CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS 22 April 2019
American by birth — Southern by the grace of God! I come from a true Southern state, South Dakota, and I am honored to be probably the first Dakotan to give the Memorial Day address at the capital of the Confederacy.
Last week I had a conferencecall with a man from Michigan, another from Massachusetts, and another fromConnecticut. I told them I couldn’t do afollow-up call Monday because of Confederate Memorial Day. When they asked what I was talking about Iasked, “Don’t y’all celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in New England? You should! We celebrate Yankee Memorial Day in Alabama!”
I first visited Alabama inJanuary 1972 for Air Force Judge Advocate training at Maxwell AFB. I loved it, returned many times for Reserveduty and training, and in 1990 we decided to make Alabama our home. One reason I’m proud of the Air Force is, weare the only branch of the United States military that never took up armsagainst the Confederacy! Maybe that’swhy Montgomery and Maxwell Air Force Base have always had a great relationship.
Some come to Alabama becausethey hate the South and want to change it. I came to Alabama because I love the South, see much good in it, andwant to preserve it. As much of Americais degenerating into lawlessness, irreverence, idleness, and immorality, in thestability of the South, in the cradle of the Confederacy, may lie our last hopefor the preservation of this nation.
But my Southern sympathiesbegan much earlier in life. As a childgrowing up in the 50s, I remember one of my elementary school history textsexplaining the factors leading up to the War. It told of Daniel Webster of New England, who believed the Union shouldendure forever, and I thought, that’s a noble idea. But then it said John C. Calhoun of SouthCarolina was for state’s rights; he believed a state had the right to leave theUnion if it wanted to — and I thought, Calhoun’s right; states should be ableto leave if they want to. Looking back,I guess, on that day in an elementary school classroom, this kid became aConfederate.
In later years I would studyCalhoun in greater depth and would realize what a great constitutional thinkerhe was. He wrestled with one of thethorniest problems of representative government: How do we give voice to the will of themajority, while protecting the rights of the minority? In his Disquisitionon Government and his Disquisition onthe Constitution, Calhoun explains his theory of concurrentmajorities. The majority in Ohio mayfavor one policy, while the majority in Massachusetts may favor another. Decentralized government, in which mostdecisions are made at the state and local level rather than at the federallevel, is a key part of Calhoun’s solution. But suppose we need a national policy, and the majority of the nationfavors Ohio’s policy? That’s whereCalhoun’s doctrine of nullification comes into play: The majority can enact a law that is policyfor the nation, but the majority in Massachusetts may opt out by nullifyingthat law. The law then applies acrossthe nation, but not in Massachusetts. Calhoun saw nullification, not as divisive, but as the safety valve thatcould keep the nation from falling apart. By giving the States the freedom to be different, the majority couldhave its way, the minority could be different, factions could get along, and the nation could stay together.
I use Massachusetts as anexample, because nullification actually began in the North! Daniel Websterhimself, opposing conscription for the War of 1812, called upon the New Englandstates to interpose against it, saying it is “the solemn duty of the StateGovernments to protect their own authority over their own militia, and tointerpose between their citizens and arbitrary power.”
A few years earlier, in 1809Governor Jonathan Trumbull convened the Connecticut Legislature becausePresident Jefferson had commenced an unconstitutional embargo, saying theLegislature should “cast a watchful eye towards the general government,with a view, candidly to consider, and judiciously discern, whether the powersdelegated to the United States are not exceeded…..” The Legislature responded with a resolutiondeclaring it their duty to “vigilantly watch over, and vigorously tomaintain, the powers not delegated to the United States, but reserved to theStates respectively, or to the people,” approving Governor Trumbull’srefusal to “designate persons to carry into effect, by the aid of militarypower, the act of the United States, enforcing the Embargo…,” andrestraining Connecticut officials from “affording any official aid orco-operation in the execution of the act aforesaid.”
In the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, the U.S.Supreme Court ordered state officials to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of1850, requiring officials of non-slave states to deliver escaped slaves back totheir masters. The Wisconsin SupremeCourt refused to comply, declaring the Act and null and void in Wisconsin,though they were reversed by the US. Supreme Court in Ableman v. Booth. But in1859 the Wisconsin Legislature declaredthe Dred Scott decision “without authority, void, and of noforce” in Wisconsin. Again:Nullification began in the North!
Things have changed. Northern state Justices who in 1858 resistedfederal judicial tyranny are hailed as constitutional heroes. But today, if a Southern State Judgecriticizes the U.S. Supreme Court, we remove him from office! What has happened? Our Alabama State Motto is Audemus jura nostra defendere, “Wedare defend our rights.” Or atleast it was. Today our motto seems tobe “We dare defend our rights unless a federal judge tells us weshouldn’t,” or “unless we’d lose a federal subsidy.”
