Monthly Archives: March 2023

The Sins of Omission in History: James McPherson, Ty Seidule, and the Naming Commission

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The Sins of Omission in History:
James McPherson, Ty Seidule, and the Naming Commission
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
James 4:17
The Bible
Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.
Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.
Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.
Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.
View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.
View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.
Beautiful Defend Arlington fundraising merchandise that includes images from the magnificent Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. All proceeds go to the Defend Arlington legal defense fund.
Beautiful Defend Arlington fundraising merchandise that includes images from the magnificent Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. All proceeds go to the Defend Arlington legal defense fund.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - I lost a great deal of respect for James M. McPherson who once tried to get President Obama not to send the traditional annual wreath to the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. It is hard to believe somebody of his supposed stature would actually be so small.

It is also hard to believe he would mislead with his history by leaving out key facts, at times, but historian Rod O'Barr, below, documents it thoroughly. McPherson's social justice activism apparently defines his historical judgment.

Historians should be better but the politicization of history since the 1960s has turned much of our history into a lie. Many so-called historians, especially in leftist academia where the enraged mob will show up if you don't toe the leftist line (like we saw at Stanford Law School recently) are activists, not historians. They are not objective using truth as the standard. They are just another leftist mob.

That's why esteemed historian Eugene Genovese (Roll, Jordan, Roll, The World the Slaves Made, et al.) called the study of Southern history since the 1960s, a "cultural and political atrocity" perpetuated by "the media and an academic elite."

The inept Woke naming commission mislead too by leaving out the reconciliation theme of the Confederate Memorial when the reconciliation of North and South is absolutely, irrefutably, 100% what the Confederate Memorial symbolizes. Arlington National Cemetery, itself, documents the reconciliation theme thoroughly in its 2014 application for its Historic District to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Confederate Memorial would not even be in Arlington National Cemetery except for reconciliation.

The reconciliation theme was unquestionably known by naming commission vice chair Ty Seidule but it was left out of their report to Congress. In other words, the naming commission misled Congress and the public by deliberately mischaracterizing the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial.

The reconciliation theme means the Confederate Memorial does not "commemorate" the Confederacy as was required by law for the naming commission to have any say. It commemorates reconciliation and the reunification of our country, therefore it clearly is not in the naming commission's remit. Their recommendation to demolish something that is not in their remit is illegal, and, regardless, is immoral.

There are other subjective statements in the naming commission's write-up on the Confederate Memorial that mirror leftist politics and are false but consider these irrefutable facts on the reconciliation theme: The naming commission did not mention that three presidents had been actively involved with the Confederate Memorial, which was the brainchild of Union soldier and President William McKinley who said:

. . . every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.

President William Howard Taft gave a well-received speech the evening of the laying of the cornerstone at a UDC ceremony.

President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication address at the Confederate Memorial June 4, 1914, and both Union and Confederate veterans spoke lovingly of the monument and our reconciled, reunified nation. The year before had been the famous handshakes across the wall by the old Union and Confederate gentlemen for the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

President Teddy Roosevelt spoke highly of the Confederate monument.

President Warren G. Harding sent a message of respect and admiration that was read at sculptor Moses Ezekiel's funeral.

Each year, every president sent an annual wreath to the Confederate Memorial including Barack Obama, despite James McPherson's request that he not. Do you think those dozens of presidents over the past century were commemorating the Confederacy or the reconciliation of our country?

Perhaps the reason the naming commission's report omitted the reconciliation theme is because commission vice chair Ty Seidule personally hates the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. He makes that clear in his book, Robert E. Lee and Me, on page 162:

Of the thousands of monuments around the country to the Confederacy, the one in Arlington National Cemetery angers me the most. Every year, the commander in chief sends a wreath, ensuring the Confederate monument receives all the prestige of the U.S. government. That's why it riles me so much. . . .

Seidule also admits on the same page that the Confederate Memorial stands for reconciliation, but if he had put that in the report to Congress it would be obvious that the Confederate Memorial is not in the naming commission's remit, therefore they could not have it destroyed.

So, the naming commission claims a monument named "New South" actually commemorates the "Old South" so they can declare it within their remit and destroy it based on a lie.

In Robert E. Lee and Me, Seidule continues on page 162:

I know both political parties and white citizens in the North and South brought the country back together after the tremendous bloodletting and destruction of the Civil War. The posts named for Confederate officers during World War I also served to knit white America back together as it fought a common foe. And it worked, but we must recognize that reconciliation came at a steep and horrifying cost. African Americans paid the price with lynching, Jim Crow segregation, and the loss of the franchise. The price for white reconciliation remains far too high. (Bold emphasis added.)

That's an unbelievable statement and more false history.

The reconciliation of our country after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed, was a good thing. Hundreds of thousands of Southerners have willingly died for our great nation and millions have served over the years and are serving now. Military service has always been revered in the South and that is a well-known fact since 44% of the United States military has traditionally been recruited in the South.

