by Al Benson Jr.
Over the past several decades I have heard professors from those “little ivy-covered North Koreas” we still charitably refer to as colleges and universities as well as other professional hysterians all loudly shouting that the War of Northern Aggression was fought only to free the slaves in the South. The only cause of that war was slavery, and the professional hysterians have loudly proclaimed that secession was treason and that all Southerners who fought for the Confederacy should have been hanged as war criminals, and at the least, all of their descendants should be shot–but only after they have repented of the gross sin of slavery–but, maybe on the other hand, they should leave at least a few of them alive to they can continue to repent of and apologize for the sin of slavery. I can remember one excuse for a journalist once writing that “The Civil War was all about slavery, slavery slavery!”
Thankfully, those people’s definition of “sin” is not quite the norm, although they have been working on that problem for the past 150 years now, one of their notable vehicles for promoting that world view being the public schools in Amerika. I’d like to know where in the Holy Scriptures they find slavery condemned as the greatest sin in the world. In the Epistle to Philemon maybe?
Many of those people have made a fat living promoting the fallacy that the South fought the war only to preserve slavery and for no other reason. Now comes along ol’ Newt Gingrich and he up and bursts their bubble with the real story. Newt is supposed to be somewhat of a hysterian (historian) himself. Years ago he produced a set of videos for some educational project he was working on and in one of the videos he reproduced the scene from the movie Gettysburg in which it had Joshua Chamberlain stating that the Union Army was fighting to set other men free and that this was one of the few times in history such had ever happened. Some of you all, if you saw the movie, may remember that. It was hogwash, but you might remember it.
But that was then and this is now. In our present age of “realism” Mr. Gingrich has somewhat changed his tune. Gingrich was recently interviewed by Bill O’Reilly and the subject of Rahm Emanuel not letting a Trump administration deport illegal aliens who had committed felonies in Chicago came up. Rahm Emanuel is a rather slippery character who is presently the mayor in that fair city and who used to be some sort of advisor to King Barack the First. At that point Gingrich piped up and said: “We fought a civil war to establish one sovereignty, the U.S. government.” You don’t say. So that’s what the War of Northern Aggression was really all about–not freeing the slaves but rather establishing one centralized, collectivist regime in Washington! All those folks that have written big books and given long lectures about slavery being the total cause of the war must be hating Gingrich’s guts about now. He has, albeit inadvertently, come out and admitted the real truth. And all their big books can now be shredded up for birdcage liner.
Professor Thomas DiLorenzo, who has some knowledge in this area, caught Gingrich’s comment and duly noted: “So the ‘Civil War’ was fought to abolish the Tenth Amendment after all, and to consolidate all political power in Washington, D.C. Well, Newt, as any Catholic priest would say, it’s never too late to confess.”
Given his mindset, one has to wonder why Newt Gingrich has attached himself to Donald Trump’s campaign when Trump has campaigned as being anti-establishment. Pastor Chuck Baldwin of Montana recently had an article on http://www.lewrockwell.com in which he stated: “Newt Gingrich is a HIGH LEVEL globalist and longtime CFR member. He is the consummate neocon… If Donald Trump does not see through this man, and if he appoints him as a cabinet head in his administration, I will be forced to believe that Donald Trump is clueless about ‘draining the swamp.’ You cannot drain the swamp by putting the very people who filled the swamp back in charge. And that’s exactly what Trump will be doing if he appoints Gingrich to any high-level position in his administration.” Sadly, I have to agree. Of late Trump has been talking with Mitt Romney and Henry Kissinger–and this fact does not bode well for his anti-establishment credentials. Everyone who has a genuine concern about where this country is headed needs to keep an eye on this situation.
revisedhistory 
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Trump has promised to drain the swamp that is Washington City, however that will be impossible if he plans on using the same neocon engineers who built it!
We have all heard the old saying “they are two peas from the same pod”. Many members of the Democrats and Republicans are of the same mind set, and many are members of the “new world order”! Unless Trump brakes away from these “NEW WORLD” folks, and pick true Constitution conservatives, he will fair no better then our national leadership of the past thirty years or more.
