Saturday, November 30, 2013

Yankee monument at Olustee Battlefield


Dear Mr. Gregory,
First, let me thank you for responding to Mr. Purvis regarding his contact with Florida Governor Scott. Having been active in the field of "correcting" (not "revising") the history of the mis-named "Civil War," I am used to all such communications being tacitly ignored when they are not outright condemned by those who have embraced the establishment's version of "history." It is pleasant indeed to find not only a response, but a courteous one albeit, I cannot agree with the points you make.
If no blame were to obtain in this war, if what had happened had been very much the same as the events leading up to the First World War - which on the whole seemed to be a combination of extreme hubris, bad luck and stupidity by both sides - then I might grant you some reason to honor the fallen on the federal side. But such is NOT the case. This was a war of conquest and subjugation levied against sovereign States exercising their constitutional right to leave a compact - the Constitution - and a "union" which had become burdens on their people and which promised to be - given the political situation - eternal in nature. Even the excuses for the war whether it be slavery or Fort Sumter were lies. Slavery was not the cause, else the Corwin Amendment which put   that institution into the Constitution in perpetuity would not have been offered to tempt the Cotton States to remain in the Union. And Sumter was a false flag operation from the beginning, an effort by Lincoln and his advisers - civilian and military - to force South Carolina to fire what was described as "the first shot" of the war for political purposes! Of course, the "first shot" - or at least the first hostile act - predated the firing on that fort by some four months! When Major Anderson vandalized Fort Moultrie - the actual federal installation - and took ship to Fort Sumter which had reverted to the hands of South Carolina when the government failed to live up to its lease agreement, war had already been declared! Anderson overwhelmed the civilian workers in that fort and at bayonet point, drove them out. In other words, federal soldiers attacked and occupied a fort that was the property of the State of South Carolina!
No, Mr. Gregory. The War Against Succession was an illegitimate and cruel war from the beginning. Lincoln and his government targeted non-combatants, a situation that only became worse and more egregious as a war Lincoln believed could be won in a few weeks lingered on for years. Only now are the war crimes committed by the federal forces and the federal government becoming known while all of this is somehow "justified" by the claim that all was done to end slavery. But as one author pointed out, while some people were indeed emancipated, EVERYONE - including those who had been emancipated - became enslaved by a central tyranny which has only grown in size and power. Considering that slavery ended everywhere else in the world without the loss of what may be a million casualties, I do not believe that any cogent, reasonable or defendable argument can be made for the war waged by Lincoln and his minions against the people of the South.
You may not remember, but many years ago, in celebration of D-Day, President Ronald Reagan went to Europe. While there he visited cemeteries in which the dead from the war had been laid to rest. The visit to one cemetery,   however, brought a storm of criticism down on Reagan's head. Why? Because buried within it were the bodies of some SS troops and the visit was seen as paying homage to these war criminals. It was a tempest in a teapot for us in this country, but not to the people in the country once occupied by these criminals. After 150 years of "revised history" which has made heroes of monsters and monsters of heroes, it is understandable that you and others might not see these "Union dead" in the same light as those people saw members of the SS. But if you were to see what has for so long been hidden by academia and the establishment, you might see the matter very differently.
I do not suggest that the Union soldiers buried there be "disrespected," but I do not believe that invaders and conquerors who killed, raped, robbed and waged a genocidal war against the people of the South should be honored either. What they did and the cause they followed do not deserve honor, especially from those against whom they waged unjust and unconstitutional war. Let them lie in peace, but let them lie in silence.
Valerie Protopapas
Huntington Station, New York

Friday, November 29, 2013

Yankee monument at Olustee


This is a response from Gregory Alert concerning the proposed Yankee monument in the Olustee State park. Below that is my response to this letter. Everyone should write him a letter of protest.

George
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello,
Thank you for writing to Governor Rick Scott with your concerns regarding the proposed monument at Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park. I have been asked to respond.
After thoroughly considering all of the comments, the Division of Recreation and Parks agrees that the Union fallen receive less recognition at the state park than do the Confederate fallen. This is based on the language of the 1912 monument, which commemorates the devotion of only the Confederate soldiers, on the commemorative pavers around the monument, which identify only the Confederate units, and on the two small monuments to Confederate generals. As fitting as these monuments undoubtedly are, no comparable recognition of the Union participants in the battle exists on state or federal property that would be part of a regular visit by a state park visitor. As the agency responsible for presenting the story of the Battle of Olustee to the visiting public, the Division agrees that a monument to Union soldiers in the state park would be appropriate.
A public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Columbia Count School District Auditorium on Monday, December 2, 2013. The address is 372 West Duval Street, Lake City, Florida 32055. The meeting will feature a presentation of the monument's proposed final location for public review and comment.
Again, thank you again for sharing your comments.
Albert Gregory
Assistant Director
Division of Recreation and Parks
Department of Environmental Protection
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32303
850-245-3029
Albert.Gregory@dep.state.fl.us

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sir,

So your mind is already made up? Your explanation still does not address why an invading army deserves any recognition at all. Do you not understand the cause of the war, the abuses and destruction heaped on the South? Did you actually read the email i send about the Massacre at Marianna, Fl.? Do you not understand the abuses suffered by the women and children of the at the hands of the Invading Yankees, the rape murder and the stealing? Do you have any idea of the abuses suffered by Southern Soldiers who were captured and imprisoned in Yankee Concentration camps. From your comments, sir you do not.

Sir to educate yourself I suggest you visit my website "Yankee Atrocities" at http://confederatepows.southernheritageadvancementpreservationeducation.com/page.php?6  read these sourced entries and then in good faith tell me a Yankee needs recognition. They deserve no more recognition than Hitler's concentration camp guards

George Purvis
Proud Son of the South

Monument at Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park



Dear Chuck:

It is obvious that the Director of Recreation and Parks in the State of Florida will not listen to the concerns of Confederate Patriots as they consider their option to place a Union soldiers monument at the Battlefield of Olustee. I had recently written a letter to Governor Scott expressing the views and concerns of placing that monument in the Park and below is the response from the Governor's appointed spokesmen for that purpose.

It is also not surprising given Governor Scott's determination, earlier in his term, to eliminate the induction of several Confederate Florida Veterans into the hall of fame who served the State, and also in the military, when the   NAACP and its minions discovered that those members on the list to be inducted were "Confederates."

The Palm Beach posted wrote:  "What do Madison Starke Perry, Abraham Kurkindolle Allison, William D. Bloxham, Edward Aylsworth Perry, Henry L. Mitchell and Francis Philip Fleming have in common?

All are former governors of Florida. And all were recommended by the state's Department of Veterans Affairs to be among the first inductees into the Veterans Hall of Fame the Legislature created in the last session.