Seidule's Woke attitude and Wokeness in general are why there is a recruiting crisis that is getting worse by the year. Military Times reports that substantial numbers of proud veterans no longer recommend military service to their children because of politicization and Wokeness.

Elizabeth Warren's legislation that created this horrible commission and its destruction of the history of millions of patriotic Southerners has torn the very fabric of our country, and the destruction of a 109 year old monument to peace and reunification in Arlington National Cemetery will tear it further.

The destruction of the Confederate Memorial will unquestionably dishonor Arlington National Cemetery for all time. Arlington will be stained by filthy politics and no longer be the eternal sacred burial ground for ALL of our nation. Again, this is more ripping apart of the fabric of our nation.

Seidule admits that the Army posts named for Confederate generals were about reconciliation too, therefore THEY are not in the remit of the naming commission either. More law suits should be filed over this immediately.

The Heritage Foundation just issued a DEVASTATING report on Wokeness in our military and its terrible effect on recruiting, readiness, etc. It is as you would expect: Racist Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Critical Race Theory and a kind of absurd focus on climate issues, permeate and threaten our military. It is as disgusting as Elizabeth Warren and the naming commission itself, and as unwise and unnecessary as the base name changes in the South where 44% of the military is recruited.

When we gave statements last week to the full Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery, some members of the committee, in their discussion afterward, expressed great concern about the terrible effect changing the Confederate base names in the South is having. One member said there were always a large number of Southerners serving, and changing base names in the South could not be good.

Read both of these that came out March 30, 2023:

Defense Department 'Drastically Shifted Off Course,' Rep. Mike Waltz Says as Military Readiness Panel Reports.

Here is the full Report of the National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness. You can download this as a PDF and distribute it.

Defend Arlington now has fundraising merchandise with images from the Confederate Memorial and they are AWESOME! Really beautifully pieces including framed pictures, clothes, mugs, cell phone cases, etc. There are links to their merchandising website below. You can spend a lot of time browsing and every penny goes toward the legal defense fund.

WE CAN AND WILL WIN THIS FIGHT so please donate every penny you can, and THANK YOU and God Bless You to all those who have already given!

This is the hill to die on.]

 

Here is "Spin and Suppression" by Rod O'Barr published March 28, 2023 on the Abbeville Institute Blog: www.AbbevilleInstitute.org

Spin and Suppression
by Rod O'Barr

Dr. James McPherson is one of the leading historians of the post-60’s era. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1963, with the Highest Distinction. He is Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University where he taught for 25 years, and a former president of the prestigious American Historical Association. His book Battle Cry of Freedom earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

Despite all these accomplishments, Dr. McPherson has one major flaw. He allows his social justice activist ideology to interfere with his historical interpretation. It is a common malady of modern historians who must walk in lockstep with a Leftist ideology that controls the post-60’s academic environment if they want their career to survive. Their method is to suppress anything in history that does not support the myth that the Civil War was a poster event for revolution against oppression; it is a historiographical method employing Marxist style analysis.

An example of this suppression of evidence in McPherson’s work is his discussion of Lincoln’s 1862 offer of compensated emancipation to the slave States. He mentions the July 12 meeting Lincoln held with the border slave State representatives where Lincoln attempted to convince them to accept his offer. It serves his “crusade against oppression” narrative. But McPherson conveniently omits in the discussion where Lincoln says it is a strategy to win the war and not a crusade to free slaves. And McPherson omits where those representatives tell Lincoln that the seceded States did NOT secede over slavery, and as a “fact, now become history,” were offering to end slavery if European powers would aid in the war to gain Southern independence. This is an obvious intentional sin of omission on the part of McPherson to spin a false narrative.

In another example of the suppression of evidence, McPherson spins the narrative, common to most all modern historians, that the Civil War was caused by Southern objections to the 1860 Republican Party’s resolve to prohibit slavery’s extension into any of the western territories. This is presented as a “bondage happy” South wanting to extend slavery, and a righteous North drawing a moral line in the sand against it. The fact that leading Southern statesmen such as John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis denied any desire to expand slavery for its perpetuation is merely ignored. Even prominent Northern Senator Daniel Webster admitted that slavery could not go west because of climate – again ignored. The fact that Northern opposition to slavery in the territories was, as leading Northern statesmen such as William Seward stated, not out of a moral concern for slaves, but for the benefit of white people by keeping black flesh out of the west, is suppressed to spin it all as a moral crusade against an evil South.

McPherson has to spin the narrative in this fashion to somehow make palatable a war that was in reality a crime against humanity. For if ending slavery was not the ultimate justification for the war, then all that is left is a war to “preserve the Union,” which certainly has no redeeming moral value. How could it, in a Union whose founding organic law was based on a Declaration of Independence that asserted the fundamental human right to a “government by consent of the governed?” Preserving the Union did not necessitate forcing the Southern States to remain in it. The Union could have continued minus those States. But the Northern section would have been economically famished without those Southern States. Preserving the Union” was nothing more than a euphemism for forcing the Southern people to remain under a government to which they no longer consented, and for what? So that the North could economically exploit the revenue generated by “King Cotton.”

