Another guy with no answers

From: wildbill4dixie@yahoo.com
To: mcharisse@eveningsun.com

Dear Gasbag

First, I eagerly await an article by you or your “unionist” friend which explains where it says “thou shalt not secede” in the original Constitution? I’m sure you and he can explain why no one said “boo” when the New England states publicly contemplated secession in 1803 and again in 1815? I’m sure you have an explanation for what changed between 1815 and 1860 – i.e., why was it ok in 1815 but not in 1860, and what makes it ok in one year but “treason” in another? Perhaps you were too busy pushing your views down the rest of our throats to elaborate on exactly how and why this was so? I’m waiting….waiting for you, or your “unionist” friend, or anyone else for that matter, to explain it to the rest of us peons. But we both know you can’t, because, as we used to say in the old neighborhood, “ya’ ain’t got nuthin’”. Don’t worry though. I’m not holding my breath waiting. I’d have as much chance of getting a rational explanation on that subject from you as I would from long dead General Gobin.

Let’s see, I think it was John Quincy Adams, (not a Southerner by the way), who, in 1839, spoke about the legality of secession: – “The indissoluble link of union between the people of the several states of this confederated nation, is, after all, not in the right, but in the heart. If the day should ever come (may heaven avert it!) when the affections of the people of these States shall be alienated from each other; when the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold indifference, or collision of interests shall fester into hatred, the bands of political associations will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies; to part in friendship from each other, than to be held together by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting to the precedents which occurred at the formation and adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more perfect Union by dissolving that which could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be reunited by the law of political gravitation to the center.” 
The Real Lincoln, byThomas DiLorenzo pages 87-88

Second, on States Rights. If you’d take the time to read a history book on occasion, you’d know that 3 of the original 13 states which ratified the Constitution (Rhode Island, New York and Virginia) clearly stated in their ratifications that they reserved the right to reassume their sovereignty should they ever feel that their well being was threatened! No other state argued that they could not make such a statement. And it was the architect of the Constitution, James Madison, who reminded us that this document was ratified, NOT by the people as a whole or as a “NATION”, but by the 13 sovereign independent states themselves. States Rights is a concept that is as old as America itself, and all your huffing and puffing can’t change that, so stuff it! 

Third, regarding your comment:

>>>It is quite another to fly the battle flag of slavery and secession from state capitols in the South in the 1960s, as was done in defiance of desegregation.<<<

Here’s a challenge – find me a quote from a Southern Politician of the 50s or 60s which indicates that flags over state capitols were raised in defiance of segregation orders. We both know that you can’t find any because there aren’t any, so stop blowing smoke up your readers’ a**es. If you didn’t know that there were no such quotes, then you are just plain ignorant. If you did know that there were no quotes and you made this comment anyway, then you are a liar. Which is it?

Fourth – spare me the references from the Mark Neely book. For your information, Jeff Davis did not have as many as 38000 people arrested because they voiced opposition to the war, the way “Father Abraham” did. And he did not close down 300-400 newspapers, ala “Father Abraham” either. It wasn’t Judah Benjamin who told a British diplomat that with the ring of a bell he could have anyone he chose thrown into prison for as long as he chose without a trial – it was Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward. It wasn’t Davis who suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus, it was Lincoln. 

About the worst thing the Southern newspapers ever suffered was a tongue in cheek bashing from Robert E. Lee”

"It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers.  In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late.  Accordingly, I am readily willing to yield my command to these obviously superior intellects, and I will, in turn, do my best for the Cause by writing editorials – after the fact." Robert E. Lee, 1863 

Taking a tongue lashing from a famous general certainly beats sitting in irons in prison or having your printing press trashed by a Republican mob, at least from where I sit.

Finally, it was said over and over again, by every Southerner from Jefferson Davis and Judah Benjamin to Mary Chestnut, “all we ask is to be let alone”. That in a nutshell is why more Americans were killed in the War Between the States than were killed in World War II. People like you, your unionist pal, General Gobin, and the vandals who saw fit to “shove those confederate flags up someone’s tailpipe”, just can’t let it alone. You couldn’t then and you can’t now. That in a nutshell was what the war was about.

Now hear this – we will not be deterred, we will not be brainwashed (what you call “educated”), and we will not apologize. We live in this country too and we have the same right to our opinions and feelings as you do yours. If you or others don’t like it, well that’s just tough. You’ll have to live with it the same way we have to live with the likes of you. We tried hard to secede once and you wouldn’t let us go for some strange reason. Now you’re stuck with us. You made your own bed, now sleep in it and shut up. And to you or anyone else who feels like stuffing a confederate flag up my tailpipe, the only thing I ask is that you try to do it while I’m there, instead of acting like the cowards that you all are and doing it behind my back. 

Bill Vallante

Commack NY
SCV Camp 3000 (Associate)
SCV Camp 1506 (Associate)

PS – Why they fought

From “Recollections of Thomas w. Caskey, 1891, His Memoirs”

“I remember how, with a pathos which I cannot describe, the speakers told us that a centralized power that would presume to invade a state and set aside the right of local government which was recognized and protected by the Constitution when it was adopted, was a tyrant not to be trusted. 

“We were not seceding from the government. We were the government itself, the original George Washington edition of it, and we were seceding from a Yankee counterfeit!”

“I remember how the speakers told us that if it had been understood, when the vote on the adoption of the Constitution was originally taken, that the Federal Government should have the right at any time after a State came into the Union to abolish any organic law of that State which was recognized at the time that State was admitted into the union, not a single state in America would have adopted the Constitution“.