By Tim “xrugger” Stebbins for The Burning Platform
On the eve of Lincoln’s War, our 16th President said this,
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you…. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.”
Are we once again peering into the abyss? Is the “momentous issue” once more upon us? In whose hands does it rest? Who, in this third century of the Republic are our, “dissatisfied fellow countrymen?” What is our duty, our “oath registered in heaven” with regard to the government, which we ostensibly control?
The Momentous Issue
What is driving this nation to the brink of a national catastrophe none can explain, and one that, with each passing year, is becoming more and more difficult to avert? It is not hyperbole to say that the issue is nothing less than a fight to determine what it means to be a free man in a Republic of free men. Our “momentous issue” is not a fight to determine whether the Republic should endure as originally constituted, but whether it should endure at all.
For the Republic of 1860, the question was whether a part of the people had the right to remove themselves from a voluntary association that their forbears had entered into. That association had become destructive of the sovereignty of the Southern States and the liberty of their inhabitants. Leave slavery out of the equation for a moment and imagine the mindset of a people who saw a national government hell bent on destroying the only way of life they had ever known.
For what remains of the Republic today, the question has become, in a sense, much more personal. State sovereignty is a distant memory. Lincoln’s War crippled it. The 17th Amendment murdered it. The individual sovereignty of men is now the contested ground.
What does it mean to be sovereign in the living of one’s own life? Every day, an unrestrained government presumes to legislate how we must live. We are told what we may and may not say, whom to celebrate, and whom to denigrate. The right to freely associate with whom we choose is dead. The right to own the means to defend ourselves is under sustained and determined assault. The right to speak and worship according to the dictates of our conscience is drowning in a fetid tide of deviancy and narcissistic lunacy. Aided and abetted by the howling collectivist mob, the government restricts our personal sovereignty at every turn. The common man lives by a set of rules dictated by those who live by no rules at all. The list of our rights unadulterated by the miasmic intrusions of government has grown short indeed.
Our Dissatisfied Countrymen
Sadly, those who desire liberty face not only an overreaching government, but also a great number of their fellow “citizens.” Half of the population desires, not liberty, but safety and comfort. These damnable collectivists seek the shimmering mirage of a socialist Shangri-La that is forever out of reach. The cost of their delusion is counted against our liberty.
The nation’s politics are a fractured landscape of discord and acrimony. The national culture is a dissonant cacophony of shrieking harridans, bawling minorities, and pontificating academics. Traditionalists seek a return to some longed-for, irretrievable golden age. Progressives seek to dismantle what remains of the Republic and erect in its place yet another tainted utopia doomed to failure. It would seem that “dissatisfied countrymen” could be an apt description of just about every American drawing breath today! Yet the question remains: Who holds the whip hand in this headlong rush toward civil disintegration and fratricidal conflict?
The constant drumbeat for government to “do something” emanates from progressives. Their current drive to eradicate dissent and criminalize the speech and actions of their opponents is a poisonous brew of media disinformation, feminist hysterics, and political shenanigans of every sort. Without our “dissatisfied countrymen” screeching in the ears of the other half at every turn, the rising crescendo of leftist lunacy would recede into the background noise of ignorance and historical illiteracy from whence it came. That, I fear, is not to be the nation’s fate.
An oath registered in heaven
Thomas Jefferson wrote,
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”
For those words to have any meaning, when a government becomes tyrannical in its reach and inimical to the liberty of the people, all free men (despite Lincoln’s admonition) do indeed have an “oath registered in heaven to destroy the government.” That oath was binding on Southerners in 1860 and it binds us still today. Jefferson understood the heavy responsibility that comes with liberty. Lincoln saw only the responsibility to maintain the superiority of the national government. He did not say that he had “the most solemn [oath] to preserve, protect and defend” the Union or the idea of the Union. Other fine words to the contrary, on the cusp of armed conflict, he clearly states that his oath is to defend the government. My statist friends will (more likely will not) forgive me if I prefer Jefferson’s vision of the rights of men to Lincoln’s defense of the prerogatives of government.
