Lincoln and Slavery too!

Clint Johnson, in The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South (pp. 143-4) has this to say about The Great Emancipator’s willingness to leave slavery alone:

“The Corwin Amendment (introduced by Congressman Thomas Corwin of Ohio and endorsed by Senator William Seward of New York in the Senate) passed the House 133 to 65 in February 1861 and the Senate 24 to 12 on March 2, 1861. It stated: ‘No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the Power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institution thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.’

“In other words, Northern legislators (most Southerners had already left Washington) affirmed that they had no intention of abolishing slavery. President-elect Abraham Lincoln told Congress in his inaugural address that he would support efforts to ratify the Corwin Amendment as the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution. He said, ‘I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution … has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.’

"So Lincoln agreed that it was already ‘implied constitutional law’ that slavery could not be abolished by federal law and had ‘no objection’ to this ‘being made express and irrevocable.’”

Lincoln was obsessed with consolidating federal power—in destroying once and for all the Constitutional restrictions that stood in the way of politicians like himself—not with ending slavery. Lincoln denied Southerners their right to self-government, not their right to own slaves.

United States War Criminals

Images courtesy of:

http://GenocideInSC.wordpress.com/

Picture the headlines: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ADMITS MEMBERSHIP IN RACIST CHURCH.

The church in question, it was discovered, openly promulgates a “White Value System,” and proclaims itself “a congregation which is Unashamedly White.” “We are a European people, and remain ‘true to our native land,’ the mother continent, the cradle of civilization … We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a White worship service and ministries which address the White Community.”

Don’t get excited. This is all made up. But can’t you imagine the “breaking news,” the denunciations by civil rights leaders, the candidate stuttering to explain, and then withdrawing in disgrace?

Well, it’s not entirely made up. The statements quoted above are taken from the website of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the 8,000-member congregation where Dr. Jeremiah Wright is senior pastor. And where Sen. Barack Obama is a member. All we’ve done is insert the words “White” in place of “Black,” and “European” in place of “African.”

No need to dwell on the liberal double-standard when it comes to the “R-word.” We all know how that works. What seems most striking though, is this church’s double-mindedness. Shouldn’t Christians seek to uphold their Creator’s value system, not one based on race (whatever that means)? Those in Rev. Wright’s flock may prefer the company of those who look like themselves, but the Savior’s church cannot be built on bigotry.

"And guide our coward feet"

The Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, first such vessel to destroy an enemy warship, will go on display at its own museum in North Charleston, South Carolina in 2012. Built in Mobile, Alabama and shipped by rail to Charleston, the Hunley used a spar torpedo to sink the U.S.S. Housatonic on the night of February 17, 1864. After signaling with a blue light that its mission was accomplished, the submarine and her crew were mysteriously lost.

The Hunley lay on the bottom, a virtual time capsule, until raised on August 8, 2000. She was commanded by Lt. George E. Dixon, and just as many predicted, the gold piece given him by his girlfriend as a good luck charm was found aboard. The coin had stopped a bullet at Shiloh, saving his life. The vessel and related artifacts continue to undergo study and preservation at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former Charleston Naval Base. Her eight gallant crew members were interred at Magnolia Cemetery in April 2004. At least 50,000 attended the funeral, including 10,000 re-enactors.

On July 1, 2000 the Confederate flag was brought down from the dome of the South Carolina State House, victim of a ferocious campaign of hate and ignorance unprecedented in our history. Providentially, the Hunley broke the surface exactly 38 days later.

James E. Kibler wrote a poem called “For George Dixon, Commander of the C.S.S. Hunley” (included in his fine collection, Poems From Scorched Earth, Charleston Press, 2001). Dr. Kibler concludes with these lines:

The last, you sank the Housatonic,
Showed out your gleaming signal light of silver blue
And headed into light of history,
Exploded golden charm still at your side,
To bring the light as lamp to this dark selfish age
And guide our coward feet.

The Unionist from Greensboro

During the “Secession Winter” of 1860-1861, Congressman John Adams Gilmer (1805-1868) of Greensboro did all he could to keep North Carolina in the Union. “Ultra men,” particularly those down in South Carolina, had for decades been “conspiring for disunion,” said Gilmer. He made an impassioned speech on the floor of the House, calling for moderation and peace. The Congressman countered secessionist sentiment in his state by mailing, at his own expense, 100,000 pieces of unionist literature to fellow North Carolinians.

