THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT!
Free man of color, Henry Brown, from Darlington, South Carolina, sounds the beat for the Confederate army. Like many blacks, Brown willingly served the South during the War for Southern Independence. (Illustration courtesy of Jim Whittington, Shreveport, Louisiana)
THE
SOUTH
WAS
RIGHT!
James Ronald Kennedy
Walter Donald Kennedy
PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRETNA 2008
Copyright© 1991, 1994
By James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy
All rights reserved
Published by Land and Land, 1991
Extensively revised and published by arrangement with the authors by Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 1994
First edition, 1991
Second edition
First printing, March 1994
Second printing, July 1994
Third printing, November 1994
Fourth printing, July 1995
Fifth printing, October 1996
Sixth printing, December 1997
Seventh printing, August 1998
Eighth printing, November 1999
Ninth printing, October 2000
Tenth printing, February 2002
Eleventh printing, May 2003
Twelfth printing, November 2004
Thirteenth printing, May 2006
Fourteenth printing, September 2008
The word “Pelican” and the depiction of a pelican are trademarks of Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., and are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kennedy, James Ronald
The South was right! / James Ronald Kennedy, Walter Donald Kennedy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 978-1-56554-024-8 (Hardcover); 9781455612161 (eBook)
1. United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Causes. 2. United States—Politics and government—Civil War, 1861-1865. 3. Secession. 4. Confederate States of America—History.
I. Kennedy, Walter, Donald. II. Title
E459.K46 1994
973.7’11—dc20
93-30640
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Published by Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.
1000 Burmaster Street, Gretna, Louisiana 70053
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 The Yankee Myth of History
Chapter 2 Slavery: The Yankee Flesh Merchants
Chapter 3 Race Relations in the Old South
Chapter 4 Yankee Atrocities
Chapter 5 A Moral Right to Be Free
Chapter 6 A Legal Right to Be Free
Chapter 7 John Milton: The Father of Secession
Chapter 8 Secession: Answering the Critics
Chapter 9 State’s Rights and Constitutional Liberty
Chapter 10 New Unreconstructed Southerners
Chapter 11 Equality of Opportunity
Chapter 12 Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Chapter 13 The Yankee Campaign of Cultural Genocide
Chapter 14 Summary and Call to Action
Addendum I
Northern Voices Advocating the Principles of Southern Freedom
Addendum II
Jefferson Davis’ Farewell Address to the U.S. Senate
Addendum III
President Davis’ First Inaugural Address
Addendum IV
President Davis’ Second Inaugural Address
Addendum V
Law Against Slave Trade Upheld
Addendum VI
The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Addendum VII
Plunder of Eleven States
Addendum VIII
Joint Resolution New Jersey
Addendum IX
U.S. News and World Report Editorial September 27, 1957, and January 26, 1970
Addendum X
McDonald on the Fourteenth Amendment
Addendum XI
I Am Condemned to Be Shot
Addendum XII
A Former Slave’s Letter Home
Addendum XIII
Recommended Reading for the Southern Nationalist
End Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
No other war or event has captivated the imagination of the American public as the events known as the American “Civil War.” It is difficult to understand how an event that happened over 130 years ago can still hold such sway over a people. All types of hobbies, including reenacting the actual battles of that war, have grown up around that conflict. Yet when we consider the scope of that war, the numbers killed, the amount of destruction of public and private property, and the fundamental change that the war had on the political, economic, and social condition of America, it is then that we begin to understand why the War for Southern Independence still holds captive the imagination and passions of so many people.
If war is supposed to settle disputes, we can say that the War for Southern Independence was a failure. Today, we cannot even agree on the correct name for that conflict. The cause or causes of the war are still debated with much passion. But the War for Southern Independence did put an end to some disputes, if only for a while. To most Americans schooled in “American” (i.e., New England) history, the war settled the issue of African slavery, but more to the point, it settled the issue of Southern independence, or so we are told.
As children growing up in Mississippi, we would often hear and repeat the old cliche, “The South shall rise again.” We never thought that anyone would take that statement seriously, for after all, we were the generation of children whose parents had fought the great patriotic war (World War II) and had positioned America as the foremost world power: And besides, we lived in a world beset by forces of international communism and the threat of nuclear war. The capitalist and the communist empires were competing to see which would rule the world. There was little or no place in that world for secession movements. How could any-one, North or South, ever think that the South would ever rise from the dead?