Does the principle ofnullification apply to secession as well? Thomas Jefferson thought so. Inthe Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, he declared that the Constitution creates acompact among the states, and that “in all cases of compact between partieshaving no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, aswell of the infraction as of the mode and measure of redress.” The Virginia Resolutions of the same periodexpressed a similar position. AndGouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, who chaired the Committee on Style thatwrote the final draft of the Constitution, later in life urged the New Englandstates and New York to secede and form a separate confederacy.
But was, is secession aconstitutional right? Notice I didn’t askwhether secession is a good idea; I asked whether it is a constitutionalright. Robert E. Lee personally opposedsecession. But he believed it wasVirginia’s right to secede, and when Virginia left the Union he declared,“How can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State?” He refused the offer of command of of theUnion armies, and took up the sword to defend his beloved home and his belovedstate.
Lee carrned on correspondencewith Lord Acton of England, who admired the Confederate Constitution as a meansof protecting majority rule and minority rights. Lord Acton wrote to General Lee in 1866,
I saw in States’ rights the only availing check upon theabsolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as thedestruction but as the redemption of Democracy. … I deemed that you werefighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and Imourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice overthat which was saved at Waterloo.
Jefferson Davis also opposedsecession, but he believed it was a constitutional right retained by theStates. He stated, “Secession belongs toa different class of remedies. It is tobe justified on the basis that the States are Sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope that time may come again….” And when his state seceded, he did his dutyand served with his state.
One benefit of the right ofsecession is that it places the power where it belongs – with the states, orthe people. Many of you belong to theSons of Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, theOrder of Confederate Rose, or other organizations. But you don’t have to continue yourmembership; you could quit, you could secede, at any time. That means the power is in your hands. The SCV or the UDC have to make yourmembership worthwhile and give you your money’s worth, or you’ll stop givingthem your time and your membership dues. In the same way, the power of secession makes the federal government theservant of the states, not their master.
But doesn’t Article Six,Section 4 of the Constitution proclaim that the Constitution is “thesupreme law of the land”? Of courseit does. But what part of the Constitutionis the supreme law of the land? All ofit, including the amendments, which according to Article V are when ratifiedfor all intents and purposes part of the Constitution.
And that includes the TenthAmendment, which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States bythe Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to theStates respectively, or to the people.” So we must ask, what provision of the Constitution authorizes thefederal government to prohibit secession? The answer is, none. And then weask, what provision of the Constitution prohibits that power to theStates? And again we answer, none. So if power over secession is not delegatedto the federal government and is not prohibited to the States, it is reservedto the States by the Tenth Amendment, and that, my friends, is the Supreme Lawof the Land.
But some will say theSouthern States seceded over slavery, not constitutional issues. It would be far easier to gloss over thisissue, but I think it needs to be addressed.
Was slavery the issue in the WarBetween the States? That depends on whoyou ask, and what region they were from, and at what time during the War. All Northerners didn’t think alike, nor didall Southerners. We could get into abattle of dueling quotations here, quoting some who said slavery was the issueand quoting others who said it was not. I’ll just summarize my conclusions this way: Was slavery an issue? Yes. Was slavery the only issue? No. Was slavery the mainissue? Again, it would depend on whomyou asked. Ending slavery was a majorissue for many New Englanders, much less so for those of Ohio and Indiana. And it is hard to believe that Southernsoldiers, at least 90% of whom had never owned a slave, were fighting for theslaveholding rights of the other 10%.
Hereare two sources we seldom hear today. President Lincoln declared,
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forebear, I forebear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”
[1]
“That in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights of established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.”
Cong. Globe, 37th Cong., 2d. Sess. 222 (1861). This Resolution passed the House 119-2 and the Senate 30-5. See id. at 223.
Let’s be clear: No one here defends slavery. Rather, we object to making slavery solelythe sin of the South. It was in fact aworldwide evil, and the slave trade was conducted by New England traders. And we object to judging the South on slaveryalone, when there was so much good about the South as well. And those good things are what soldiersfought and died for.
Some fought because theybelieved in the Constitution’s plan of states’ rights. Some simply followed the lead of theirrespective states; and while many Northerners opposed the War and many Southerners opposed secession, when the lineswere drawn nearly all of them lined up with their respective states, because inthose days we understood America as a union of sovereign States, not as onenational government with fifty administrative subdivisions.
Think about this for amoment: In the sentence, “TheUnited States ___ going to war,” what’s the missing verb? Today most people would say “The UnitedStates is going to war.” But before the War Between the States, nearlyeveryone would say “The United States aregoing to war.” That’s why, when wetour battlefields, we see monuments to Ohio Regiment, Alabama Regiment, NewHampshire Regiment, Texas Regiment.
