From Secession University:
Is secession an act of treason?
Posted June 6, 2010 by Bill Miller
Categories: secede, secession
One of the most frequently voiced arguments against the right of States to peacefully withdraw from the Compact is that secession is treasonous and un-American. Interestingly enough, the Constitution contains a precise legal definition of treason, and before flinging the charge, an understanding of the term as found in Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution is in order:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
Remembering that when our Founders put their pen to the Constitution, the plural term of “United States” referred to the States as a confederation of independent States, not some consolidated nation called the United States in the singular. Therefore, the constitutional definition of treason refers to “levying War against them [the States], or in adhering to their [the States] Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
Also, Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language offers several definitions of treason, with one being:
In general, it is the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance.
The Constitution, and Webster’s definition of the term, makes it absolutely clear that unless a secessionist movement is intending on overthrowing their government, or supporting others with the same intentions, there is no act of treason.
Furthermore, since the act of treason, according to the Constitution, relates to the individual States, not the federal government, those in the South defending their homeland during the Civil War most certainly did not perpetrate any acts of treason. The idea of, “We just want to go our own way and be left alone,” as applied to the Civil War or any modern day movement to peacefully withdraw from the Union, is most assuredly not treasonous.
As for un-American, how can one of our God-given natural rights, upon which our American ideals were established, be called un-American? One must remember that our most sacred founding document, The Declaration of Independence, proclaimed:
That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Clearly, anyone shouting, “Un-American!” at those seeking a free and independent State might just as well claim that our enthusiasm for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is also un-American.
The charges of treason, or simply being un-American, are nothing more than false accusations flung by those without a proper understanding of these terms, our history, and the sovereign authority of our free and independent States.
© 2010, Secession University. Permission to reprint this article in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Mark Twain On The War
Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.
~Mark Twain
Lt. Gen. Stephen Dill Lee's Charge To Us
"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish."
Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25, 1906.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Questions and Answers
From Confederate Digest:
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Is it legal for a state to withdraw from the Union?
By Bill Miller
http://www.secessionuniversity.com/
Chief among the top five most frequently cited arguments against the right of a State to withdraw from the Union are ill-defined assertions that, “It’s illegal for a State to secede,” or “Only Texas has the right to secede.” These, and other such vague pronouncements, all imply the same thing; that for some unspecified reason—more than likely it’s just an assumption—but nevertheless, the opponents of secession claim it’s just plain illegal. Nothing specific mind you, just that it’s illegal. Even Abraham Lincoln, without providing specifics, said during his address to the emergency secession of Congress on July 4, 1861:
The States have their status IN the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law, and by revolution.
So how does one counter such ambiguous arguments, arguments without any logical reasoning that can be specifically addressed and rebutted? Perhaps the best response is provided by simply reviewing the fundamental rights and principles our States have always had to peacefully withdraw from the Union.
There are three grand principles our States can call upon—either one of which can be used to justify secession. If one of these principles does not seem to fully justify secession, then another one will do. Again, it only takes one of the three to get the job done. The first of these principles is based on the Constitution, and if the Constitution prohibits a State from seceding.
Is secession legal per the Constitution?
The Constitution is nothing more than an agreement (sometimes referred to as a Compact) between the States, but this agreement does not address the withdrawal of a State from the Compact nor does it contain any terms and conditions should a State choose to withdraw. Generally, if an agreement is without a termination clause, then it is considered an agreement at will, and therefore any party to such an agreement can leave with only a reasonable notification of intent to withdraw.
Furthermore, the Constitution specifically lists in Article I, Section 8, all delegated authority assigned to the federal government, and it’s important to note that approving the withdrawal of a State was never a power delegated to the federal government. Therefore, the federal government is absent any authority to dictate the terms of withdrawal from the Union, and as such, the States, and the States alone, decide the issue for themselves, as further guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment.
Also, there is no underlying tenet of contract law requiring a party to remain committed to an agreement that has been repeatedly violated as has our Constitution. The unauthorized actions of the central government today bear little resemblance to the limited authority delegated by our Founders in 1787. Who can reasonably deny that our States are not well within their right to withdraw from such a dysfunctional and out-of-control agreement?
These three fundamental principles: the Tenth Amendment guarantees to each State, the Constitution being a “contract at will,” and the repeated and frequent violation of the terms of the Compact are enough to insure that a State has the unfettered right to decide for itself if it is to remain a party to the Compact. But if one is not fully convinced that the Constitution allows for a State to secede from the Union, then either the Declaration of Independence or a State’s sovereign authority can be asserted as the controlling elements of State secession.
Is secession legal per the Declaration of Independence?
