Another
year-day (anniversary) of the Battle of Gettysburg is upon us. Paul H. Yarbrough shares some thoughts that
start from that historical point and then go into the notion of a new civil war
that is so much talked about at the moment:
The battle for
control of government between opposite factions for the same government is the
textbook definition of civil war. So be it. In 1863 Lincoln stated “we are now
in the midst of a great (emphasis added) civil war, etc., to decide this
and that etc.” To paraphrase H.L. Mencken----BS! We were not, and never
had been in the midst of a great CW then, any more than we were in 1775. And
whatever kind of a war the 1860s brought, as Mencken pointed out, Lincoln had
actually reversed the sides’ causes. “The Union
soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the
Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.”
H.L. Mencken
And seventy-five
years earlier “we” had not revolted against a monstrous king and unilaterally
declared a national independence in an effort to overthrow his
government or throw the king out. Our 1776 Declaration was a summary decision
of all (as each) after several had written and, in convention, signed and
ratified their own declarations of independence: Rhode Island, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, South Carolina and Virginia.
The July 4, 1776 act
was one where seceding individual colonial governments chartered and standing
under individual covenants of the sovereign crown authorized by a king (George
III at the time) removed themselves as sovereign individual states (not a
single consolidated state of 13) from the British Crown. These separate
governments came together in unity to fight a war via a confederation as there
was strength in numbers and thus signed a single document supporting such
determination.
Today we are
bombarded almost daily with the idea that “this country” is on the verge of
civil war. Every T.V. channel I have had the misfortune to have on at some
point has had some commentator yelp that he has never seen such a division in
our country: “Almost civil war” he barks.
If we are now in
the midst of such a thing as some of our conspicuous (not
prominent) pundits, experts, analysts, take your pick ..ad nauseam, shout, we
are of 4 sides (a bit of history many of our history “scholars” leave out with
their historical review, the fact that there were 4 major factions in the
election of 1860—NOT simply Democrats and Republicans where the Republican were
the gods against slavery and the Democrats were the “racists” of the day) with
such fellows as Victor Davis Hanson, alleged historian, and his National Review
Lilliputians claiming a conservative uniform and the Democrats-called liberals
who never met a story they could not turn into political lucre, there remain
those who, though disdainful of the above paradoxical bilateral allies, might
agree with either on certain current issues should those Allies reveal
any degree of integrity. This is the third (my) side. But back to this later.
First, we must mention the fourth side.
I submit there is a
fourth side though less tutored than any of the others, 1860 or now. Today, the
fourth is the side of what might be called, “the man on the street.” The one
occasionally whom is asked by a television anchor (for a time-filling tidbit):
“Who was the first President of the United States?” The answer might come back
(and usually does) as anyone from John Lennon to Dennis Rodman. One must have a
certain amount of compassion for some of these people, as they have probably
had a poor family life or were inculcated exclusively in public
education--something akin to having syphilis. Sadly, however, they are a
political class in our newfound twentieth and twenty-first century
democracy as they have like every other warm body over the age of 18 been given
(by government, not God) the “right” to vote.
I assume the Hansons,
D’Sousas, Limbaughs, Kilmeades, Hannitys et al spent too much time in public
schools. Or, maybe they never went to school—who knows. Who cares? I haven’t taken
a poll but many of the third-siders spoke at the polls in November and voted
(for those who did vote) for Donald Trump.
But Mr. Hanson et al,
there is a storm brewing down South, at least among me and my friends. You can
take your Neocons, your Establishment Republicans, your spurious conservatives
(yes, small “c”) and your Donald Trump and bury them with your monument
mischief in any hole you can find. Before you get my vote, I will help with a
draft Hillary movement and vote for her over your candidates even if she’s in
jail (where she should be0. And I will support a draft Lois Lerner as VP (wishfully
Hillary’s cellmate). If your ancestral ilk can destroy the republic in 1865, me
and mine can make the attempt to destroy your pretentious conservative sandbox
in 2018.
Slavery was not an
American South invention. African/American slavery largely developed as a cruel
Christian concept (manstealing) and developed into a terrible Sub Saharan
African diaspora where only 4% of those impressed ended up in the American
South: the remainder in the American North, Brazil, The Spanish, British and
French West Indies. Once scattered to the Western Hemisphere, as Jefferson
later said, “we have the wolf by the ears,” (auribus teneo lupum). That would
be the Union’s wolf, not the Southern part of the Union’s wolf.
Ultimately all slaves
outside of the South were released through manumission (owners paid by the
government). Apparently, the racist South had to be pillaged and burned by the
Hanson et al ancestors in order for all God’s children to be freed. Hanson also
manages to (as does Fox News with it histrionic history lessons) tell us
Southerners what racist pigs we were and, his and its current musings indicate
we still are.
That was the old
civil war and its history, the above first two sides claim. But it is nonsense.
It is now and, it always has been and, it always will be. The War Between the
States was fought at least on one side (mine) by an honorable people who wanted
to govern themselves and be left alone apart from national demons like you,
your stripe and the British Parliament in 1776.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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