And one more thing: All were veterans of the Confederate Army.

Abraham Allison stands out, in particular, because he also was jailed after the Civil War for intimidating blacks.

State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, said in news reports, "This is a good old boy list of good old boy governors. We have Floridians of all colors who have not only earned the nation's highest military honors but some who have made the ultimate sacrifice, yet we're honoring racist governors?"

Fifteen other veterans were nominated, all of them Florida governors. The list, by the way, included the current Gov. Scott, who served in the Navy in the 1970s.

The list has drawn so many objections for who it included and who it left off – there were no Medal of Honor winners, for example – that approval has been withdrawn from the Aug. 2 Cabinet meeting. And Gov. Scott has asked that his name be removed because, he said, it is not proper for a current governor to be on the list.

- See more at: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/opinionzone/2011/07/29/let-confederates-into-fl-veterans-hall-of-fame/#sthash.azb6ACq9.dpuf

Naturally, Scott backed off under pressure from the usual characters who wish to eliminate all things Confederate from our States and this is just another example of their political correctness run amok.

Kevin Carroll/Sovereign State of Florida

The Confederate Society of America

www.deovindice.org

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving Day



The Virginia version is not widely known -- particularly outside the South.  

ON SEPTEMBER 16, 1619, a group of 38 English colonists headed by Captain John Woodlief sailed from England aboard the Margaret. They landed at Berkeley Hundred 10 weeks later. The settlers were sent by the London Company; it owned thousands of acres in the area, and settled and supported Berkeley Plantation.

Exhibit A in the Virginia claim to firstness is this sentence in the company's instructions to the settlers -- instructions to be opened upon reaching Virginia:

We ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.

These settlers held that Thanksgiving at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619 -- a year before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth. Surely Woodlief and his followers were equally as grateful as the Pilgrims -- equally schooled in adversity, equally determined to renew themselves with roots in the land. Surely they were equally devout and equally thankful. To suggest that they were disobedient and did not give thanks requires a superabundance of credulity and moral pretension.

But lest we forget, there were numerous trips to Virginia prior to Woodlief's: the Raleigh expeditions of the 1580s, and the London Company's initial expeditions -- beginning with the one under Christopherr Newport that founded Jamestown in 1607.

The London Company's charter of May 23, 1609, was written principally by Sir Edward Sandys with the concurrence of Sir Francis Bacon, the early philosopher of natural right. It was probably the first document to say that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. It was the closest thing to a constitution and bill of rights that colonists in Virginia had for three years, until refined in 1612. The Sandys charter was written 11 years before the first Pilgrim reached Plymouth.

On November 18, 1618, the London Company issued instructions to Sir George Yeardley upon his appointment as Governor of Virginia; those instructions provided for a liberal form of government. At Jamestown, in 1619, Yeardley convened the first legislative assembly in the New World. That was a year before the landing at Plymouth.

THOSE WERE firsts of considerable magnitude. They, and the events in Virginia during the 35 years prior to the Plymouth landing, tell us a good deal about the Virginia colonists.

They were God-fearing people. Just about every one of their existing documents speaks of their duties and obligations to a God almost always described as "almighty."

These also were people of discipline and self-will. Contrary to so many of us today, they were people determined not to tear down the old to make way for the ersatz old. They retained their umbilical ties to the past, as Virginians -- inhabitants of the most English of states -- tend to do still. Their past was England, and central to England were the church and God.

Even without the instructions to Woodlief, is it not logical to assume that the colonists in Virginia regularly prayed and gave thanks prior to 1621? Do we not have to overlook too much to believe they did not? In 1962, the evidence proved overwhelming to Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., then an adviser to President John Kennedy. In December of that year he repented of "an unconquerable New England bias" on the question, and acknowledged that Virginia's claim is "quite right." But despite the evidence, the bias persists.

A CONFEDERATE THANKSGIVING

                                                          
By Wes Teel
               
Day was predated by the Confederate Thanksgiving Day. Both in 1861 and 1862 President Jefferson Davis declared Thanksgiving Day for the Confederate States. His eloquent declaration states: 
"To the People of the Confederate States 
Once more on the Plaines of Manassas our armies have been blessed by The Lord of Hosts with a triumph over our enemies. It is my privi- lege to invite you once more to His footstool, not in the garb of fasting and sorrow, but with joy and gladness, to render thanks for the great mercies received at His hand.                                                                                       
In such circumstances, it is meet and right that, as a people, we should bow down in adoring thankfulness to that gracious God who has been our bulwark and defense, and to offer unto him the tribute of thanksgiving and praise. In his hand is the issue of all events, and to him should we, in an especial manner, ascribe the honor of this great deliverance. 
Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, do issue this, my proclamation, setting apart Thursday, the 18th day of September inst., as a day of prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God for the great mercies vouchsafed to our people, and more especially for the triumph of our arms at Richmond and Manassas; and I do hereby invite the people of the Confederate States to meet on that day at their respective places of public worship, and to unite in rendering thanks and praise to God for these great mercies, and to implore Him to conduct our country safely through the perils which surround us, to the final attainment of the blessings of peace and security.

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this fourth day of September, A.D.1862." 
Jefferson Davis 
Unlike their northern counter parts, who feasted on turkey, fruit, coffee, and vegetables, our southern soldiers were usually relegated to modest meal of rice, hard tack, sweet potato, and gingerbread cake.

Pat Lang writes in his article entitled "Thanksgiving in the Field - 1863" "On the 26th they had Thanksgiving. Smoot and Harris explained the nature of this feast to Balthazar (a French officer who had come to ob- serve Gen. Let's army), telling him of the memory of God's providence to the colonists at Jamestown. He (Balthazar) heard them out, and sent hunting parties into the woodland. 
Jubal Early came to dinner. He sat on a saw horse in the barn where they ate, a tin plate of venison and wild turkey in one hand, a tea cup of whiskey beside him. The troops sat in the hay eating happily." Good old Jubal, never one to turn down a good cup of whiskey.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, but we should give credit to who actually declared it first and that was Jefferson Davis, not Abraham Lincoln.

Va Flaggers in the Old North State



From: info@vaflaggers.com

On Thursday, November 7th, I traveled to Western North Carolina to visit with the men of the Jackson Rangers Camp # 1917, in Sylva, NC.  I enjoyed a nice meal, provided by the ladies of the OCR, and spoke to the members about the Virginia Flaggers and our heritage defense efforts.

I had a great visit, and was honored to be among these folks, who were most gracious and welcoming, and eager to discuss the issues that we, the sons and daughters of Confederate Veterans, face today.