Those soldiers fought becausethey loved the South. And what did theylove about the South? Perhaps I can bestanswer, What do I love about the South? Many things:
* I love neighbors waving asI drive by. I love saying “Goodmorning!” to strangers on the street without them shrinking away as though Iwere invading their space.
* I love the way Southernerstreasure their families – not just their immediate families, but their ninthcousins five times removed, as part of who we are.
* I love the way Southernersvalue their land, not just for its economic value but because land is anextension of our identity.
* I love the Southernacceptance of human fallibility, and with it the Southern skepticism of BigGovernment and Centralized Power as the solution to all of our problems. As Calhoun wrotein his Disquisition on Government, “But government, although intended toprotect and preserve society, has itself a strong tendency to disorder andabuse of its powers….”
* I love the Southern respectfor tradition. “We’ve always done itthat way” doesn’t mean it shouldn’t change, but it does mean it’s probablyworked fairly well. “We’ve never triedthat before” doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it now, but it might mean we shouldask some questions first.
* I love the story RichardWeaver tells of the cousins driving together across rural Kentucky. The Northerner delivers a lengthy harangueabout how backward the South is in literacy, highway construction, and othermeasures of progress. His Southerncousin responds, “Yeah, but look at that countryside. Aint it beautiful?” A different sense of what’s ultimatelyimportant. A recognition that everythingof value is not measured in terms of the Almighty Dollar.
* I love the way Southernersare not afraid to be out of fashion in their politics, their dress, theirspeech, and their lifestyle, and I love the way Southerners can laugh atthemselves. It’s been said, “NewEnglanders are provincial but don’t know it. Midwesterners are provincial, know it, and are ashamed of it. Southerners are provincial, know it, and areproud of it.” It’s also been said,“Northerners claim to have read books they haven’t read. Southerners deny having read books they haveread.” Most Southerners have readWebster and Lincoln, but how many Northerners have read Davis and Calhoun? And yet, we’re the ones who arenarrow-minded! When Flannery O’Connorwas asked at a writers’ conference why Southern writers focus on freaks andmisfits, she answered, “Because we can still recognize them.” But Southern writers often recognize themisfit as the hero who ultimately saves and transforms the community.
* I also love Southerners’unabashed patriotism – patriotism toward their country, and toward their regionof the country. In every war since theWar Between the States – the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II,Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan – Southerners have served in greater percentage than the rest of thenation. Today the Southern states are36% of the population, and 44% of the military. I regret that the Battle Flag is seen bysome as a symbol of hate. That’s notwhat it ever meant to me, or to those assembled here. And I’m not impressed by those who’ve neverhad a good word to say about America or the American flag, except when theywrap themselves in it to denounce the Confederacy. And just last week, residents of Laguna Beachcomplained about flag designs on their police cars that were “intimidating andracist” – not Confederate flags, but American flags! Where is this going to end? If California secedes, I will miss some ofthem. But I thought they told us wecouldn’t do that.
* And what I love most isthat Southerners who are Christians are unafraid to talk openly about theirfaith. If someone invites me to hischurch, he’s not trying to impose on me; he’s honestly concerned about thesalvation of my soul. I appreciatethat. And we want to know the faith ofthose who run for office, because laws and government policies are based onmoral values, and morality is based upon religion. Southerners have a moral compass, even ifthey don’t always follow it. You don’thear Southerners say “That may not be appropriate under thecircumstances.” Southerners just say,“That aint right.” Flannery O’Connorused to say the South was “Christ-haunted.” Christ may be nearly forgotten, but the notions of sin, judgment, andsalvation always lurk somewhere in our semi-conscious minds. We pray that, instead of beingChrist-haunted, the South will become Christ-centered.
And so, despite ourimperfections, we proudly stand for Southern values, and we honor those whohave defended the South in the past.
David honored Saul andJonathan after they died in battle, and he also honored his general Abner,saying “there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel.” (IISamuel 3:3
.
And think of Sophocles’ play Antigone, written around 442 BC. The City of Thebes has been ravaged by civil war, and Eteocles and Polynices, brothers of Antigone, have died fighting on opposite sides. The victor and new ruler of Thebes, King Creon, has decreed that those who fought for him will be buried with full honors, while opponents will lie on the field unburied. Nevertheless, Antigone provides her brother with a burial. When she is brought before King Creon, it seems he wants to excuse her by pleading ignorance:
Creon: …You knew the order not to do this thing?
Antigone: I knew, of course I knew. The word was plain.
