From: Mark Vogl
To: demastus@aol.com ; list@citadelalumni.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Subject: Defend slavery instead of promoting Southern virtues…a strategy for non growth!
Gentlemen:
It really is amazing. I was in the Sons of Confederate Veterans for nineteen years, and while from time to time I might hear some racism, normally that was the exception to the rule.
But now, it appears that it may be more prevalent than I ever knew. There are actually men in the S.C.V. who would rather argue that slavery was not a sin, and was perfectly ok then to promote the virtues of the South. There is a real paradox within the S.C.V. On the one hand arguments will be made that secession was not about slavery and that only 5% of Southerners owned slaves. However, those same historians either do not know, or will not mention that in the secession resolutions of half a dozen Southern states (including Texas and Virginia ) slavery is mentioned as either the cause or a cause for secession! Now these are the document approved by the respective secession conventions, or in the case of Texas, voted on by the people of the state. So are we saying they couldn’t read? Are we saying that the words meant nothing.
The argument that words meant nothing could be valid since the recent Court decision re-wrote Obama Care to call a fine a tax. So maybe the words don’t mean anything, and the South is exactly the same as the north or today’s America. I never thought that, and still don’t.
I honestly believed that words did mean something. I believe Virginian Thomas Jefferson when he wrote all men are created equal.
And I would argue the South was moving towards ending slavery on its own in the 1830’s and 40’s until Yankees felt the right to interfere in state issues and pressure the South on the issue of slavery. Placing pride above wisdom, Southerners then ended their move to end slavery. Imagine if they had freed the slaves and then twenty years later left the Union. How short would that war have been? How quickly would the South have been free?
Men, we can argue the right and wrong of slavery ‘til the last day; not helping the Cause at all. Or, we could define the Cause, clearly and very succinctly. In the plain english of the Charge. Once doing so, the South could then promoted for the values and virtues which make it great.
In doing that God would be placed at the head of the table where He rightly belongs. Right and wrong would be defined by the Bible as it should be. The Christian nature of the Bible Belt would be embraced and placed at the forefront as is right and just.
We could talk about the original Constitution as defined by Virginia Supreme Court Justice Able Upshur. We could talk about limited central government. We could talk about sovereignty of each state being superior to the central government and the right of secession as a tool to limit federal over reach. We could talk capitalism free from government interference, and the right to work free from unions. We could talk about the importance of land and agriculture. We could talk about the role of the family as the core social unit within the Southern nation.
We could talk about ingenuity, courage, and unity demonstrated by the South during the war for independence.
And of course there is the culture of the South; its food, music, women and storytelling.
There are estimated forty million potential members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Now, besides the changes which need to be made within the SCV protecting your Constitutional rights within the
organization, such as Freedom of Speech, Right to know your accuser, elimination of aristocracies which rule, and replaced with democracy, etc., the S.C.V. needs to condemn slavery as the sin it was and is, and get on to the much more positive aspects which could help you recruit. Of course, if you enjoy the feeling of being "elite" because you are so small, and seem incapable of real growth, than don’t change at all. Stay precisely as you are.
Realize that presently you do not VINDICATE the Cause. If you think you do, sit and write out what you think the Cause was…just to make sure you have a starting point.
Mark Vogl
