Posted on 06/23/2012 7:52:50 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
150 years after the great divide in America, reality seems to be proving that the South was right on everything but slavery, lets look!
The Kennedy brothers, Donnie and Ron shook book stores across the land when their book The South Was Right boldly proclaimed a view which asserts that the original founders of America were right, and Lincoln and the progressives were wrong!
The Kennedy twins are intelligent, educated, successful southerners who focused their intellects on researching the politics and economics of the ante bellum era and found considerable evidence that the South was right. It's a terrific book available at Barnes and Nobles, and if you are an American who believes in God, the original founders of America and Declaration of Independence, then The South Was Right should be in your library.
Now, before we go further let's do what we have to do, condemn slavery as the sin of the past. It was wrong. It was wrong in the North, and wrong in the South. Taking a man's liberty is taking a gift from the Almighty Father and that is wrong. No point wasting a lot of space in debate, or discussion. So let's move on.
This article is not about the past, it is about today. It is about an America seemingly in cardiac arrest. It is about an America over regulated, over taxed, over governed. It is about present day fashions and trends crushing the spirit of liberty which made us America. America is headed in the wrong direction and the markets, and our economy, and our young know it. America needs a new direction, and that direction can be found in the South, in its past, and in its present.
The division in America started almost before the Constitution was dry. Justice Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, wrote a treatise on the Southern interpretation of the Constitution. Within that work Upshur points to God as the author/creator of soveriegnty. Soveriegnty is handed from God to man. From man, soveriegnty is passed to the states. And it is the states who share a small portion of soveriegnty with the federeal government. The federal government is last, not first, and the Constitution is a leash to restrain the natural inclination of men in power to seek more power.
Let's start with the beginning. The South, Dixie, is also known as the Bible Belt. 150 years ago, in the Preamble to the Confederate Constitution, the southern founding fathers called on God for His protection and His guidance. God was invited to the "governing table." This was not something new in America, but it was one of the things the North was changing and the South wanted to keep. If you read Forged in Faith or The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States you will discover that Christ had been with America since before its conception. Christ and the church were with each of the colonies as they were discovered and settled. Christianity was at the heart of the laws, at the core of the spirit of the people who made the venture from Europe to America. Christ was about liberty, the rule of law, consent of the governed and majority rule. Sovereignty came from God. God is sovereign. From Him all authority flows.
Many of today's writers on this subject credit the Pilgrims and Massachusetts with using the Bible, and Higher Law to write the Mayflower Compact and plant the seeds for American democracy. The separate religious faiths of Christianity and the pulpit was critical to the foundation of Ameirca. The first cohesiveness of America, the first spirit of unity amongst the colonies came from a mutual belief in a Christian God. All believed that God had brought us to America, and that God was in charge.
The North is portrayed as the original Bible Belt. Yet something happened. The North has moved away from God. The South today, has not. Barack Obama, as President, has declared we are not a Christian nation. That may work in New York, or with the main stream media, but it don't set well if you live south of the Mason Dixon Line, or in the Heartland. America is Christian today. We do believe in the Bible. We do believe in Christ. Our morality, our sense of right and wrong, come from the Higher law. Everything that America can be stems from this starting point. Everything that man can be emanates from the understanding that God exists, that the Bible is His word.
This is not past. This is today. This is the South. Go in its towns. Go to its churches. Talk to people. Listen. The South is not conservative because it has less colleges or universities. The South is not conservative through some genetic fault. The South is conservative because the root of conservatism is a Christian God. It is a belief in something other than government. It is a belief in the partnership between God and man. The South is Right!
Since Eden man has wrestled with the questions of right and wrong. There's no need to. God outlined right and wrong. Like a loving parent He wrote a letter to mankind in the form of the Bible. It tells us right and wrong. No secrets. Nothing scientists have to discover. Nope. Like the basic laws of physics right and wrong do NOT change. Yet, so much of man's energy is wasted in the ebb tides of morality. Yet like gravity, or magnetism, right and wrong are consistent, not changed or altered by man.