The Government will not assail you
Lincoln’s assertion that “the government will not assail you” must have rung hollow in Southern ears. From their perspective, the Southern way of life had been under assault for decades prior to the first cannon shot on Fort Sumter. The commencement of hostilities was simply the long-delayed reaction to repeated attacks on the sovereignty of Southern states.
The history of this country since 1865 is a sad litany of federal assaults upon the states and upon the people. With the sovereignty of the states crushed under the federal heel, the malevolent eye of national authority turned its gaze upon the sovereignty of men. There is nothing surprising in this. It is what governments do. As the prerogatives of government ascend, the liberty of men declines. In one way or another, the government has been assailing us for a century and a half. It shows no signs of relenting.
Civil War
Perhaps armed conflict is inevitable given the trajectory of our politics and state of our culture. Certainly difficult times lie ahead. Anyone who thinks American life as we have known it will continue indefinitely into the future is either willfully ignorant of the lessons of the past, oblivious to the warnings of the present, or both.
The words of Abraham Lincoln began this rumination. It is appropriate that they should end it. The time in which we live is fraught with dangers every bit as critical to the future of the nation as those that faced the nation during the run up to Lincoln’s War. Meant for the people of that time, they should ring true to patriot ears today, though for vastly different reasons. Truth remains truth, no matter the source. Lincoln said,
“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
If we would not be dispossessed of our birthright in our own land, we would do well to take those words to heart.
It’s a good question, what are we hoping to gain?
If by some small miracle, MAGA happens and she is thrown in jail, can we return to a previous time from our past when the republic was truly a republic; or, was it ever?
There are conditions at America’s founding that may be unreachable, some use the high water mark at the Bill of rights, some at the Civil War and others at the inception of the Federal Reserve.
I do not propose where we could conceivably end up at, other posters here are way more savvy at history lessons; I just know the current crop of Democrat presidential hopefuls (including surprisingly Hillary Clinton… again?) will lead us to a place I’m not willing to arrive at. This is why with all his imperfections, Trump is still the best (if not the only) choice we have at reversing our current direction into clown world.
All it would take is equal justice under law. I would happily sacrifice half the Republicans in Congress if we could get rid of all the Democrats, who are basically all treasonous criminals. Every single corrupt person needs to be punished according to the letter of the law. No more free passes.
>>>Every single corrupt person needs to be punished according to the letter of the law.
Agree completely.
However, since “the Swamp” includes the great majority of congressmen (who write the laws), vast swathes of federal-level corruption are completely legal.
The rare congressional nitwit will hide bundles of ill-gotten cash in his capitol hill refrigerator, and will receive mild punishment, but the smarter swamp denizens, of both parties, wallow in their million$ received as lobbying employment, media deals, campaign contributions and profits generated via insider trading… and enjoy the admiration of their colleagues and toleration by the electorate.
Our cultural and governmental decay will inexorably run its course, to a future unknown to me. The big issue is just how much blood will we see shed, and whose.
This is powerful.
May it become a clarion call. We really need for the ‘folks’ to turn their heads and see the danger. If I lived in a large coastal city I would make sure I had a destination inland in mind.
But that is me.
Powerful composition, Tim!
“Folks” care more about fantasy football than they do about their own future…
Not just fantasy football, these dumbfucks waste time not only in watching college and pro feetsball, but also engage in sports talk TV and sports talk radio dumbassery.
Jesus Christ, what a bunch of useless tools
For the doubters on the possibility of conflict…..think about how the conversation has changed…..this article would have been laughed at as recently as 2015……would never have been posted here on TBP or anywhere else. But today, well it is just another article that nicely captures the current mood of the country……so you normalcy bias folks….the trend is not your friend…..we do you think we are going to be in six months?
“Without our “dissatisfied countrymen” screeching in the ears of the other half at every turn, the rising crescendo of leftist lunacy would recede into the background noise of ignorance and historical illiteracy from whence it came. ”
that’s some clueless statement right there. just keep our mouth’s shut, huh? you go ahead and turn the other cheek to totalitarians – i won’t.