Gilmer’s devotion to the Union was such that President-elect Abraham Lincoln offered him a cabinet post! After careful consideration, troubled over Lincoln’s ultimate intentions, Gilmer finally felt he must decline.

On April 15, 1861 Lincoln called up 75,000 troops to crush the seven-state Confederacy. John Adams Gilmer, a delegate to North Carolina’s Convention, now cast his ballot for secession. The vote, taken five months to the day after South Carolina’s, was unanimous. North Carolina spoke as one: There must be no coercion of fellow Americans!

Gilmer was elected to the Second Congress of the Confederate States. His only son and his younger brother joined the Southern army. North Carolina—a state solidly for the Union until the tyrant Lincoln declared war—put 120,000 troops in the field to battle for their liberty.

Paladins of Liberty's Cause

“If our ancestors could awaken from their graves, they could not but look with approbation upon their descendants … confident that the cause of liberty for which they fought could not be left in better hands than those which maintained it on the bloody fields of Manassas, of Shiloh, and of Sharpsburg. A hundred years hence, and we, too … will assume the proportions of Paladins, and with ghostly hands thrust from our unforgotten graves, challenge future generations to prove themselves men by measuring their strength, their virtue and their heroism with out own.”

Henry Timrod, February 1864

WE SHALL ACHIEVE A NAME, WHETHER WE SUCCEED OR FAIL

"Finally, let us pray that our courage may be equal to every emergency. Even though our cause be just, and our course approved by heaven, our path to victory may be through a baptism of blood. Liberty has its martyrs and confessors, as well as religion. The oak is rooted amid wintry storms. Great truths come to us at great cost, and the most impressive teachers of mankind are those who have sealed their lessons with their blood. Our State may suffer; she may suffer grievously; she may suffer long. Be it so: we shall love her the more tenderly and the more intensely, the more bitterly she suffers. It will not follow, even if she should be destined to fall, that her course was wrong, or her sufferings in vain ... Let it be our great concern to know God’s will. Let right and duty be our watchword, liberty, regulated by law, our goal; and, leaning upon the arm of everlasting strength, we shall achieve a name, whether we succeed or fail, that posterity will not willingly let die."

Rev. James Henley Thornwell
November 21, 1860— twenty-nine days before South Carolina seceded from the United States.

South Carolina League of the South

Millions of American children are returning to school, where they will begin each day with the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag. The ritual began in 1892, at the instigation of “Christian Socialist” Francis Bellamy (1855-1931).

A harmless recitation, or nationalistic indoctrination? How can an empire as diverse as the USA be “one nation”? If the people of Vermont or Alaska or South Carolina should want out, what becomes of that very permanent word, “indivisible”? And if people are denied their right to choose, can there truly be “liberty and justice for all”? That the Federal Flag Code requires the US flag be flown in a superior position to any other, including the Christian flag, makes meaningless the phrase “under God.”

The original pledge required the fascist salute pictured above. Don’t know why that was ever changed.

South Carolina League of the South

"Yet all must be endured ..."

This letter was written by Robert E. Lee to his daughter, on Christmas Day 1861, from his military headquarters south of Charleston, South Carolina.

“My Dear Daughter:

“Having distributed such poor Christmas gifts as I had to those around me, I have been looking for something for you … I have sent you what I thought most useful in your separation from me and hope it will be of some service. Yet how little it will purchase! … I send you some sweet violets that I gathered for you this morning while covered with dense white frost, whose crystals glittered in the bright sun like diamonds, and formed a brooch of rare beauty and sweetness which could not be fabricated by the expenditure of a world of money.

“May God guard and preserve you for me, my dear daughter! Among the calamities of war, the hardest to bear, perhaps, is the separation of families and friends. Yet all must be endured to accomplish our independence and maintain self-government. Your old home, if not destroyed by our enemies, has been so desecrated that I cannot bear to think of it.

“I pray for a better spirit and that the hearts of our enemies may be changed. In your homeless condition I hope you make yourself contented and useful. Occupy yourself in aiding those more helpless than yourself. Think always of your father.