The South is this place. It is a place where the anchor of God sets the table. While other parts of the nation, or people within the nation may chide the South for being the Bible Belt, we wear that description knowing Christ told us we should endure in living His word.
But the South is about much more then its bedrock faith.
The South is about American values. It is about federalism, state's rights and local control. It is about the people in the local area having the most to say about governing themselves. The South is about limiting federal government. The South is about limiting the benefits of working for the government! The best and brightest should not be in government. They should be in medicine, or inventing new technologies, or creating new business formations, or caring for the land and resources of a region.
The South is about capitalism. It is about competition. The right to work is a southern concept, and unions are seen as a socialist tool to organize workers. Unions have become their own political parties, their own sources of power. Unions do not represent their members. What American jobs did unions fight for? Unions are internationals, not American. They are not Christian, they are secular. Unions are myopic; they are manifestations of cumulative greed seeking power and advantage for a small set of people. And because the South rejected unionism, and wealthy investors poured their monies into the north and not the South, the South was spared the natural inflation which comes with unions.
The South is about understanding that wealth is not money. Wealth is in the land, in the family, and in the things we produce. Money is a tool, not a source of value.
The South is about pride in one's home town, and region. The South is about a regional identity and unity. It is about a way of thinking, a way of singing, and a way of enjoying life. What other region in America has a symbol equal to the Confederate battle flag?; a symbol internationally known and respected, a symbol in opposition to tyranny and oppression. And then there is the South's national anthem; Dixie.
The South offers an alternative American model, one that is needed in the modern world. The South is the antithesis to modern global hegemony and collectivism. The South is about nationalism, independence, autonomy, personal liberty, limited government. The South embraces God as the sole supreme authority. The South provides an alternative course, alternative direction, an alternative to human secularism and socialism. The South is right.
the south today HAS moved from God
I live in Dixie now, and I tell ya, while people all say they love Jesus...and they DONT say that in the North, you would be hard pressed to see it in their lives
people who claim to be Baptists drink, smoke, sleep around, if you go to a singles website, all the BAPTIST women want to meet you in a bar for drinks first
soem insist on knowing what a good kisser you are first before they agree to date you.
Honest, I fell out laughing when I was asked that one, but it’s true, more than once. ( I kind of agree, but I would NEVER have said it that way)
But Bible Belt?
No, growign liberal Christianity. STILL, more Christianity than New England, I will admit, but Bible Belt??
stretch pants, more like.
In fact, in most of the Baptist Churches, about 40% of the congregation is all us Northerners. That was true of the 3 Baptist Churches I tied until I stayed in the last one for the last 18 months
The confederacy was about the right to secede, a right that every state has. The Union infringed on that right. Repeatedly. The north deserves the downward economic and social trend it has experienced for the way it treated the South.
The confederacy was about the right to secede, a right that every state has. The Union infringed on that right. Repeatedly. The north deserves the downward economic and social trend it has experienced for the way it treated the South.
You sound like a Redleg to me. Fu!
We became Southerners in 2010 when we moved to Tennessee from California. We are so glad to be in the Bible Belt! I know it sounds backward, but the south is much more civilized than California, NY, etc., when it comes to the issues that matter in life.
I never said we were right about Slavery, but here’s a little known group of Facts...
#1: The first slave was owned by a BLACK man
#2: Not ONE slave was brought to America under the Stars and Bars they were all brought here under the Stars and Stripes
and
#3: General Grants wife refused to free her slaves, they had to be taken by force. A fact that has now been scrubbed from the History Books.
Try READING up on Shermans March to the Sea.
Quit saying what you’ve been “taught” in public school, and try looking into things for yourself.
wrong
And those facts prove what? Slavery was right? And you states were under the stars and bars when your plantations were taking in slaves.
And thanks for glossing over the rest of my comments where I agree with you that there can be valid reasons to secede, and the south had some, but they also had a very bad invalid one.