I had the great pleasure of spending the following day site seeing around the area.  Downtown Sylva is charming, and after lunch with new friends, I  found the  Jackson County Confederate Monument and paid my respects.  From there, I rode over to Waynesville, to see the Confederate marker at the Haywood county Courthouse.  I had followed the situation there, where ONE lawyer had repeatedly removed Confederate Battle Flag Stick Flags placed there in honor and memory of the County's Confederate dead.  I planted a flag in their memory, and after inquiring inside, found out that the resolution proposed to ban ALL stick flags on the property (sound familiar?) had still not yet been voted on.

Read more here...  http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/20153690/haywood-proposing-limit-on-confederate-flag-display?hpt=us_bn8

I had planned on driving up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and several of the Camp members had encouraged me to visit Confederate Forest.  I was intrigued and set out to find it.  Just as I was about to give up, I found it...and was not disappointed!   125,000 trees, one for every North Carolina soldier who served honorably in the Confederate Armed Services, were originally planted by the United Daughters of the Confederacy over a three-year period beginning in 1940  as a living memorial to North Carolina Confederate veterans. Stepping into the forest was awe-inspiring. What an amazing memorial!

The following day, I headed to Raleigh to meet a couple of Flaggers and attend the Re-Dedication of 4 NC Unit Battle Flags, restored as a project of the North Carolina SCV.

When I arrived in Raleigh, my first visit, I found myself on the Capitol grounds, unsure of exactly where the history museum was located.  Seeing the several Confederate monuments as I was driving by, I parked and grabbed a dozen stick flags and put them in my bag.  As I walked the across the grounds, I was approached by several people, including the man pictured below, who asked if they could buy one of the flags. Of course, I gave them a stick flag, courtesy of the Virginia Flaggers, and by the time I reached the history museum I had given away all but three of the flags!

The ceremony was absolutely fantastic!  Kudos to the NC Division SCV for their work in restoring and preserving these flags and for the wonderful service to rededicate them.  Michael Hardy gave a terrific lecture on the history of each unit and the flags, as each was unveiled to the awe and admiration of the audience that had gathered.

Afterwards, we went back to the Capitol Grounds, to join a solitary Flagger who we had found patrolling the grounds before the ceremony.  It turns out that he has been flagging the grounds for some time, protesting the removal of a Confederate Flag from the Capitol after the complaint of ONE person.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/29/confederate-flag-at-old-north-carolina-capitol-coming-down/

We had a GREAT afternoon, walking the grounds and talking with folks, ALL of whom were supportive.  It was quite a change from our experience on the Capitol grounds in Richmond, where no flag poles are allowed, and gatherings of more than two people, even to take a photo, require a permit. In Raleigh, we were almost giddy in the freedom to roam across the beautiful grounds and see all of the monuments and markers.

The folks in the first photo below were from Switzerland and Italy!

A wonderful, impromptu afternoon of flagging in the Tar Heel Capital!

More photos here:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.286769824781643.1073741970.186485551476738&type=3

Many, many thanks for the warm welcome and generous hospitality extended by all of the folks in North Carolina.  It was a memorable trip, filled with opportunities to meet and make many new friends, as well as visit with some old ones, share information, and pay respects at wonderful monuments and memorials to our Confederate dead.  :)

GOD BLESS THE MEN OF THE OLD NORTH STATE!

Susan Hathaway

Virginia Flaggers



Va Flaggers UPCOMING EVENTS:

Sunday, December 8th: 3:00 p.m. - Mechanicsville Christmas Parade, Downtown Mechanicsville, VA - The Va Flaggers are participating in the parade and invite everyone to join us.  We will have Flaggers walking, riding, and the Mechanized Cavalry is joining us again this year!  Bring your flag and enjoy the afternoon in a VERY Confederate friendly environment.  :)

Friday, January 18th - Saturday, January 19th, 2014:  Lee-Jackson State Holiday/Flagging/Memorial Events, Lexington, Va

Saturday, February 1st, 2014:  Susan will travel to Statesboro, GA to speak at the Lee-Jackson Banquet, held by the Ogeechee Rifles, Camp #941, SCV.  RJ's Restaurant, 454 South Main St. (US 301 S.) @ 6 pm for the meal, preliminaries @ 7 pm and the program immediately following.  Seating limited to 125.  Ticket information forthcoming at a later date.

Saturday, February 22nd, 2014:  Susan will be speaking at the February meeting of the Rev. Beverly Tucker Lacy Camp #2141, SCV, Fredericksburg, VA.  4:00 p.m., Perkins Restaurant, 10 Simpson Rd.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014:  Susan will be speaking at the March meeting of the R.E Lee Camp #1589, SCV.   Dolce Vita Italian Restaurant, 2401 Colony Crossing Place, Midlothian, VA 23112. Dinner at 6:00 p.m. and meeting at 7:00 p.m.

April 19, 2014, 2014:  Susan will be traveling to Quincy, FL to speak at the Confederate Memorial Day Service at the Soldier's Cemetery, sponsored by the Finley's Brigade, SCV.

Saturday, April 26th, 2014: Susan will be speaking at the Delaware Confederate Memorial Ceremony, Marvel Carriage Museum, 510 South Bedford Street, Georgetown, Delaware, Time: 11AM - 2PM



Contributions to the I-95 Battle Flag projects may be mailed to:

Va Flaggers
P.O. Box 547
Sandston VA 23150

Payable to Va Flaggers

or through PayPal:
http://www.vaflaggers.com/i95flagdonate.html



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

This gripes my...



Dear H.K.,

I will never understand why anyone who hates the south so much can still claim to love the United States. General Pickens, Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and so many southerners secured independence from England for the United States.

Likewise, Texans fought Mexico as a Republic (not as a state) and won the west, only to join the union and submit to abolitionist militant rule in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. John Brown, a failing wool tradesman fought there to lock out southern states from expanding west. Then when he incited a militant insurgency at Harpers Ferry arsenal against the U.S. Gov't, his dislodging from federal property was with the aid of such honorable men as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis's presence.

Mindlessly, when the south seceded, the Union Army idolized John Brown' cause and played their allegiant song " The Ballad of John Brown", later changed entirely to "Glory Hallelujah".

Talk about turncoats, Lincoln was a friend of Brown and a split-tongued politician who advocated war in his debates to end slavery while stating to southerners "we must not disturb slavery in the south as it exists.

Lincoln had to hurry to get his war as he lost his tax base of the great African slave, crying out "who will pay my tax" as he saw state after state secede.

Not-so-surprisingly, Lincoln killed a slave trader as a political stunt after secession, although the only intercontinental illegal and murderous trade being carried out was from New York and New England ports.