The Declaration of Independence (aka Declaration of Secession) established the right of the people to withdraw from a government not effecting their safety and happiness as one of our Natural God-given rights as so stated:
… that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government …
This natural God-given natural right as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence enshrines our inherent right to secession. If you believe the colonies were justified in declaring their independence from an intrusive overbearing government in 1776, then you should also acknowledge that our States continue to enjoy that same right today. But if you believe that this unalienable right no longer applies, then the ultimate right of secession can be claimed with asserting a State’s sovereign authority.
Is secession legal per the sovereign authority of the States?
Abraham Lincoln explained it best when he once suggested that sovereignty was, “A political community, without a political superior.” Taken together with the fact that the States created the federal government (not the other way around), the States are therefore in control of the sovereign power—a power without any other higher authority exercising control over their decisions. In short, the States, as the political superior, control their own destiny; they are not under the control of the federal government, an entity the States created when they established the Constitution, and an entity the States can likewise dissolve.
Simply stated, since the States are the superior sovereign entity, the inferior party, the federal government, has no authority to countermand any State decision, such as secession. Even if the Declaration of Independence had not enshrined the inherent right of secession, or if the Constitution contained language prohibiting secession, the sovereign superiority of the States would control and allow the States to decide the issue of withdrawing from the Union.
So, there you have it; there is no doubt a State has a right to withdraw from the agreement they entered into when they joined the Union. That is unless you don’t believe in either the rule of law, our God-given unalienable rights, or the sovereign authority of our States and their people.
See the original article here: http://secessionuniversity.com/2010/05/21/is-it-legal-for-a-state-to-withdraw-from-the-union/
Posted by J. Stephen Conn at 8:17 PM
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Is it legal for a state to withdraw from the Union?
By Bill Miller
http://www.secessionuniversity.com/
Chief among the top five most frequently cited arguments against the right of a State to withdraw from the Union are ill-defined assertions that, “It’s illegal for a State to secede,” or “Only Texas has the right to secede.” These, and other such vague pronouncements, all imply the same thing; that for some unspecified reason—more than likely it’s just an assumption—but nevertheless, the opponents of secession claim it’s just plain illegal. Nothing specific mind you, just that it’s illegal. Even Abraham Lincoln, without providing specifics, said during his address to the emergency secession of Congress on July 4, 1861:
The States have their status IN the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law, and by revolution.
So how does one counter such ambiguous arguments, arguments without any logical reasoning that can be specifically addressed and rebutted? Perhaps the best response is provided by simply reviewing the fundamental rights and principles our States have always had to peacefully withdraw from the Union.
There are three grand principles our States can call upon—either one of which can be used to justify secession. If one of these principles does not seem to fully justify secession, then another one will do. Again, it only takes one of the three to get the job done. The first of these principles is based on the Constitution, and if the Constitution prohibits a State from seceding.
Is secession legal per the Constitution?
The Constitution is nothing more than an agreement (sometimes referred to as a Compact) between the States, but this agreement does not address the withdrawal of a State from the Compact nor does it contain any terms and conditions should a State choose to withdraw. Generally, if an agreement is without a termination clause, then it is considered an agreement at will, and therefore any party to such an agreement can leave with only a reasonable notification of intent to withdraw.
Furthermore, the Constitution specifically lists in Article I, Section 8, all delegated authority assigned to the federal government, and it’s important to note that approving the withdrawal of a State was never a power delegated to the federal government. Therefore, the federal government is absent any authority to dictate the terms of withdrawal from the Union, and as such, the States, and the States alone, decide the issue for themselves, as further guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment.
Also, there is no underlying tenet of contract law requiring a party to remain committed to an agreement that has been repeatedly violated as has our Constitution. The unauthorized actions of the central government today bear little resemblance to the limited authority delegated by our Founders in 1787. Who can reasonably deny that our States are not well within their right to withdraw from such a dysfunctional and out-of-control agreement?
These three fundamental principles: the Tenth Amendment guarantees to each State, the Constitution being a “contract at will,” and the repeated and frequent violation of the terms of the Compact are enough to insure that a State has the unfettered right to decide for itself if it is to remain a party to the Compact. But if one is not fully convinced that the Constitution allows for a State to secede from the Union, then either the Declaration of Independence or a State’s sovereign authority can be asserted as the controlling elements of State secession.
Is secession legal per the Declaration of Independence?
The Declaration of Independence (aka Declaration of Secession) established the right of the people to withdraw from a government not effecting their safety and happiness as one of our Natural God-given rights as so stated:
… that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government …
This natural God-given natural right as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence enshrines our inherent right to secession. If you believe the colonies were justified in declaring their independence from an intrusive overbearing government in 1776, then you should also acknowledge that our States continue to enjoy that same right today. But if you believe that this unalienable right no longer applies, then the ultimate right of secession can be claimed with asserting a State’s sovereign authority.
Is secession legal per the sovereign authority of the States?