R.E. Lee”

Strom Thurmond Haunts Connecticut

A young man from Connecticut, John R. Downey, chose to attend the University of South Carolina over three decades ago, where he earned his master’s in 1975 and a law degree two years later. Downey met Strom Thurmond while in the Palmetto State, and came to admire the senator. Returning to Connecticut, Downey did well in his profession, and in 2001 was named a judge of the Superior Court.

On June 26, 2003 Thurmond died at age 100. His public life was long and extraordinary. Elected to the State Senate in 1932, he went on to serve as circuit court judge until America entered World War II. The returning war hero was elected governor of South Carolina in 1946, and ran for president as a third-party candidate in 1948, carrying four states. In 1954 the people sent him to the U.S. Senate on a write-in vote. Thurmond was elected to eight terms, served as chairman of the Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, became President Pro Tempore, and for half a century was one of the most influential leaders in American political life.

According to court records, the morning after Thurmond’s death, Judge Downey, opening court for the day, praised Thurmond as “a great American,” one who “was able to see life and reality and grow” as he evolved from segregationist and who bettered race relations and helped appoint blacks to federal judgeships.

Now Downey, 56, is being considered for promotion to the Appellate Court, and his words of eulogy are coming under scrutiny. Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, claims that the judge’s praise of the “longtime segregationist” was “very inappropriate” and promises to make trouble for Downey.

Downey lauded the South Carolinian for changing his racial views. Legions of liberals, led by Senator Joe Biden at Thurmond’s funeral, have done the same thing. Lawlor’s critical attitude is bizarre, even for a New Englander.

"Remembering the days ..."

The above photo was scanned from pages 484-5 of the 1968 Garnet and Black, then the yearbook of the University of South Carolina. Do you notice anything extraordinary (other than the fact that 40 years ago even students dressed up for football games)? Flying above the student section of Carolina (now Williams-Brice) Stadium is a huge Confederate battle flag! And it was not placed there by some rebellious undergraduate, but by those in charge of Coach Paul Dietzel’s football program. In 1967, Confederate flags were often seen at pep rallies and games, and every time the Gamecock Marching Band played “Dixie” (yes, that happened often!), the students went wild.

South Carolina’s current coach, Steve Spurrier, spends much of his time trying to keep his players out of the Richland County Detention Center. But what really makes him mad is, in his own words, “that damn flag.” Last season a fan displayed one before a game, and the coach was terribly embarrassed.

For those embarrassed by the ol’ ball coach, call 1-800-327-8606 to order your “PUNT SPURRIER” bumper sticker.

For your edification and amusement, reproduced here are two contemporary political cartoons featuring the Sainted Abraham.

The one on top, from Harper's Weekly (January 3, 1863) has Columbia confronting Lincoln and asking, "Where are my 15,000 sons-murdered at Fredericksburg?" Lincoln says, "This reminds me of a little joke -" Columbia responds, "Go tell your joke at Springfield!!"

"Extremes Meet" is the title of a cartoon from the British Punch (October 24, 1863), comparing Lincoln with the Czar of Russia. The caption reads:

"Abe: Imperial son of Nicholas the Great,

We sir in the same fix, I calculate,

You with your Poles, with Southern rebels I,

Who spurn my rule and my revenge defy.

"Alex: Vengeance is mine, old man; see where it falls,

Behold yon hearth laid waste, and ruined walls,

Yon gibbets, where the struggling patriot hangs,

Whilst my brave myrmidons enjoy his pangs."

Stephen Dill Lee was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1833, and educated at a military school for boys. He graduated from West Point in 1854. After serving in the U.S. Army for nearly seven years, he resigned in February 1861, returning to his native state to accept a commission as captain of artillery in the Regular Army of South Carolina. A member of Beauregard’s staff during the bombardment of Fort Sumter, he later commanded the Washington Light Artillery of the Hampton Legion. Lee rose steadily in rank—fighting in Virginia, defending Vicksburg, commanding a corps in the Army of Tennessee—becoming before war’s end the Confederacy’s youngest lieutenant general.

Lee married Regina Harrison of Mississippi and settled in the Magnolia State. He was elected to the state Senate, served as the first president of Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Mississippi State University), and helped establish Vicksburg National Military Park. Elected commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans in 1904, Lee had delivered his now famous charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans six years earlier. Though the sectional conflict over slavery was one issue leading to secession, Lee wanted it understood “that we did not fight to maintain slavery, but for constitutional rights.”