The Smithsonian Magazine of June 2007, starting at page 58, is quite revealing and claims the illegal trade carried on through the mid 1880's under yankee rule during the reconstruction by carpetbagger, and brutal industrialists who saw children as mere chimney sweeps in a form of slavery by another name.

Let's talk about traitors and compare the atrocities of the northern invaders like Beast Butler who mandated rape toward unwilling southern women working in a garment mill, who disappeared as sex slaves for his yankee troops, never to be heard from again!

Although being born in Ohio, the birthplace of Ulysses Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and the Nimrod himself, General George Armstrong Custer, who, when he wasn't slaughtering native Americans he was killing buffalo by the score along with many other innocent wildlife for the mere sport.

Let's talk to these men about the treacheries of Sherman's March against civilians and watch them squirm in their own pig dirt.

The union was lost, and rightfully so until the invasion that ruined life for free and slave African Americans who had a home: many of whom stayed on the plantations to work with their former masters with loyalty, love, and respect.

They never sold out to the invader, and after 36 years I can say I have been a brother to such men accordingly. I only wish the liberal north would keep their corrupting influence of segregationist indoctrination by psychological manipulation for their own kind...but no! ...they sent their scallywags to drive a wedge between black and white southern and created the Federal Jim Crowe Laws to drive that wedge even deeper, only to blame the south for its imposed existence.

If ever there was a traitorous lot in the south, it was forced on the south by such policies of federal imposition through the groomed scallywags in the Supreme Court.

I have more to share, but time is failing me this evening.

Til Another time, Brother

Kenneth Coultrap

Seneca, SC
~~~~~~~~~~~
From: hk.edgerton@gmail.com

Dear Ken,
I appreciate the history lesson that I now know so well, and shall it share with others.  However, the one thing that stands out in my mind as a former President of the NAACP was just how much the White Yankees wanted to occupy the South in the 21st century. They were very braggadocios about the success in getting Southern Blacks to attack the Southern Cross because all they had to do was to say slavery, and compile that with the fact that Blacks knew very little history, and could be led in any direction that they so chose by laying the blame of the United States involvement in, and any atrocities associated with the economic institution of chattel slavery solely on the Southern White man.

And it came to pass that with the aid of the Poverty Pimps whose personal and organizational coffers were filled; " Southern social, and cultural genocide began with the attack on the Southern Cross in Columbia, South Carolina, and spread to Jesus Christ and the teachings in his Bible, with cross hairs now on the Star of David, just as predicted by the Honorable Attorney Kirk D. Lyons as he delivered the keynote address in the slave section of the Taylor family cemetery on the grounds of the prestigious Asheville School".

We now find ourselves just like our ancestors; in the middle of a war with scant resources to battle a man who made himself rich off the spoils that he stole to include the education of our children through his schools, and the beating down of them in the judiciary, if they dare raise their heads in any sign of memorableness to their ancestors and the Colors they so honorably bore. And as if this is not bad enough, they use Southern Blacks whose ancestors freed or indentured remained loyal as the weapon of choice against a man who their very own ancestors called family and friend in lieu of all the things happening in the body politic of their time. It is an American injustice of huge propotions. God bless you.
                                                                         
Your brother,
                                                                               
HK                              
www.southernheritage411.com

Veteran's Day Parade



Good Morning Gentleman,

According to the report on WBIR you are not allowing the Longstreet Zolicoffer Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to participate in this year's parade. First of all,  I must greatly disagree with your decision.  Confederate Veterans are considered American Soldiers according to Constitution law.  The Veteran's Administration recognizes them as American Veterans.  I just marked my ancestors grave in Dandridge with a marker given to me by the VA.

Second. They reported that you denied their request because of a picture that was in the News Sentinel showing they did fly the flag.  Those were indeed my flag and Mr. H.K. Edgerton's flag in the background where we were standing on the side of the road. You can clearly see and compare them with the picture taken last year of us before the parade started.  But I do believe that you know this already and using it as an excuse to exclude the camp from the parade.

Third, Mr. Edgerton and I have been standing there for many years since you have made your decision not to allow the camp.  For the record, we have NEVER had anyone say or do anything cross to us.  99% of all parade marchers and viewers wave at us and cheer us on.  Both white and black races cheer us. I challenge you to have a member of your post come and stand near us this Monday and observe. You will see that you have made a very unpopular decision by not allowing the flag in the parade.

Mrs. Lisa Thomas

Proud Confederate Descendant
~~~~~~~~~~~
From: hk.edgerton@gmail.com
To: Lisa Thomas

Dear Mrs. Thomas,

Any American Veteran who would even participate in my estimation, in an event that practices content discrimination against another American Veteran is as guilty as those who sponsor the event. American Legion Post # 2 and the City of Knoxville should be held liable in an American Court of law for this deed. I tire of standing on that corner in protest year after year as this illegal and un-American death blow is allowed to continue.

Just as the American Indian said when they joined the Confederate States of America against those who hijacked the Stars and Stripes during the War Between the States; "we do so because those of you of the Northern Federal Government can't be trusted". You break every treaty you make, and place yourselves above your very own laws. And as you have stated; the Confederate Flag is a venerated symbol by the United States Congress, and the Confederate Soldier," an American Veteran". Yet Congress and the Supreme Court turn their backs on the law of the land.

I again reiterate that there is a shared blame here, and it belongs to every veteran, especially those who call themselves Southern to participate alongside American Legion Post # 2 in this event and should withhold any consideration of support fiscally or humane nationally. God bless you.
                                                                           
Your brother,
                                                                                
HK  

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Republican Party Accursed Forever



From: bernhard1848@att.net

While a North Carolina State Legislator in 1902, Locke Craig debated North Carolina's Republican US Senator Jeter Pritchard at Charlotte and denounced the Republican practice of rewarding those who had committed treason against North Carolina.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Republican Party Accursed Forever

[The Republicans complain that] two hundred thousand dollars went to pension the Confederate soldiers.  We will take care of these old veterans, we owe them a debt of gratitude. In the wreck and ruin of war we were rich in the priceless heritage of their memory.

"These were men whom death could not terrify, whom defeat could not dishonor." They glorified the fallen cause by the simple manhood of their lives and by the heroism of their death. They have cast over the South the glamour or an immortal chivalry and consecrated the cause of Dixie with the blood of an immortal sacrifice.  It was devotion like this that made the South, though torn and bleeding, beautiful and splendid in her desolation, and in her woe.

For forty years they have been the builders of the New South and the projectors of her larger destiny.  The Federal Government provides for the soldiers that followed its flag.  That is right. We will provide for the soldiers of the armies of the "storm-cradled nation that fell."