I had a discussion with a Yankee up here about Washington and other presidents who owned slaves….that was ok to him because they were the
“founding fathers”
Secession was not “treason”! If secession was “treason” why did the New England states of the Northeast form a coalition to withdraw from the Union in 1814, during the War of 1812 and no one was arrested, tried or shot when they moved to secede from the Union? The New England state’s secession movement only stopped when the War of 1812 stopped suddenly and before the convention could vote. No one was ever prosecuted for that secession movement…but over 630,000 died because the South’s agriculture states seceded constitutionally and legally! Plus, many of the states that voluntarily joined the union of states put in their Ordnance of Secession that they retained the right to withdraw from the Union when it benefited their state’s citizens, such as Virginia for example. And, those that did not actually put the right to withdraw in their Ordnance of Secessions assumed that they had the constitutional right to withdraw. After all the Colonies had just fought a costly war for their independence under an oppressive and tyrannical nation to get out from under just such rule…none of the states wanted to be subjected to rule outside of their sovereign states…
Virginia Ordnance of Secession: http://www.csawardept.com/documents/secession/VA/
Virginia
http://www.constitution.org/csa/ordinances_secession.htm#Virginia
AN ORDINANCE to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United State of America by the State of Virginia and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution.
The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed when-so-ever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States:
Now, therefore, we, the people of Virginia, do declare and ordain, that the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying and adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abrogated; that the union between the State of Virginia and the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
And they do further declare, That said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State.
This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified by a majority of the voter of the people of this State cast at a poll to be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted.
Adopted by the convention of Virginia April 17, 1861
Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, p. 223.
[Ratified by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on May 23, 1861]
See more TRUE AMERICAN HISTORY at URL http://albarrs.wix.com/usandfamilyhistory
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
TYPICAL LIBETAL. CAN T GET ALL THE FACTS RIGHT. 1. NEWT IS NOT A GLOBALIST. 2. IT IS A WELL ESTABLISHED FACT THAT THE CIVIL WAR WAS FOUGHT TO PRESERVE THE UNION NOT FOR DENYING SLAVES THOUGH THAT WSS PART OF IT. .3 HAVING A ” THE UNION ” PRESERVED DID NOT MEAN ALL POWER WOULD BE THERE. LINCOLN STILL BELIEVED THE CONSTITUTION IN THAT ” ALL RIGHTS NOT SPELLED OUT IN THE CONSTITUTION , BELONGED TO THE STATES. 4. THE CIVIL WAR WAS FOUGHT MORE OVER THE RIGHT TO SUCCEED FROM THE UNION THAN ANYTHING ELSE. THAT,S WHY THEY PLAYED ” DIXIE AT THE SURRENDER BALL TO WELCOME THEM BACK INTO THE UNION…
It seems you and I might disagree on some issues. I will post your comments and give others a chance to reply to them if they wish to.
Or to put it another way; the founding principle of the new American Union is might makes right.
I homeschool my daughters (age 9 and 11). Do you have any recommendations for books I can use to teach history that isn’t skewed to the left and leaves out important information? I’ve been following you for a long time. I’ve read Lincoln’s Marxist but they aren’t ready for that yet :). We are studying the presidents this year and the wars. We are at Lincoln and the Civil War right now. We read living books, biographies and they love historical fiction.They don’t appreciate the twaddle that is being dished out to kids these days. I’ve even read them some of your blog posts in the past. Thanks for any ideas you might have.
Al and All–What a great idea Mrs. Russell has. I too await all who may have ideas in these areas. We have had several home school students attend our SCV meeting when we have noted speakers. These list of teaching aids would be a excellent addition for our new web site (ischweb.org) coming soon in 2017. In fact I had forgotten the needs of this growing segment of the school population. Thank you again Mrs. Russell for a great question.
Fred, Please not the comments I posted at the bottom of this column about historical material about the War and its causes, with mention of the series of tests and booklets I wrote and published myself.
Mrs. Russell,
I’ve got a couple possibilities for you which I will list here. One is a book published by Sea Raven Press called Honest Jeff & Dishonest Abe–A Southern Children’s Guide to the Civil War.” It was written for 8-12 year olds so it might be in the right range for your kids. Check it out on the Internet and see what you think.
Another one isThe War Between the States–America’s Uncivil War” by John Dwyer. This one is generally for high school kids, but if your two have been home schooled right along they might be able to handle much of it and Mr. Dwyer deals a little with the Forty-eighters that we wrote Lincoln’s Marxists about. You can check that one out on the Internet also. It was published by Bluebonnet Press in Denton, Texas. It is a long one, over 650 pages but it goes into a lot you will never see in standard “history” books. I wish I had had this when we home schooled out kids back in the 1980s. Something else you might want to check out is an MP3 series by Rev. Steve Wilkins, who is the pastor of the church we attend and it is called America the first 350 years. Rev. Wilkins takes you from Columbus up through “reconstruction”. I used this with our daughter one year for her American history and she in turn used it for our granddaughters. Back when I first used it, it was on cassette tape but you can’t get it that way anymore. Now it’s MP3 I am told. And again, if your kids have been home schooled right along they might be able to understand much of it. When I used it with our daughter we sat up late at night and listened to the tapes together. She had a notebook and took notes and if we came to something she wasn’t sure about we stopped the tape and talked about it. Someone once asked Pastor Wilkins why he only took the series through the end of “reconstruction” and I never forgot his answer. He said “because everything that came after “reconstruction” was Post-America.” If you understand our history you will realize he is right.