Abraham Lincoln explained it best when he once suggested that sovereignty was, “A political community, without a political superior.” Taken together with the fact that the States created the federal government (not the other way around), the States are therefore in control of the sovereign power—a power without any other higher authority exercising control over their decisions. In short, the States, as the political superior, control their own destiny; they are not under the control of the federal government, an entity the States created when they established the Constitution, and an entity the States can likewise dissolve.
Simply stated, since the States are the superior sovereign entity, the inferior party, the federal government, has no authority to countermand any State decision, such as secession. Even if the Declaration of Independence had not enshrined the inherent right of secession, or if the Constitution contained language prohibiting secession, the sovereign superiority of the States would control and allow the States to decide the issue of withdrawing from the Union.
So, there you have it; there is no doubt a State has a right to withdraw from the agreement they entered into when they joined the Union. That is unless you don’t believe in either the rule of law, our God-given unalienable rights, or the sovereign authority of our States and their people.
See the original article here: http://secessionuniversity.com/2010/05/21/is-it-legal-for-a-state-to-withdraw-from-the-union/
Posted by J. Stephen Conn at 8:17 PM
Friday, June 4, 2010
Confederate Memorial Day
From League of the South:
THE STRUGGLE FOR MEMORY
Excerpts from Remarks Celebrating Confederate Memorial Day
Old Warrenton Cemetery Confederate Gravesite
Sponsored by Black Horse Camp #780
Sons of Confederate Veterans
May 30, 2010
by Thomas Moore
The hallmark of a healthy, vibrant People is their stories, traditions, folklore, tales, and legends, both the true and the mythic. In rich, viable cultures, it’s not just the rulers or politicians or captains of industry who are celebrated, but also the historians, the bards, the storytellers. These individuals are the repository of the collective memory of a People. Without it they have no identity. And with no identity, with no “individuation” as a worthy and distinct People, their society has no sense of purpose or direction. A People with no knowledge of their history, with no collective memory, have literally become senile. Collectively, they are just as dysfunctional as an individual with acute Alzheimer’s disease.
I believe we Southerners are a distinct People, with our own particular folkways, traditions, customs, music, speech, and a common history lived out in a shared space. In essence, we are an authentic nation. In fact, I believe we are the last authentic Western civilization in the historic sense of the word “civilization,” especially in contrast to today’s America, with its militant secularism, tawdry commercialism, and infantile celebrity worship that pass for civilization. One thing that distinguishes us in today’s America is that we Southerners understand the truth that we are what we remember. We are a people rich in memory.
You can see this in our continued reverence for our heroes – especially the distinguished Southerners who were the main figures in founding America as a great constitutional republic, a confederated union of sovereign states, as created by the Founders in 1787. And we honor equally those who fought to keep it so from 1861 to 1865. They sacrificed much to prevent it from degenerating into a unitary state, a virtually unlimited, authoritarian, centralized national polity, which is what the USA is today, thanks to the Northern victory in 1865.
For many decades after the War ended, the Southern people followed the admonition of General Lee and other Confederate leaders to obey the law and conduct themselves as loyal Americans. When Federal occupation ended in 1877, the South found itself being accepted, slowly, grudgingly, because America’s expanding commercial and political ambitions needed our proven valor and military aptitude. And of course, our vast natural resources and our tax revenues.
In the 1890’s a kind of social truce emerged between North and South, sometimes called the “Grand Bargain.” Under this truce the North agreed to stop demonizing the South. They acknowledged the South had been sincere and honorable in The War, although misguided in trying to break up the Union. They agreed that the courage and dedication of the Southern armies were worthy of praise, even in a wrong cause. Confederate heroes like Lee and Stonewall Jackson were honored as American heroes. Southerners were allowed back in the fold as citizens, though never quite on an equal footing with the rest of Americans.
In exchange for being allowed to erect our Confederate monuments, fly our flags, display our revered symbols, and pay tribute to our heroes, the South conceded it was best for the Union not to have broken up. We became loyal, patriotic Americans, giving our full energies to building the country. We paid our taxes and sent our sons to fight America’s wars – and today even our daughters. We went along with the burgeoning American empire because that is what the powers decreed.
The South has kept this bargain many times over. No part of the country has been more loyal and more patriotic than the South. The Stars and Stripes fly more ubiquitously in the South than in any other region. In every war from 1865 to the present, Southern men have served bravely, representing a disproportionate share of the enlisted ranks and officer corps -- and of the dead and wounded. Nearly half today’s casualties in Afghanistan are from the 14 Southern States.