There are, however, some things even McPherson cannot spin, and he has to admit that it was the North, and not the South, who led a revolution against the Founders:

The South’s concept of republicanism had not changed in three-quarters of a century; the North’s had. With complete sincerity the South fought to preserve its version of the republic of the Founding Fathers–a government of limited powers. --- Professor James M. McPherson, Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism.

Union victory in the war destroyed the southern vision of America and ensured that the northern vision would become the American vision. Until 1861, however, it was the north that was out of the mainstream, not the south. --- Dr. James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom

McPherson admits Jefferson Davis’ commitment to the Founders' principle of “States sovereignty” as being the South’s casus belli:

Forced to take up arms to vindicate the political rights, the freedom, equality, and state sovereignty which were the heritage purchased by the blood of our revolutionary sires. --- quoted in Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford U Press

McPherson, while admitting the North was the section that abandoned the Founders, is a nationalist who approves of the Lincoln led revolution against the Founders. Of the war he applauds that Lincoln forced,

the several states bound loosely in a federal union under a weak central government into a new nation forged by the fires of war…

...the old decentralized federal republic became a new national polity that taxed the people directly, created an internal revenue bureau to collect these taxes, expanded the jurisdiction of federal courts, established a national currency and a national banking structure. The United States went to war in 1861 to preserve the Union; it emerged from war in 1865 having created a nation. Before 1861 the two words “United States” were generally used as a plural noun: “The United States are a republic.” After 1865 the United States became a singular noun. The loose union of states became a nation.” --- James McPherson, Battle cry of Freedom, Oxford U Press

What those like McPherson with nationalist sentiments cannot grasp is the loss of freedom and the creation of crony capitalist corruption that the Lincoln led North imposed on all Americans by force of bayonets. The Founders had carefully constructed a confederation in which power was intentionally decentralized and dispersed among the States as a means of avoiding centralized tyranny. Lincoln’s war created the very monster the Founders so rightly opposed.

Politicians of the federal government along with centralized planners in agencies such as “the Fed” (our version of the old Soviet Politburo), now gainfully manipulate centralized power at the expense of the freedoms and bank accounts of the people whose States no longer defend their polities.

The results of the Lincoln revolution, which McPherson spins as a revolution of social justice, was, in reality, a centralized sovereignty enabling corruption at the highest level. And that is what Lincoln and his Republican crony capitalist allies really wanted.

It was all about leveraging the North’s population advantage for control of a now sovereign general government for the purpose of economic exploitation of the Union. Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham spoke in opposition to the reason for Lincoln's war in 1863, and it cost him dearly because of Lincoln’s retribution:

Overthrow the present form of Federal-republican government, and to establish a strong centralized government in its stead…national banks, bankrupt laws, a vast and permanent public debt, high tariffs, heavy direct taxation, enormous expenditure, gigantic and stupendous peculation . . . No more state lines, no more state governments, but a consolidated monarchy or vast centralized military despotism.

Vallandigham had no idea the extremes to which the corruption could reach. We now are $30 trillion in debt, and the national banking structure so opposed by Thomas Jefferson as unconstitutional and potentially corrupt, has seen banking failures as politicians in bed with centralized planners enrich themselves at the expense of the taxpayers who have to fund bailouts.

Today five US Banks have risk exposure that is twice the amount of the GDP of the entire world! And the risk to us all is compounded by the fact that politicians repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, a law which prevented commercial banks from using people’s deposits for speculative purposes. Now banks are beginning to fail cyclically. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts explains:

It all happened because public policy has ceased to be in the public interest, instead serving private agendas…. The commercial banks wanted to participate in the speculative ventures like investment banks and enjoy the same high earnings.  Instead of using their own money, they wanted access to the money of their depositors.

Could any of this centralized corruption been possible had sovereignty remained diversified among the many States as the guardians of the rights and welfare of the people of those States? It is highly doubtful. We have the Lincoln revolution to thank for all this corruption.

And McPherson’s, along with his fellow cabal of Leftist historians, attempt to spin the narrative to cover it up, does us all no service. But then social justice ideologues care more about ideology than they do justice. And fabricating history is simply a means to an ideological end.

A few years ago McPherson and some of his fellow “Pious Cause” historians asked Barrack Obama to not lay the traditional wreath at the Arlington Confederate Monument for all the usual fabricated reasons that seek to vilify the Confederate cause.

To his credit, Obama had a wreath placed there anyway.

Rod O'Barr

Rod O’Barr is retired and lives in Tennessee with his wife of 45 years, Kathy. He has advanced degrees in Philosophy and Theology, and a lifelong interest in history. He is the webmaster of a WWII website and a member of both the Abbeville Institute and the SCV. When not enjoying time with his children he enjoys doing living history at local schools.

