Parallels between 1776 and 1861

 John Tyler's Virginia is belle of the ball - in both D.C. and Montgomery

The parallels between 1776 and 1861 are many, as in the latter case Americans in the South followed the very spirit of Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence regarding the right of self-government and the consent of the governed. They wanted to end the galling economic dependency on the Northeastern cotton mills and financiers as their fathers ended economic dependency upon England.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Political Independence the Forerunner of Economic Independence:

“In the [American] colonial era of hand-manufacturing most manufacturing had been of the home and domestic variety. In all regions the finer goods had been imported from England, paid for in the South by surpluses of agricultural products and in the North by the proceeds of the fur trade, ship-building, fishing, and the favorable balance derived mainly from the West India trade and to a less extent the Mediterranean.

When at the beginning of the nineteenth century commercial manufacturing began to arise, its locus became the Northeast rather than the South for a number of reasons. Among these the most important was the fact that the profits from commerce and allied enterprises during the Napoleonic Wars did not find adequate outlets for investment in the new manufacturing industries, principally textiles; while the profits derived from the older agricultural staples in the South found outlet for investment in land and slaves, in the new staple cotton which spread rapidly in the upland regions of the South Atlantic and then across the Gulf Plain of the deep South, continuing to the very eve of the Civil War when the interior of Texas and Arkansas were being penetrated by cotton culture.

As profits from manufacturing accumulated, there was a steady outlet for their reinvestment in the enlargement of plants, the creation of new plants, and the fabrication of many articles other than textiles. Of these the products of iron became most important, particularly in Pennsylvania.

The new forms of transportation – improved highways, canals, steamboats, and finally railroads – absorbed great amounts of capital in the North, and even in the South some of the profits from agriculture were invested in this sort of enterprise…..[but] even to the end of the ante-bellum period the South bought most of its manufactured goods from the North or indirectly from Europe through Northern concerns and was to some extent dependent upon Northern credit for the financing of its own enterprises, so that in a way the South was an economic dependency and sphere of influence of the Northeast.

This condition was a galling one and was by no means negligible in bringing on the bloody conflict of 1861-65. In this respect at least, the attempt of the South to secede from the North was comparable to the earlier efforts of the American colonists to rid themselves by force of their dependence upon England. In each case it was the belief of the secessionists that political independence would prove the forerunner of economic independence.”

(The South Looks at its Past, Benjamin Burks Kendrick & Alex Arnett, UNC Press, 1935, pp. 76-78)

Parallels between 1776 and 1861

Obama Kept Us Safe

CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody 'video-game' sorties by drone pilots

Via Michael Downing


The Mail on Sunday today reveals shocking new evidence of the full horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan.

A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into  the strikes’ targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones’ dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes.

The dossier has been assembled by human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who works for Pakistan’s Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the British human rights charity Reprieve.

Filed in two separate court cases, it is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer. Mr Akbar and his staff have already gathered further testimony which has yet to be filed.

 

More @ Mail Online

Cantor Takes Obama to Task for Imperial Presidency

 Newsmax

VERBATIM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has produced an 8,000-word report assailing President Barack Obama for instituting an imperial presidency.

Even The New York Times noted recently on its front page “an increasingly deliberate pattern by the administration to circumvent lawmakers,” Cantor writes.

Pieces appearing over the course of the past several months in The Washington Post, National Review, and The Wall Street Journal have talked about his "imperial presidency."

The Obama administration’s lack of respect for the law is hampering economic growth and individual prosperity, particularly the jobs market, he says.

“Property rights and rule of law are essential for the proper and efficient functioning of society and the economy,” Cantor states.

“When ‘laws’ are created without going through Congress; when laws are selectively executed; when an administration intervenes into the normal judicial process and diminishes an individual's property rights; and when the normal regulatory process is circumvented, the rule of law is eroded.”

That’s exactly what has happened under Obama, Cantor says.

“While administrations of both political parties have been known to test the bounds of the limits of their power, the breadth of the breakdown in the rule of law in recent years has reached new levels,” he writes.