But sadly, the Grand Bargain has been broken, even while we Southerners are expected to continue living up to it. As Dr. Clyde Wilson, one of the South’s most distinguished historians, has said, “Our Confederate heritage is being banished to a dark little corner of American life labeled ‘Slavery and Treason.’ The people who seek to destroy our heritage are not folks we can win over by presenting historical evidence and assuring them we are good, loyal Americans free of hate. They could not care less about truth or heritage. We are not in an argument over the interpretation of the past. Our very identity as Southerners -- today and tomorrow, as well as yesterday -- is at stake.”
And the people cited by Dr. Wilson are not just Liberal Democrats and the perfervid ranks of the radical Left. They include so-called conservative Republicans as well. I know from experience, up close and personal and from the inside: the Republican Establishment to which so many Southerners have given their loyalty secretly despises us as much as the Democrats. In fact, the more loyal we are, the more the GOP Insiders and Neo-Cons despise us.
Today our ruling elites and their media lapdogs equate this Flag with the Nazi swastika, and the men who fought under it with Hitler’s legions. General Lee, a leading voice after the War for racial as well as political reconciliation, is dismissed with contempt as leader of an army of slave-drivers
Need I remind anyone here what happened when Governor Bob McDonnell recently tried to revive Virginia’s time-honored practice of honoring her Confederate history? The might of the establishment fell on him in full fury. The clamoring voices of moral sanctimoniousness insisted the Confederacy could only be cited if it was characterized as an exercise in treason, and that its soldiers fought only to enslave others. The Governor of course back-pedaled. He tried to apologize. He clearly hadn’t yet learned that you can never apologize enough or abase yourself abjectly enough before the altar of Political Correctness. I guess he knows it now.
The latest assault of the Marxist attempt to re-write history is by Roland Martin of CNN. In an April broadcast he attacked Governor McDonnell’s Confederate History proclamation, claiming -- his words – that “celebrating the Confederates is akin to honoring Nazi soldiers for killing of Jews during the Holocaust,” and that Confederate soldiers should be considered "domestic terrorists."
Do you feel insulted, or worse, assaulted? If not, you should. This is a gross insult – to you and to me and to the truth. But it’s more than an insult, as bad as that is. It’s more than a malicious lie borne of Political Correctness.
This kind of expunging of memory has profound and troubling political implications. Such acts have been the trademark of totalitarian regimes throughout the ages. The Communist dictator Stalin understood this principle. He said, “Who controls the past controls the present.” If despots can make you believe a false story about the past, they can control and manipulate your actions in the present for their selfish purposes. If they can label you as an enemy of the state, then you’re fair game and defenseless.
Stalin went to extraordinary lengths to expunge the names and images of his one-time colleagues and later rivals like Kirov and Trotsky from the pages of books and newspapers. Hitler had the ancestral village of his natural grandfather razed and tried to eliminate its very memory (from a fear the man was Jewish). The Jacobins of the French Terror, Mao Tse-Dong and the Red Chinese, and the Khmer Rouge all engaged in this most common behaviour of despots: warring against history and erasing memory. It recalls to us the words of Czech writer Milan Kundera: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
These are the ominous parallels with the campaign against Southern history and identity. This attempt to expunge memory and re-write history is a form of aggression. It’s a key strategy in the “cold civil war” raging in our country. It’s part of a new political paradigm that supersedes the old Left-Right paradigm. It supersedes the false dichotomy of Republicans versus Democrats, who are really just two wings of the same bird of prey, simply two gangs fighting over the spoils.
The real conflict today is between those who still cling to an older tradition of human dignity and liberty versus those who seek to control, exploit, and plunder their fellow man. It’s between those who still worship and serve God and those who worship and serve the state.
The relentless campaign of hatred, vilification, and elimination of all things distinctly Southern from the public sphere is not an inconsequential matter. It tells us our culture is marked for extinction. And why do the power elites want to destroy it?
Because the old Jeffersonian idea of personal responsibility, individual liberty, and limited government is the Southern political ideal. And that ideal is precisely the target. To eliminate it, Southern history and memory which have nurtured it, must be destroyed. And if the culture which shelters these ancient ideals is destroyed, then the liberty which sprouted and flourished in its soil, the personal freedoms which it sustains, will not be far behind.
Seen in this light, the cause of the South and the preservation of its memory, its traditions, and its symbols is the cause of decent men and women everywhere who love liberty and seek to live in dignity.
###
Thomas Moore is Chairman of the Southern National Congress (http://southernnationalcongress.org ).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information: http://dixienet.org
THE STRUGGLE FOR MEMORY
Excerpts from Remarks Celebrating Confederate Memorial Day
Old Warrenton Cemetery Confederate Gravesite
Sponsored by Black Horse Camp #780
Sons of Confederate Veterans
May 30, 2010
by Thomas Moore
The hallmark of a healthy, vibrant People is their stories, traditions, folklore, tales, and legends, both the true and the mythic. In rich, viable cultures, it’s not just the rulers or politicians or captains of industry who are celebrated, but also the historians, the bards, the storytellers. These individuals are the repository of the collective memory of a People. Without it they have no identity. And with no identity, with no “individuation” as a worthy and distinct People, their society has no sense of purpose or direction. A People with no knowledge of their history, with no collective memory, have literally become senile. Collectively, they are just as dysfunctional as an individual with acute Alzheimer’s disease.