Links to Important Resources
Defend Arlington Fundraising Site where you can help save Moses Ezekiel's MAGNIFICENT 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery by Buying Outstanding Merchandise featuring BEAUTIFUL images from the monument. Art critics have said that every image on the monument is a work of art by itself. There are all kind of things like shirts, hats, hoodies, clocks, art prints, tote bags, note cards, stickers, ipad skins and cases, cell phone cases and skins, wall art, coasters, mugs, pins, throw pillows, water bottles, journals, magnets, etc.! ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE DEFENSE FUND! Go spend some time on this site! You will love it!

Shop Now

 

Defend Arlington's recording of the 35 or so speakers on behalf of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that took place Wednesday, March 15, 2023 in a virtual meeting of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee of Arlington National Cemetery.

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

 

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to DefendArlington@gmail.com.

Please Donate Now -- THANK YOU!

Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.

 

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

 

Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

 

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

 

Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington's attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

 

Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is naming commission vice chair. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled "The Civil War Was Not for Slavery."

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

 

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

 

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

Take action TODAY!

Powerful public testimony supporting the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery

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Powerful public testimony supporting the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery
View the video on Defend Arlington's YouTube site, show it at SCV and UDC meetings
Defend Arlington is gaining traction nationwide
We can WIN this fight for all Americans who are FED UP with Woke hatred and Iconoclasm
Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.
Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.
Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.
Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.
View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.
View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - I was proud to be among the thirty-five or so speakers who joined a virtual meeting on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 to speak on behalf of the Confederate Memorial. We were given two-and-a-half minutes each by the Arlington National Cemetery Remember and Explore Subcommittee, which answers to the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery.

Speakers included many high-ranking retired military veterans and people with extensive historical knowledge, as well as average patriotic Americans disgusted with the Woke tearing at the very fabric of our county.

It was pointed out several times that the demolition of the magnificent 109 year old Confederate monument, that was supported by four presidents and veterans, North and South, would be an act so barbaric, uncivilized and immoral, it would put the American federal government on the same level with the Taliban. We can not allow that.

The Confederate Memorial is surrounded by over 500 graves in concentric circles out from the monument. It was designed in Rome, Italy, by world-class Jewish artist and VMI Confederate veteran, Sir Moses Ezekiel, who is buried inches from its base along with two other Confederate soldiers and a Confederate sailor.

A question was brought up by a member of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee after public comment had ended asking if "reconciliation" is specifically mentioned anywhere.

IT IS, and in great detail by Arlington National Cemetery itself in its 2014 application for its Historic District to be on the National Register of Historic Places. ANC makes it clear and in numerous places that the Confederate Memorial and the 500 Confederate graves around it symbolize our country coming back together as one nation with love, respect and patriotism.

See my white paper entitled "The Reconciliation of North and South After the War Between the States as Symbolized by the Confederate Memorial 'New South' in Arlington National Cemetery," Section 12 of Defend Arlington's 385 page white paper book (link below) entitled:

 

Arguments Against Naming Commission Recommendation, RE: Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial
A collection of white papers, articles, testimony, and the Presidential Monument dedication speech

 

Testimony Wednesday was at times emotional. Sincerity and love of country was palpable. Several members of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee noted later their admiration for the dignified, heartfelt emotion involved in the public testimony.

It made me proud to be an American and Southerner fighting against the politicized fraud that the left has turned our history into since the 1960s.

People are fed up with, not just the race obsession in academia and much of the news media, but the entire Woke agenda, which is now entrenched in our military.

Wokeness in the military is the primary reason for the recruiting crisis that is far worse this year than last. See "Woke Military Ads Prove Infiltration of Woke Politics" by Graham Perdue, March 14, 2023.i There is a link in the endnote.

This is one of a plethora of articles in publications such as Military Times and Army Times, giving a dire warning about wokeness in the military, men in women's showers, etc., ad nauseam. See my blog article "Military Times reports 'trust and confidence' in our military dropped from 70% in 2018 to 48% in 2022," January 31, 2023.ii

It is not smart to destroy the Confederate Memorial, which symbolizes the reconciliation of North and South after the War Between the States, when 44% of the United States Military is recruited in the South.

Defend Arlington is gaining traction nationwide.

We have a LONG way to go but we now have the support of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Other governors and state legislatures are sure to join the fight.

In the South Carolina legislature, a Resolution with thirty sponsors was filed calling for South Carolina Representatives in Congress to oppose the Arlington Desecration. It is expected to pass soon. Please do this in ALL Southern and receptive states!

The SCV filed a law suit last Monday in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Defend Arlington needs money for our outstanding legal team. If you are fed up with the Woke destroying our history and monuments, STAND UP AND FIGHT! Please donate all you can as often as you can. There are links below.

Make Arlington the turning point in the Marxist war against America.

Woke hate and ignorance DIE at Arlington National Cemetery.]