In May 1908 the seventy-five year old general took ill and died while attending a reunion of Union veterans at Vicksburg. Lee’s remains were returned to his hometown of Columbus where thousands of mourners gathered and flags flew at half-staff by order of president Roosevelt. Rev. W.A. Hewitt of First Baptist Church, Lee’s pastor, spoke of his friend’s faith. “He had bravely met the enemy on many a hard fought field, but the greatest enemy he met was death. He met that enemy with the same courage, and won the greatest victory of his life. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”

“O death, where is they sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?”
1 Corinthians 15:55

“Forcibly to destroy slavery was to destroy the political power and the economic and social foundations of a whole people. Whether or not slavery was essential to the South, it was essential to the South to have the power to maintain slavery. If the North could control one, she could control all. This was the issue, the tragedy, that slavery had become the proving ground of the South’s fight to maintain her rights as a minority within the Union.”

Margaret L. Coit, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning John C. Calhoun, American Portrait

His religion was America

“Thank you, sir, for your service and moral courage.”
“You are a great inspiration.”
“I am sure there was a special place in Heaven for you.”
“May you sit tonight at the right hand of God.”

From notes left at the findagrave.com website.

Who is the recipient of these bouquets, left by his worshipping admirers? None other than William Tecumseh (“War is Hell”) Sherman.

We can only assume that Uncle Billy’s fascist fans know who it is they’re talking about. After all, it’s not as though his career and character were a secret.

Biographer Michael Fellman acknowledges “what Sherman sometimes referred to as the ’final solution of the Indian problem,’ which he defined as killing hostile Indians and segregating their pauperized survivors in remote places where they would not threaten white settlers.” General Sherman told President Grant, “We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children.”

But he didn’t only hate Native Americans. Just a few years earlier, Sherman was waging a “hard war” of extermination against Southern-Americans. Confederates, said Sherman, could expect to be “involved in the destruction that awaits armed rebellion against the nation’s will.” His army burned homes, churches, farms, and businesses; plundered towns and entire districts; forced into exile unoffending civilians; arrested and imprisoned women and children; shelled cities with the stated goal of terrorizing non-combatants; and committed murder. (And to think, Southerners wanted to leave a great country like that!)

In Columbia, South Carolina, the general’s men gang-raped black women on the streets as the city burned. “I like niggers well enough as niggers,” Sherman confided to a friend, though only “fools & idiots promoted their advancement.” There were no black soldiers in his army of course, for “I won’t trust niggers to fight yet.” Still, said Sherman, “I profess to be the best kind of a friend to Sambo.”

In July 1862, Sherman stopped all cotton trading carried on in Memphis by, in the general’s words, “Jews and speculators.” When Orangeburg burned during his march through South Carolina, Sherman promoted the tale that the town was not torched by his troops, but that “some Jew did it.”

Did we mention that Hitler thought highly of the Union cause?

Sherman’s crimes are of course excused by the History Channel, academic historians, the establishment elite, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and flag-waving American patriots everywhere. After all, he helped the sainted Abraham “save the Union.”

Tom DiLorenzo pointed out that “saving the Union” may be compared to a man who is abusing his wife, causing her to leave. The man finds her, beats her up, drags her back into the house, and says— ”If you leave again, I’ll kill you!” The man is then praised for “saving the marriage.” But this analogy can only speak to those who believe that political unions, like marriages, must be voluntary— that coercing others is wrong.

Dr. Harry Stout of Yale University Divinity School recently said, “Sherman’s religion was America, and America’s God was a jealous God of law and order, such that all those who resisted were reprobates who deserved death.”

Sherman’s religion was America. That explains a great deal, then and now.

South Carolina League of the South

"The Angel of Marye's Heights"

Nineteen year old Richard Rowland Kirkland of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment must have stared in disbelief to se the enemy advancing. The young sergeant knew how strong the Confederate position was. This December 13, 1862, Longstreet’s Corps was firmly entrenched on Marye’s Heights, overlooking Fredericksburg, Virginia. Holding the high ground on Lee’s left, the Southerners were sheltered in a sunken road, protected by a stone wall, supported by strong artillery. It seemed incredible that the Yankee invaders would dare attack. But Ambrose Burnside was doing just that, hurling five divisions against the impregnable line. Wave after blue wave went forward, to be cut down before even reaching the wall.