I believe we Southerners are a distinct People, with our own particular folkways, traditions, customs, music, speech, and a common history lived out in a shared space. In essence, we are an authentic nation. In fact, I believe we are the last authentic Western civilization in the historic sense of the word “civilization,” especially in contrast to today’s America, with its militant secularism, tawdry commercialism, and infantile celebrity worship that pass for civilization. One thing that distinguishes us in today’s America is that we Southerners understand the truth that we are what we remember. We are a people rich in memory.
You can see this in our continued reverence for our heroes – especially the distinguished Southerners who were the main figures in founding America as a great constitutional republic, a confederated union of sovereign states, as created by the Founders in 1787. And we honor equally those who fought to keep it so from 1861 to 1865. They sacrificed much to prevent it from degenerating into a unitary state, a virtually unlimited, authoritarian, centralized national polity, which is what the USA is today, thanks to the Northern victory in 1865.
For many decades after the War ended, the Southern people followed the admonition of General Lee and other Confederate leaders to obey the law and conduct themselves as loyal Americans. When Federal occupation ended in 1877, the South found itself being accepted, slowly, grudgingly, because America’s expanding commercial and political ambitions needed our proven valor and military aptitude. And of course, our vast natural resources and our tax revenues.
In the 1890’s a kind of social truce emerged between North and South, sometimes called the “Grand Bargain.” Under this truce the North agreed to stop demonizing the South. They acknowledged the South had been sincere and honorable in The War, although misguided in trying to break up the Union. They agreed that the courage and dedication of the Southern armies were worthy of praise, even in a wrong cause. Confederate heroes like Lee and Stonewall Jackson were honored as American heroes. Southerners were allowed back in the fold as citizens, though never quite on an equal footing with the rest of Americans.
In exchange for being allowed to erect our Confederate monuments, fly our flags, display our revered symbols, and pay tribute to our heroes, the South conceded it was best for the Union not to have broken up. We became loyal, patriotic Americans, giving our full energies to building the country. We paid our taxes and sent our sons to fight America’s wars – and today even our daughters. We went along with the burgeoning American empire because that is what the powers decreed.
The South has kept this bargain many times over. No part of the country has been more loyal and more patriotic than the South. The Stars and Stripes fly more ubiquitously in the South than in any other region. In every war from 1865 to the present, Southern men have served bravely, representing a disproportionate share of the enlisted ranks and officer corps -- and of the dead and wounded. Nearly half today’s casualties in Afghanistan are from the 14 Southern States.
But sadly, the Grand Bargain has been broken, even while we Southerners are expected to continue living up to it. As Dr. Clyde Wilson, one of the South’s most distinguished historians, has said, “Our Confederate heritage is being banished to a dark little corner of American life labeled ‘Slavery and Treason.’ The people who seek to destroy our heritage are not folks we can win over by presenting historical evidence and assuring them we are good, loyal Americans free of hate. They could not care less about truth or heritage. We are not in an argument over the interpretation of the past. Our very identity as Southerners -- today and tomorrow, as well as yesterday -- is at stake.”
And the people cited by Dr. Wilson are not just Liberal Democrats and the perfervid ranks of the radical Left. They include so-called conservative Republicans as well. I know from experience, up close and personal and from the inside: the Republican Establishment to which so many Southerners have given their loyalty secretly despises us as much as the Democrats. In fact, the more loyal we are, the more the GOP Insiders and Neo-Cons despise us.
Today our ruling elites and their media lapdogs equate this Flag with the Nazi swastika, and the men who fought under it with Hitler’s legions. General Lee, a leading voice after the War for racial as well as political reconciliation, is dismissed with contempt as leader of an army of slave-drivers
Need I remind anyone here what happened when Governor Bob McDonnell recently tried to revive Virginia’s time-honored practice of honoring her Confederate history? The might of the establishment fell on him in full fury. The clamoring voices of moral sanctimoniousness insisted the Confederacy could only be cited if it was characterized as an exercise in treason, and that its soldiers fought only to enslave others. The Governor of course back-pedaled. He tried to apologize. He clearly hadn’t yet learned that you can never apologize enough or abase yourself abjectly enough before the altar of Political Correctness. I guess he knows it now.
