They Took Their Stand in Dixie

Advance the flag of Dixie
For Dixie’s land we take our stand
To live or die for Dixie
And conquer peace for Dixie

Anyone singing the above lyrics from the patriotic Confederate song of 1861, “Dixie to Arms,” would today, as with its earlier counterpart “Dixie,” be considered most politically incorrect and would probably ignite a firestorm of protest demonstrations and vitriolic tweets of condemnation.

That 1861 song, however, was not, as one might now imagine, a polemic composed by some fire-eating Southern defender of slavery, but rather, like “Dixie,” it was written by a born and bred Northerner . . . a man many now consider to be America’s Plato, Albert Pike of Massachusetts. Like many in both the North and South at that time, Pike, while not an outright abolitionist, did believe slavery to be an evil that would ultimately be eliminated. Furthermore, even though he considered that secession did not violate the Constitution, he felt the North and South should settle their differences by mutual agreement, rather than by separation. However, as a strong advocate of state sovereignty and regional equality, Pike was also of the opinion that if such differences were irreconcilable, then secession was the only possible solution.

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