Who is cramming Communism down Conservatives throats, discrimination against Whites and Asians, and censoring them; who are you calling Totalitarians: Fascist Democrats or Constitutional Conservatives?
Uhhh… I believe he WAS talking about the totalitarians’ screaming…
Xrugger was saying Totalitarians (Democrats) are screaming Useful Idiots but does Mr Credit agree with the Screaming Idiot Totalitarians?
Take a look above your head credit. There is a point up there you missed.
That is a poignant article that rings the bell, it is time for cerebral contemplation.
An excellent article, Tim. Thanks.
Another sublime contribution, Tim. And I will admit there are two controversial topics in particular for which I’ve somewhat modified my opinions since finding TBP: One is Abraham Lincoln and the other will remain unmentioned for now.
Regardless of anyone’s personal perceptions of Lincoln, however, I do often wonder if his advice should be seriously considered at this time:
It is a joke. We have system. Both parties bought off and corrupt. The 1965 immigration act ensured the we would have 3rd would dregs flood the country and destroy it. Guess what the Soviet Union did win, they let America destroy itself, just like Hitler said. Other than air conditioning and peanut butter, how have the brown races made us better.
Obviously, we have a lot of work to do, you ain’t any better, cheese.
Anybody who can identify the problem is WAY more valuable than YOU, Dumbass.
Khrushchev, not Hitler.
Kev, cheesecake was a latchkey kid, give him a break.
So says Edward Charlie as he pounds his shoe on the table.
John Gorrie invented air conditioning in Florida in 1841 and he was White. I submit Percy Julian who received more than 130 chemical patents. He was one of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry and the first African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Science.
Nice piece!
You are so right. The “cold Civil War” today has been brewing since the beginning of our Republic, Hamilton pushing for a strong National Government and Jefferson standing for a Federal, decentralized government. However much Hamilton may have advocated for a National Government with more teeth than Jefferson was comfortable with, he would have never agreed with Lincoln’s belief that the “Union” gave birth to the States, and no State had the right to leave the Union ever. Every Founder and every person in America understood that these United States was a compact entered into voluntarily by the independent States for their mutual protection, an agreement that could be dissolved by any or all of the States that had created it. Had any of the delegates believed that upon ratification of the Constitution they were checking in to a “Roach Motel” where a roach can get in but not out, the Constitution would have never been ratified. It is that simple. Until all Americans learn the true reasons for the Southern States succeeding in 1861, most importantly being their Constitutional Rights being violated by an increasingly hostile National Government representing powerful Northern interests at the South’s expense in the form of excessive Tariffs, and not a moral battle over the institution of slavery as the Progressives have rewritten the history books to declare, the division among Americans will not end. The Slavery narrative began well after Lincoln’s War began, mainly as a means of keeping England from coming to the aid of the Confederacy, and in the vain hopes of instigating a slave rebellion in the Southern States so that the men of the CSA would have to disband to return home to protect their families. The fact that all slaves remained loyal to their
Masters and stayed true to their word to protect the women and children and Plantations left in their charge with the Fathers and brothers off fighting the Yankees, ought to be more than enough proof to end the narrative that all slaves were miserable and chained and beaten and hated their white “oppressors.” The South fought because their homeland was invaded by Northern armies. Period. 85% of white Southerners didn’t even own a slave, to think that they would fight for the very few Planters that owned more than 100 slaves is ridiculous. Frankly, as my Grandmother said, ” in 1861, no woman, South or North, would have sent her husband/son/brother off to fight a bloody war over the plight of the Negro.” They fought to protect their farms and towns and women and children from invading forces, and for the rights their Grandfathers had fought the British for just 70 years earlier, for individual Liberty,