Links to Important Resources

Defend Arlington's recording of the 35 or so speakers on behalf of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that took place Wednesday, March 15, 2023 in a virtual meeting of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee of Arlington National Cemetery.

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND

Please Donate Money -- THANK YOU!

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington's attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is on the naming commission. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled "The Civil War Was Not for Slavery."

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

Take action TODAY!

i Graham Perdue, "Woke Military Ads Prove Infiltration of Woke Politics," March 14, 2023, https://freedompress.com/woke-military-ads-prove-infiltration-of-woke-politics/, accessed 3-17-23.

ii Gene Kizer, Jr., "Military Times reports 'trust and confidence' in our military dropped from 70% in 2018 to 48% in 2022," January 31, 2023, https://www.charlestonathenaeumpress.com/military-times-reports-trust-and-confidence-in-our-military-dropped-from-70-in-2018-to-48-in-2022-politicization-cited-as-number-one-problem/.

Dear Tucker Carlson Tonight, . . .

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Dear Tucker Carlson Tonight, . . .
Scroll down for a link to Tucker Carlson's prime time interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery
TUCKER BEGINS WITH: So, if you want to control a country, obviously you have to erase its history so no one has any idea what went before, and then the future is yours, and that's why they tear down monuments to our past . . .
Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.
Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.
Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.
Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.
View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.
View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - Below is correspondence I sent to Fox News's Tucker Carlson Tonight about Tucker's outstanding February 28th interview with Christopher Bedford, who has a current article in The New Criterion, on the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

That magnificent 109 year old monument, surrounded by over 500 Confederate graves in concentric circles, supported by four presidents and veterans North and South, is slated for demolition by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and other heinous destroyers of history and art.

Those kinds of actions by the Woke in our government are degrading not only our country but also our military.

They are the main reason for the current recruiting crisis, which is significantly worse this year than last. Military recruiting is on a downward trend because people are FED UP with the Woke military that just approved putting men in women's showers along with the constant badgering on racial issues that do not exist except in the sick Woke mind.

Would you allow your daughter to join the military and be forced to shower and bunk with "men" who obviously have issues? See "Biden Pentagon Orders Military Chaplains To Bless Putting Male Soldiers In Female Showers And Bedrooms" by Elaine Donnelly, February 24, 2023.1 (a link to the article is in the note, below)

Would you want your sons to serve with people who got in because the standards were lowered in order to deal with a worsening, self-inflicted recruiting crisis?

This disgraceful Wokeness is tearing at the fabric of our country.

So many veterans today who proudly served would discourage their own children from joining a military that, like the federal government, is committed to racist Woke ideology and iconoclasm, and not merit.

Our military and all of our warriors deserve a LOT better than this Woke garbage. Our country and especially military had better get back FAST to being the greatest colorblind meritocracy in history as we were in the not too distant past, before the rise of racist Woke mediocrity.

Scroll down for a link to a Defend Arlington update that includes Tucker Carlson's segment on the Confederate Memorial with Chris Bedford, on YouTube.

Please donate all you can to help in our lawsuit to save the Confederate Memorial because we can and WILL win this fight with your help!

To destroy that symbolic monument and leave a mangled shaft sticking up surrounded by hundreds of graves that represent the reconciliation of our country after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed, would put a black stain on Arlington National Cemetery and its administrators, the United States Army and United States Department of Defense, for all time.

We can not allow that.

This is the hill to die on.]

 

March 2, 2023

Dear Tucker Carlson Tonight,

I sent the following via your website but wanted to send to your email address too.

Love your show!

The segment with Christopher Bedford on 2-28-23 on the planned demolition of the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery was good but WAY incomplete.

A lawsuit was filed two weeks ago by Washington, DC attorney Karen Bennett on behalf of an organization - Defend Arlington - that has sprung up to STOP the demolition of that historic monument. Defendants are DOD, the U.S. Army, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and others.

I published the entire lawsuit on my blog here:

https://www.charlestonathenaeumpress.com/defend-arlington-v-austin-et-al-23-cv-441-entire-complaint-a-lawsuit-to-stop-the-destruction-of-the-109-year-old-confederate-reconciliation-memorial-in-arlington-national-cemetery/

Defend Arlington solicited scholarly white papers on the Confederate Memorial and recently published a 385 page book that includes them all and other information to help our attorneys. Here is a link: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/914200920/

A printed copy is available. If you would be so kind as to give me an address, we will send you a copy and other information on our legal efforts.

It is CLEAR that the DOD and others have violated NUMEROUS LAWS in their attempt to destroy the Confederate Memorial, and it is outrageous.

As Tucker knew when he got Chris Bedford to do a segment, this is a huge issue. The Confederate Monument is a world class work of art by Jewish artist Moses Ezekiel who was also a Confederate soldier and is buried around the base with two other Confederate soldiers and a Confederate sailor. The monument is surrounded by over 500 graves of Confederate soldiers and family arranged in concentric circles. ANC stated many times that the monument is an important part of their registration to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

The monument itself was the idea of Union veteran William McKinley when he was president. President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication speech June 4, 1914. Before that, President William Howard Taft spoke at the ceremony the evening of the laying of the cornerstone.