Creon: And still you dared to overstep these laws
Antigone: For me it was not Zeus who made that order. Nor did that Justice who lives with the gods below mark out such laws to hold among mankind. Nor did I think your orders so strong that you, a mortal man, could over-run the gods’ unwritten and unfailing laws. Not now, nor yesterday’s, they always live, and no one knows their origin in time… .” Antigone, Wyckoff trans. Lines 446-57
Antigone is saying there is aHigher Law, higher than any king’s decree – our Declaration of Independencecalls it “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” – that requires that shehonor her fallen brothers by burying them with military honors, even if KingCreon forbids it. The Divine imperativeto honor one’s kinsmen, especially those who have died in battle, is universal.
Respecting the dead is thetruest act of kindness, because the dead cannot defend themselves. It is entirely fitting that we shouldremember our ancestors, especially those who died fighting for their homes.
And so, Memorial Daybegan. Before a national memorial daywas established, Southern ladies in 1866 began decorating the graves ofConfederate soldiers, and in some cities they decorated the graves of Unionsoldiers as well. The practice spread tothe North, and it became a national tradition around 1882. In the South, as throughout the Nation, wecelebrate Memorial Day in May to honor all who have given their lives for ourcountry. But in April we celebrateConfederate Memorial Day to honor our own.
And this monument standsbefore us today to honor those 122,000 Alabamians who risked their lives and,for some, gave their lives in the War.
Jefferson Davis laid thecornerstone in 1886, and the monument was dedicated in 1898. It has stood for 121 years as a memorial tothe courage, valor, self-sacrifice of those who died, and of those who werewilling to die, for their homeland.
But today, across thisNation, there is a drive to blame the South for all that is wrong withAmerica. Jesus said “Greater love hathno man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John15:13), but many today would destroythese monuments as symbols of hate.
To stop these self-appointedvandals, and sometimes vandals holding official positions, in 2017 the AlabamaLegislature enacted, and Governor Ivey signed, the Alabama MemorialPreservation Act. The law provides thatno monument more than 40 years old may be moved, destroyed, or renamed withoutprovision of the Alabama Monument Protection Committee.
But in January of this year,a Birmingham circuit judge, on his last day in office, issued apolitically-charged ruling that the Memorial Preservation Act is anunconstitutional violation of the City’s right to free speech. This ruling has been appealed; the AlabamaSupreme Court has stayed the ruling pending the outcome; I firmly believe thehigher courts will reverse the Circuit Court and sustain the Act, and I promiseyou that tomorrow the Foundation for Moral Law will file an amicus brief insupport of the Act.
Behind the drive to removeflags and monuments is a drive to re-write history itself, as a prerequisite tofashioning a new America that bears no resemblance to the constitutionalrepublic our Founding Fathers designed. Remember the chilling words of George Orwell in 1984:
“If theParty could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, itnever happened – that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death?… And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all recordstold the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Partyslogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”
If you remember nothing elsefrom this address, remember these lines: Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the presentcontrols the past. And remember this aswell: No society can long survive if itteaches its children to hate their ancestors and be ashamed of their heritage. And nowhere is that happening more than inAmerica, and nowhere in America more than in the South.
First they came for theConfederate monuments. Then they camefor Columbus. Now they’re coming forGeorge Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Who’s next? Frederick Douglas,Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver for being too moderate? Hank Williams, Jr., for writing “If the SouthWoulda Won”? Johnny Cash for writing“God Bless Robert E. Lee”? Do wedenounce Plato and Aristotle, and the Greek civilization, because they condonedand practiced slavery? And when thepolitically- correct orthodoxy changes, who will those in power go afterthen?
Besides reminding us of thehonor and valor of those who served, monuments, especially monuments that arecurrently unpopular, are voices of dissent. They are a stark reminder to the politically-correct orthodoxy, and tothose who blindly follow it, that there was a time when people believedotherwise, and there are voices of the past that may be worth heeding today.
And that’s another reason wehonor those who served. Jefferson Davissaid prophetically, “The principle for which we contend is bound to reassertitself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” Without being blind to its faults, we mustkeep the ideals of the Confederacy alive: limited government, decentralized government, government based upon theHigher Law of God, and the Southern wayof life.
As Connie Chastain said, “TheSouth won’t have to rise again. Justremain standing while the rest … falls.” And when things fall apart, peoplewill look for answers, and they may find them in the South.
God bless America! God bless the South! God bless Alabama! God bless all who served. And God bless all of you for coming today!
[1] Abraham Lincoln, in Abraham Lincoln from HisOwn Words and Contemporary Accounts29(Roy E. Appleman, ed., National ParkService Source Book Two, Washington, DC 1956).
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/b...ves-the-south/
A Copperhead Loves the South By John A. Eidsmoe on Apr 25, 2019 Share on Facebook
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