Rhett on the South’s ‘naked submission’

In the late 1850s Southern secessionists were generally disillusioned. Some of them, such as South Carolina statesmanRobert Barnwell Rhett, had been working for three decades to achieve independence and yet it seemed that secession was no closer. The opportunities of 1844 and 1850 to break with the Union and establish an independent Southern confederation had been thrown away. The secessionists had no way to know that Southern independence was just over the horizon.

Rhett was asked to speak to his constituents at Grahamville, South Carolina, in Beaufort district in July of 1859. His mood was clearly foul. He claimed to believe that Southerners would eventually embrace resistance, but read his words. He rebuked his countrymen for their acquiescence to demands and injustices which weakened the South and emboldened the North. Rhett’s memoir, A Fire-Eater Remembers, edited by William C Davis, quotes part of his speech on pages 7 and 8:

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Delay is the canker of great enterprises. There may be wisdom in delay, when delay leads to action. I can understand the importance of time for preparation, although the necessity for preparation is usually our folly. But I cannot understand, how a base naked submission to unconstitutional misrule for thirty years, can be anything else but a base and wicked imbecility. Two generations have passed away, since I reached the years of manhood. I found, when I entered into life, the whole South inflamed on the vital matter of unconstitutional taxation. We had before us the very question which occasioned the resistance of our fathers to British misgovernment; and their glorious example in the independence they achieved rather than endure it. Yet we submitted to the principle of unjust and unconstitutional taxation imposed upon us by the North, and we have borne it to this day. Our submission soon produced its natural fruit, of renewed interference and aggression on the institution of slavery. Yet, we still have men, not actually in mocker, warning us against haste; and entreating caution in our measures. Can it be unreasonable at any time to be free; and to cast off a pragmatical and vulgar tyranny? Is not a whole life of endurance of unconstitutional oppression, enough for any wisdom in delay – too much, for safety or honor? How long shall we stand, the resistless and despised victims of northern fanaticism and rapacity? How long shall we cry “wait!” whilst the North advances in power and insolence; and each successive year brings her nearer to the consummation of her policy of domination over us, and over this continent? Shall we wait until the expedient of John Quincy Adams for emancipating our slaves shall be enforced? He declared that the general government, by the treaty-making power, could constitutionally abolish slavery in the South. Insurrections may be produced; and then, the general government, having a right to interpose her military power, as the condition of peace, may by treaty ordain emancipation. Whether by this, or the more direct way of congressional legislation, providing for “the general welfare,” – who doubts, that the day when the northern people possess the power, and will it, emancipation will be a law of Congress? Shall we wait for this blissful consummation – when the fires of insurrection will light up our homes, and the North shall stand by to watch and guard the conflagration? Such things will probably never be, because the South will not await their fearful coming, but will anticipate them. When will she anticipate them; and act out her redemption? When will her mighty heart beat free in the enjoyment of her rights, safe under the shield of her own protection; and, casting off the incubus of ignorance, and error, and fear, which now like a foul toad sits upon her bosom, rise up and command the liberation and independence of the South?

Barbadians & anti-democracy in Carolina

Democracy is presently a major part of the state ideology of the United States. Not only do all major US politicians profess support for democracy, there is also a Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor within the US State Department. Therefore, it may surprise some readers to know that democracy was not always popular in all sections of what is now the United States. In fact, one of the oldest of the British colonies which seceded in 1776 and created the United States was specifically created as a bulwark against democracy. Indeed, though this colony, South Carolina, was founded during the Age of Enlightenment and though its ‘Fundamental Constitutions’ was written by Enlightenment philosopher John Locke (whose writings would have a strong impact on the American revolutionaries of the 1770s), the concepts reflected in the fledgling colony of Carolina were Classical, monarchical, hierarchical and strongly anti-egalitarian. South Carolina would largely remain committed to these principles until 1865, when, as a seceded State within the Confederacy, it was conquered and nearly destroyed by the United States and a much more egalitarian and democratic system was forced upon it. Even after military defeat and occupation though, South Carolinians managed in 1876 to overthrow the imposed order and establish a system similar to their old order. That system survived until the 1960s when once again the United States intervened to impose democracy and equality.

