The South is Right!

Nolan Chart ^ | May 25, 2012 | Mark Voge

[2ndDivisionVet]

150 years after the great divide in America, reality seems to be proving that the South was right on everything but slavery, lets look!

The Kennedy brothers, Donnie and Ron shook book stores across the land when their book The South Was Right boldly proclaimed a view which asserts that the original founders of America were right, and Lincoln and the progressives were wrong!

The Kennedy twins are intelligent, educated, successful southerners who focused their intellects on researching the politics and economics of the ante bellum era and found considerable evidence that the South was right. It's a terrific book available at Barnes and Nobles, and if you are an American who believes in God, the original founders of America and Declaration of Independence, then The South Was Right should be in your library.

Now, before we go further let's do what we have to do, condemn slavery as the sin of the past. It was wrong. It was wrong in the North, and wrong in the South. Taking a man's liberty is taking a gift from the Almighty Father and that is wrong. No point wasting a lot of space in debate, or discussion. So let's move on.

This article is not about the past, it is about today. It is about an America seemingly in cardiac arrest. It is about an America over regulated, over taxed, over governed. It is about present day fashions and trends crushing the spirit of liberty which made us America. America is headed in the wrong direction and the markets, and our economy, and our young know it. America needs a new direction, and that direction can be found in the South, in its past, and in its present.

The division in America started almost before the Constitution was dry. Justice Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, wrote a treatise on the Southern interpretation of the Constitution. Within that work Upshur points to God as the author/creator of soveriegnty. Soveriegnty is handed from God to man. From man, soveriegnty is passed to the states. And it is the states who share a small portion of soveriegnty with the federeal government. The federal government is last, not first, and the Constitution is a leash to restrain the natural inclination of men in power to seek more power.

Let's start with the beginning. The South, Dixie, is also known as the Bible Belt. 150 years ago, in the Preamble to the Confederate Constitution, the southern founding fathers called on God for His protection and His guidance. God was invited to the "governing table." This was not something new in America, but it was one of the things the North was changing and the South wanted to keep. If you read Forged in Faith or The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States you will discover that Christ had been with America since before its conception. Christ and the church were with each of the colonies as they were discovered and settled. Christianity was at the heart of the laws, at the core of the spirit of the people who made the venture from Europe to America. Christ was about liberty, the rule of law, consent of the governed and majority rule. Sovereignty came from God. God is sovereign. From Him all authority flows.

Many of today's writers on this subject credit the Pilgrims and Massachusetts with using the Bible, and Higher Law to write the Mayflower Compact and plant the seeds for American democracy. The separate religious faiths of Christianity and the pulpit was critical to the foundation of Ameirca. The first cohesiveness of America, the first spirit of unity amongst the colonies came from a mutual belief in a Christian God. All believed that God had brought us to America, and that God was in charge.

The North is portrayed as the original Bible Belt. Yet something happened. The North has moved away from God. The South today, has not. Barack Obama, as President, has declared we are not a Christian nation. That may work in New York, or with the main stream media, but it don't set well if you live south of the Mason Dixon Line, or in the Heartland. America is Christian today. We do believe in the Bible. We do believe in Christ. Our morality, our sense of right and wrong, come from the Higher law. Everything that America can be stems from this starting point. Everything that man can be emanates from the understanding that God exists, that the Bible is His word.

This is not past. This is today. This is the South. Go in its towns. Go to its churches. Talk to people. Listen. The South is not conservative because it has less colleges or universities. The South is not conservative through some genetic fault. The South is conservative because the root of conservatism is a Christian God. It is a belief in something other than government. It is a belief in the partnership between God and man. The South is Right!

Since Eden man has wrestled with the questions of right and wrong. There's no need to. God outlined right and wrong. Like a loving parent He wrote a letter to mankind in the form of the Bible. It tells us right and wrong. No secrets. Nothing scientists have to discover. Nope. Like the basic laws of physics right and wrong do NOT change. Yet, so much of man's energy is wasted in the ebb tides of morality. Yet like gravity, or magnetism, right and wrong are consistent, not changed or altered by man.

The South is this place. It is a place where the anchor of God sets the table. While other parts of the nation, or people within the nation may chide the South for being the Bible Belt, we wear that description knowing Christ told us we should endure in living His word.

But the South is about much more then its bedrock faith.