The latest assault of the Marxist attempt to re-write history is by Roland Martin of CNN. In an April broadcast he attacked Governor McDonnell’s Confederate History proclamation, claiming -- his words – that “celebrating the Confederates is akin to honoring Nazi soldiers for killing of Jews during the Holocaust,” and that Confederate soldiers should be considered "domestic terrorists."
Do you feel insulted, or worse, assaulted? If not, you should. This is a gross insult – to you and to me and to the truth. But it’s more than an insult, as bad as that is. It’s more than a malicious lie borne of Political Correctness.
This kind of expunging of memory has profound and troubling political implications. Such acts have been the trademark of totalitarian regimes throughout the ages. The Communist dictator Stalin understood this principle. He said, “Who controls the past controls the present.” If despots can make you believe a false story about the past, they can control and manipulate your actions in the present for their selfish purposes. If they can label you as an enemy of the state, then you’re fair game and defenseless.
Stalin went to extraordinary lengths to expunge the names and images of his one-time colleagues and later rivals like Kirov and Trotsky from the pages of books and newspapers. Hitler had the ancestral village of his natural grandfather razed and tried to eliminate its very memory (from a fear the man was Jewish). The Jacobins of the French Terror, Mao Tse-Dong and the Red Chinese, and the Khmer Rouge all engaged in this most common behaviour of despots: warring against history and erasing memory. It recalls to us the words of Czech writer Milan Kundera: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
These are the ominous parallels with the campaign against Southern history and identity. This attempt to expunge memory and re-write history is a form of aggression. It’s a key strategy in the “cold civil war” raging in our country. It’s part of a new political paradigm that supersedes the old Left-Right paradigm. It supersedes the false dichotomy of Republicans versus Democrats, who are really just two wings of the same bird of prey, simply two gangs fighting over the spoils.
The real conflict today is between those who still cling to an older tradition of human dignity and liberty versus those who seek to control, exploit, and plunder their fellow man. It’s between those who still worship and serve God and those who worship and serve the state.
The relentless campaign of hatred, vilification, and elimination of all things distinctly Southern from the public sphere is not an inconsequential matter. It tells us our culture is marked for extinction. And why do the power elites want to destroy it?
Because the old Jeffersonian idea of personal responsibility, individual liberty, and limited government is the Southern political ideal. And that ideal is precisely the target. To eliminate it, Southern history and memory which have nurtured it, must be destroyed. And if the culture which shelters these ancient ideals is destroyed, then the liberty which sprouted and flourished in its soil, the personal freedoms which it sustains, will not be far behind.
Seen in this light, the cause of the South and the preservation of its memory, its traditions, and its symbols is the cause of decent men and women everywhere who love liberty and seek to live in dignity.
###
Thomas Moore is Chairman of the Southern National Congress (http://southernnationalcongress.org ).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information: http://dixienet.org
Remembering Jefferson Davis
From League of the South:
Remembering Jefferson Davis
By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer, Author of book “When America Stood for God, Family and Country” and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
1064 West Mill Drive
Kennesaw, Georgia 30152
Phone: 770 428 0978
"Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southern man apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance. Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would do it all over again.''
----Jefferson Davis
Monday, the 31st day of May, in the year of our Lord 2010, is Memorial Day. It was on Memorial Day--Wednesday May 31, 1893, when the remains of Jefferson Davis was re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
Thursday June 3rd, is the 202nd birthday of Jefferson Davis?
Jefferson Davis served the United States as a soldier, statesmen and Secretary of War. He was also the first and only President of the Confederate States of America.
On Saturday, April 24, 2010, a statue depicting Jefferson Davis and two of his sons Joseph and adopted Black son Jim Limber was unveiled at Beauvoir, http://www.beauvoir.org , the last home of Jefferson Davis located on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast.
If you listen closely, and the wind blows in the right direction, you might hear a train whistle in the distance.
When I was growing up near Atlanta, Georgia this and the sound of "taps" from nearby Fort McPherson were special sounds. Today, air conditioners and closed windows segregate the sounds of the trains, owls and the wonderful sounds that are nature's symphony at night.
On Sunday, May 28, 1893, a few days before "Memorial Day", in New Orleans, a story began that overshadowed all other events reported in the newspapers of the South and that of the North.
This was the day when the remains of Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, laid in state at Confederate Memorial Hall in the historic crescent city of New Orleans.
Jefferson Davis died in 1889 and was buried at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. Four years later, May 27, 1893, his body was moved from the burial site, placed in a new heavy brass trimmed oak casket and taken to Confederate Memorial Hall where it was placed on a huge oaken catafalque.
At 4:30PM, May 28th, a funeral service was held for Mr. Davis and a moving memorial address was delivered by Louisiana's Governor Murphy J. Foster as thousands listened. There were no sounds of cars, planes, sirens, cell phones or sound systems. They did not exist. A reverent silence fell among the people as the casket was given to the commitment of veterans from Virginia who had been sent to receive it.