It would be an abomination for that monument signifying the reconciliation of our country after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed, to be destroyed by Woke leftists.

Thank you very much.

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press

Links to Important Resources

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

 

Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

 

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND

Please Donate Money -- THANK YOU!

 

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

 

Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington's attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

 

Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is on the naming commission. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled "The Civil War Was Not for Slavery."

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

 

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

 

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

 

Take action TODAY!

 

1 Elaine Donnelly, "Biden Pentagon Orders Military Chaplains To Bless Putting Male Soldiers In Female Showers And Bedrooms," February 24, 2023, https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/24/biden-pentagon-orders-military-chaplains-to-bless-putting-male-soldiers-in-female-showers-and-bedrooms, accessed 2-24-23.

The North’s Racist Crusade Against Black People, What the Primary Source Record Shows

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Northern “antislavery” was, in the vast majority, an “antiblack” crusade with sectional political advantages attached. Being rid of blacks was a primary goal. Forcing emancipation, with the blacks kept bottled up in the South, would expedite colonization; or if not colonization, it was believed that confinement to the South, cut off from the cradle to grave welfare of the master, would lead to a Darwinian “dying out” of all the destitute blacks. Abolitionist Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed, “The abolitionist wishes to abolish slavery, but because he wishes to abolish the black man.” To which he added, “the dark man, the black man declines… It will happen by and by, that the black man will only be destined for museums like the Dodo.” Such genocide was discussed openly by Northern Senators on the floor of the Senate. New York Senator, John Dix, for whom Ft. Dix is named, made a speech supporting the “dying out” of the slaves . . .

The North's Racist Crusade Against Black People
What the Primary Source Record Shows
"What Shall Be Done With The Blacks?"
Painting by William Aiken Walker, "Boy with a Torn Jacket," 1890, oil on board.
Painting by William Aiken Walker, "Boy with a Torn Jacket," 1890, oil on board.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - Below is another outstanding article by historian Rod O'Barr published first in the Abbeville Institute Blog February 15, 2023 with title "What Shall Be Done With the Blacks?" That question is posed by the antebellum North, which made it clear that they were terrified of blacks living up there.

The Northern reaction to blacks in the North was probably not much different from the reaction of Martha's Vineyard when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flew a handful of illegal immigrants up there last year. MV got rid of them fast, though in the antebellum days getting rid of them could mean letting them die off or shipping them off, or making sure they all stayed in the South.

Alexis de Tocqueville noted in Democracy in America that race relations were better in the Old South despite slavery than in the North. He said race relations were bad in places that had abolished slavery and were the worst in places that had never known slavery.

The Old South, out of necessity, was an integrated bi-racial society as C. Vann Woodward writes in The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Blacks and whites knew each other and for the most part got along fine. Old Jim Crow began in the North and was there a long time before moving South with a Yankeefied version of racism and segregation.

If Lincoln had allowed the South to leave in peace there would have been no war and no Reconstruction with its pitting of blacks against whites for the political advantage of the Republican Party. When Republicans realized they could dominate the country with the black vote in the South, modern American racism began.

Southerners would have ended slavery in a much better way than what happened with war and nearly a million blacks dying due to disease and neglect by the North, which sure did not want blacks living up there. Several antebellum Northern states including Lincoln's Illinois had laws forbidding blacks from even visiting much less living there.

Most abolitionists hated black people and were against slavery because they were against blacks, as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens and so many others observed. That's why Northerners didn't want slavery in the West, because they didn't want blacks living next to them in the West.

Lincoln his whole life believed in sending blacks back to Africa or into a place they could survive. In the meantime, they were to remain in the South only. Not up North.

If academia was honest, people would know these facts of history, but, of course, academia has been politicized since the 1960s. They aren't looking for historical truth. They are looking for political advantage for liberals in academia, the media and Democrat Party. That's why distinguished historian Eugene Genovese said the treatment of Southern history by academia and the media is a "cultural and political atrocity."

Most people do not know that Northerners and especially New Englanders and New Yorkers were America's slave traders who brought the slaves here and made huge fortunes in the process. Esteemed historian Bernard Bailyn said that slavery, unquestionably, was the reason for New England's economic success.

New York Senator John Dix, for whom the United States Army's Fort Dix is named, is quoted in O'Barr's article below as being in favor of the slaves "dying out."

Perhaps "Native American" Elizabeth Warren and the naming commission ought to take a look at Fort Dix and other government establishments named or connected to Northern slave traders and change those names like they are changing the names of bases in the South.

Or maybe the hypocrite Warren should offer to change the name of Boston's Faneuil Hall since Peter Faneuil was a slave trader, but then honesty, honor and historical knowledge are not things Elizabeth Warren knows about. Virtue signaling is her forte.

