Confederacy of the determined - (Southern heritage buffs vow "Confederate History Month")

Southern heritage buffs vow to use the Virginia gubernatorial election as a platform for designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month.

The four candidates have differing views on the Confederacy, an issue that has been debated for years in the commonwealth.

"We're not just a few people making a lot of noise," said Brag Bowling, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the oldest hereditary organization for male descendents of Confederate soldiers. "This is not a racial thing; it is good for Virginia. We're going to keep pushing this until we get it."

Each candidate recently shared his thoughts on what Mr. Bowling called a "litmus test for all politicians." Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine would not support a Confederate History and Heritage Month. Former state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore would support something that recognizes everyone who lived during the Civil War.

Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. and Warrenton Mayor George B. Fitch would support a Confederate History and Heritage Month. Many past Virginia governors honored the Civil War or the Confederacy.

In 1990, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first black governor, a Democrat and a grandson of slaves, issued a proclamation praising both sides of the war and remembering "those who sacrificed in this great struggle."

Former Govs. George Allen and James S. Gilmore III, both Republicans, issued Confederate History Month proclamations. In 2000, Mr. Gilmore replaced that proclamation with one commemorating both sides of the Civil War -- a move that enraged the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat, has refused to issue a gubernatorial decree on either side of the Civil War.

Mr. Kaine, another Democrat, would decline to issue a Confederate History and Heritage Month proclamation if he is elected governor, said his campaign spokeswoman, Delacey Skinner.

Here are the real heros of the South.

Peace Societies In The Confederacy

Soon after the war started, peace societies organized by disloyalists began appearing in the Confederacy. 3--the Peace and Constitutional Society, the Peace Society, and the Order of the Heroes of America--grew into well-developed disruptive forces that seriously undermined the Confederate war effort.

Disloyalists opposed the suspension of Habeas Corpus, Impressment, Tax-in-kind legislation, and conscription, denouncing these laws as unjust and unconstitutional. When possible they evaded or refused to obey them. Conscription in particular invited defiance that the Conscript Bureau countered with harsh retaliatory measures and made banding together necessary for self-protection. Because of the danger of being exposed and arrested by Confederate authorities, disloyalists operated clandestinely, with secret oaths, handshakes, and passwords. Initially dominated by Unionists and others who had opposed secession, the number of those disaffected grew as dissatisfaction with the government and suffering caused by the war increased.

The Peace and Constitutional Society, the smallest of the organized opposition groups, was founded by staunch Unionists in Van Buren City., Ark. Its existence was discovered in fall 1861 when civil authorities arrested and tried 27 men for refusing to support the Confederacy. During their trials, the men were exposed as members of the society, which was pledged to encourage desertion and support the Federal army when it reached Arkansas.

The Peace Society, a powerful subversive group in Alabama, extended its influence to East Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and possibly Florida. Confederate officials suspected its existence in 1862 and believed it had originated within Union lines. They did not investigate until the society successfully influenced the Aug. 1863 elections and sent to the Confederate Congress 6 officials who advocated ending the war and returning to the Union. During this time, to subvert the Confederacy's war effort in every way possible, prominent members traveled through the Southwest recruiting support for the society's doctrine. Their success in carrying their activities into the army became evident Dec. 1863, when some 60 Peace Society members in Brig. Gen. Ames H. Clanton's brigade attempted to mutiny, betraying a plan to lay down arms and go home on Christmas Day.

The best developed of the peace societies, the Order of the Heroes of America, may have been organized as early as Dec. 1861, though by whom and where is uncertain. Active in North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, and eastern Tennessee, the Heroes protected deserters, aided spies and escaped prisoners, and supplied Federal authorities with information about Confederate troop movements and strength to bring about a Confederate defeat. Brig. Gen. John Echols, who investigated the order in Virginia when it was discovered there in 1864, believed it had been formed at the suggestion of Federal authorities. Union civilian and military officials cooperated with the order by assuring its members safe passage through the lines and by offering them exemption from military service if they deserted, protection for their property, and a share or confiscated Confederate estates after the war, Both Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln belonged to the order. In addition to their signs and passwords, the Heroes identified themselves by wearing a red string on their lapels and thus were nicknamed the Red Strings" and the 'Red-String Band."