When Senator Pritchard was a member of the Legislature in 1895 he and his party voted against giving one cent of pension to the needy heroes that had hobbled home on crutches from Appomattox.

There is one class of men whom we do not believe in pensioning – the deserter.  There are men here who remember the last two years of the war.  The world was against us. Armies were crashing down upon us like a ring of fire.  Sherman was marching to the sea and leaving behind him ashes and desolation.  In that time there were men whose courage never faltered.

Ragged and hungry and bleeding they stood in the trenches around Richmond and Petersburg. They stood with an unfailing devotion, though sometimes they knew that their little ones at home were living on the corn they picked up from the wagon ruts of the invading armies.  They died remembering Dixie like the Greeks remembering Argos – in the language of the old song: "While one kissed a ringlet of thin gray hair and one kissed a lock of brown."

But there were some who did not stand. Traitors and deserters they were. They turned their backs upon the only home and country that they ever had.  They sneaked through the lines. They threw away their old gray uniform and put on the blue. They came back to shoot and kill, to rob the defenseless wives and mothers of their comrades who were fighting and dying at the front; to burn their homes and to murder the innocent.

To these men Senator Pritchard has given a royal pension. He said to the hero of the Confederacy that he might starve, but with the money of the honest people he feeds and clothes the deserter.

Yes, I denounce this in the name of the forty thousand sons of North Carolina who sleep tonight beneath the sod in the battle-scarred bosom of old Virginia.  I denounce it in the name of the men who rushed defiant of death through the storm of Chickamauga and Gettysburg.  In the name of every Confederate soldier I denounce it.  In memory of the women who were robbed and the men who were murdered I denounce it. In the name of all brave men who love courage and despise cowardice, who believe in fidelity to comrades and in love for home and in loyalty to a great cause, I denounce this infamous act.  I do not stand alone.

Here is the resolution of the last Reunion of Confederate Veterans of North Carolina:

"Resolved, That we condemn and denounce the Act of Congress which rewards treachery and perfidy in giving pensions to Confederate deserters for fighting against their former flag and comrades."

The judgment of the South is that the party that starves the soldier and pensions the deserter should be accursed forever.

The child has not yet been born in North Carolina that will see the day when the party that has degraded our people . . . will be restored to power. The new day has dawned, but the judgment has been pronounced against this Republican party.  Democracy, united, enthusiastic and steadfast in its purpose to guard the welfare of all the people, to protect North Carolina from the hand of the despoiler, to promote the upbuilding of this great State, marches forward with victorious assurances."

(Speech (excerpt) of Hon. Locke Craig, Joint Debate with Sen. Jeter Pritchard, October 9, 1902, Memoirs and Speeches of Locke Craig, Hackney & Moale Company, 1923, pp. 85-88)


Monday, November 25, 2013

HAVEN'T WE HAD ENOUGH LIES?


1. Did you know on May 4, 1861 almost the entire student body and many professors formed ranks on the grounds in front of the Lyceum as they left Ole Miss and enlisted in the Confederate Army? This body of students and professors formed Company A of the 11th MS Infantry, and were part of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. MS seceded the Union on January 9, 1861 and this body of men answered the call of their state faithfully as they served in some of the most bloody battles of the War between the States, including Gettysburg. This company are called the University Greys. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89077130953;view=1up;seq=1

2. Did you know the University Greys suffered 100% casualties at Gettysburg? Every single soldier was either killed or wounded. The most well known of these men is a young student named Jeremiah S Gage. As Gage was dying he asked to write his mother; he told her that he died like a man, and that he was sorry that she and his sisters were "...robbed of my worth whatever that may be..." Gage's Dad had died and he was the man of the family. The University houses the Gage family collection of letters and you can visit the collection here:
http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/Gage%20Family%20Collection/mode/exact

3. Did you know the ROTC cannon used at Ole Miss is named for Mary (Mollie) Wendel, the bethrothed of Jeremiah S. Gage? There is a bronze plaque on the cannon that reads, and affirms for whom it is named.
http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?1986-Help-Shape-NCAA-Football-Cannons/page3

4. Did you know that Congress declared in 1958 that Confederate Veterans are American Veterans, and as such are entitled to the same benefits and respect as every other American Veteran?
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/14/confederate-soldiers-are-american-veterans-by-act-of-congress/

5. Did you know that the Confederate Battle Flag never flew over any Confederate Government? It is the SOLDIER'S Flag, and the one the soldiers carried into battle. Although the design was incorporated into other flags, it was never a "national flag" of the Confederacy. http://www.moc.org/collections-archives/flagsconfederacy

6. Did you know that in the early part of the 20th century, a hateful, racist organization known as the KKK marched with the U.S. Flag? Shortly after that, they stole the Confederate Battle Flag and wrapped their hate in it. For far too long, evil people have lied and misused the honorable flag of our veterans. It stops NOW!
http://www.rulen.com/kkk/

7. By removing and banning the Confederate Battle Flag the Univeristy of Mississippi have further dishonored our Fathers and publicly insulted every other American Veteran. The Mid South Flaggers speak for those who have no voice. Join us in denouncing the cowardly actions of politically correct bullies, as we urge the University to RETURN THE FLAG AND RESTORE THEIR HONOR!

MID-SOUTH FLAGGERS
"Like" Us On Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mid-South-Flaggers/617518194959721


Heart of America Wing Fund Support of 2013 Wreaths Across America @ Leavenworth National Cemetery






 I had the opportunity to contribute through the webpage this morning. Please be sure if you contribute to choose the Leavenworth National Cemetery and not Fort Leavenworth Cemetery. The Team Leader is Col. Ronald Behm and you are in the correct place if you see his name.

I am copying others that have contributed in the past. Its great when we have a large crowd in attendance and help to place the wreaths. You will be glad you were there so please join us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5r0dtGmEZM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehl1mXNEz3Y

This is a special solemn event and I hope you will contribute and join us on December 14th.

Thanks,

Bob Capps
President Kansas Society
Sons of the American Revolution



Subject: FW: Heart of America Wing Fund Support of 2013 Wreaths Across America @ Leavenworth National Cemetery


 KSSSAR Board of Governors,

Please pass on to your chapter members. The Kansas Society has participated for several years in Wreaths Across American.  This is your opportunity to make a contribution by buying a wreath or wreaths to support out efforts. The KSSSAR Color Guard participates each year at Leavenworth National Cemetery and this is considered a National and State event. 

In addition to purchasing a wreath we appreciate any members that can attend this solemn event. After the ceremony the Color Guard passes out wreaths to be placed on the veterans graves. I promise you will be glad you attended.