The South is about American values. It is about federalism, state's rights and local control. It is about the people in the local area having the most to say about governing themselves. The South is about limiting federal government. The South is about limiting the benefits of working for the government! The best and brightest should not be in government. They should be in medicine, or inventing new technologies, or creating new business formations, or caring for the land and resources of a region.

The South is about capitalism. It is about competition. The right to work is a southern concept, and unions are seen as a socialist tool to organize workers. Unions have become their own political parties, their own sources of power. Unions do not represent their members. What American jobs did unions fight for? Unions are internationals, not American. They are not Christian, they are secular. Unions are myopic; they are manifestations of cumulative greed seeking power and advantage for a small set of people. And because the South rejected unionism, and wealthy investors poured their monies into the north and not the South, the South was spared the natural inflation which comes with unions.

The South is about understanding that wealth is not money. Wealth is in the land, in the family, and in the things we produce. Money is a tool, not a source of value.

The South is about pride in one's home town, and region. The South is about a regional identity and unity. It is about a way of thinking, a way of singing, and a way of enjoying life. What other region in America has a symbol equal to the Confederate battle flag?; a symbol internationally known and respected, a symbol in opposition to tyranny and oppression. And then there is the South's national anthem; Dixie.

The South offers an alternative American model, one that is needed in the modern world. The South is the antithesis to modern global hegemony and collectivism. The South is about nationalism, independence, autonomy, personal liberty, limited government. The South embraces God as the sole supreme authority. The South provides an alternative course, alternative direction, an alternative to human secularism and socialism. The South is right.

[Terry Mross]

Why should I study? You know everything and I’m sure you love to prove that to everybody every chance you get. So, will you explain to me what a smart ass is? Never mind. I did a little studying. Looked it up in the dictionary. It has a picture of you.

[donmeaker]

The so called southern anthem was written and performed in New York city.

The symbol recognized around the world is the US flag.

[gzzimlich]

The North had slavery, too, and Lincoln did not free the slaves, the 13th Amendment did.

***

The “party of Lincoln” line that was used for a while tickled me pink.

“I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people. And I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. … And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” – Abraham Lincoln in his fourth debate with Stephen Douglas in the campaign for the United States Senate on September 18th of 1858.

I also seem to remember a collection of narratives from some old ex-slaves (1930’s I think) in which many expressed an abiding reverence for their former masters that had withstood half-century of post-slavery experience.

Just sayin’..

[rockrr]

I had to chuckle at our thin-skinned Lost Causer buddies’ detritus here. Some folks just can’t figure out when it’s timne to move along.

[jmacusa]

Wealth was in owning another human being. How do you get around that?

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’m not a spokesman for the South, so I don’t have to “get around” anything. Did you read the article and assimilate the information it imparted or just respond to the headline?

[jmacusa]

Yes 2nd, I read the article and never read so much twaddle in my life. Do you really think we in the North are all God-less liberals? Do you really believe that? 150 years ago the South intended to preserve an evil system of an economy based on slave labor, it launched a war it couldn’t possibly hope to win and is responsible for the deaths of 660,000 Americans. I’ve no truck with any Southerner or any of my fellow citizens who considers themselves an AMERICAN as I do. I’m not a ‘’Northerner’’ or a “Yankee’’. My problem is with “Johnny Reb wanna-be’s who haven’t realized the Confederacy lost and the war is over.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I was raised in Southern California, South Florida and Central Iowa, so I’m not really a Southerner, either. I live in Mississippi and am moving back to the Dallas area in a few weeks.

[WKB]

A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow, ping

[duffee]

In the North it was “The Civil War”, to the Southern media and politicians it was “The War for Southern Independence”, to the those in the South who did the killing, the dying and the mourning, it was “The War Against Northern Aggression”.

[x]

In the North it was “The Civil War”, to the Southern media and politicians it was “The War for Southern Independence”, to the those in the South who did the killing, the dying and the mourning, it was “The War Against Northern Aggression”.

C'mon, that sounds an awful lot more like something wiseacres and malcontents thought up much, much later.

Didn't it sound a little comical the first time you heard it?

Google finds it used exactly once during the war, by a Northern General as something he wanted to refute.