At the end of the day, thousands of dead and wounded Union soldiers lay sprawled across the ground. All through that bitterly cold night, Sergeant Kirkland was tormented by the pitiful cries of the wounded. Moved with compassion, at daylight he loaded himself with canteens and slipped over the wall. Would a sniper’s bullet claim him? Kirkland went to the nearest sufferer and gave him a drink. Another he covered with his own coat. A cheer went up from the Federal lines. For an hour and a half not a shot was fired as “the Angel of Marye’s Heights” carried water to his fallen foes.

Less than a year later, Kirkland himself died defending his country at the battle of Chickamauga.


“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you …” - Jesus, in Matthew 5:44

“The state’s rights interpretation of the Constitution was not, as its enemies have alleged, a mere theoretical rationalization made up for the defense of slavery. It is, rather, a living heritage of great power, absolutely central to the understanding of American history. It was the fundamental issue of the most bloody war in which Americans have been involved.”

Dr. Clyde N. Wilson, editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun

The Man Who Put the Flag on the Dome

John Amasa May was born in Graniteville, near Aiken, South Carolina, in 1908. He graduated from Wofford College, attended Harvard Law School, and completed his legal education at the University of South Carolina in 1934. The very next year the young attorney was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. His career was interrupted by World War II. May spent five years in the army, rising to the rank of major, and in 1946 found himself on the team of prosecuting attorneys at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Returning home, May was re-elected to the S.C. House in 1948. He would represent Aiken for nearly two decades.

John May was fascinated by the history and personalities of the War for Southern Independence. He cherished his Confederate heritage, something that “grows brighter with each passing day to guide and inspire us.” May was the author or co-author of four books, including the classic South Carolina Secedes. A long-time member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Compatriot May served as division commander in 1960, and in 1964 was elected commander-in-chief of the SCV. In the legislature he headed up the Confederate War Centennial Commission.

Under John May’s leadership, the Confederate battle flag was hoisted to its place of honor atop the capitol dome in 1962. It remained there until a campaign of bigotry and ignorance, unprecedented in scope and intensity, brought it down thirty-eight years later.

On October 5, 1966 May spoke to Columbia’s Wade Hampton Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy:

“Today, more than ever before, we need the virtues of Robert E. Lee, the courage of Stonewall Jackson, the daring of Wade Hampton, the loyalty of our noble women, and the unselfish sacrifice of the men who wore the gray. Let us, as guardians of this noble trust, devote ourselves to the needs of America of our day— and strive for unity, for peace, and for brotherly love.”

Stonewall Jackson's Way

Victory! Telegraphic reports spoke of Yankee invaders in full flight! Eager for details, a crowd gathered at the Lexington, Virginia post office. There, on this hot July day in 1861, they breathlessly awaited the arrival of further news of the glorious triumph near Manassas.

They would have been thrilled had they known that Thomas J. Jackson, V.M.I. Professor and deacon at the local Presbyterian church, behaved brilliantly in the war’s first great battle. At a critical moment, Jackson’s brigade withstood a furious assault. “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!” shouted Bernard Bee to his own wavering men. Beauregard himself characterized Jackson as “an able, fearless soldier and sagacious commander.” Deacon Jackson would privately confide to his wife that “we fought a great battle, & gained a great victory,” quickly adding that “all the glory is due to God alone.” Though “God made my brigade more instrumental than any other in repulsing the main attack,” he cautioned her that “this is for your information only. Say nothing about it.”

The mail was in! “Now we will have the news!” announced Rev. William S. White. “Here is a letter from General Jackson himself!” Everyone congregated around the preacher as he opened the envelope and began to read aloud.

“My dear pastor,” began Jackson, “in my tent last night, after a fatiguing day’s service, I remembered that I had failed to send you my contribution for our colored Sunday School. Enclosed you will find a check for that object …”

Not a line about the battle. Not a word that would bring glory to himself. There was only a clear and abiding concern for his Master’s work. That was Stonewall Jackson’s way.

