Posted on 07/30/2013 7:15:08 AM PDT by NotYourAverageDhimmi
Conservatives are grabbing popcorn and lining up to catch a new historical drama with modern connections.
“Copperhead,” the new film from director Ron Maxwell, focuses on the Northern opponents of the American Civil War and stars Billy Campbell, Angus MacFadyen and Peter Fonda.
At least one conservative — Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com — emailed his audience to tell it about the movie “that every conservative needs to see.”
“[W]hile Copperhead is about the Civil War, believe me, it will hit close to home for every conservative fighting to preserve our Constitution and our American way of life,” Viguerie wrote. “Because Copperhead is about standing up for faith, for America, and for what’s right, just like you and I are doing today. In fact, I’ve never seen a movie with more references to the Constitution, or a movie that better sums up our current fight to stand up for American values and get our nation back on track.”
The movie, which is based on the novel by Harold Frederic, follows Abner Beech, a New York farmer who doesn’t consider himself a Yankee, and is against slavery and war in general.
Asked about whether he sees his film as conservative, Maxwell told POLITICO, “I think if ‘Copperhead’ has any relevance at all, in addition to illuminating a time and place from our common heritage, it’s as a cinematic meditation on the price of dissent. I’ve never thought of dissent as a political act belonging to the right or left. It’s an act of liberty, expression of the rights of a free person — free not just in law but free from the confines and pressures of the tyranny of the majority.”
Maxwell said while the concept of dissent is as “old as time,” in the U.S., “it’s protected in the Constitution.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Lysander Spooner was in error.
The people of the US voted for their government. If unwilling to accept the results of elections, the borders of the US were open to anyone who didn’t want that government.
The insurrection was not started to end a US government that they did not want. It started before Lincoln took office, so there was nothing Lincoln did that justified their insurrection.
Rather, it was started to pervert the US government, and force the elected US government (which by election, the people showed that they wanted it) to respond to the desires of a small minority of very wealthy slave owners.
That small minority enslaved the men of the state militias to protect slavery in peacetime, and enslaved them in support of their insurrection.
The war wasn’t to end discrimination. It was to end the insurrection.
As a wartime measure, slavery in areas in insurrection was ended by Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery was ended in most of the south by the end of the war. Only about 60,000 slaves remained to be freed by the 13th Amendment.
People of discriminating tastes still discriminate today.
Alas, they were all Americans. What a great loss, for an insurrection begun for the worst of causes.
Then wouldn't it be more accurate to say 250,000 Confederates died in the war - the rest were Americans?
I’m with Don. They were all Americans. Some of them fought, as valiantly as any men in history, for one of the worst causes in history.
Edmund Ruffin
Contrary to what some believe, seccession is not Constitutional, at least not without the permission of Congress. Not only did the Articles of Confederation, which created the United States, call it a “perpetual Union between the states but Article 1/Section 10, Article IV/Sections 3 & 4, and Article VI make it clear that states are not permitted run their own foreign policy or create their own confederation, that Congress has final jurisdiction over the territory of the United States, and that the states are bound by the Constitution and all state legislators, executive officers, and judicial officers are required to take an oath to support it. Further, the Habeas Corpus clause of Article 1/Section 9 makes it pretty clear that the Constitution intended the federal government to have the power to put down rebellions, which is what the Civil War was.
This article has a nice graphic that illustrates which states rely on Federal money:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-fiscal-union
Quite a few conservatives seem to believe that the bulk of Federal interstate money transfers take place in the form of welfare payments and aid to cities but they miss the federal money spend on things like farm subsidies, dams, and rural infrastructure as well as the welfare and aid to the poor that goes to rural areas because it’s not as concentrated or easy to see. Also, all those retirees who retire in the south and west and all of those military bases in blue states are supported by a lot of Federal spending, too. A lot of that makes sense, because it’s cheaper to live and operate a military base in those places than the Northeast, Upper Midwest, or California, and a lot of it is simply because the people are richer and have more money in blue states and tax rate takes more of their money. But it also means more money is flowing from blue states to red states than the other way around and fantasies about how much better the red states would financially do without the blue states are fantasies.
I second the motion. All were Americans and most fought honorably. Which brings up an interesting point...
Do you know of anyone who formally renounced their American citizenship when their states went rogue? I haven’t found anything indicating that anyone ever did.
Yup. Another lovely theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts.
I doubt any of them thought it necessary. They were citizens of Virginia or Georgia first, so when their states seceded, their citizenship went with the state.
Anyway, they still considered themselves “Americans,” of the CSA variety, not the USA variety.
Bullsh*t.
And then he had the decency to kill himself.
Confederate veterans are classified as American veterans and they are buried at National cemeteries all over the country. Arlington National Cemetery has plenty of Confederate veterans buried in it’s hollowed grounds. The Confederate Memorial at Arlington contains the inscription:
Not for fame or reward
Not for place or for rank
Not lured by ambition
Or goaded by necessity
But in simple
Obedience to duty
As they understood it
These men suffered all
Sacrificed all
Dared all-and died
Hollowed grounds? I'm pretty sure they fill the entire grave with dirt.
The movie is dishonest. In the book the lead character is concerned about race and race mixing. He doesn’t like the war and he thinks Lincoln is wrong, but race is very much on his mind, and that’s reflected in his language. In the movie it’s all about the Constitution, and they even make him part of the Underground Railroad. I’d have respected the film makers more if they hadn’t tried to fudge this.
And if the legislature of,say,Nebraska passes legislation seceding from the US and severing *all* ties with Washington.And the Nebraska National Guard refused to follow any orders issued in the name of anyone but the state's Governor? What then,invasion?
I don't think secession is very practical for most states, certainly not the land locked ones that would suffer from the restrictions placed on them by the surrounding, angry & slighted, USA.
Yes,that's a consideration.But look at the blue states.That would be more of a problem for them.The Northeast,Florida,several states of the Upper Midwest,the West Coast and Hawaii.About the only state in the newly formed nation that we'd have trouble reaching would be Alaska and we have trouble reaching that now.
Works for me. The funny part is that RE Lee’s property at Arlington was turned into a cemetery in retaliation for Virginia confiscating the property of the Union general Thomas.
Yet I doubt Lee could have a finer tribute than his home being the most prestigious cemetery for military men in the nation.
"We"? You live in Massachusetts, no?
I'd stop living in Massachusetts the moment that the Civilized States of America was formed.
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