Cantor’s report cites more than 40 examples of the White House’s lack of respect for the law.

This includes:

• Ignoring Advise & Consent, such as through recess appointments;

• Creating laws outside of the Congressional process, such as changing the unionization process, telling businesses where they are allowed to locate, imposing propaganda mandates on employers, telling federal contractors who they have to hire, regulation of hydraulic fracturing, establishing a national ocean regulatory policy, creating a new land regulation program, global warming regulations, network neutrality regulations, auto efficiency mandate, claiming the power to define what constitutes religious employment, draconian regulation of coal;

• Ignoring the Plain Letter of the Law & Failing to Faithfully Execute the Law, such as waiving work requirements under welfare; the contraception mandate and the rights of religious employers, expansion of the refundable tax credit providing for premium assistance, Medicare Advantage quality bonus demonstration, medical loss ratio requirement for health insurers, termination of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, rewriting bankruptcy law, failing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, recognition of Jerusalem, lobbying for abortion overseas, halting the airport screening partnership program, expedited airport screening for members of the Armed Forces, DREAM Act deferred action, administrative amnesty for illegal immigrants, withholding critical information about counterfeit goods, Medicare Solvency Requirements;

• Circumventing the Normal Regulatory Process, such as abuse of sue and settle tactics, re-write of coal regulations, abuse of guidance documents, refusing to disclose regulatory agenda, failing to list essential health benefits, Gulf drilling moratorium; banning uranium mining in Arizona;

• Government By Waiver, such as education policy by waiver and healthcare law waivers;

• Creating New Programs Not Authorized by Congress, such as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, new “super” agencies, the healthcare Independent Payment Advisory Board, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“There is no excuse for this continuous disregard of legislative authority and the Constitutionally-required separation of powers,” Cantor writes.

“This is no way to govern. The President has set a precedent that even his supporters should find troubling. . . . The Founding Fathers wisely gave the President many powers, but making law was not one of them.”


© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Paul Ryan: Keep Homeschooling Free!

HSLDA

Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan backed homeschool freedom at a recent campaign event in Florida.
At the town hall-style event in Ocala, Florida, on Thursday, October 18, the following exchange took place. e encourage you to watch the video clip.

Transcript:

Questioner: “What is your position on homeschooling and will it continue?”

Paul Ryan: “Absolutely, we have friends who do a lot of homeschooling. In Wisconsin it is very well known, very well used. You know what, we believe in freedom. [Applause] And if you believe the best way to raise your children is to homeschool your children, then God bless you, and in a free society you ought to be able to do just that. [Applause] Absolutely. So yes. Look, we don’t want to sit in Washington and micromanage your schools. We don’t believe all the best ideas lay in Washington where bureaucrats micromanage. We believe in choice; we believe in competition; we believe in giving parents control over their children’s education. Whether that’s getting the kid stuck in an inner city school out of a failing school and into a better school, or whether it gives you the ability and right to take over and control your child’s education by educating her yourself, that’s the kind of freedom we want you to have and preserve in this country.”

DYING CONFEDERATE PRISONER

Via Robert

Among the wounded brought to the rear was a boy in gray, Private Thomas J. Roberts, of Company I, Twelfth Georgia. We lifted him from the ambulance, and, having spread a blanket on the grass and laid him on it, I called a surgeon.

A minie ball had struck him in the groin, and but a slight examination was enough to show that the wound was fatal. He was a mere boy, and I can still see his really beautiful face as he lifted his dark, lustrous eyes to mine. It was little that I could do for him, but I spoke such words of comfort as I could command. He showed fortitude and cheerfulness for one in so sad a situation, and he told me about his friends at home, speaking also of those from his own family circle who had already been killed in the war.

While we were talking he asked for a drink of water. I brought it, and as I raised him to a sitting posture, so that he could drink, he leaned his head forward upon my shoulder, and without a struggle was dead. We could give him only the rude burial of a soldier, but over his grave was lifted the prayer that the God of all comfort would tenderly support those far away who would wait in vain the return of the boy of their love and hopes.

