The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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C-Span recently featured John Grinspan speaking about the Wide Awakes, a topic covered on the Abbeville Blog and in Chapter Seven of my book, Union At All Costs: From Confederation to Consolidation. As early as 1856, numerous paramilitary clubs were organized in support of the Republican Party. Examples included the Rocky Mountain Clubs, Freedom Clubs, and the notorious Wide Awakes. This organization differed from the previous group of New Yorkers who wore the Wide Awake moniker. The originals...
April is a pivotal month in America’s past and Ft. Sumter holds an important place in that history. Named after General Thomas Sumter, a hero of the American Revolution, the fort is located just off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. It was built for coastal defense and as a tax collection point. South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860. Less than a week later, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson moved his troops from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. Before leaving, he spiked the g...
It is common for Baby Boomers to “thank God they grew up when they did.” Those born between 1946-1964 will likely understand that commentary. Indeed, freedom of expression was greater then than now as was appreciation and understanding of the past. Perhaps the modern reality of virtually instantaneous communications is partially at fault since erroneous information often spreads immediately and the retractions and corrections do not always see the light of day. The subject of history has bee...
Recent elections have been laden with controversy. Results of the 2024 election appeared to reflect the backlash against the policies of the outgoing administration. As traumatic and unsettling as recent times have been, intense divisions between American political factions are nothing new. In 1798, under the John Adams administration, the 5th U.S. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. Part of the reasoning for passage was a fear in some circles that a war with France was imminent. This...
“Abraham Lincoln…has almost disappeared from human knowledge. I hear of him, I read of him in eulogies and biographies, but I fail to recognize the man I knew in life.” Union General Donn Piatt You have to give credit to those who fought to prevent Southern Independence. Post-war, they seized the narrative, stated they were going to “reeducate” Southerners and created a “Righteous Cause Myth” that is still believed by many. Even into the mid-1900s, Southerners fought back as best they could bu...
In 2012, while living part-time in Natchez, Mississippi, I discovered some remarkable facts about the area. Natchez, like many port and trade towns, was populated by a wide array of people, including many transients. Sometimes compared to the “Wild West,” area residents ranged from devout Christians to hardened criminals and all points in-between. Natchez’ government was controlled by the French, Spanish, English, and eventually Americans. It was a short walk from the room I rented in Weymouth H...
In 2022, an invented controversy arose concerning the word Dixie. Individuals supposedly associated with the University of Alabama felt the word did not belong in the UA Fight Song. Dixie, the traditional name for the South, appeared to be fine in the typically raucous Dixieland Delight. As I referenced in a previous article (August 2020), the word Dixie is generally thought to have originated from the French word “dix,” which referenced a $10 bank note. It morphed into the land of Dixies. For...
In the January 2023 edition of Alabama Gazette, in “Robert E. Lee, Arlington, and the Ministry of Truth” (https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2023/01/01/opinion/robert-e-lee-arlington-and-the-ministry-of-truth/2480.html), I covered the history and subsequent theft of Arlington House by the Federal Government. Spearheaded by the dastardly Montgomery Meigs, the plan was to seize the Lee/Custis property and turn it into a cemetery. This would serve as retribution against Lee and his family sin...
The discordant views in modern America mirror much of the animosity of the 1700s and 1800s. Unfortunately, there is presently a dearth of individuals who possess the wisdom and historical perspective of the Founding generation. The great secession document known as the Declaration of Independence spelled out the colonies’ grievances and asserted the God-given right of representative government. Many in Great Britain viewed colonial secession as treasonous since the colonies were part of an e...
In the modern world, we are encouraged to demonize certain individuals and idolize others. For years, those who control the narrative have promoted Abraham Lincoln as an individual to be admired and, sometimes even lionized. As a proponent of centralized power and government/corporate partnerships, Lincoln had and still has many like-minded supporters. Lincoln has also been lauded for his role in ending slavery despite the fact he supported the Corwin Amendment, favored colonization most of his...
The election of 1860 featured four presidential candidates: Stephen Douglas, John Breckinridge, John Bell, and Abraham Lincoln. Stephen A. Douglas – Nicknamed the Little Giant due to his 5’ 4” stature, Illinois-native Douglas was a political giant. A wealthy land speculator and lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad, Douglas supported the Missouri Compromise, then sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, whose popular sovereignty provision virtually negated the Missouri Compromise. He cr...
This country has witnessed numerous political schisms since the beginning of the republic. We are presently bombarded with diverse and often intense political views--some real and some superficial. A distinct difference in political philosophy existed in the mid-1800s, mainly in the form of Jeffersonian vs. Hamiltonian principles. Reflecting his identification with the old protectionist Whigs, Lincoln, who idolized Henry Clay, supported Alexander Hamilton’s program of central banking, i...
The late Paul Harvey famously said: “Now, for the rest of the story.” “Jim Crow” is a classic example of an incomplete story. Establishment media incessantly blames the South for everything considered “historically bad.” Some modern TV shows and movies will make a sane person want to heave. In reality, when all racial and ethnic groups were in close proximity, segregation was essentially a non-issue in the Old South. Segregation was actually born in the North. Jack Trotter contends that everyo...
