book is undoubatedly filled with tendentious writing, constant propagandistic phrasing favoring the South, unbalanced analysis, and vitriol unbecoming in a supposed historian. For supposed historian is what Charles Adams is. He self-describes himself on the blurb of his book as a “the world’s leading historian of taxation.”

What do you like most about Adams Adams'analysis of Lincoln?

Adams is primarily interested in critiquing Lincoln's authoritarian tendencies, and he includes a great deal of fascinating commentary from the contemporary British press, which was largely contemptuous of the North's rationale for conflict; it's particularly nice to have a number of scathing Punch cartoons by John Tenniel, no less.

What was John Adams’s argument in the declaration of Independence?

Using primary documents from both foreign and domestic observers, Adams makes a powerful and convincing case that the Southern states were legitimately exercising their political rights as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Mises Review 6, No. 3 (Fall 2000)

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS: ARGUING THE CASE FOR SOUTHERN SECESSION Charles Adams Rowman and Littlefield, 2000; xiv + 257 pgs.

Cite This Article

Gordon, David. "Adams's Stunning Achievement." Review of When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession, by Charles Adams. The Mises Review 6, No. 3 (Fall 2000).

Who is Charles Adams?

For supposed historian is what Charles Adams is. He self-describes himself on the blurb of his book as a “the world’s leading historian of taxation.” I am not a slave to academic qualifications, but Adams appears to have none. It is hard to find information on him, but according to a 1993 newspaper article, he is “a former California lawyer who is a research historian at the University of Toronto,” and before that “taught history at the International College of the Cayman Islands.” The book prominently notes that it is the “Winner of the 2000 Paradigm Book Award.” I can find no reference to such an award except in connection with this book. The back cover has positive blurb quotes from four people from Emory, Auburn, USC and Florida Atlantic University. The first two are not from historians, but from a philosopher and a trustee who is not a teacher at all. The third is from an elderly historian who is a founder of the League of the South, a neo-confederate organization. The fourth, a short and anodyne quote, is from a historian about whom I can find little information. But none of this increases my trust in this book. I’m sure there’s a case to be made for some of Adams’s opinions, but he does himself and his positions no favors with this book.

What did Charles Adams argue about the Civil War?

Using primary documents from both foreign and domestic observers, prominent scholar Charles Adams makes a powerful and convincing case that the Southern states were legitimately exercising their political rights as expressed in the Declaration of Independence when they seceded from the United States. Although conventional histories have taught generations of Americans that this was a war fought for lofty moral principles, Adams' eloquent history transcends simple Southern partisanship to show how the American Civil War was primarily a battle over competing commercial interests, opposing interpretations of constitutional rights , and what English novelist Charles Dickens described as a fiscal quarrel.

What is the source of sectional conflict in the Antebellum?

Given his background as a tax lawyer, it's not altogether surprising that Adams sees taxation as the fundamental source of antebellum sectional conflict. His treatment of the subject is anything but technical, and these essays were clearly intended for the layman.

What is the best book about the war of Northern Aggression?

For Lincoln was opposed to nearly every principle that guided the establishment of our republic. In reality, there is a "second founding" that completely. This is the single best book on the politics surrounding the War of Northern Aggression. This is one of the ten books that every American should read.

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When in the course of human events, did the South secede from the Union of Independent States?

According to Charles Adams in his book When In the Course of Human Events, the South was well within their rights to secede from the union of independent states one century, two score and one decade ago. And he is not alone. At least not alone when it comes to 19th century thought.

Is Charles Adams a fan of war?

It becomes obvious rather quickly that Charles Adams is not a fan of war – any war. That is to be admired. But, seriously, who is? Yet it’s refreshing to hear from a voice who seeks out the truth of things rather than simply swallowing the history as it was written by the victors of the struggle. Adams’ citing of opinion writing of the day, his inclusion of period newspaper articles and political cartoons and quotes from a multitude of key players and participants allows his audience the unique chance to slip inside the heads of those Americans who lived through that dark period and to understand their mindsets and motives as they witnessed the senseless destruction of the lives of some 630,000 of their young countrymen. I came away from this book with a new and interesting perspective on one of the most violent and devastating events our country has ever had the misfortune of suffering and I doubt I’ll ever view the events of that era in the same light again.

What is the meaning of chapter 1 of the book of Adams?

In chapter one, Adams sets the American war over secession in a global context by instancing other conflicts of similar type. He plants here the first seeds of doubt that political separation is inherently immoral. Chapter two deals with Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s successful gamble to have the Confederacy “start” the war. Here one learns that the Fort was primarily a customs house—a nice bit of symbolism, especially since the South paid roughly four times as much in tariffs as the North did.

What did Adams' book reveal about the federal government?

What Adams’s book—with or without a single, central thesis—does, is to reveal that in 1860 and early 1861 many Americans, north and south, doubted the existence of any federal power to coerce a state and considered peaceful separation a real possibility. In the late 1780s The Federalist Papers, for example, laughed down the notion that the federal government could coerce states in their corporate, political capacity. For much of the nineteenth century Americans saw the union as a practical arrangement instrumental to other values. That vision vanished in the killing and destruction of Mr. Lincoln’s war. Americans paid a rather high price for making a means into an end.

What was Lincoln concerned about?

Given that, Lincoln was very concerned about his tariff revenues in the absence of the Southern states. After Fort Sumter, the (Northern) President unconstitutionally established a blockade of Southern ports on his own motion. Soon, Lincoln had robbed Maryland of self-government and was making other inroads on civil liberty—his idea of preserving the Constitution via his self-invented presidential “war powers” (of which there is not a word in the actual document).

Did Adams ignore slavery?

Those who long for the simple morality play in which Father Abraham saved the Union (always capitalized) and emancipated slaves out of his vision and kindness have complained that Adams has ignored slavery as a cause of the war. That is incorrect. Slavery and the racial issue connected with it are present; they do not, however, have the causal stage all to themselves.

When in the course of human events by Charles Adams?

Probably the best single book to address this enigma head-on is When in the Course of Human Events by Charles Adams, first published in 2000. This enigma is brought home forcefully to him because of the brilliant approach he takes to understand the issue of secession: He researches impartial contemporaries writing from Europe. As he states:

What was the main thesis of Adams?

Adams’ fundamental thesis is that Lincoln autocratically destroyed the Federal Constitution of 1783, replacing it with a unitary government (p195), and did so on the passion of Northern moneyed interests, with only a single word for legal justification: Union. Yet “Union” was not the synonym of “Constitution,” but rather of “empire” (p79), and it was a legal fabrication in direct contradiction to the Framers’ clear statement that the Constitution was a compact between states, not a mystical union between the central power and all citizens directly and indiscriminately (p184).

Did Alexander Stephens say slavery was the cause of secession?

And yet , there it was! Three of the initial seceding states published declarations of causes of secession proclaimed that slavery was indeed the cause – as did Alexander Stephens’ Cornerstone Speech proclaiming the same. Of Stephens, Adams says that a careful reading of the speech finds that he is actually asserting white superiority as the cornerstone of Southern society (p xii) – no great surprise to any contemporary, since virtually the entire Western world, including most abolitionists, asserted the same.

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS

From Adams ( Those Dirty Rotten Taxes, 1998), a selectively argued, sometimes absurd polemic against Abraham Lincoln and the Union.

A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History ).

NIGHT

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.

Volume 3, No. 4 (Winter 2000)

The great value of Charles Adam's book, When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession, is that it shows in careful historical detail that slavery did not cause this great tragedy.

Cite This Article

Thornton, Mark. Review of When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession. The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 3, No. 4 (Winter 2000): 95-96.