Often since that night have I thought of that Southern soldier lad who died actually in my arms, as if in a mother's embrace, and I pen this reminiscence that possibly it may make known to some surviving comrade or dear one that in his last hour what little could be done for him was tenderly performed.

Chaplain Norman Fox, Seventy-Seventh N. Y. V. Morristown, N. J., September 4, 1898.
Confederate Veteran, Vol. VI, No. 11 Nashville, Tenn., November, 1898.

600lb Black Marlin Jumps in Boat

Not Optimal

The Neocons and the New York Times vs. Me

The Confederate Navy

290 Foundation 

 VERBATIM 

'He is not impressed with the necessity of building ships.' John N. Maffit entered those prophetic words in his diary following a meeting with Jefferson Davis shortly after the civil war began. This future Captain of the commerce raider CSS Florida was one of the first United States naval officers to resign his commission and offer his services to the South; but those ten words made a fitting epitaph for the Confederate States Navy and with it many argue, the Southern cause.

Jefferson Davis never fully appreciated the critical role the Confederate States Navy, especially the Ironclads, would have to play if the South were to survive. From his landlocked point of view, Davis could not understand the importance of sea power. Nevertheless, it is fortunate with hindsight, he was astute enough to appoint his former colleague in the Senate, Stephen Mallory as Secretary of the Navy but not astute enough to give him the full support he needed to help the Confederate Navy realize its full potential.

Mallory's strong desire to see the Confederacy equipped with a substantial and 'competent' navy was at odds with many and by the end of the first year of conflict, the Secretary of the Navy was acutely aware he was competing less favourably for funding from those commanding the (many) southern armies. Army commanders remained confident the war would be short-lived and that opinion - and their expectation was shared (though not desired) by many politicians in the new government! It is not clear what Mallory's point of view in this was; but his determination to realise a susbstantial navy remained, so in an effort to bypass the usual channels; and seemingly more aware of shortfalls to come, Mallory wrote directly to President Davis, laying out in no uncertain terms what would be necessary to further the aims and ambitions of their (Navy's) cause. His letter was as follows:

Confederate States Navy Department

Richmond, March 4th 1862

Sir: 

In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives passed on the 3rd instant, '..that the President be requested to communicate to this body, at the earliest practicable moment, what additional means in money, men, arms and munitions of war are, in his judegement necessary, or may be within the present year, for the public service, including military operations on land and water'.. i have the honor to say that fifty light-draft and powerful steam propellors, plated with 5-inch hard iron, armed and equipped for service in our own waters, four iron or steel-clad single deck, ten gun frigates of about 2,000 tons, and ten clipper propellors with superior marine engines, both classes of ships designed for deep-sea cruising, 3,000 tons of first-class boiler-plate iron, and 1,000 tons of rod, bolt, and bar iron are means which this department could immediately employ with incalculable advantage to the best interests of the country.

To this point in his communication, Mallory was determined to point out the resources he had to hand - but in truth his statement was somewhat embellished in regards of readiness or quantities of materials, no doubt based on the reports received from his immediate subordinates? Now however, Mallory sought to alert Davis to the possibilities a more substantial naval force would bring about. He continues:

Under the head of arms and munitions of war, this Department could immediately employ with equal advantage 2,000 pieces or heavy ordinance, ranging in caliber from 6 to 11 inches, and in weight from 6,000 to 14,000 pounds, 2,000 tons of cannon powder, 1,000 tons of musket powder, for filling projectiles and pyrotechny, 4,000 navy rifles, and 4,000 navy revolvers, and 4,000 navy cutlasses, with their equipments and ammunition.