The assaults on Robert E. Lee and anyone who fought for Southern Independence never abate. Lee symbolizes most things his critics hate – he was a devout Christian, he believed in the sovereignty of the States within a voluntary federal republic, his primary allegiance was to Virginia (his “country”), and he felt “Union” at the point of a bayonet undermined the entire American experiment in self-government. One might ask: Why did the colonies seek independence if the goal was replication of the m...
The assaults on Robert E. Lee and anyone who fought for Southern Independence never abate. Lee symbolizes most things his critics hate – he was a devout Christian, he believed in the sovereignty of the States within a voluntary federal republic, his primary allegiance was to Virginia (his “country”), and he felt “Union” at the point of a bayonet undermined the entire American experiment in self-government. One might ask: Why did the colonies seek independence if the goal was replication of the m...
T he War for Southern Independence impacte d events worldwide. In Great Britain debates raged as to why their “American Co usins” w ere i n conflict. Two renowned Englishmen – John Stuart Mill and Charles Dickens -- sparred over this very matter. This was not their first disagreement. John Stuart Mill was a poli tica l eco nomi st, politic ian, and p hilosopher who endorsed utilitarianism, a theory that advocated maximizati on of h ap pin ess and well -being. He supp orted fre e speec h, free...
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn stated: “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.” An example of Southerner’s historical ignorance is manifested in The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written by Unitarian “minister” Julia Ward Howe. Julia Ward was born in New York City in 1819 but spent much of her youth in Boston, Massachusetts. She was related to the affluent Astors of New York and her brother, Sam Ward, was a Wall Street financier (sometimes called “War Street” due to the promotion and...
Recently, the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) lobbied the Washington Commanders football team to bring back the Redskins name. Billy Dieckman, Kiowa Tribe member and NAGA adviser, described Redskins as “a status symbol for elite warriors.” (Fox News) A poll was cited showing 90% of American Indians see it as a positive term. It is also likely that some American Indians do not appreciate being canceled, such as the way Land O Lakes terminated the “Mia” image (some Indians support...
The enemies of the South are all around. One of the most repugnant is Elizabeth “The Fake Indian” Warren. You also have Lloyd “The Wokester” Austin, who seems to have periodic battles with the English language; Mark “The Mannequin” Milley, who appears to have had brain surgery that went awry; and a gang of so-called historians who worship at the foot of Abe Lincoln and blame America’s “ills” on the South. As the Brits would say: bollocks! The political football that leftists and “race hustler...
In the October 2022 Alabama Gazette I covered part of the legacy of Nathan Bedford Forrest (https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2022/10/01/opinion/the-false-demonization-of-nathan-bedford-forrest/2434.html). If anyone has been a victim of “the winners write the history,” it is Forrest. From his humble Tennessee roots, Forrest was the quintessential self-made man, a masterful military leader, and the antithesis of most of his critics. After his father died, sixteen-year-old Forrest became the...
Following the suggestion of a fellow Alabama Gazette columnist, I read through “Let’s celebrate the real history of Jefferson Davis”, by Josh Moon. No surprise—it is just more “Righteous Cause” blather. The sub-title claims the South fought to “protect” slavery, yet the institution was constitutionally legal and Abe Lincoln and the Republicans stated ad nauseum that they had no intention or authority to interfere with slavery where it existed. A central reason for Republican opposition to s...
Jefferson Davis not only received verbal criticism, he was also subjected to physical abuse when he was held in a Union prison awaiting a trial that never happened; however, he never backed down from his belief in the sovereignty of the States. In 1846, Davis described the only source of the Federal Government’s powers: “I answer, it is the creature of the States; as such it could have no inherent power, all it possesses was delegated by the States.” Many Northerners agreed that the Union is vo...
“I supported President Lincoln. I believed his war policy would be the only way to save the country, but I see my mistake. I visited Washington a few weeks ago, and I saw the corruption of the present administration—and so long as Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet are in power, so long will war continue. And for what? For the preservation of the Constitution and the Union? No, but for the sake of politicians and government contractors.” J.P. Morgan—American financier and banker, 1864. Many individ...
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s recent “national divorce” comments angered nationalists, globalists, and others who view these United States as an “unbreakable union.” How could such authoritarian thinking evolve from a country that was founded on individualism, voluntary self-government, and belief in God? At least part of this agenda can be traced to the Southern States being militarily forced back into a Union they democratically voted to leave. Abe Lincoln rebuffed multiple compromise efforts initi...
From the mid-1900s to modern times, the government-approved narrative has been that the South fought a war to protect slavery. This was denied by Southerners, e.g., Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Richard Taylor, E. P. Alexander, Raphael Semmes, and Northerners, e.g., George Lunt, Simon Cameron, Edward Channing, and for at least the first half of the war, U.S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln. Slavery in America had never been more secure than on the eve of the war. Congress’ July 23, 1861, r...