We who grew up under the threat of a worldwide communist tyranny have lived to see the Berlin Wall come crashing down. We have seen the once mighty and perpetual union of the Soviet empire disappear from the world map. We have watched as little nations that were swallowed up by more powerful nations have reappeared on the stage of world events. Nations that had been denied the right of self-determination for generations are now, once again, free and independent states. In reality, secession has broken out worldwide! It looks as if world events have at last xaught up with Southern history. For us die-hard Confederates, we feel as if God’s vindication is just around the corner.
In view of the events that have shaken our world in the past few years, it is time that we once again look at why the people of the South made the effort to become an independent nation. For after all, if secession is good for Lithuania, Slovenia, and Croatia, why was it not good for Dixie? The South Was Right! looks beyond the battles that were fought to discover the answer to the more important questions of why those battles were made necessary, and how the loss of that war has affected not only the South but all of America.
Unless they are without any capacity for reason, the readers of this book can tell by the title that they have fallen into the company of those who believe that the men and women of the South who fought for Southern independence were correct in their efforts. Don’t be dismayed. Every cause has its un
breakable defenders. We implore the skeptical to be open-minded enough to investigate the other side of this very unique coin, the War for Southern Independence.
In the spring of 1861, the call to arms went out across the South. The call was answered with enthusiasm. Why did people feel justified to answer that call? Most Americans today are unprepared to answer that question, but how could Southerners, who are possessed with the blood of those who had fought for self-government and independence all across Europe, do otherwise? The answers to those questions will be found in the pages of this book.
You have in your hands a book different from any other book written about the South. The authors demonstrate that the South had legitimate reasons to assert its claim to independence. We demonstrate the legitimacy of the South’s claim of our right to recall our delegated powers and to establish a new government based upon the principle of the consent of the governed. We have demonstrated how this right, in addition to having been reserved by the states when they acceded into the Constitutional Union, was based in antiquity and is a part of our common tradition as English-speaking people. We demonstrate how our Southern nation was invaded and conquered by a cruel and ruthless enemy who despised our people. We demonstrate that our Southern history was perverted into a Yankee myth that is now used by our conquerors to justify their cruel oppression of our right to self-determination. This myth is used to brainwash each successive generation of Southern children into believing that we are all better off because we lost our war for Southern independence.
If all this book accomplishes is to bring these historical facts to light, this alone will mark it as most unusual. But it does more; it calls every true Southerner to consider our lot. Is this big, impersonal, overpowering, and dominating government, which demands our obedience to its every decree, the type of government we are happy with? The authors have taken great pains to present to you, the reader, facts about the War for Southern Independence that most Americans have been denied the opportunity to read. This book looks into why the South went to war with such a sense of being right in its beliefs and considers the consequences for the South and for America as a result of the South losing the war.
This book is a call to action to all people who love liberty and truth. It calls upon Southerners to climb down from the “stools of everlasting repentance” and to take pride in their Southern heritage. What we have attempted to do is to awaken in the heart and mind of individual Southerners the repressed desire to once again be the master in their own home! Yes, that is right! We want every Southerner to awaken to the fact that no force on earth can prevent us from reclaiming our lost estate if and when we decide to free ourselves. The South must put aside the illusion that she will one day be accepted as an equal in this Northern-dominated union. The South must put aside the illusion that the current government is the legitimate outgrowth of the original American Constitutional Republic. These illusions are used by our conquerors to bind the South to this unequal union. The South must reject these illusions and then begin its struggle to regain control of its destiny.
So that no one will be mistaken, let us say it once again; as Americans, Southerners have a right to economic equality with the rest of the nation, a right to a government based upon the free and unfettered consent of the governed, a right to control our local schools, a right to order our society according to the desire of the people. In a phrase, we deserve to be free] This freedom would be better served by the South as an equal partner within the Union, but better out of the Union than not at all!
This book will challenge (and most likely has already done so) many facts that are often accepted as common knowledge. For instance, the Yankee myth that declares that Appomattox settled everything and therefore Southerners must never again attempt to assert our right to a free and constitutional government. While the liberty of the Eastern European people to assert their right to free government is easily approved by the liberal media, this same right is denied the South. What is more important is the fact that as long as Southerners accept this Yankee myth of history, we deny the right of freedom to ourselves, our children, and generations of Southerners yet unborn!
