Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
The Confederacy has been the excuse for some of today’s rioting, property destruction and grossly uninformed statements. Among the latter is the testimony before the House Armed Services Committee by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley in favor of renaming Confederate-named military bases. He said: “The Confederacy, the American Civil War, was fought, and it was an act of rebellion. It was an act of treason, at the time, against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the U.S. Constitution.”
There are a few facts about our founding that should be acknowledged. Let’s start at the beginning, namely the American War of Independence (1775-1783), a war between Great Britain and its 13 colonies, which declared independence in July 1776. The peace agreement that ended the war is known as the Treaty of Paris signed by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens and by British Commissioner Richard Oswald on Sept. 3, 1783. Article I of the Treaty held that “New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States.”
Delegates from these states met in Philadelphia in 1787 to form a union. During the Philadelphia convention, a proposal was made to permit the federal government to suppress a seceding state. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, rejected it. Minutes from the debate paraphrased his opinion: “A union of the states containing such an ingredient [would] provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a state would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound.”
During the ratification debates, Virginia’s delegates said, “The powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression.” The ratification documents of New York and Rhode Island expressed similar sentiments; namely, they held the right to dissolve their relationship with the United States.
Ratification of the Constitution was by no means certain. States feared federal usurpation of their powers. If there were a provision to suppress a seceding state, the Constitution would never have been ratified. The ratification votes were close with Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts voting in favor by the slimmest of margins. Rhode Island initially rejected it in a popular referendum and finally voted to ratify — 34 for, 32 against.
Most Americans do not know that the first secessionist movement started in New England. Many New Englanders were infuriated by President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which they saw as an unconstitutional act. Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, who was George Washington’s secretary of war and secretary of state, led the movement. He said, “The Eastern states must and will dissolve the union and form a separate government.” Other prominent Americans such as John Quincy Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy III, and Joseph Story shared his call for secession. While the New England secessionist movement was strong, it failed to garner support at the 1814-15 Hartford Convention.
Even on the eve of the War of 1861, unionist politicians saw secession as a state’s right. Rep. Jacob M. Kunkel of Maryland said, “Any attempt to preserve the union between the states of this Confederacy by force would be impractical and destructive of republican liberty.” New-York Tribune (Feb. 5, 1860): “If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861.” The Detroit Free Press (Feb. 19, 1861): “An attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful, could produce nothing but evil — evil unmitigated in character and appalling in extent.” The New-York Times (March 21, 1861): “There is a growing sentiment throughout the North in favor of letting the Gulf States go.”
Confederate generals fought for independence from the Union just as George Washington fought for independence from Great Britain. Those who label Robert E. Lee and other Confederate generals as traitors might also label George Washington a traitor. Great Britain’s King George III and the British parliament would have agreed.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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If “rebellion” were verboten, then we’d still be a colony of Great Britain; etc., etc., etc. Where’s the line LOL.
This is actually just another effort for the great shakedown called “reparations.” After those are given, in a couple more years the extortionists will be back for something else. Etc., etc., etc.
Let’s start with the 14 trillion dollars that these black bastards want. Couple “reparations” with permanent, irreversible deportation to the particular African country of each individual black. There would be NO reversal of a reparation agreement once the process is initiated. Reparations recipients would be required to agree never to attempt to re-enter the USA. To assure compliance, they would be bar-coded and “chipped” upon leaving the USA.
The 14 trillion dollars would be a bargain, as we could once again have a proper social fabric without this sorry excuse for a race. We could reduce the size of our “justice system”, revitalize our cities, and make America truly “great” again.
Black criminals would face automatic deportation with their reparation “award” reduced for the commission of crimes within the USA.
Bar coding would be achieved using an ultraviolet readable permanent “ink” which would be invisible under ordinary light. The forehead would be a suitable place for a bar code as it would be impossible to remove without obvious skin damage.
Now, the only remaining “problem” remaining would be what to do with our jews. As far as reparations is concerned, jews OWE US.
In some legal situations, some out of court agreements stipulate that neither you nor any of your progeny now or ever in the future ever get to even talk about the circumstance. I know, I’ve seen them, read them, refused to sign them, etc.
As far I’m concerned, the 14th Amendment renders null and void all claims for Reparations;
Section 4;
“… But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay … any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv
I would give every black $100,000 and a free plane ride, to go back the Africa. Naturally, when they get on the plane, they have to surrender their passports.
It would be a lot cheaper than all the welfare, section 8, medicaid, SNAP, WIC, etc.
Remember: work harder, the welfare recipients are depending on us.
Not to mention the huge reduction in crime.
I doubt the deportation would work. We would end up with something like DACA. In this instance, it would be something like, Negro Alliance for Preservation Procedure and Isolation Extradition.
NAPPIE
You do realize that Walter E Williams, the author of this article is black, right?
There are many brilliant Black people. Their present state is a condition that could befall any person or group of people when the nuclear family dissolves
Yes, Walter Williams is black. There are a FEW brilliant black people. Unfortunately, the “talented tenth” does not exist. It might be one-tenth of one percent.
Williams can go to Africa too. He can run the country–a benevolent dictator.
Black IQ distributions have an interesting anomaly. It is not a normal bell curve distribution, with the average IQ set at 85. No, the right hand side of the curve is thicker than a normal bell curve distribution. Ie there are more higher IQ blacks than would be expected in a standard bell curve.
I that there are huge numbers of blacks with IQs above say 110. There are indeed not. There are just significantly more of them than would be expected. There are indeed many brilliant blacks out there. But as a percentage that number is miniscule.
This entire bullshit agenda has nothing to do with blacks and slavery, or even racism. These are merely dog whistles used to promote the communist takeover. Today the Confederacy, then onto the Founders and anything and everything that involves American history. You must destroy a culture and it’s history in order to foment rebellion so that communists can gain power. That’s what is currently ongoing here and they won’t quit until they destroy the country. The politicians march lock step with the communists because they believe they will get a seat at the ruling class table. Ditto goes for the complicit media and Hollywood et al.
That about sums it up.
It is time to call a commie a commie.
Ya right, ever heard of the Great Purge of the 20’s and 30’s?? They gots whats cummin to em. Academia first !
I thought that part of Milley’s testimony sounded both ignorant and bigoted when I first heard it, and Dr. Williams has confirmed it.
Obozo worked hard to get as many commie generals in place by firing all the patriot officers.