and a Constitutional Republic with limited National power and the individual States and the citizens of each State governing themselves. The Northern States could not afford to lose the Southern States, for it was they who paid the tariffs which enriched the Northern businesses and paid for improvements to Northern states, like railroads, canals, harbors, etc… So, they determined that their fellow Americans must not be allowed to leave in peace as they wished, but held forever at the point of a bloody bayonet if necessary, in a newly minted institution of “an indivisible Union” that was the embodiment of every evil that the Founders had tried so hard to guard against. In a nutshell, an all powerful Central Government tyrannical at home and abroad. It is because of Lincoln and his Radical Republicans that we are where we are today. The Republic of our Founders died when General Lee surrendered the remaining few of the brave soldiers of the Confederacy, starving and barefoot but not whipped, to Grant’s overwhelming superiority only in numbers and supplies and treasury, not in ability, or honor or heroism, or Cause. Progressives today are no different than those in the post War years, rather than welcoming their fellow Americans back into the Union as Lincoln advised, with all rights that States under the Constitution enjoyed, the Republicans in Congress upon his death decided to punish the rebels and unleashed their vengeance with a fury upon a ruined land and war weary people living in poverty, under the misnomer of “Reconstruction” they plundered the South of what little was left from the War, and stoked hatred between former slave and former Master
starving both. All they cared about was ensuring the Negro vote for Republican power to continue. Rather like today they bring in unlimited numbers of immigrants to ensure Progressive rule forever with their votes, so Americans who may harbor that out dated idea of Liberty never have a chance of winning an election again. Back then the Progressives had to silence the Southerners and get them out of the way politically. Now they must silence and get rid of Americans that don’t agree with their Marxist agenda wherever they live in the Country. Then the Progressives acted under the name “Republican” now they have adopted and taken over the “Democrats”. That is all that has changed, the mission has not. The colored people are once again being used as a weapon by the Progressives, who could care less about them one way or the other, and again, it is the colored people that will suffer the most during and after
the War, if the Progressives win again. This 250 plus year battle will have to be decided once and for all, and reconciliation by either side is more unlikely to work than it was in 1865, when it went underground and simmered until now. This time, only one side will emerge when the smoke clears, co existence is impossible, unless we divide the country now into 2 nations at least, which the Statist Progressives will never allow, it will be the bloody bayonet all over again I’m afraid.
Very well put. The minute that Constitution was ratified, the writing was on the wall.
Secession, peacefully or by violence is the only solution.
Whether the US ends up in two halves, several regions or multiple states really isn’t the crux of the matter. What does matter is how these entities will govern themselves post secession.
With smaller governments still based on coercion and force or ones based on voluntary and mutually beneficial contractual systems for goods and all services.
Time will tell.
Great post…to a strong as train smoke essay.
The question is will young white men fight to save what is left of Traditional America ? I have my doubts. Most have no sense of real history and are brainwashed into believing lies. Most I have met believe this ” diversity is our strength ” bullshit. I have no doubt that it will end in much bloodshed because the progressives Marxist will not stop until they are stopped. I never thought I would ever see America destroy itself but it’s probably already to late. You are right it will be winner take all . Their will be no Middle ground.
Is a good comment!
The cause (secession) was just and will rise again; the NWO Federal Boot is to heavy on to many peoples necks; next time, most of the West will join in favor of Peaceful Secession.
That is some damn fine writing Quarterseven.
“What is our duty, our “oath registered in heaven” with regard to the government, which we ostensibly control?”
In this dispensation, God’s hands off the wheel (if I may be so crude) our’s is no “oath registered in heaven”; as Christ gave heavenly keys to Hebrew Peter to an “as of yet unfulfilled” purpose. Check the lyrics to the “battle hymn of the republic” to find the butchery of such thought. To think that such as was inflicted upon the south by the north in the name of Jesus Christ is profoundly disturbing. To reverse and apply once again even more so.
Our instructions are thus:
Romans 12:18 KJB… “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
Keep reading…
Got a problem with government, change it. It’s what people do. Leave any Divine mandates out of it save for to pray for our leaders repentant mind and subsequent salvation that such changes would be unnecessary.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJB… “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”