Fact is the south would’ve given it up soon anyway, slave labor was unable to keep up with industrialization.
Chill dude, I’m not arguing with you.
No, those facts were not to prove Slavery was right (as I said, you might want to LOOk at my post).
And, I didn’t mean to “gloss over” where you agreed with me.
I was just sharing information, not starting a disagreement.
AND just for being that way, some of those plantations were OWNED by Yankees, and had Southern Overseers.
Get some coffee, and relax.
That's because the importation of slaves was made illegal in the United States in 1808, 20 years after the Constitution was ratified. The flag under which the majority of slaves were imported was, in fact, the British one. And one of the main conduits ran, oddly, through the state of Rhode Island, also the first state to make it illegal and the first to declare independence from the British as well.
That is not to ignore a rather vigorous activity in smuggling of slaves, two hotbeds of which were Charleston and New Orleans. But that was small potatoes compared to the original importation.
As to the overall issue of the continuance of the institution of slavery, however, the Stars and Bars absolutely does hold a responsibility - I cite the Texas declaration of secession as a specific instance.
As far as the first slave being owned by a black man, you are referring, I believe to Anthony Johnson, who is recorded as owning slaves in the mid 1600's. He was, however, brought over as a "servant" himself - the definitions were very murky at that time, and no one differentiated between indentured servants and slaves. He was among the first to own servants formally designated as "slave" but the real "credit" of being the first slaveowner in America is, I am afraid, lost to time. If I had to grant that title to somebody he would probably be Spanish. Which stretches the definition of "America" - this is a debate that will never really be resolved.
The very existence of this thing disproves the prevailing interpretation of history. It is not the smoking gun, it is the magic bullet itself. A whole version of history lies dead in the corner with Lincoln bent over it.
The same neo-confederate BS that I have grown so tired of hearing here. Lincoln did not vigorously endorse the Corwin Amendment. He only said that he did not care one way or another, but if could have convinced the states that had already declare secession to return to the union, he was not opposed. The amendment was only proposed to reassure the South that the Federal Government had no intention of abolishing slavery.
In fact, there was no possible way the Federal Government could have abolished it before secession.
Congress would have never given the necessary 2/3 majority of both houses, and with 15 out of 37 being slave states, there was no chance of gaining the necessary 3/4 of state ratification necessary to ratify such an admendment to the constitution.
Your drivel about Lincoln supporting Corwin is a standard Lost Cause tactic to confuse those who do not know history or are totally ignorant of the constitutional process.
Lincoln did not come into office promising to end slavery. His only pledge was to end the expansion of slavery to the territories.
That, and that alone is what the Confederates went to war over.
Read about the Corwin Amendment here.
Learn the facts and please stop spreading misinformation.
My information about Sherman's March comes from a famous Mississippian by the name of Shelby Foote.
Try reading him some time my friend. He will disabuse you of many of the myths you have be 'taught.'
Perhaps you could provide a reference for your #3?
How many civilians died on Patton's March through Germany?
According to Shelby Foote, while Sherman did massive damage to Confederate infrastructure such as railroads, forges and cotton mills, and his 60,000 men did live off the land, there were few civilians injured in his campaign and even military losses where very low compared to other campaigns during that war.
The end result is that Sherman ended the war far sooner than it would have otherwise. That saved tens of thousands of lives on both sides.
Care to show me where say’s it’s legal Reb? And don’t give me the 10th. Amendment. Look up this guy, Professor John Stouffer, Harvard Uni., heard him on C-Span recently. Do that Reb. You know something, seems to me you’ve done alright living in the good ol’USA . If you don’t like it then start your own secessionist movement. Do that instead of mouthing off here General Lee. Make the freakin’ news and show America the face of the new secessionist.
I’m an American. Funny, someone from Ohio calling me a Jayhawker. Tell me something chum, what the hell does all of this North/South bs have to do with today? Is fighting 1861 going to get Obama out of office?
Collapse without civil war? Reb check the history. It wasn’t exactly peaceful.
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