Let us take a look at the anti-egalitarian origins of the Palmetto State and the Lower South which it mothered. The oldest of the Lower South States, South Carolina, has been described as a colony of a colony. It was explored, settled and first governed by British-Barbadians who had previously established a wealthy, populous and influential plantation society in the Caribbean. Those Barbadians took their cultural values and worldview with them to Carolina and spread their culture to the North American mainland, where it flourished. Carolina, like the Caribbean plantation colonies, was a society based on Classical (not Modern) values and hierarchy (not equality). As noted by John Peyre Thomas, Jr’s article The Barbadians in Early South Carolina (first published in 1930 and recently republished in South Carolina and Barbados Connections: Selections from the South Carolina Historical Magazine), South Carolina was founded as a consciously anti-democratic society that firmly rejected equality:

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[T]he Proprietors took the first steps to formulate a government for the great province they were to found. Under the leadership of Lord Ashley, not yet the Earl of Shaftesbury, John Locke, the celebrated philosopher, prepared the famous “Fundamental Constitutions” for the government of Carolina, which were formally adopted by the Proprietors in July, 1669.  This was an extraordinary scheme of forming an aristocratic government  of a colony of adventurers in the wild woods, among savages and wild beasts. One of the reasons given for these constitutions was “that the government of the Province may be made most agreeable to the Monarchy under which we live and of which this Province is a part, and that we may avoid erecting a numerous democracy.” The charter constituted the province a County Palatine. The first clause of the constitution accordingly provided that the eldest of the Lords Proprietors should be the Palatine (that is, the Governor with the privileges of vice-royalty) and upon his decease the eldest of the seven surviving Proprietors should always succeed him. There were to be two orders of nobility besides the Proprietors, namely, Landgraves and Cassiques. Each Landgrave was to have 48,000 acres and each Cassique 24,000 acres. This left three-fifths of each county or 288,000 acres for the people. [Edward] McCrady says [in his book The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719] that this body of laws never received the necessary assent and approbation of the freemen of the province, and so was never constitutionally of force [though it was not rejected by the people]; but its provisions had an effect upon the institutions of the province and an influence upon the customs and habits of the people.

The anti-democratic ideals upon which both Barbados and South Carolina were established in the seventeenth century found a champion in the nineteenth century statesman and secessionist leader Robert Barnwell Rhett. Rhett came from a prominent (though not extremely wealthy) family which included several colonial governors. He hailed from the Lowcountry of South Carolina, an area which the Barbadians had colonised and which closely resembled the Caribbean in its social order, economy and demographics. History professor and prolific author William C Davis edited Rhett’s previously unpublished memoir and described the South Carolinian on page xvi of his introduction to A Fire-Eater Remembers as ‘a thorough believer in an oligarchy of wealth and intellect ruling the country – as it ruled in his South Carolina – he completely distrusted the idea of majority rule in a democracy….’ On page 114 of his biographical work Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-Eater, Davis quotes Rhett as saying ’universal suffrage, will give to those who have no property, the absolute control of the property and legislation of the country.’ Rhett continued, ‘the despotism of numbers may be the most terrible that can scourge a fallen people.’ This was an excellent summary of the ideals upon which the government of South Carolina, the culture of the Lower South and the extended Caribbean civilisation were founded.

The Missouri-Kansas border war

The War for Southern Independence on the Missouri-Kansas border was brutal. It was probably the most dangerous place in the country at the time. Much of what happened in the area during the time has been overlooked or forgotten. There was near genocide of Western Missouri at the time. I’m going to do my best to help you know what it was like for Missourians at the time and the extremely difficult hardships they were dealt.

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Paul Petersen, in his book Quantrill at Lawrence: The Untold Story, detailed the exact nature of the guerrillas’ campaign in Lawrence and their reasoning behind it. I will give you different statements from Missourians and Jayhawkers alike during that time and provide details of the conditions along the border according to Mr Petersen’s book.

The Perdee farm in Missouri is the place where, en route to Lawrence, Quantrill’s 300 guerillas camped. Here Quantrill formulated his plans and put together the ‘Death Lists’ and the list of ‘Buildings to be destroyed.’ When the guerrillas of Johnson County, Missouri gathered at Perdee’s it was with a feeling of a just retaliation. Their county seat of Columbus and 50 homes had been completely destroyed by Captain Clark S. Merriman of the 7th Kansas Jayhawker Regiment on 9 January 1862. The same sense of anger and resentment could be felt by the 50 guerrillas from Cass County who joined Quantrill along the banks of the Grand River before crossing the state line into Kansas. Cass County before the war enjoyed a population of more than 10,000 people. By the start of the Lawrence raid in August 1863 there were only 600 surviving citizens.

Lieutenant William H Gregg was 22 years old when he joined Quantrill and had a reputation among the guerrillas for his skill in throwing a bowie knife. He was known for the ability to open up a Fed at 20 paces with this weapon as a projectile. He found that it was Colonel Charles Radford Jennison, the leader of the Jayhawkers, who had shot his uncle, David Gregg, for being a Southern sympathizer. Gregg’s own mother was also abused by Jayhawkers. She wore her watch and jewelry concealed in the bodice of her clothing, but the Jayhawkers finally discovered the watch chain about her neck. They tore her dress open, robbed her, almost choking her to death in trying to release the chain. Written accounts state:

In January, 1862, 17 of Jennison’s Kansans had been at the senior Gregg’s house, and had cruelly hanged and almost choked to death the inmates, and also poured out 2 casks of wine. Gregg was coming home that night. He had four men, only one of them armed. The 17 men fought Gregg, captured 2 of the unarmed men, and shot them after surrender. Gregg and the one man drove them back and saw the 2 men shot. The day after the 2 men were killed Gregg saw 14 houses burned at one time.