As Confederate morale declined, the strength of the peace parties increased despite efforts by the military to suppress them. Their influence played a strong role in the Confederate Congress reluctance to suspend Habeas Corpus for extended periods and boosted support for peace advocates in government. Protection of deserters and conscripts denied the army thousands of able-bodied men when they were critically needed. Faced with severe shortages of men and materiel and a hastily organized central government, the Confederacy suffered more disruption from the peace societies than the Union did from Copperheads . Source: "Historical Time Encyclopedia Of The Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust

I must have missed the forever-and-ever part of the constitution. I was probably distracted by that stuff in the Declaration of Independence about the People having the right to rise up when a government ceases to serve the People.

Well, you might also note in the Declaration that there has to be some reason for the revolt.

And what the South's complaint?

She was not going to be allowed to spread her slave cancer into the free terroitories.

The South rejected the principles of equality in the Declaration which gave men a right to revolt.

They certainly would not grant the right to revolt to the slaves they held in bondage, now would they?

They put down every slave revolt with a vengence.

A people who deny the right of self-government to others cannot claim it for themselves.

The power to secede no more resides with a state then the power of ejecting a state resides with a majority of states. Article V: 'no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.'

That Article deals with Amendments.

If the other states united, they would first strip a state of its statehood, which mean that it was no longer a state and therefore not entitled to any suffrage in the Senate.

Without that relationship, that severed state would now become a separate nation.

Since secession is not in the Constitution, it is not Constitutional. Just what part of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments DON'T you understand? I'd be ashamed to be publicly stating such.

I understand that the States are States due to the relationship with the other States in the Union.

The powers that they have, they have as States, which means they have to part of the Union to have those powers.

The States that joined the Confederacy did so as States not independent nations, and as such were forming a compact with other States in the Union and were in violation of the Constitution they had agreed to as States.

Moreover, the right of a State to secede from the Confederacy isn't given in its Consititution either.

That word doesn't show up at all.

But what does show up is the reason for the Confederacy's existance.

The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.

But forming compacts with other states is forbidden under the Constitution. A state not IN the union is not under such restriction.

The States were always in union with some other states (hence they never were nations).

They cannot form compacts with other states to form alternative Unions, which is what the Confederacy was.

You Sir, are a MORON. Christian or not. Go preach your abolitionist anti-Southern, Confederate-Hating views to someone else. I am done arguing with your sheer stupidity.

All you guys keep bringing up Confederate Heritage month, and putting your Confederate flag up.

Do you see the North pushing Yankee Heritage month-and we were the ones who won.

We have plenty of battlefields to commemorate the dead on both sides.

What is deceptive about this entire Confederate nonsense is your claim that your side represented freedom.

It did not.

The Confederacy had rejected the principles that this nation had been founded on the Declaration of Independence, which is what makes us unique among nations.

Next comes the union created by the Declaration of Independence. The most notable fact in this context is that the Declaration announces a lawful secession by the colonies from Great Britain based on the right of the people to alter or abolish their form of government. It is thus apparent that the Declaration of Independence establishes that the right of secession is among the inalienable rights of men. The Declaration is therefore literally the last place on earth one would hope to find legal justification for a war against secession.

The Declaration never declared anything about secession, it claimed the right of revolution.

Ofcourse the word secession has to be used (referring to a political entity) lest the right of revolution be considered legimate for the slaves themselves.

The Declaration declares for self-government based on human equality, thus, the Confederates themselves were denying the very self-government they were claiming for themselves (and defending themselves for doing so) while denying it to others.

42 Since the seceding states ultimately formed a confederation, does the constitutional prohibition on states entering into a "confederation" [Article I, Section 10] prohibit secession? Such an argument suffers from the same logical fallacy as resort to the supremacy and guarantee clauses. This clause governs only states which are still part of the United States. Thus, to apply this clause to a state which has previously seceded, one must assume that the secession was invalid, which begs the question. Further, the United States did not invade the Confederacy because its states had formed one; it invaded because of the alleged illegality of the secession of the Confederate States. In fact, each state had seceded prior to joining the Confederacy. For example, by the time the first Confederate Constitution was passed on February 8, 1861, all the member states at that time had already seceded. See, E. Pollard, Southern History of the War (New York: Fairfax Press, 1866), pp.

More double-talk.

Were those 'states'that had left the Union, now nations?

What function did they ever preform as such?

They joined the Confederacy as states.

In fact, SC said it would not secede if it had to secede by itself and not join up with other Southern states.

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