The procession then formed for a slow march to the railroad station on Canal Street.
Train No. 69, with Engineer Frank Coffin, waited patiently as the casket was taken to the platform and passed through an open observation car to a catafalque. The cars wall could not be seen due to the many flowers.
This was the vision of Mrs. (Varina) Jefferson Davis when she began three years previous to secure a funeral train and military escort for a 1,200 mile train trip from New Orleans, Louisiana to Richmond, Virginia.
Train engine No. 69, of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad slowly pulled out of New Orleans Station at 7:50PM. L and N Railroad later became CSX Railroad.
Newspaper reporters from New Orleans, Richmond, Boston, New York and the Southern Associated Press were guests on the train.
After a brief stop at Bay Saint Louis, and a slow-down at Pass Christian, where hundreds of people lined the tracks, the Jefferson Davis Funeral Train stopped at Gulfport, Mississippi, near Beauvoir which was the last home of Jefferson Davis. It was here that Davis wrote his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government."
Uncle Bob Brown, a former servant of the Davis family and a passenger on the train, saw the many flowers that the children had laid on the side of the railroad tracks. Brown was so moved by this beautiful gesture that he wept uncontrollably.
In Mobile, Alabama, the train was met by a thousand mourners and the Alabama Artillery fired a 21-gun salute. Locomotive No. 69 was retired and Locomotive No. 25 was coupled to the train. The new train's Engineer was C.C. Devinney and Warren Robinson was its fireman.
Church bells rang in Montgomery, Alabama when the train pulled into the city at 6:00AM on May 29th. A severe rainstorm delayed the funeral procession to about 8:30AM when a caisson carried the body of Davis to Alabama's state capitol. A procession carried the casket through the portico where Jefferson Davis, in 1861, had taken the oath of office as President of the Confederate States of America.
The casket was placed in front of the bench of the Alabama Supreme Court. Above the right exit was a banner with the word "Monterrey" and above the left exit was a banner with the words "Buena Vista." During the War with Mexico Jefferson Davis was a hero at Monterrey and wounded at Buena Vista.
All businesses and schools closed, and church bells toiled during the procession to and from the capitol. In final tribute, thousands of people of Montgomery, including many ex-soldiers and school children filed by the casket.
At 12:20PM the funeral train departed over the Western Railway of Alabama and Atlanta and West Point Railroad for Atlanta. At West Point, Georgia the train stopped under a beautiful arch of flowers to pick up Georgia's Governor William J. Northen and staff.
At 4:30PM the funeral train pulled into Union Station in Atlanta, Georgia. It is estimated that 20,000 people lined the streets as the funeral procession made their way to the state capitol. Atlanta’s Gate City Guard, which had served as Company F, 1st Georgia (Ramsay’s) during the War Between the States, stood guard over the president.
At 7:00PM the train went north on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which later became Southern Railway and, today, Norfolk Southern Railroad. The train traveled through Lula, Georgia, Greenville, South Carolina and stopped at the North Carolina capitol at Raleigh.
A brief stop was made in Danville, Virginia where a crowd of people gathered around the train and sang, "Nearer My God To Thee" as city church bells toiled.
Finally, the train reached Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, May 31, 1893, at 3:00AM. It was Memorial Day. Mrs. Davis met the train and her husband's casket was taken to the Virginia State House.
At 3:00PM, May 31st, the funeral procession started for Hollywood Cemetery. The caisson bearing the casket was drawn by six white horses. Earlier rains kept the dust from stirring from the dirt roads.
With Mrs. Jefferson Davis were her daughters, Winnie and Margaret. Six state governors acted as pallbearers. It was estimated that 75,000 people attended this final salute to President Davis. The ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and "Taps
Remembering Jefferson Davis
By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer, Author of book “When America Stood for God, Family and Country” and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
1064 West Mill Drive
Kennesaw, Georgia 30152
Phone: 770 428 0978
"Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southern man apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance. Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would do it all over again.''
----Jefferson Davis
Monday, the 31st day of May, in the year of our Lord 2010, is Memorial Day. It was on Memorial Day--Wednesday May 31, 1893, when the remains of Jefferson Davis was re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
Thursday June 3rd, is the 202nd birthday of Jefferson Davis?
Jefferson Davis served the United States as a soldier, statesmen and Secretary of War. He was also the first and only President of the Confederate States of America.
On Saturday, April 24, 2010, a statue depicting Jefferson Davis and two of his sons Joseph and adopted Black son Jim Limber was unveiled at Beauvoir, http://www.beauvoir.org , the last home of Jefferson Davis located on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast.
If you listen closely, and the wind blows in the right direction, you might hear a train whistle in the distance.