Thanks, 

Bob Capps
President Kansas Society
Sons of the American Revolution







You have supported Wreaths Across America in past years. CAF Heart of America Wing is fund raising wreath support. Expectations are for the event to surpass past years. Come join us.

Those wishing to purchase Christmas wreaths for the 14 December 2013 program have two price options:
> $30.00 buys 3 wreaths on the "3 for 2" pricing by purchasing under the below HOA Fund Raising Group. See below.
> Wreaths priced at $15.00 each, when not purchasing with our HOA group.
Hope this note provides clarity to the options.
   Cut-off date for online wreath sponsorships is 02 Dec 2013. 
Thank you in advance for your support.
Regards,
Col. Ronald Behm, CAF
HOAW WAA / POC




 

Clear                                                            Back CAF Logo
Heart of America Wing

Please consider supporting 
Wreaths Across America
by providing a wreath to be placed on the grave site of a Veteran at 
Leavenworth National Cemetery.

********************

National Wreaths Across America Day
Saturday, December 14, 2013
10:30 AM
Leavenworth National Cemetery

REMEMBER, HONOR, TEACH YOUTH

CAF Heart of America Wing has established 
a Fund Raising Group

click: Our Locations Map
click: Kansas
click: KSLNCL - Leavenworth National Cemetery
click: Fund Raising Group Page (blue background)
click: KSCAF01 - CAF HOAW
click: Make a Gift - under barometer
Enter amount of donation
CAF HOAW is enrolled in "3 for 2" program
$30 sponsors 3 wreaths
Complete credit card sponsorship information
Cut-off December 2, 2013
Thank you for your consideration,
Col. Ronald Behm, CAF
2013 WAA / POC


CAF HEART OF AMERICA WING
6 AERO PLAZA
NEW CENTURY, KS 66031


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Hatred of the Confederate Flag



From: cscitizen@windstream.net

To All:
         
The answer to those who claim to hate the Confederate Flag & all things related to the Old South because fewer than 5% owned slaves in the South is, then you must hate America as well. All the 13 original colonies allowed its inhabitants to legally own slaves & all were not Africans but, whites & Native Americans as well. By this same premise used against as slaver as their excuse, they must hate all colonial America as well as it was exactly the same social situation as was found in the American South. Neither was based on love or hate but economics as New England shipping companies grew rich from importing slaves.
 
Had the American colonies been anti – slavery all the slaves in every state would have been freed immediately after the founding fathers had signed the U.S. Constitution & enacted it into law. Before this King George III was emptying his prisons, Shanghaiing innocent victims from pubs & sending defeat foes of England to the colonies as slaves to work & increase his tax base. How is this America or the South`s fault?
 
Actually, the hatred of the Old South is a front to mask their deeper hatred of America as a whole & everything it was founded on & slavery has very little to do with this hatred. The same liberal mindset found in the north leading up to the War of Southern Independence is the same we face today in national politics. Liberals hate America & the Confederate Flag & the South are just the tip of this iceberg.
 
We already see signs that they grow bolder everyday with attempts to undermine America`s moral & social fiber with insane unconstitutional judicial rulings & worse, presidential decrees that fly in the face of the founding fathers intents. So, when Americans everywhere hear of liberal attacks on the South, its flags, statues, memorials & heroes remember, these attacks are leading up to a total cleansing & rewriting of all American history & the moral compass which guides it.

In short, you are next so you had better join us in this fight to save not only our heritage & future but, yours as well.

Billy E. Price
Ashville Alabama  

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Va Flaggers: 2013 Mechanicsville Christmas Parade



From: suzn68@comcast.net

On Sunday, December 8th, we will be marching/riding as a unit in the Mechanicsville Christmas Parade. As many of you know, the Confederate flag and those of us who carry it have become increasingly unpopular in many civic events.  There are dozens of well known incidents of Heritage groups being banned, or asked not to carry a Confederate flag, or deliberately left out of parades or community events.

This is not the case in Mechanicsville Rotary/Ruritan Parade.  This is a huge parade, with large, Confederate friendly crowds, where the organizers WELCOME our presence.  We will be walking, carrying flags, and have a trailer available with seating for those who cannot make the walk.  Our friends in the Mechanized Cavalry will also be riding with us again this year!  We encourage EVERYONE to join us and make this a Confederate Christmas in Mechanicsville!

All are welcome.  The only requirements are that you bring a Confederate flag to carry, and a smile to share with the crowd.  We recommend dressing for the weather and Christmas, and wearing comfortable walking shoes, as the route is several miles long.

We will have staging details and more information available two weeks before the parade, but be prepared to arrive between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.

We are asking everyone who can, to bring a bag of candy to share and pass out.  We will also be passing out battle flags and Va Flagger information.

Please share this with anyone you think might be interested, and make plans to be a part of this event.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me.

Join the VA Flaggers in forwarding the colors, celebrating CHRISTmas, being a part of educating the public about our ancestors and the flags they fought and died under... and changing hearts and minds!

Facebook event here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/648260771875023/

Susan Hathaway

Va Flaggers

Chaplain's Monument



Gentlemen,
The Chaplain's Monument has been ordered!  Although the text is still being worked on, we are on our way.  We have received official approval from Riverview Cemetery in Jefferson City, and the artwork has been sent to and accepted by Nixa Monument Company.  My congrats to you men for being behind this project.  Deo Vindice!
Darrell Maples - Cmdr.
MO Division - SCV






Friday, November 22, 2013

SCV National Leadership Workshop


SCV National Leadership Workshop

As we move through the challenging years of the Sesquicentennial, leadership training has become even more important to the defense of our Southern heritage. In an effort to insure that our members better understand the challenges of leadership roles and to aid our leaders in acquiring the knowledge to better perform their duties, the SCV has scheduled an Advent Season National Leadership Workshop.
This year's event will be held December 14, 2013 at the Holiday Inn Express Indianapolis Southeast 5302 Victory Drive Indianapolis, Indiana 46203. It will be hosted by the Indiana Division. A tentative schedule for the day is posted below along with registration and lodging information.
Please note that this event will include relevant presentations and individual workshops for more specialized training for Commanders and Adjutants; however, ALL members are invited to attend!
___________________________________

8:30 - 8:40 Welcome & SCV Protocol Division Cmdr. Gordon Flick
8:40 - 8:55 Introductions & Overview Lt. CIC Charles Kelly Barrow
8:55 - 9:40 Commanders & Command CIC R. Michael Givens
9:40 - 9:50 BREAK
9:50 - 10:30 Adjutants & Administration AIC Stephen Lee Ritchie
10:30 -10:45 BREAK
10:45 - 11:30 Recruiting & Retention Lt. CIC Charles Kelly Barrow
11:30 - 12:30 DINNER
12:45 - 1:30 Vision 2016 Vision 2016 Coordinator Tom Hiter, Ph.D
1:30 - 1:40 BREAK
1:40 - 2:30 Commander's & Adjutant's Workshops CIC, Lt. CIC & AIC
2:30- 2:45 Concluding Remarks & Discussion Lt. CIC Charles Kelly Barrow
Benediction