Scroll down past the article for several links to help in the fight to STOP the demolition of the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. In previous posts, I published Defend Arlington's law suit against DOD, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and others who want to destroy the magnificent 109 year old monument that is surrounded by over 500 Confederate graves in concentric circles. It is a true work of art supported by numerous presidents and veterans North and South. It is one of Arlington National Cemetery's most historic as stated several times in their registration to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

Please donate because WE CAN AND WILL win this fight.]

 

From the Abbeville Institute Blog
(AbbevilleInstitute.org)
"What Shall Be Done With The Blacks?"
By Rod O'Barr
February 15, 2023

THE PRIMARY SOURCE RECORD is clear. A main reason 19th century Southerners were forced to defend slavery as a practical matter was the absolute unwillingness of the North to allow dispersion and integration of the freed people across the Union and its territories. A chronic Northern racism was intent on keeping all blacks bottled up in the South if freed.

That meant an absolute social disaster in the South as many of the freed people, cut off from the required cradle to grave welfare of the master, would be forced into a life of mendicancy and crime to survive; not to mention the certain peril of those too old or too young to work who were entirely dependent upon the cradle to grave welfare of the master.. Slaves were already being rented out to economically accommodate their excess numbers. And with no surplus land in the South for subsistence farming, the freed people faced certain disaster. There simply was not enough available land or jobs in the South to accommodate them.

Yet the Republican Party, dead set on keeping Northern States free of new blacks, and the territories for whites only, attacked the South for its seeking the equal right to expand any of its black population into the territories; an arid land unaccommodating to plantation slavery, but where slaves could be dispersed and freed with land to survive. It was Northern racism that drove a segregation that would keep blacks out of the territories. Lincoln made this clear:

“There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas…” – Abraham Lincoln, 6/26/1857.

Senator Jefferson Davis, in an 1850 speech on the Senate floor, pointed out the hypocrisy of Northern “antislavery” opposition to taking slaves into the territories as the reason slaves were not being emancipated:

“What has been the progress of emancipation throughout the whole history of our country? It has been the pressure of free labor upon the less profitable slave labor, until the slaves were transferred to sparser regions, and their number, by such transfer, was reduced to a limit at which, without inconvenience or danger, or serious loss, emancipation of the few who remained might occur….  it is odious among us now, as it was with our ancestors. We only defend the domestic institution of slavery as it exists in the United States; the extension of which into any new Territory will not increase the number of the slaves by one single person, but which it is very probable may, in many instances, produce emancipation… It is not, then, for the purpose of emancipation or for the benefit of the slaves that it is sought to restrict it… “

Northern States had laws forbidding new blacks from entering their borders. In 1862 the Senate was firmly in the grips of the Republican Party. Members of that Party openly joked on the Senate floor about their own unwillingness to accommodate blacks in Northern States if freed. Read this excerpt from the speech of Republican J. R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, on Emancipation and Colonization; delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 19, 1862:

“A very distinguished gentleman from Vermont was first elected to Congress, I believe, about 1843. One of the well to do farmers in his neighborhood called upon him, the evening before he was to leave for Washington, to pay his respects. He found him in his office, and told him that he came for that purpose, and to bid him goodbye.

‘And now, judge,’ said he, ‘when you get to Washington, I want to have you take hold of this Negro business and dispose of it in some way or other; have slavery abolished and be done with it.’

‘Well,’ said the judge, ‘as the people who owned the slaves, or claim to own them, have paid their money for them, and hold them as property under their state laws, would it not be just, if we abolish slavery, that some provision should be made to make them compensation?’

‘But,’ said the judge, ‘there is one other question; when the Negroes are emancipated, what shall be done with them? They are poor people; they will have nothing; there must be someplace for them to live. Do you think it would be any more than fair that we should take our share of them?’

‘Well, what would be our share in the town of Woodstock?’ He inquired.

The judge replied: ‘There are about 2500 people in Woodstock; and if you take the census and make the computation, you will find that there would be about one for every five white person; so that here in Woodstock our share would be about 500.’

‘What!’ Said he, ‘five hundred Negros in Woodstock! Judge, I called to pay my respect; I bid you good evening;’ and he started for the door and mounted his horse. As he was about to leave, he turned around and said, ‘judge, I guess you need not do anything more about that Negro business on my account.’ [Laughter.]