T. E. Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabia, in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, noted that the effort to free the Arabic people from Turkish rule was accomplished not when the last battle had been won but when the majority of the Arabic people no longer accepted Turkish rule as legitimate. At that point they were free. It only remained for them to stay loyal to their belief in freedom long enough for the struggle to work out the details of when and how the Turks would leave. The same point is true today for us.
This is the message we are sending to our fellow Southerners. You are not free, because you do not believe you can be free. You are not free, because you do not believe in yourself. As the Holy Bible states, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” It is time for Southerners to catch that vision of freedom our Confederate forefathers had and to begin the struggle to turn a dream into reality. The rising of the moon will see a return of government as established by the Original Constitution or if we cannot convince our Northern neighbors to reform this current, overgrown, and unresponsive government of their making, then we shall work for the re-establishment of a Constitutional Republic known as the Confederate States of America!
Not since the end of the War for Southern Independence has such a dramatic challenge been issued to the American people. The struggle our Confederate forefathers made in the 1860s is not over. The principles of local self-government and State’s Rights are viable and necessary in today’s otherwise impersonal world. The South has always been the eternal enemy of big government. This is what motivated Southerners to take up arms in defense of Dixie in 1861. There must be a radical reformation in the current, overgrown, unresponsive, tax-and-spend federal government. If those who are in control of the government in Washington reject the demands of the people for a government more respectful of our rights, then it will be faced with the prospect of the Southern people following the lead of Lithuania as we demand the right of self-determination.
Deo Vindice
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT!
John J. Sitton, Oregon County, Missouri, served with the Fourth Arkansas Infantry and the Second Infantry Regiment, Seventh Division, Missouri State Guard, C.S.A. Sitton was fifteen years old when he volunteered to defend his country. (Image courtesy of J. Dale West, Longview, Texas)
CHAPTER 1
The Yankee Myth of History
What passes as standard American history is really Yankee history written by New Englanders or their puppets to glorify Yankee heroes and ideals.
Dr. Grady McWhiney1
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
There are still those of us who can recall the days when the playing of “Dixie” at football games and at the close of the radio broadcast day was commonplace. We can remember when all of the fans in the stadium would jump to their feet and cheer at the playing of our Southern national anthem. What has happened?
Michael Grissom, author of Southern by the Grace of God, points out that it was not only the federal government that outlawed the playing of “Dixie” but also weak, spineless, Southern politicians who contributed to its demise.2 But more to the point—Southerners who have been subjected to generations of Yankee brainwashing have become too docile to stand up for their own rights!
How has this occurred? How is it that the very descendants of the greatest fighting force ever to march have become too cowardly to stand up for their own rights? The answer is to be found in this chapter. You will see that our leaders, beginning with President Jefferson Davis and continuing with the leaders of subsequent generations, have warned our people of the danger of allowing Yankees to teach their history to our children. The consequence of allowing Southerners to grow up never having been taught the truth about our history leaves the current generation unprepared to assert its rightful claim to constitutional government.
The Yankee Myth of History
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All political systems have a myth that justifies their existence. A Marxist system can justify any amount of repression as long as its people believe in the myth of the eventuality of the evolution of the dictatorship of the proletariat. A system’s belief in an idea can be used to control the thinking of its subjects. All arguments used to justify the existence of the state are based upon and measured against the prevailing myth which expresses the deep inclinations of the society to which it belongs. Without the myth, the state’s subjects would not submit to the system’s repressive rule.
Today, there are two primary foundations for myths: science and history. The propagandists (be they newscasters, newspaper editors, educators, ministers, or any other liberal “wordsmiths”) use society’s myths to ensure that the majority of citizens remain loyal to the established order.
It is a well-known maxim of war that “to the victor go the spoils.” The victor in the War for Southern Independence has claimed, as part of his spoils, the right to record and enforce his point of view as the official and accepted history of the war. Regardless of how insidious a particular instance of persecution, destruction, theft of personal property, oppression of civil liberties, or destruction of constitutional safeguards may be, the Yankee invader justifies these measures as necessary to maintain the Union (a myth), to free the slaves (a myth), or to maintain the legitimate national government (a myth). Our acceptance of the Yankee myth relieves him of the necessity of defending his heinous crimes against the Southern people.
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