Mallory however, was very much aware that these quantities were well beyond the resources of the new administration and had already auhtorised lengthy discussion with both European and South American suppliers through his network of purchasing agents and spies. Though an actual number has never been confirmed, it is widely believed that the Navy Secretary had over twelve hundred such men and women acting on his instruction world-wide. Some, like James Dunwoody Bulloch were officially appointed to act on his behalf; but the majority provided their services freely in the belief that the Confederacy would ultimately gain proper recognition and achieve a military victory over the North. Mallory no doubt alerted Davis to the likely shortfalls they would experience in equipment at every opportunity, but in this letter he records for the first (and only time) the numbers of men (additional) needed for his fledgling navy:

We could use with equal advantage 3,000 instructed seamen, and 4,000 ordinary seament and landsmen, and 2,000 first rate mechanics. These means and munitions of war cannot presently be obtained within the Confederacy, and the extent to which they may be supplied [sourced] from abroad, I cannot yet determine.

The crux of Mallory's problems was funding; and this letter to his President provided him with his best opportunity to state unoquivicably the amount he needed for European purchases:

If five millions of dollars were immediately placed in Europe, prudent agents might possibly obtain such means and materials to a certain extent.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

S.R. MALLORY

 Secretary of the Navy

No record of any direct reply to Mallory's letter remains but Davis was obviously less than sympathetic to his demands! Through the good offices of Commodore Duncan Ingraham, commander of all naval forces and Edward M. Tidball, chief clerk, an order was constructed which, by Act of Congress on April 21st 1862, provided details for the man-powering of the navy, albeit at a level far below that which Mallory desired. None-the-less, Mallory did receive 'promise' for enough funding (directly and indirectly) to pursue a programme of equipment that enabled his department to enter into innumerable contracts for gunboats to be built on the Pamunkey, York, Tombigee, Pedee and other rivers. However, the first, major setback for Mallory's infant Confederate navy, came with this allocation. From April 1861 to August 1862, congress made-over $330M to the army but less than $15M was budgeted for the navy. To make matters worse, Mallory initially did not have direct control of his funding. After negotiating with contractors at home or agents overseas for purchases, he had to apply to the Treasury Department for payment, adding further layers of unnecessary bureaucracy. Despite these inconveniences, between April 1861 and April 1865, the South managed to launch over two-dozen Ironclads and during that same period, laid down or contracted for another thirty-six. This was in addition to numerous conventional warships, commercial ships and river steamers, blockade-runners, commerce raiders, gunboats and smaller craft. A prodigious effort considering the extremely limited shipbuilding and industrial capacity of the South in 1861. Records show many of the above were burned before their completion and payment to contractors for raw materials and manpower never paid. Throughout, there remained the problems associated with procurement of propellors, boilers and engines, as those designs to hand lacked sufficient power and endurance and would render this new fleet, inefficient at best. Mallory realised the industrial resources of the south would be directed towards supporting the army for the foreseable future, so he directed his attention to the one proven source of both ships and machinery - Great Britain!

To implement his strategy, Mallory quickly organized the Confederate Navy into four offices. These offices were equivalent to the bureaus of the United States Navy with which he was familiar. The Office of Provisions and Clothing responsibilities included manufacturing, acquiring and distributing uniforms and equipment to the Navy. It also acted as Paymaster to all Officers, sailors, contractors and civilian employees. The Office of Medicine and Surgery saw to the health of the sailors and set up Naval Hospitals. The Office of Orders and Detail oversaw the Navy's paperwork, made personnel assignments and set personnel policies. Lastly, the Office of Ordnance and Hydrography was charged with design, construction and armament of naval vessels. Later, as the war evolved, a Submarine Battery Service was added to develop and fully employ torpedo (mine) warfare. Lastly, a 'Secret Service' was added to the Navy Department. This office was not concerned with gathering military intelligence as its name might indicate. Its function involved the aforementioned procurment of warships, associated supplies and equipment from abroad. (Mallory, it must be said, did not favor privateering because it alienated the English and would in his view, erode their support). In a sereious attempt to regulate this maritime segment of the war effort, Mallory organized all personnel into Regular Navy, Volunteer Navy or Provisional Navy billets. This done, he now turned his attention back to the thorny issue of finding suitable ships...