Treason?

The Confederate Battle Flag

From: vaproto@optonline.net
To: ralphlesliesmith@gmail.com

Dear Sir:

You are incorrect if you believe that the Confederate States of America
and/or any of her symbols is/was treasonous. Secession was permitted
under the Constitution. Indeed, during the War of 1812 (political
uprisings during wars tend to be viewed much more harshly than during
times of peace), the New England states met in convention to declare
their succession from the Union; this was known as the Hartford
Convention. In the end, they failed to secede for the most part owing to
the end of the war which was interrupting their trade. However, though
the states involved voted against secession, the fact is they voted and
they did so without armed federal troops making their appearance to stop
the “treason” involved. Why? Because there was no treason involved; it’s
as simple as that. Years after the War of Secession (it wasn’t a “civil
war”) Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Gen. Robert E. Lee asked why the
Constitution did not make secession openly unlawful if, as the Union
maintained, it was in fact unlawful under that document. The answer that
he received from those familiar with the history of the time was this:
had the Founding Fathers made secession unlawful in the Constitution,
the Constitution never would have been ratified! So your point that
secession was treason is refuted by history and therefore nonsense.

Furthermore, if secession actually was treason, two questions then
arise: first, why was it necessary for Congress to act after the War to
make secession unlawful? If it was already illegal, why the need to make
further legislation on the matter? And secondly, where were the treason
trials? One can claim that the terms granted by Grant and Sherman to the
Confederate military required that Southern soldiers – even at the
highest levels - be spared prosecution for this crime, but no such
excuse can be made for the Confederacy’s civilian government. Indeed,
Jefferson Davis was kept in close confinement under horrible
circumstances for two years while several groups of federal attorneys
attempted to devise a treason trial only to discover that to proceed
with same would lose the war in court that had been won on the
battlefield; Davis was released and no charge of treason was ever
brought against him or any other Southerner. Secession was not
unconstitutional or treasonous.

You may not agree with the actions taken by South Carolina and those
Southern states that followed her out of the Union (however, that is
probably because you are ignorant of the situation extant), but those
states had every right to make that choice, a choice denied them by
unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and wicked war waged against them not
by “the Union”, but by the federal government. Now that was “treasonous”
and we have been paying the price of that treason ever since. According
to Maine Professor Jay Hoar, “The worst fears of those Boys in Gray are
now a fact of American life – a Federal government completely out of
control.”

I really would suggest, sir, that you foreswear the “history” being
bruited about today. It is totally Marxist-revisionist and has no more
to do with American history than Burton’s “Tales of the Arabian Nights”
has to do with the history of the Middle East. The facts are available
to you should you care to abandon the ignorant regurgitation of
mendacity and discover why the States of the South determined that their
only hope of freedom from tyranny lay in abandoning the old Union.
Interestingly enough, you will find that not every state seceded for the
same reason. Indeed, Virginia and North Carolina only seceded after
Lincoln demanded that they furnish troops to make unlawful war on their
Southern brethren. It was then and only then that these two “founding
states” determined that they could no longer remain in what had become a
criminal and tyrannous nation.

Valerie Protopapas
Long Island, New York

Why I Am An Anarchist

"I am left with the bleak conclusion that no attempt to hold the arrogance of government in check will work — because a majority of the people themselves are too easily seduced into abandoning their own institutional protections against tyranny by the false promises and poisonous dreams of statist propaganda.

That is why I am an anarchist."

========

"constitutional democracy"

No, we are a Republic or at least we are supposed to be........

GOA's Larry Pratt Will Speak At 3rd Southern National Congress

Weekly Commentary & News Analysis from the SouthernNational Congress

Southern National Congress

National Gun Rights Champion Larry Pratt to Address the Third Southern National Congress

Floyd, Virginia – Thomas Moore, Chairman of the Southern National Congress, announced today that Mr. Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, will be the keynote speaker at the Third Southern National Congress (SNC), which will convene November 12-14, 2010, at Montgomery Bell State Park near Dickson, Tennessee. His address to the SNC Delegates will be “America in Crisis: a Southern Solution.” He will focus the traditional Southern principles of state sovereignty, nullification, and interposition as the only practical and peaceful solution to Federal encroachments on our liberties.

Thomas Moore said, “We’re deeply honored to have Larry Pratt as our keynote speaker at the Third Congress. He has made Gun Owners of America into the most effective and steadfast protector of the Second Amendment rights of Americans, which is the one right that guarantees all the others. GOA is highly respected for its principled and uncompromising defense of the right to keep and bear arms. GOA is smaller than some better-known gun rights groups, but thanks to Larry Pratt it is a hundred times more effective. However, Larry Pratt is much more than an expert on gun freedoms. He is a nationally respected leader in the growing effort to restore limited government and the rule of law, which, along with our firearms, safeguards all our freedoms.”

GOA is a non-profit lobbying organization formed in 1975 to preserve the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. GOA sees firearms ownership as a freedom issue and is not satisfied with defending the status quo. Americans have lost many gun rights, and the GOA has taken on the mission to win them back. This is why GOA is considered the "no compromise" gun lobby. From state legislatures and city councils to the United States Congress and the White House, GOA represents the views of gun owners whenever their rights are threatened.

The Southern National Congress is the only representative assembly of Southern citizens that provides an alternative forum to voice their grievances and to restore liberty, justice, and prosperity in the Southern states. It offers Southerners a platform to act in their interests in ways no longer possible in today’s corrupt political process. The SNC seeks to reclaim the great Southern principles of individual liberty and a small central government limited to its enumerated powers, and which is the servant, not the master, of the sovereign people acting through their respective states. These principles have been consistently violated by the Federal Government. Decent, honorable people who love liberty must exercise their sovereignty and create alternative institutions which speak and act for them. This is the principle behind the SNC.

The First Congress, the “Seed Corn Congress,” met in North Carolina in December 2008 with 100 Delegates. The Second Congress, the “Congress of the Covenant,” met in Alabama in September 2009 with 150 Delegates.

Chairman Moore noted, “New Delegate applications are pouring in daily, and we expect 300 Delegates at the Third Congress in Dickson, Tennessee. We also expect a number of non-Delegate guests to the banquet to hear Larry Pratt, including legislators who sponsored Tennessee’s recent state sovereignty resolution, leaders of various pro-freedom groups like the Campaign for Liberty and Tea Party, local gun-owners, and news media representatives.”

Represented States are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Residents of these States who possess good character are invited to apply to become Delegates, without regard to race, sex, or creed. Potential applicants may apply online via this link: http://southernnationalcongress.org/delegateapplication.php .

Those interested in learning more about the SNC should visit the website at www.southernnationalcongress.org . There they will find the various resolutions adopted at the two previous sessions, the Southern National Covenant, and the SNC’s powerful new film, “America in Crisis: a Southern Solution.” http://sncspan.tv/AIC_video_fp.php

News media representatives wishing to cover the event should contact Mr. D.R. “Doc” Smith of Tennessee at pr@southernnationalcongress.org . Other queries about the SNC may be directed to Chairman Thomas Moore at: chairman@southernnationalcongress.org .

Tom Moore

Speaking Frankly

If Paul Kengor is correct about Frank Marshall Davis is it anything to worry about that the “mentor of the current president of the United States was a Communist — and not only a party member, but an actual propagandist for Stalin’s USSR”? The rest HERE.