As
related by Dr. Clyde Wilson, the Republican party was solely
responsible for carrying out the bloodiest war in American history
against the American South, in order to destroy self-government. In
South Carolina, a Republican-rigged postwar convention erected a corrupt
political regime kept in power by Northern bayonets, carpetbaggers and
newly-enfranchised freedmen.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Instilling Lessons of Hatred and Hostility:
“When the war came to an end, and the Southern States lay prostrate at
the feet of their conqueror, they experienced the bitterest consequences
of the humiliation of defeat. There were no revengeful prosecutions (a
few judicial murders in the flush of the victory excepted). The
Congress devoted itself to the work of reconstruction….on the principle
of equal rights to all men….there seemed to be no reason why the States
should not proceed harmoniously in the career of peaceful progress.
But there was an element in the population which rendered such a
principle fatal to all peaceful progress. In many of the States, and in
South Carolina particularly, a majority of the people had been slaves.
All these were suddenly elevated to the rank of citizens. Were this all,
even then there might have been hope.
The slaves had always lived well with their masters, bore no resentment
for past injuries, and if they were let alone in their own mutual
relations, the two races might, and doubtless would have harmonized and
soon discovered the art of living together in peace. But this was no to
be.
With the progress of Northern arms grew up an institution founded
ostensibly, perhaps really, for the protection of the rights of the
newly emancipated slaves. This institution, known as the Freedmen’s
Bureau, became for the time the ruling power in the State. It interfered
in all the concerns of whites and blacks, its officers were generally
men who not only had no love for the South, but who made it their
mission to foster in the minds of the blacks a bitter hatred and
mistrust of the whites.
They were, on all occasions, the champions of the Negroes rights, and
never failed to instruct them that it was to the Republicans that they
were indebted for all the rights which they enjoyed. In the train of the
Bureau came the schoolmistresses who instilled into the minds of their
pupils the same lessons of hatred and hostility.
The consequence was, that though the personal relations between the
races were friendly, though the blacks invariably addressed themselves
to the whites as to true friends for all offices of love and kindness,
of which they stood in need, they would never listen to them, if the
latter wished to talk about politics.
This feeling was intensified by the introduction of the Union League, a
secret society, the members of which were solemnly bound never to vote
for any but a Republican. By such means, the Negro presented a solid
phalanx of Radicalism….a new business arose and prospered in Columbia, a
sort of political brokerage by which men contracted with speculators to
buy the votes of members when they were interested in the passage of
any measure. Here was a corruptible Legislature under the influence of
men utterly corrupt.
In South Carolina….Society was divided into the conquered whites, who
were destined to satisfy the voracious appetites of the carpetbagger,
and the needy and ignorant Negro, directed by his hungry teachers. The
whites had no rights which they were bound to respect; if they paid the
enormous taxes which were levied upon him, the Negro was satisfied; he
had done all that it was necessary for him to do in the degenerate
State.”
(Last Chapter of Reconstruction in South Carolina, Professor F.A.
Porcher, Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume XIII, pp. 76-79) |
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American Genie, commenting on Sultan Knish's article Wednesday, entitled Rise of the Mediacracy, said,
ReplyDelete"“Our enemies are a traditionless, homeless race. From the days of Cromwell to the present day they have been the disturbers of the peace of the world... After what has happened the last two years, my only wonder is that we consented to live for so long a time in association with such miscreants. Were it ever proposed to enter again into a union with such a people, I could no more consent to do it than to trust myself in a den of thieves.”
Jefferson Davis, December 26, 1862
And, a priceless one,
"I will go back to working on my next t-shirt design now - the one that says, Jefferson Davis was the only president my country ever had."
I love it.
HWS
That's a great Davis quote.
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