It looks like the phrase really got started in the 1950s and took off in recent decades. Source

Nowadays, somebody's going to accuse somebody like me of saying Confederate soldiers were stupid if I point out that "War of Northern Aggression" was pretty highfalootin' for use in the trenches and encampments, but ordinary folks, North or South, would have felt pretentious talking that way.

I can't say that nobody ever said, "This is a war of Northern agression," but that wasn't what soldiers commonly called the war.

[duffee]

I’ve heard it all my life and “The War for Southern Independence” was used extensively by politicians and newspapers, “Ive also heard and seen in print “The War Against Northern Aggression” all my life and it probably didn’t come into use until after the war. Some of it’s origins are attributed to the fact that the “Cause” hadn’t attracted great numbers of enlistments, enough to fight a war until President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to invade the South. It has always been known in the South that for many of those who participated it was not political. And yes I did make the statement with a degree of tounge in cheek, the same way I often ask a newcomer from the North if he’s a yankee or a damn yankee, this is part of our history and with it came great suffering and hardship of our people. The women of the South were bitter and held grudges for generations beyond the years when the vetrans of both armies would sit together and share stories. There were atrocities commited against the civilan populations, an example would be the shelling of the civilan population of Vicksburg as well as the shelling of yellow flag marked military hospitals in Vicksburg. I’ve not commented on slavery, secession, then or now, but only something that may offer a little insight into how this Southerner views the history of the war and the aftermath. Many of us had ancestors who served in this conflict and while most came home all didn’t and none including the civilans were unscathed.

[jmacusa]

Good luck with the move. How’s things been for you over all,everything ok? I visited Southern CA twice, Oceanside, when my brother was in the Marine Corp. Sure was nice. Long time ago though, late ‘70s.

[x]

There's an old joke. I don't remember the exact wording but it went something like this: "You know you're in the South when they call the Civil War 'the War Between the States.' You know you're really in the South when they call it 'the War of Southern Independence.' And you know you're really, really in the Deep South, when they call it 'The War against Northern Agression.'"

I thought it was something "Senator Cleghorn" the radio comedian came up with that some people took too seriously, but sure, it's possible that some Southerners actually used the phrase before the joke started circulating. Given the depth of bitterness after the war, it's wholly likely that some Southerners did use the expression in deadly earnest before somebody thought up the joke.

But now some people actually believe that Southerners who experienced the Civil War actually called it "The War of Northern Aggression" or "The War Against Northern Aggression" while they were fighting it. When you wrote "In the North it was “The Civil War”, to the Southern media and politicians it was “The War for Southern Independence”, to the those in the South who did the killing, the dying and the mourning, it was “The War Against Northern Aggression”" it certainly leaves that impression. But that isn't true. As you say, it was something that most likely came into use after the war.

The people who actually fought the war were less bloodthirsty and warlike than politicians and newspaper writers who didn't see action. That's true of most wars when people are actually fighting. Afterwards politicians and journalists may want to forget what veterans can't.

Also, when you're fighting a war you also don't have the time or the motivation to overthink things the way that people do after a defeat. There are more important things to do and to worry about than playing word games.

I don't have an opinion about the rest, except to say that it all happened a very long time ago.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Why are these rental trucks so dang expensive? I don’t want to buy the thing, just use it for 3-4 days!!

[duffee]

I left out of my response that the men in the trenches on both sides and the populace in the North and the South would simply refer to it as the war and probably even did so after the Spanish American War until WWI. But of course Mississippi is one of the Deep South States. The point is that there are many who believe that the bulk of the Southern Army consisted of men who were there not for political purposes but to stop the invasion of their homeland, as I pointed out the surge of enlistments came after the call for 75,000 volunteers to invade the South.
It did happen a long time ago and most of the time these things are kind of said tounge in cheek now.

[dixiechick2000]

“A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow, ping”

Granted, and bump!

“The South is about understanding that wealth is not money. Wealth is in the land, in the family, and in the things we produce. Money is a tool, not a source of value.”

This is true, though. Family values is the bedrock of the South, at least in the rural South.

Southern big cities are as as bad as any other big city...anywhere.

[dixiechick2000]

“In fact, in most of the Baptist Churches, about 40% of the congregation is all us Northerners. That was true of the 3 Baptist Churches I tied until I stayed in the last one for the last 18 months”

So, WHERE do you live? My guess is either Charlotte or Atlanta.