When I was growing up near Atlanta, Georgia this and the sound of "taps" from nearby Fort McPherson were special sounds. Today, air conditioners and closed windows segregate the sounds of the trains, owls and the wonderful sounds that are nature's symphony at night.
On Sunday, May 28, 1893, a few days before "Memorial Day", in New Orleans, a story began that overshadowed all other events reported in the newspapers of the South and that of the North.
This was the day when the remains of Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, laid in state at Confederate Memorial Hall in the historic crescent city of New Orleans.
Jefferson Davis died in 1889 and was buried at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. Four years later, May 27, 1893, his body was moved from the burial site, placed in a new heavy brass trimmed oak casket and taken to Confederate Memorial Hall where it was placed on a huge oaken catafalque.
At 4:30PM, May 28th, a funeral service was held for Mr. Davis and a moving memorial address was delivered by Louisiana's Governor Murphy J. Foster as thousands listened. There were no sounds of cars, planes, sirens, cell phones or sound systems. They did not exist. A reverent silence fell among the people as the casket was given to the commitment of veterans from Virginia who had been sent to receive it.
The procession then formed for a slow march to the railroad station on Canal Street.
Train No. 69, with Engineer Frank Coffin, waited patiently as the casket was taken to the platform and passed through an open observation car to a catafalque. The cars wall could not be seen due to the many flowers.
This was the vision of Mrs. (Varina) Jefferson Davis when she began three years previous to secure a funeral train and military escort for a 1,200 mile train trip from New Orleans, Louisiana to Richmond, Virginia.
Train engine No. 69, of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad slowly pulled out of New Orleans Station at 7:50PM. L and N Railroad later became CSX Railroad.
Newspaper reporters from New Orleans, Richmond, Boston, New York and the Southern Associated Press were guests on the train.
After a brief stop at Bay Saint Louis, and a slow-down at Pass Christian, where hundreds of people lined the tracks, the Jefferson Davis Funeral Train stopped at Gulfport, Mississippi, near Beauvoir which was the last home of Jefferson Davis. It was here that Davis wrote his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government."
Uncle Bob Brown, a former servant of the Davis family and a passenger on the train, saw the many flowers that the children had laid on the side of the railroad tracks. Brown was so moved by this beautiful gesture that he wept uncontrollably.
In Mobile, Alabama, the train was met by a thousand mourners and the Alabama Artillery fired a 21-gun salute. Locomotive No. 69 was retired and Locomotive No. 25 was coupled to the train. The new train's Engineer was C.C. Devinney and Warren Robinson was its fireman.
Church bells rang in Montgomery, Alabama when the train pulled into the city at 6:00AM on May 29th. A severe rainstorm delayed the funeral procession to about 8:30AM when a caisson carried the body of Davis to Alabama's state capitol. A procession carried the casket through the portico where Jefferson Davis, in 1861, had taken the oath of office as President of the Confederate States of America.
The casket was placed in front of the bench of the Alabama Supreme Court. Above the right exit was a banner with the word "Monterrey" and above the left exit was a banner with the words "Buena Vista." During the War with Mexico Jefferson Davis was a hero at Monterrey and wounded at Buena Vista.
All businesses and schools closed, and church bells toiled during the procession to and from the capitol. In final tribute, thousands of people of Montgomery, including many ex-soldiers and school children filed by the casket.
At 12:20PM the funeral train departed over the Western Railway of Alabama and Atlanta and West Point Railroad for Atlanta. At West Point, Georgia the train stopped under a beautiful arch of flowers to pick up Georgia's Governor William J. Northen and staff.
At 4:30PM the funeral train pulled into Union Station in Atlanta, Georgia. It is estimated that 20,000 people lined the streets as the funeral procession made their way to the state capitol. Atlanta’s Gate City Guard, which had served as Company F, 1st Georgia (Ramsay’s) during the War Between the States, stood guard over the president.
At 7:00PM the train went north on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which later became Southern Railway and, today, Norfolk Southern Railroad. The train traveled through Lula, Georgia, Greenville, South Carolina and stopped at the North Carolina capitol at Raleigh.
A brief stop was made in Danville, Virginia where a crowd of people gathered around the train and sang, "Nearer My God To Thee" as city church bells toiled.
Finally, the train reached Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, May 31, 1893, at 3:00AM. It was Memorial Day. Mrs. Davis met the train and her husband's casket was taken to the Virginia State House.
At 3:00PM, May 31st, the funeral procession started for Hollywood Cemetery. The caisson bearing the casket was drawn by six white horses. Earlier rains kept the dust from stirring from the dirt roads.
With Mrs. Jefferson Davis were her daughters, Winnie and Margaret. Six state governors acted as pallbearers. It was estimated that 75,000 people attended this final salute to President Davis. The ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and "Taps
Thursday, June 3, 2010
.gif)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)