Much of what passes for history even among home schoolers is far from the best so we have to guard against some of it just like we guard against public school “history.” One thing I have become convinced of–if our kids don’t grasp what the “Civil War” was really all about then they will never grasp the real significance of anything that has happened since then. I hope this might help a little. Please write back if you have more questions.
I’m coming back here to tell you my girls loved “Honest Abe and Dishonest Abe”. We all learned a lot and led us to discuss other issues regarding slavery and the civil war. I am in Denton, Texas where a civil war statue is causing some to get all worked up. Last I heard they are leaving it but adding new text to the plaque. One of the groups wanting to take it down are from the local college. Go figure. :). I have the Dwyer book and have read some of it. We will be coming back to this part of history again as they get older. Learning the issues around the civil war and reconstruction has caused me to think differently about what happened since.
That’s great! I am glad it was help in sorting out the facts from the usual fiction presented today.
Try The Ron Paul Curriculum and take a look at Tom Woods stuff. I think you will like it.
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Back on May 18, 2012 I did an article on this blog mentioning the books I mentioned here in my reply to Mrs. Russell. Please check that article out. In it I also mentioned a set of 5 booklets with accompanying tests that I wrote and published myself, called “The Home School History Series” which dealt with the War of Northern Aggression. Although it is a bit dated now, there is still useful historical information in it that students could use dealing with the War and its causes.
I did one booklet on apostasy, the War, and “reconstruction”; one booklet on the abolitionist movement, one on Lincoln’s socialist friends, which was the basis for the book on Lincoln’s Marxists that Donnie Kennedy and I co-authored, one booklet on secession, and one booklet on the farce that was the “emancipation proclamation.” Any information that you find on the Internet about this series of booklets is probably inaccurate at this point except the 2012 article on this blog.
Over the years I sold quite a batch of these and though they are pretty much out of print now I would not mind reprinting them if there was any amount of interest in them.
Thank you for your quick reply.
My girls have only been homeschooled. They love history so I’m excited to share with them the resources you have mentioned.
Lincoln’s Marxists was the first book I read with this viewpoint and it has helped me notice and be aware of a part of history I otherwise would have discounted. It really does put all current events in a different perspective when you know the REAL history.
Obviously, my girls won’t really understand this until they are older and have more world experience but I’m thankful I get a chance to give them the scaffolding to build on.
I will look up your May 2012 article.
Stacy
Al — Give me a call as time permits. Perhaps a update of your books would make a good fit for the home school link on our ISCHweb.org site once it’s up and working on the web. I had no idea the amount of time and the number of road blocks one would encounter in building a major web program. A site to give millions a forum to join the culture wars being waged against all things Southern and Confederate by the Marxist progressive left.
The Southern Heritage movement is woefully underfunded to defend the attacks being directed toward so many areas. Statues, school, street, and building names are only a few of the things being attacked. Today “THOSE PEOPLE” have widen their hateful propaganda to include our Founding Fathers, Columbus, Steven Foster, with no end in sight. Only by millions joining together and funding these battles with small donations of five or ten dollars, will we be able to win in the end.
We will let all know nation wide the web site is up and running ASAP. Thanks Fred C
Fred,
Be easier for me if I emailed you. My hearing ain’t what it used to be and I don’t do real well on the phone anymore.
Did you have in mind and update of the home school booklets on the War that I did over the years? If so, I might be able to do that. Let me know. They are not books, but booklets, anywhere from 13-26 pages depending on the subject and I developed a set of tests to go with them.
Mrs. Russell,
You mentioned them wanting to take down a civil war statue in Denton, Texas. I was there once, years ago, but I remember the (then) layout of the town with the courthouse in the middle of town and the streets going around on all 4 sides of it. It may be different now. There was a monument there then. I recall stopping and looking at it.
What they are trying to do with taking down the monuments is to destroy our history so youngsters like yours will have no real history and heritage to look back on and ask questions about. Everything still up will be named after some contemporary “civil rights” figure or some Marxist from decades ago, but no real American history. This is why I am opposed to the trashing of our monuments.