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Guess What Folks - Secession Wasn't Treason
The Copperhead Chronicles ^ | August 2007 | Al Benson

Posted on 08/27/2007 1:37:39 PM PDT by BnBlFlag

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Copperhead Chronicle Al Benson, Jr. Articles

Guess What Folks--Secesson Wasn't Treason by Al Benson Jr.

More and more of late I have been reading articles dealing with certain black racist groups that claim to have the best interests of average black folks at heart (they really don't). It seems these organizations can't take time to address the problems of black crime in the black community or of single-parent families in the black community in any meaningful way. It's much more lucrative for them (and it gets more press coverage) if they spend their time and resources attacking Confederate symbols. Ive come to the conclusion that they really don't give a rip for the welfare of black families. They only use that as a facade to mask their real agenda--the destruction of Southern, Christian culture.

Whenever they deal with questions pertaining to history they inevitably come down on that same old lame horse that the South was evil because they seceded from the Union--and hey--everybody knows that secession was treason anyway. Sorry folks, but that old line is nothing more than a gigantic pile of cow chips that smells real ripe in the hot August sun! And I suspect that many of them know that--they just don't want you to know it--all the better to manipulate you my dear!

It is interesting that those people never mention the fact that the New England states threatened secession three times--that's right three times--before 1860. In 1814 delegates from those New England states actually met in Hartford, Connecticut to consider seceding from the Union. Look up the Hartford Convention of 1814 on the Internet if you want a little background. Hardly anyone ever mentions the threatened secession of the New England states. Most "history" books I've seen never mention it. Secession is never discussed until 1860 when it suddenly became "treasonous" for the Southern states to do it. What about the treasonous intent of the New England states earlier? Well, you see, it's only treasonous if the South does it.

Columnist Joe Sobran, whom I enjoy, once wrote an article in which he stated that "...Jefferson was an explicit secessionist. For openers he wrote a famous secessionist document known to posterity as the Declaration of Independence." If these black racist groups are right, that must mean that Jefferson was guilty of treason, as were Washington and all these others that aided them in our secession from Great Britain. Maybe the black racists all wish they were still citizens of Great Britain. If that's the case, then as far as I know, the airlines are still booking trips to London, so nothing is stopping them.

After the War of Northern Aggression against the South was over (at least the shooting part) the abolitionist radicals in Washington decided they would try Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States as a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination (which would have been just great for Edwin M. Stanton) and as a traitor for leading the secessionist government in Richmond, though secession had hardly been original with Mr. Davis. However, trying Davis for treason as a secessionist was one trick the abolitionist radicals couldn't quite pull off.

Burke Davis, (no relation to Jeff Davis that I know of) in his book The Long Surrender on page 204, noted a quote by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, telling Edwin Stanton that "If you bring these leaders to trial, it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution, secession is not rebellion...His (Jeff Davis') capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one. We cannot convict him of treason." Burke Davis then continued on page 214, noting that a congressiona committee proposed a special court for Davis' trial, headed by Judge Franz Lieber. Davis wrote: "After studying more than 270,000 Confederate documents, seeking evidence against Davis, the court discouraged the War Department: 'Davis will be found not guilty,' Lieber reported 'and we shall stand there completely beaten'." What the radical Yankees and their lawyers were admitting among themselves (but quite obviously not for the historical record) was that they and Lincoln had just fought a war of aggression agains the Southern states and their people, a war that had taken or maimed the lives of over 600,000 Americans, both North and South, and they had not one shread of constitutional justification for having done so, nor had they any constitutional right to have impeded the Southern states when they chose to withdraw from a Union for which they were paying 83% of all the expenses, while getting precious little back for it, save insults from the North.

Most of us detest big government or collectivism. Yet, since the advent of the Lincoln administration we have been getting ever increasing doses of it. Lincoln was, in one sense, the "great emancipator" in that he freed the federal government from any chains the constitution had previously bound it with, so it could now roam about unfettered "seeking to devous whoseover it could." And where the Founders sought to give us "free and independent states" is anyone naive enough anymore as to think the states are still free and independent? Those who honestly still think that are prime candidates for belief in the Easter Bunny, for he is every bit as real as is the "freedom" our states experience at this point in history. Our federal government today is even worse than what our forefathers went to war against Britain to prevent. And because we have been mostly educated in their government brain laundries (public schools) most still harbor the illusion that they are "free." Well, as they say, "the brainwashed never wonder." ___________________

About the Author

Al Benson Jr.'s, [send him email] columns are to found on many online journals such as Fireeater.Org, The Sierra Times, and The Patriotist. Additionally, Mr. Benson is editor of the Copperhead Chronicle [more information] and author of the Homeschool History Series, [more information] a study of the War of Southern Independence. The Copperhead Chronicle is a quarterly newsletter written with a Christian, pro-Southern perspective.