Registration, is only $12 each and will be handled through our General Headquarters at Elm Springs You may mail a reservation with a check or call 1 (800) 380-1896 ext 209 (Cindy) with credit card information (MC, VISA or AMEX).
___________________________________

Call the Hotelat (317)791-9100 and ask for the SCV Rate $89.99

Registration Sheet


Name________________________ Address____________________________________________

_____________________________ Email address_______________________________________

Camp number_________________ Check enclosed ( ) or
Credit Card (MC, VISA, or AMEX) Number __________________________ Expires _________


 


GOVERNOR DEAL'S PROPOSAL TO REMOVE STATUE FROM CAPITOL GROUNDS EVOKES RESPONSE



(ATLANTA - October 31, 2013) Georgia's largest historical preservation group issued a statement today regarding Governor Deal's plan to permanently remove at least one statue from the grounds of the state capitol in Atlanta. Last week, Governor Deal's office announced plans to remove the statue of Georgia statesman Tom Watson from its place in front of the steps of the state capitol as a result ostensibly of planned construction on the grounds of the capitol to begin within the next several months. Many Georgians feel that the decision is aimed more at placating the politically correct views of some lawmakers than it has to do with upcoming construction at the capitol. Outspoken minority lawmakers have criticized the state for continuing to keep the statue of populist Tom Watson in such a prominent place; others see the statue's removal as giving in to revisionist history and trying to hide Georgia's true history. Such is the case with the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Tom Watson was born into antebellum Georgia in 1856 and grew up during arguably the most difficult time in the state's history -- federal reconstruction. As a result, he became the champion of the poor in Georgia and was considered to be a leader on the "left" of the aisle politically. After being elected to Congress in 1890, Watson led the push for adoption of "Rural Free Delivery" which extended postal service for the first time to millions of Americans in rural areas. His agrarianism kept him grounded in traditional American culture and kept him constantly at odds with big business, bankers, and big government. He was both a vice-presidential and, later, presidential candidate for the Populist Party in national elections; and was elected as a united States senator from Georgia two years before his death. In the years leading up to his death in 1922, he became an outspoken enemy of socialism and Marxism in America. Today, modern politicians on the "left" have abandoned Watson as their hero because of his "America First" agenda at protecting American culture and economy against the advances of globalism, egalitarianism, and socialism.

Many who are familiar with the legacy of Tom Watson suspect that his strong stand for American principles and his denunciation of socialism and egalitarianism is the reason for some minority lawmakers wanting his statue removed permanently from the capitol grounds, especially in light of the increased push for socialism brought on by the current Obama administration. Still, there are many Georgians, likely a vast majority, who are not comfortable with the practice of erasing or hiding the history of the great state of Georgia. Work began today, under the guidance of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, to insure that the statue of Tom Watson will be returned to its original place on the capitol grounds after renovation work is completed -- if it is moved at all. The Georgia Division is the largest state organization in the SCV nationally and also is the largest historical preservation organization in Georgia. Former Georgia governor Roy Barnes described the grassroots power of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in the state well when he attributed his loss to the first Republican governor since Reconstruction to his decision to change the state flag in 2000, taking on the historical preservation group and others.

Of last week's announcement by Governor Deal's office that the statue of Tom Watson may be moved permanently from the capitol grounds and placed across the street in a more obscure location, Georgia SCV Division Commander Jack Bridwell had this to say, "It is a dangerous thing anytime there is an attempt to rewrite or cover up any people's history. The current decision to begin removing statues of Georgia's elected statesmen from the capitol grounds just because some vocal individuals today may not understand or agree with all of their political decisions a hundred years ago is historical revisionism at its best and an outright attempt to steal our heritage and history as Georgians at its worst. We are committed to seeing that the statues of all of the elected statesmen on the capitol grounds remain as they are and encourage the governor to reconsider the decision to remove any of the statues without committing the necessary funding to restore it to its original place before it is moved in the first place."

For more information about the removal of the Tom Watson statue, or for information about the SCV, please contact Jack Bridwell, Division Commander for the Georgia Sons of Confederate Veterans at 1-866-SCV-in-GA or view information online at www.GeorgiaSCV.org.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Letters-Lord Acton to R.E. Lee & R.E. Lee to Lord Acton



Letters posted below are from Lord Acton to former Confederate General Robert E. Lee and a reply letter from General Lee to Lord Acton who was one of the most brilliant men in Victorian England. Note that the importance of States' Rights' is discussed in both letters. Lord Acton stated that he mourned for what was lost at Richmond more than he rejoiced over what was saved at Waterloo (defeat of Napoleon).

James W. King
SCV Camp Commander
Albany Georgia
Lord Acton to Robert E. Lee

Bologna
November 4, 1866

Sir,

The very kind letter which Mrs. Lee wrote to my wife last winter encouraged me to hope that you will forgive my presuming to address you, and that you will not resent as an intrusion a letter from an earnest and passionate lover of the cause whose glory and whose strength you were.

I have been requested to furnish private counsel in American affairs for the guidance of the editors of a weekly Review which is to begin at the New Year, and which will be conducted by men who are followers of Mr. Gladstone. You are aware, no doubt, that Mr. Gladstone was in the minority of Lord Palmerston's cabinet who wished to accept the French Emperor's proposal to mediate in the American war.

The reason of the confidence shown in my advice is simply the fact that I formerly traveled in America, and that I afterwards followed the progress of the four years' contest as closely and as keenly as it was possible to do with the partial and unreliable information that reached us. In the momentous questions which have arisen since you sheathed the sword, I have endeavoured to conform my judgment to your own as well as I could ascertain it from the report of your evidence, from the few English travelers who enjoyed the privilege of speaking with you, and especially from General Beauregard, who spoke, as I understood, your sentiments as well as his own. My travels in America never led me south of Maryland, and the only friends to whom I can look for instruction, are Northerners, mostly of Webster's school.

In my emergency, urged by the importance of the questions at issue in the United States, and by the peril of misguided public opinion between our two countries, I therefore seek to appeal to southern authorities, and venture at once to proceed to Headquarters.