South Carolina League of the South

The Faith of Wade Hampton

Wade Hampton’s world was crumbling around him. The army had just been forced back at Bentonville. In this final Confederate spring of 1865 the Southern cause was all but lost. No less bleak was Hampton’s own future. In February his home near Columbia had been torched by Federals, forcing his wife and their small children to flee. His sisters joined the throngs of homeless refugees after flames consumed their home, Millwood. Only a few months earlier Hampton had watched in horror as sons Preston and Wade were struck by bullets at Burgess’ Mill. Preston died there. Hampton’s brother Frank had been cut down at Brandy Station in 1863. The general himself had three times suffered terrible combat injuries. Yet through all the carnage and heartache and loss, Wade Hampton’s Christian faith remained unshaken.

He had just received a tearful letter from his youngest sister, Mary Fisher Hampton. She was distraught—nearly overcome with anxiety that her brother was about to be killed. Hampton responded in a patient and gentle letter dated March 30, taking time from his duties to encourage his sister’s faith and calm her fears.

“You must not worry & fret about me, for it grieves me greatly to think of you doing so. Your faith should be strong enough to make you know that God orders all things for the best. I am in His keeping & you should be quite content to trust me there. I hope & believe that He will keep me for those who are so dear to me & whose prayers go up so constantly for me. But I am sure that whatever happens, is wisely ordered. Let this hope sustain you: place your confidence in God, & having asked Him to answer your prayers, leave the issue to Him.”

South Carolina League of the South

What he really meant was ...

A reader sent this:

The only thing worse than Lincoln is a flip-flop Lincoln!

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world." Congressman Abraham Lincoln, 1848

It should have read...

"Any politician anywhere, being inclined and having the power, has the right to rise up, and shake off an existing opinion, and form a new one that suits him better."

"It was a sad day ..."

Maj. Gen. Matthew C. Butler (1836-1909)

“It was a sad day when this great light of constitutional government was put out [the Southern Confederacy], by superior force and overwhelming numbers. Its record will survive through the ages among the grandest and greatest efforts of mankind to establish and perpetuate a form of government best suited to the happiness and welfare of its inhabitants. Its civic history is no less brilliant than its military, and the two combined make a record unsurpassed in human effort.”
Speaking at a reunion in Chester, SC, 1899

“If in less than half a century after the event [Southern secession], the trend of political power towards centralization in the Federal government, and in like proportion has minimized the powers and influence of the States and people, it requires no great stretch of prophetic opinion to say what the next half century will bring forth, and how wise and far-seeing the statesman and publicist were who struggled against such a tendency.”

Speaking at the unveiling of the Wade Hampton monument, Columbia, SC, 1906

Caribbean Choices

Puerto Rico has, since 1508, been under the control of foreigners. After nearly four centuries of rule, the Spanish ceded the island to the United States in 1898. Since 1952, when a new constitution was adopted, Puerto Rico has been “Estado Libre Asociado,” the “Commonwealth.”

The Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2007, introduced in the U.S. Congress in February, would allow the people of Puerto Rico to choose their political future in a plebiscite to be held before the end of 2011. Three times in recent decades (the last in 1998) Puerto Ricans have voted in non-binding referendums on which they prefer: 1) retaining their current Commonwealth status, 2) choosing statehood, or 3) opting for independence.

There hasn’t been much support for changing things. Puerto Rico, as the only U.S. Commonwealth, enjoys a certain autonomy, and though her people pay the usual array of local taxes, they are not subject to the federal income tax. Should they ever choose statehood, Puerto Ricans would be able to elect five congressmen and two senators, but would be required to send their tax dollars to Washington as well.

Why can’t all Americans, not just Puerto Ricans, be given such a choice? When will Sen. Lindsey Graham introduce “The South Carolina Democracy Act of 2007”? What voter wouldn’t jump at the chance to trade him and his seven colleagues for no more IRS!

South Carolina League of the South

Still true!

"I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss), at a party celebrating Thurmond’s 100th birthday

South Carolina League of the South

Points to Ponder

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Voltaire

“We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.”
John Stuart Mill

“For the average American freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.”
Gore Vidal

“The right to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the right to disagree that is crucial.”
Ayn Rand

“Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.”
Salman Rushdie

“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
William F. Buckley, Jr.

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984

South Carolina League of the South