(Congressional globe, 37th Congress, 2nd session, vol. IV, appendix, page 84, col. 3)

Northern “antislavery” was, in the vast majority, an “antiblack” crusade with sectional political advantages attached. Being rid of blacks was a primary goal. Forcing emancipation, with the blacks kept bottled up in the South, would expedite colonization; or if not colonization, it was believed that confinement to the South, cut off from the cradle to grave welfare of the master, would lead to a Darwinian “dying out” of all the destitute blacks. Abolitionist Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed, “The abolitionist wishes to abolish slavery, but because he wishes to abolish the black man.” To which he added, “the dark man, the black man declines… It will happen by and by, that the black man will only be destined for museums like the Dodo.” Such genocide was discussed openly by Northern Senators on the floor of the Senate. New York Senator, John Dix, for whom Ft. Dix is named, made a speech supporting the “dying out” of the slaves, to which then Senator Jeff Davis responded:

“With surprise and horror, I heard this announcement of a policy which seeks, through poverty and degradation, the extinction of a race of human beings domesticated among us. We, sir, stand in such a relation to that people as creates a feeling of kindness and protection. We have attachments which have grown with us from childhood – to the old servant who nursed us in infancy, to the man who was the companion of our childhood, and the not less tender regard for those who have been reared under our protection. To hear their extinction treated as a matter of public policy or of speculative philosophy arouses our sympathy and our indignation.”

Most Southerners were adamantly against deporting the slaves they had known from childhood. And they certainly were against the slaves being forced to “die out” landless and penniless. Which is why General Lee stated:

“The best men in the South have long desired to do away with the institution of slavery and were quite willing to see it abolished.  But, unless some humane course, based on wisdom and Christian principles, is adopted, you do them great injustice in setting them free.”

It was Northern segregationist racism that forced the South to defend slavery, not out of a desire to perpetuate and extend the institution, but as a means of protecting the Southern economy and society, as well as the slaves themselves from the inhumane disaster that would have been had emancipation been confined within Southern borders alone.

A slave master quoted in the 1854 study, “A Southside View of Slavery” said, “‘If our friends at the north would devise ways in which we could dispose of these poor people FOR THEIR GOOD, I should then no longer be a ‘servant of servants.’” (Emphasis mine)

For Southerners and Northerners alike, the problem was “what to do with the negro.” The answer to that question differed greatly by section. Most Southerners sought a humane answer that would assimilate the freed people into American society across the Union. As Jeff Davis stated, “Slavery is for its end the preparation of that race for civil liberty and social enjoyment… When the time shall arrive at which emancipation is proper, those most interested will be most anxious to effect it.” Northerners were having none of that assimilation. What kept Davis’ “proper time” for emancipation arriving was Northern refusal to disperse and integrate blacks.  Abolitionist Dr. Nehemiah Adams in his above-mentioned study of slavery stated regretfully:

“There are, probably, few who would not abstractly prefer free labor; but what shall be done with the blacks?  There has never been a time in the history of our discussions on this subject, when, the South had expressed her willingness to part with the slaves, we at the north could have agreed in what way they should have been disposed of. Who has ever proposed a plan of relief which could in a good measure unite us? What shall be done with the blacks? On the evils of slavery all are well-informed. But as to this essential question we get no light.”

An Alabama Secession Commissioner explained why he was going to vote for secession in terms that reveals a common humane concern for the outcome to freed slaves:

“Mr. President, if pecuniary loss alone were involved in the abolition of slavery, I should hesitate long before I would give the vote I now intend to give. If the destruction of slavery entailed on us poverty alone, I could bear it, for I have seen poverty and felt its sting. But poverty, Mr. President, would be one of the least of the evils that would befall us from the abolition of African slavery. There are now in the slaveholding States over four millions of slaves; dissolve the relation of master and slave, and what, I ask, would become of that race?”

The Mississippi Declaration of Secession asserted the Southern concern for the slaves lamenting that the North, “seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.”

A British publication summed up the South’s dilemma:

“The South has hitherto clung to slavery – because it saw no way to abolish it, without cruelty to the unprepared negro… it does not fight for the maintenance of slavery, as the North pretends, and as some in Europe still believes, but for independence… the sentiment of the Southern people towards the negroes was so kindly that there was nothing in the world that could be done to ameliorate their condition that the South would not gladly undertake.” (“The Friend of India” Dec 29, 1864).

Here presented is just a small sampling of primary sources that reveal just how skewed the truth is in the popular narrative that the South seceded to “perpetuate and extend slavery,” Also skewed is the fabrication that the recalcitrant North held a sincere moral concern for the slaves when, in reality, it opposed dispersion and integration of those freed, and just wanted blacks gone! Had Lincoln not been assassinated, and had Republicans not realized that freed slaves were a potential voting block for Republican control of the South, one can only wonder in what godforsaken place the descendants of slaves would be living today, or if they would exist at all.

Rod O'Barr

Rod O’Barr is retired and lives in Tennessee with his wife of 45 years, Kathy. He has advanced degrees in Philosophy and Theology, and a lifelong interest in history. He is the webmaster of a WWII website and a member of both the Abbeville Institute and the SCV. When not enjoying time with his children he enjoys doing living history at local schools.

 

Links to Important Resources

Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

 

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND

Please Donate Money -- THANK YOU!

 

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

 

Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington's attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

 

Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is on the naming commission. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled "The Civil War Was Not for Slavery."

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video,

 

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

 

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

 

Take action TODAY!