If, Sir, you will consent to entertain my request, and will inform me of the light in which you would wish the current politics of America to be understood, I can pledge myself that the new Review shall follow the course which you prescribe and that any communication with which you may honor me shall be kept in strictest confidence, and highly treasured by me. Even should you dismiss my request as unwarranted, I trust you will remember it only as an attempt to break through the barrier of false reports and false sympathies which encloses the views of my countrymen.

It cannot have escaped you that much of the good will felt in England towards the South, so far as it was not simply the tribute of astonishment and admiration won by your campaigns, was neither unselfish nor sincere. It sprang partly from an exultant belief in the hope that America would be weakened by the separation, and from terror at the remote prospect of Farragut appearing in the channel and Sherman landing in Ireland.

I am anxious that you should distinguish the feeling which drew me aware toward your cause and your career, and which now guides my pen, from that thankless and unworthy sympathy.

Without presuming to decide the purely legal question, on which it seems evident to me from Madison's and Hamilton's papers that the Fathers of the Constitution were not agreed, I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform would have blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. [Emphasis supplied by the editor.]

General Beauregard confirmed to me a report which was in the papers, that you are preparing a narrative of your campaigns. I sincerely trust that it is true, and that the loss you were said to have sustained at the evacuation of Richmond has not deprived you of the requisite materials. European writers are trying to construct that terrible history with the information derived from one side only. I have before me an elaborate work by a Prussian officer named Sander. It is hardly possible that future publications can be more honorable to the reputation of your army and your own. His feelings are strongly Federal, his figures, especially in estimating your forces, are derived from Northern journals, and yet his book ends by becoming an enthusiastic panegyric on your military skill. It will impress you favourably towards the writer to know that he dwells with particular detail and pleasure on your operations against Meade when Longstreet was absent, in the autumn of 1863.

But I have heard the best Prussian military critics regret that they had not the exact data necessary for a scientific appreciation of your strategy, and certainly the credit due to the officers who served under you can be distributed and justified by no hand but your own.

If you will do me the honor to write to me, letters will reach me addressed Sir J. Acton, Hotel [Serry?], Rome. Meantime I remain, with sentiments stronger than respect, Sir,

~ Your faithful servant

John Dalberg Acton



Robert E. Lee to Lord Acton

Lexington, Vir.,

15 Dec. 1866

Sir,

Although your letter of the 4th ulto. has been before me some days unanswered, I hope you will not attribute it to a want of interest in the subject, but to my inability to keep pace with my correspondence. As a citizen of the South I feel deeply indebted to you for the sympathy you have evinced in its cause, and am conscious that I owe your kind consideration of myself to my connection with it. The influence of current opinion in Europe upon the current politics of America must always be salutary; and the importance of the questions now at issue the United States, involving not only constitutional freedom and constitutional government in this country, but the progress of universal liberty and civilization, invests your proposition with peculiar value, and will add to the obligation which every true American must owe you for your efforts to guide that opinion aright. Amid the conflicting statements and sentiments in both countries, it will be no easy task to discover the truth, or to relieve it from the mass of prejudice and passion, with which it has been covered by party spirit. I am conscious the compliment conveyed in your request for my opinion as to the light in which American politics should be viewed, and had I the ability, I have not the time to enter upon a discussion, which was commenced by the founders of the constitution and has been continued to the present day. I can only say that while I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the General Government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it. I need not refer one so well acquainted as you are with American history, to the State papers of Washington and Jefferson, the representatives of the federal and democratic parties, denouncing consolidation and centralization of power, as tending to the subversion of State Governments, and to despotism. The New England states, whose citizens are the fiercest opponents of the Southern states, did not always avow the opinions they now advocate. Upon the purchase of Louisiana by Mr. Jefferson, they virtually asserted the right of secession through their prominent men; and in the convention which assembled at Hartford in 1814, they threatened the disruption of the Union unless the war should be discontinued. The assertion of this right has been repeatedly made by their politicians when their party was weak, and Massachusetts, the leading state in hostility to the South, declares in the preamble to her constitution, that the people of that commonwealth "have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free sovereign and independent state, and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not, or may hereafter be by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled." Such has been in substance the language of other State governments, and such the doctrine advocated by the leading men of the country for the last seventy years. Judge Chase, the present Chief Justice of the U.S., as late as 1850, is reported to have stated in the Senate, of which he was a member, that he "knew of no remedy in case of the refusal of a state to perform its stipulations," thereby acknowledging the sovereignty and independence of state action. But I will not weary you with this unprofitable discussion. Unprofitable because the judgment of reason has been displaced by the arbitrament of war, waged for the purpose as avowed of maintaining the union of the states. If, therefore, the result of the war is to be considered as having decided that the union of the states is inviolable and perpetual under the constitution, it naturally follows that it is as incompetent for the general government to impair its integrity by the exclusion of a state, as for the states to do so by secession; and that the existence and rights of a state by the constitution are as indestructible as the union itself. The legitimate consequence then must be the perfect equality of rights of all the states; the exclusive right of each to regulate its internal affairs under rules established by the Constitution, and the right of each state to prescribe for itself the qualifications of suffrage. The South has contended only for the supremacy of the constitution, and the just administration of the laws made in pursuance to it. Virginia to the last made great efforts to save the union, and urged harmony and compromise. Senator Douglass, in his remarks upon the compromise bill recommended by the committee of thirteen in 1861, stated that every member from the South, including Messrs. Toombs and Davis, expressed their willingness to accept the proposition of Senator Crittenden from Kentucky, as a final settlement of the controversy, if sustained by the republican party, and that the only difficulty in the way of an amicable adjustment was with the republican party. Who then is responsible for the war? Although the South would have preferred any honorable compromise to the fratricidal war which has taken place, she now accepts in good faith its constitutional results, and receives without reserve the amendment which has already been made to the constitution for the extinction of slavery. That is an event that has been long sought, though in a different way, and by none has it been more earnestly desired than by citizens of Virginia. In other respects I trust that the constitution may undergo no change, but that it may be handed down to succeeding generations in the form we received it from our forefathers. The desire I feel that the Southern states should possess the good opinion of one whom I esteem as highly as yourself, has caused me to extend my remarks farther than I intended, and I fear it has led me to exhaust your patience. If what I have said should serve to give any information as regards American politics, and enable you to enlighten public opinion as to the true interests of this distracted country, I hope you will pardon its prolixity.

In regard to your inquiry as to my being engaged in preparing a narrative of the campaigns in Virginia, I regret to state that I progress slowly in the collection of the necessary documents for its completion. I particularly feel the loss of the official returns showing the small numbers with which the battles were fought. I have not seen the work by the Prussian officer you mention and therefore cannot speak of his accuracy in this respect.–

With sentiments of great respect,

I remain your obt. servant,

~ R.E. Lee