"Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late... It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision... It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.” ~ Confederate Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, May 1864 (Emphasis mine)
General Cleburne was certainly a visionary; he saw correctly what would happen if the South should succumb to the military might of the Union Army. He understood the importance of the struggle for a government that operated only with the consent of the governed.
He began his service to the Confederate Army as a simple militia solder from Helena, Arkansas and rose to the rank of Major General. This native son of the Emerald Isle paid the supreme sacrifice for his beliefs in the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. His expertise on the field of battle earned him the sobriquet, “Stonewall of the West.”
Cleburne correctly predicted the youth of the South would be taught by Northern schoolteachers and the history of the War Between the States would be written by its enemies.
When the war was over the leaders of the Republican Party, which today is known as the Party of Lincoln, sought to punish the people of the South for having the courage of their convictions and the daring and initiative to claim the rights defined in the 9th and 10th Amendments.
After the war, the Republican dominated Congress claimed the right to force 10 of the Southern States to submit to military rule and domination. Tennessee was not included with the 10 because then President Andrew Johnson was from Tennessee and had Johnson’s home state been kicked out of the Union, the current president would have been a citizen of an exiled state.
Part of the claims by the Congress was their alleged right to demand each of the 10 exiled states establish a new state constitution; a constitution approved by the federal Congress. Included in almost every new state constitution would be the requirement for a federally controlled public department of education. Of course the Congress would find it necessary to provide the new schoolteachers for these states and it would be only natural the vast majority would be both Northerners and of course faithful members of the Republican Party.
Congress would use this newly mandated education as a cash cow to reward those who were faithful to the party and promoted its expansion to the now dominated Southern states. Exorbitant salaries were meted out to mostly unqualified people who moved from Northern states to indoctrinate the children of the South against States Rights and Nullification and to teach the supremacy of an omnipotent central government.
We now see the culmination of this effort as General Cleburne predicted; the Confederate Battle Flag is viewed by many as a symbol of racism and those brave men who fought against what they saw as an invasion of their homes and firesides are looked upon as traitors. The lies of revisionist history have culminated in a society dominated by political correctness.
Below is an excerpt from an article in the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion in 1870 complaining of the high cost of mandated public education, especially considering the impoverishment of the state of Mississippi at the time. As you read through this excerpt that is 143 years old compare if you will with the current state of education in our country and state.
“The present system of common schools is a humbug. One million dollars was spent last year, with very little advancement in learning. The modus operandi is a very few hours of instruction each day---school closed 8 months of the year: a greedy swarm of useless drones in the shape of school officers doing nothing and living high on extravagant salaries, squandering the vast funds in thieving combinations and contracts for fine furniture and useless books, and for building fine schoolhouses.”
Many in other countries saw the War of Northern Aggression for what it was. Great Britain saw through the propaganda of Lincoln and the Republican Party and was willing to expose it to the world. Perhaps that is why when the war was over the Republicans sought war reparations from them nobly called “Claims on England.” This verbal attack was led by Senator Charles Sumner, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, all with the blessings of President Ulysses Grant. They openly stated their desire to initiate an invasion, which at that time was an almost defenseless Canada and annex it as a part of the United States.
An invasion of the South had reaped financial rewards; why not use the accumulated military power to increase the size of the empire even further?
Sumner would claim he had “unassailable evidence” that British behavior had extending the invasion of the South by one year and therefore the British were responsible for the expenditures of the war for that period of time. Sumner and Fish’s monetary claims would vary from one billion to four billion dollars. Of course an excerpt from an editorial in the London Times on November 7th 1861 was never referred to; perhaps because it struck at the very root cause of the invasion of the South by the North.
“[T]he contest is really for empire on the side of the North, and for independence on that of the South, and in this respect we recognize an exact analogy between the North and the Government of George III, and the South and the Thirteen Revolted Provinces. These opinions…are the general opinions of the English nation.”
Seeing the results of several years of total subjugation and financial rape of the people and principles of the South at the hands of the tyrants in the North, Robert E. Lee would state the following to former Texas Governor Stockdale:
"Governor, if I had foreseen the use these people desired to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox, no, sir, not by me. Had I seen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand.”