When A New Article Is Released You Will Know It First! Sign-Up For Al Benson's FREE e-Newsletter

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Copperhead Chronicle | Homeschool History Series | Al Benson, Jr. Articles


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: albenson; aracistscreed; billyyankdiedforzip; bobbykkkbyrd; civilwar; confedcrud; confederacy; confederate; confederatecrap; constitutionalgovt; crap; cruddy; damnyankees; despotlincoln; dishonestabe; dixie; dixiecrats; dixieforever; dixieisthebest; dixieland; dixiepropaganda; dixierinos; dixietrash; dumbbunny; dumbyankees; frkkklanrally; goodolddays; hillbillyparty; intolerantyanks; jeffdavisisstilldead; kkk; kkklosers; lincolnregime; lincolnwarcriminal; mightmakesright; moneygrubbingyankee; mossbacks; murdererlincoln; neoconfederates; northernagression; northernbigots; northernfleas; northernterrorist; northisgreat; noteeth; obnoxiousyankees; ohjeeze; racism; racists; rebelrash; rednecks; secession; segregationfanclub; slaveowners; slaveryapologists; sorelosers; southernbabies; southernbigots; southernfleas; southernheritage; southwillriseagain; stupidthread; traitors; tyrantlincoln; warforwhat; warsoveryoulost; wehateyankees; wehateyanks; welovedixie; weloveyankess; wewonhaha; yalljustthinkyouwon; yankeecrap; yankeedespots; yankeedogs; yankeeelete; yankeehippocrites; yankeeleftist; yankeeliberals; yankeemoneygrubber; yankeescum; yankeestupidity; yankeeswine; yankeeswon; yankeeterrorists; yanksarebigots; yankslosttoodummies; yankswon; youlost
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To: stand watie
Ah, so if you just spend hours every day reading their posts, you're a "spy," but if you spend 20 minutes every couple of weeks and post once or twice over the years disagreeing with them, you're a liberal.

For the record, the last time I posted there was to mock the idea that some recent talks between Paraguay and Chile (I think it was) were the result of the beneficent effect of Ugo Chavez over all of South America.

921 posted on 09/11/2007 9:26:45 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: 4CJ; Philly Nomad
PS. Sherman admitted he was guilty of war crimes. In a letter to Lt. Col. John Rawlins ...

Context is everything.

SIR: I have the honor herewith to transmit for the action of the general-in-chief the proceedings of a general court martial in the case of Private (James O.) Tebow, Sergeant (Henry) Blanck, and Captain (William B.) Keeler of Company A, Thirty-fifth Iowa. These constitute once case, all involving the burnign of a cotton-gin during our march from Jackson back to ourt camps on Big Black.

The amount of burning, stealing, and plundering done by our army makes me ashamed of it. I would quit the service if I could, because I fear that we are drifting to the worst sort of vandalism. I have endeavored to repress this class of crime, but your know how difficult it is to fix the guilt among the great class of an army. In this case I caught the man in the act. He is acquitted because, I suppose, he had not set the fire with his own hands, and thus your and I and every commander must go through the war justly chargeable with crimes at which we blush.

I should have executed the soldier on the spot, and would have been justified, but he pleased his superior orders, and now a volunteer court martials, tainted with the technicalities of our old civil courts, absolves the officer on the old pleas, good when all men were held responsible for the acts done with their own hands. I believe there is a remedy; General Grant can stamp the act as a crime, and can pronounce the officer unworthy of commission in the Army of the United States. This will in a measure relieve our General Government of the obloquy attached to such acts of vandalism, and this would form a good occasion for a general orrder announcing to alll that our province is to maintain good law, and not to break it. The burning of this building in no way aided our military plans. No enemy was within 50 miles. A major riding behind his regiment is not the man to know the policy of the General Government of the United States. I have issued orders again and again on this subject, but our commands change so often that time is not afforded to prohibit all sorts of misdemeanors to ech new command, nor is it necessary. this major had not reason to presume that he, hin the presence of his regimental, brigade, and division commanders, should judge the policy of the government, and I was close at hand and he knew it. He knew that he had no right to order this burning, or, if ignorant, he is unworthy of a commission.

I ask that he be dismissed summarily and in disgrace. Not that I would visit upon thim undeserved punishment, but that the United States authorities should wash their hands of the obloquy attached to such wanton acts of destruction.

