"The compromise name,
War Between the States, which our .... leaders thought best to use
while
the South still had her head in the lion's mouth, was, as they must
have
known, a clear misnomer. ... Nevertheless, whatever the war was, it was
not war between the States. The States, as States, took no part in it,
were not even known in it. It was a war between two thoroughly
organized
governments and for one great principle, that completely overshadowed
all
others - Southern Independence ... To every patriotic
Southerner,
War for Southern Independence should be a sacred name."
O.W. Blacknall, Lincoln
as the South Should Know Him, 1915
"We protest solemnly
in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save
that
of honor. In independence we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no
concession
of any kind from the states with which we have lately been
confederated.
All we ask is to be let alone - that those who never held power over us
shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms. This we will, we must
resist
to the direst extremity. The moment that this pretension is abandoned,
the sword will drop from our grasp, and we shall be ready to enter into
treaties of amnesty and commerce that cannot but be mutually
beneficial.
So long as this pretension is maintained, with a firm reliance on that
Divine Power which covers with its protection the just cause, we must
continue
to struggle for our inherent right to freedom, independence, and self
government."
President Jefferson
Davis'
first address to the Confederate Congress
"A question settled
by
violence, or in disregard of law, must remain unsettled forever."
Jefferson Davis
"Our government is
an
agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not
look
to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these
States
together was one of love and mutual good offices..."
Jefferson Davis
"Obstacles may
retard,
but they cannot long prevent the progress of a movement sanctified by
its
justice, and sustained by a virtuous people."
Jefferson
Davis
"Any reasonable
creature
may know, if willing, that the North hates the Negro, and that until it
was convenient to make a pretence that sympathy with him was the cause
of the war, it hated the abolitionists and derided them up hill and
down
dales.....(T)o Secession being Rebellion, it is distinctly possible by
state papers that Washington considered it no such thing.....that
Massachusetts,
now loudest against it, has itself asserted its right to secede, again
and again."
Charles Dickens
(1812-1870),
on the War of Southern Independence
"For every
Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he
wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two
oclock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are
in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and
ready in the woods and the furled flags are already
loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his
long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and
his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting
for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the
balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it
not only hasn't begun yet but there is stll time for
it not to begin against that position and those
circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and
Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we
all know that, we have come too far with too much at
stake and that moment doesn't need even a
fourteen-year-old boy to think This
time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and
all this much to gain:
Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington
itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable
victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago...."
William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust
"Anyone who says the
Confederate Flag is a symbol of hate should be required to go to
sensitivity
training classes."
Ezola Foster
"....I am sure that the dangers
of this system (the Federal Constitution)
are real, when those who have no similar interest with the people of
this
country (the South) are to legislate for us - when our dearest rights
are
to be left, in the hands of those, whose advantage it will be to
infringe
them."
Patrick Henry
"I do not profess
any
romantic sentiments as to the vanity of life. Certainly no man has more
that should make life dear to him than I have, in the affection of my
home;
but I do not desire to survive the independence of my country."
Thomas "Stonewall"
Jackson,
from "Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War", G.F.R. Henderson,
Vol 2, p 346
"My heart is filled
with gratitude to Almighty God for his unspeakable mercies with which
He
has blessed us in this day. For those He granted us from the beginning
of life, and particularly for those He has vouchsafed us during the
past
year [of war]. What should have become of us without His crowning help
and protection? Oh, if our people would only recognize it and cease
from
self-boasting and adulation, how strong would be my belief in the final
success and happiness to our country! But what a cruel thing is war; to
separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and
happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with
hatred
instead of love for our neighbors, to devastate the fair face of this
beautiful
world! I pray that on this day [Christmas] when only peace and
good-will
are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our
enemies
and turn them to peace."
Robert E. Lee
"Obedience to
lawful
authority is the foundation of manly character."
Robert E. Lee
"Get correct views
of
life, and learn to seethe world in its true light. It will enable you
to
live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without
regret."
Robert E. Lee
"...[T]here is no
more
dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a
man's face and another behind his back."
Robert E. Lee
"The Confederate
soldiers
were basically fighting for the independence of what they called their
country, the Confederate States of America, and they really harked back
to the model of the American Revolution in 1776. In 1776 Americans had
declared their independence of the British Empire - had seceded, if you
will, from the British Empire in the name of liberty, establishing
independent,
free, government. The Confederate soldiers said they were doing the
same
thing in 1861 - they were fighting for liberty, for self-government.
They
were defending their country against invasion by what they now
considered
to be an alien power that no longer represented their interests."
James
McPherson,
Civil War historian
"What passes as standard
American history is really Yankee history written by New Englanders or
their puppets to glorify Yankee heroes and ideals."
Dr. Grady McWhiney,
Professor
of History, Texas Christian University
"The real issue involved in the relations between the North and the South of the American
States, is the great principle of self-government. Shall a dominant party of the North
rule the South, or shall the people of the South rule themselves. This is the great matter
in controversy."
Robert Barnwell Rhett, Montgomery, Alabama, 1860
"A just war exists when a people tries
to ward off the threat
of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an
already-existing
domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to
impose
domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing
coercive
rule over them."
Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) in
making his case that America has only had two just wars (1776, War for American
Independence
& 1861, War for Southern Independence)
"... the South is a
civilisational reality in a sense which the United States is not, and
it
will last longer than the American Empire."
Dr. Clyde Wilson, Dispelling
Southern Myths
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