I am, &c,
W.T. Sherman

Puts a rather different spin on your quote.
922 posted on 09/11/2007 9:52:53 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
Puts a rather different spin on your quote.

Sherman: 'The amount of burning, stealing, and plundering done by our army ... I have endeavored to repress this class of crime ...'

Nah. It supports it. Sherman also notes, 'I have issued orders again and again on this subject', yet such orders are continously disobeyed. That speaks volumes about discipline in the Union forces.

923 posted on 09/11/2007 10:43:54 AM PDT by 4CJ (Annoy a liberal, honour Christians and our gallant Confederate dead)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
They should have been thankful to be transported to a more advanced and prosperous civilization.

Southern women and children, non-combatants, ripped from the homes and transported a thousand miles from home, and you claim that this was to a 'more advanced and prosperous civilization'?

But that's ALWAYS been the yankee mentality right? After all, y'all are the ones that did the same to Africans. You would gag a maggot.

924 posted on 09/11/2007 10:48:53 AM PDT by 4CJ (Annoy a liberal, honour Christians and our gallant Confederate dead)
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To: stand watie
swattie, just when we were making progress.

I took a look at DU like you said. They have a "Stand Watie" over there, too. Is it you?

Anyway, this is all a distraction. Please, tell more about your 92 relatives killed by the Yankees.

925 posted on 09/11/2007 2:07:52 PM PDT by x
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To: Colonel Kangaroo; All
IF what you allege is TRUE, that would be OK.

BUT sadly (for YOU) the US Army's Investigators of the USPOWC found NO credible evidence among ANY of the TORRENT of FALSE ACCUSATIONS made against any CSA service-member, which was NOT punished harshly by the CSA command structure.

otoh, there were MANY UNPUNISHED union criminals, who not only escaped punishment, but whose WAR CRIMES the DAMNyankee "high command" INTENTIONALLY chose NOT to even investigate (much less punish).

the HECATOMB against my family was reported to the Union Provost Marshal. NOTHING was DONE. (further as i have said on these threads before, GENERALLY nothing at all was done to the "criminals in blue" for their crimes. thus what was done to MY family was anything BUT unique!!!)

as Dr Everett Slaverns said to me once: all armies throughout history have numbered criminals within their ranks. in the union military service those crimes were not only NOT punished, but were frequently ENCOURAGED as a "means to an end". (that is the BEST 'working definition" that i've heard for : CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY & CRIMES AGAINST PEACE.)

free dixie,sw

926 posted on 09/11/2007 2:28:50 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: groanup; All
actually, i suspect it was NOT "ignorance", but rather HATEFULNESS, MEANspiritedness & UNthinking PREJUDICE on "philly nomad's" part.

free dixie,sw

927 posted on 09/11/2007 2:30:55 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
in other words, you ADMIT to BEING a "DU-dummy".

free dixie,sw

928 posted on 09/11/2007 2:31:47 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: 4CJ
But that's ALWAYS been the yankee mentality right?

I believe he's specifically referencing Robert E. Lee's mentality on the subject of slavery.

After all, y'all are the ones that did the same to Africans

Which is like blaming a murder on the truck driver who brought the gun to the gun store. I guess those cunning yankee merchants must have tricked the south into buying all those slaves the same way Lincoln tricked them into firing on Sumter.

I'd like to see your evidence that the Roswell and New Manchester women were enslaved, by the way. From every reference I can find, they were simply transported out of the theatre of war and left to fend for themselves.

929 posted on 09/11/2007 2:32:09 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: 4CJ

Chase also wrote, 'As preliminary to the very able discussions of the Constitution which we have heard from the bar, and as having some influence on its construction, reference has been made to the political situation of these States anterior to its formation. It has been said that they were sovereign, were completely independent, and were connected with each other only by a league. This is true.' [Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 US 1 (1824)].

 I only had to go down to the first quote you reference to find your massive editing and spinning. You left out the BUT that came  immediately after "this is true".  Funny you should pick a quote that comes from a case that EXTENDED the powers of the federal government over the states. Here is the sentence in the quote that comes immeditately after the PART of the quote you reference:

 "But, when these allied sovereigns converted their league into a government, when they converted their Congress of Ambassadors, deputed to deliberate on their common concerns, and to recommend measures of general utility, into a Legislature, empowered to enact laws on the most interesting subjects, the whole character in which the States appear, underwent a change, the extent of which must be determined by a fair consideration of the instrument by which that change was effected."  


930 posted on 09/11/2007 2:32:20 PM PDT by Delacon (When in doubt, ask a liberal and do the opposite.)
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To: x
fwiw, you make me (& every other DECENT person that reads your PREJUDICED swill) gag.

don't you get tired of being the "class fool" & OPENLY prejudiced BIGOT???

fyi, your reputation as a fool, a moron, a BIGOT & a prejudiced south-HATER is secure on FR.

free dixie,sw

931 posted on 09/11/2007 2:35:07 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie

I also belong to a gym, have a public library card, and I’m two cups away from getting a free coffee at the place down the street from my office.


932 posted on 09/11/2007 2:36:17 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
how about the NORTHERNERS, who were IN the "flesh trade" from first to last??? were they wonderful people in YOUR opinion, just because of WHERE they lived???

how about the so-called "abolitionists", who at the SAME TIME that they were LOUDLY condemning SOUTHERN slavery, were IN the slave trade. (Garrison being ONE! the editor-in-chief of the NY Times being another.)

OR how about those wonderful "quick-change artists", who SOLD their slaves when slavery became UNPROFITABLE & then immediately condemned slavery, in those places where it was still PROFITABLE???

face it "bubba",you & every other DAMNyankee apologist on FR, are defending FILTH, liars & HYPOCRYTES!

but then HYPOCRASY/DISHONESTY/AMORALITY/GREED has forever been the MAIN trait of the DAMNyankee BIGOTS/ANTI-Semites/south-HATERS.

free dixie,sw

933 posted on 09/11/2007 2:44:36 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
and your point is???

having a library card, drinking coffee, etc is NOT the same thing as being an admitted MEMBER of the DU-DUMMIES & America-HATERS.

free dixie,sw

934 posted on 09/11/2007 2:46:37 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie
he HECATOMB against my family was reported to the Union Provost Marshal. NOTHING was DONE.

Maybe because they weren't clear on just where it was supposed to have happened.

Rally to the Battle Flag! POST #119

REF: the massmurders, rapes, pillaging and arson committed against MY family:the dates were April 16-18, 1864, Lake Corinth, Mississippi-the culprits were UNIFORMED "bummers" of the US Army- NO ACTION was ever taken against the participants by the army's high command-a private letter from my greatr-great great-grandaunt (Cordelia Elizabeth Mary Bankhead-Knieff- her diary of the war years is in the collections of the University of Southern Mississippi) indicates that a report of the atrocities committed was reported to the nearest yankee headquarters with no results, as misbehavior of troops against civilians was both expected and accepted as NORMAL behavior toward the "rebel filth".


935 posted on 09/11/2007 2:52:44 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: stand watie

Gosh, I wasn’t aware that signing onto a website in order to set them straight on a point meant that I was automatically in sympathy with them in all things. I think a better case can be made that you’re in sympathy with the KKK and the Aryan Nations, since you’re a friend of Kirk Lyons.


936 posted on 09/11/2007 2:54:36 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: stand watie
Garrison being ONE

Do you ever get tired of lying? Show some actual evidence that Garrison was involved in the slave trade, and not one of your usual "someone told me once" sources, or the "I saw the secret documents during my graduate school days."

face it "bubba",you & every other DAMNyankee apologist on FR, are defending FILTH, liars & HYPOCRYTES!

Whereas you're defending the people who actually went to war to protect their slave property, whose hypocrisy can be seen in statements like Robert E. Lee's that slavery was good for them and that God would get around to freeing them in a thousand years or so, and that there was no point in men pushing for it. At least northern hypocrisy didn't wrap itself in biblical justifications.

937 posted on 09/11/2007 2:59:59 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep; All
laughing AT you, LIAR/bigot.

but "rave on" as you & "x" damage the HATE-filled, arrogant, DAMNyankees with every post.

as a "reb" said in a PM to me the other evening, "i wonder why the other members of the coven allow "bubba-hotep" & "x" to remain on "their team", as they constantly embarrass the unionist cause. those two continue to amaze me with their stupid/hateful posts." (i told him that i didn't know that answer, but that i'm PLEASED that "the 2 of you" are here to injure the other DYs.)

free dixie,sw

938 posted on 09/11/2007 3:04:00 PM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie
It always amazes me how you claim on a constant basis to be getting PMs that always seem to say the same thing. Maybe it's Tyrone Brown writing to you from all those colleges you've put him at.

If these friends do exist, they're cowards. And if they're imaginary, as I suspect, it's pretty funny that you have cowards as imaginary friends.

939 posted on 09/11/2007 3:10:22 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: stand watie

Wait a second, you are cheering for a rebellion against the United States. God rightfully punishes your family and you think I’m a fool?

At least I love America unlike you.


940 posted on 09/11/2007 3:10:40 PM PDT by Philly Nomad
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