Gregg also found that the father of his fiancee Miss Elizabeth Hook had been jailed. In addition, the Federals who jailed him stole every one of the family’s horses, slaughtered every pig they owned, and seized the family’s slaves, money, jewelry, and even their bedclothes. After learning about this incident, Gregg immediately sought out Quantrill and joined his command. Elizabeth Hook later recalled:

Everybody was happy and prosperous…. But it was not until 1862 that the horrors of war were realized. I had never known a sorrow or a care until one day a company of Federal soldiers came to our home with wagons in which they loaded the negroes and their belongings; the negro men were mounted on my father’s horses and forced to ride them away. Colonel Jennison came down from Kansas, robbed, murdered, and burned everything in his way. Mother had spun and woven 5 pairs of blankets; had only recently before had them scoured, and these Redlegs took every one of them, placing them under their saddles.

A Missouri citizen at the time spoke of Captain Richard P Maddox and his family’s ranch:

When the rebellion broke out and Kansas troops under Jennison and Lane marched into Missouri in 1861, old Maddox and his sons were early victims of their hatred and revenge. The Redlegs made a descent upon the Maddox ranch, carried off their mules, horses and other stock, burned their houses, barns, Negro quarters, cribs and out-houses of all descriptions and took away with them all the Negroes on the place. They would doubtless have exterminated the last Maddox on the face of the earth if they could have laid hands on them, but some fled to the brush and the old man found it convenient for him to make a certain visit to the “loyal” state of Kentucky. It’s said that George Maddox joined Quantrill at Blue Springs in June of 1861 and fought with him in every fight until Quantrill left the state. The elder Maddox ventured back into Missouri before the close of the war but was speedily nabbed and lodged in the Independence jail and languished many months among the bushwhackers and lice.

This should give you but a small taste of what loyal Southerners from Missouri had been dealt and the extreme hardships that no man, woman or child should face. In part two, I shall dig more deeply into the hardships faced.

Written in Mississippi

The following is a poem from the 1820s by the great Southern poet and novelist William Gilmore Simms. It appears on pages 8 and 9 in Selected Poems of William Gilmore Simms, edited by James Everett Kibler.

Oh! sweet among these spreading trees,
In noon-day’s fervor to recline,
Whilst arching in the cooling breeze,
We watch the distant wavering vine.
And at our feet the rippling stream,
In gentle murmurs glides along,
Free from the sun’s oppressive beam
We listen to the Mocker’s song.

And nought disturbs the gentle lay,
Save thro’ the pine-tops bending round,
The amorous wind pursues its way,
Scattering their leaves upon the ground;
Whilst far removed from noise or care,
Where man has scarcely ever come,
Borne swiftly on the drowsy ear,
We hark the noisy bee-tree’s hum.

Oh! thus remote from worldly strife,
Without the toil that crowds await,
How sweet to rove the vale of life,
Unchanged by love, unharm’d by hate.
Where no extreme of joy or ill
Can urge or clog the steps of youth;
Where all of life, the wild and still,
But bears the impress stamp of truth.

Swift as the red-deer could my feet,
Compass the wastes that now divivde
Thy form from mine, my more than sweet!
How soon I’d clasp thee to my side!
Here would we wing the fleeting hours -
Here taste each joy the heart can see -
Thou finding, at each step, but flow’rs,
And I, a fairer flow’r in thee!

GOP voter registration issues in Florida

What first appeared to be an isolated problem in one Florida county has now spread statewide, withelection officials in nine counties informing prosecutors or state election officials about questionable voter registration forms filled out on behalf of the Republican Party of Florida.

State Republican officials already have fired the vendor it had hired to register voters, and took the additional step of filing an election fraud complaint against the company, Strategic Allied Consulting, with state officials. That complaint was handed over Friday to state law-enforcement authorities.

A spokesman for Florida’s GOP said the matter was being treated seriously.

“We are doing what we can to find out how broad the scope is,” said Brian Burgess, the spokesman.

Florida is the battleground state where past election problems led to the chaotic recount that followed the 2000 presidential election.

The Florida Democratic Party called on the state to “revoke” the ability of state Republicans to continue to register voters while the investigation continues. Oct. 9 is the deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 6 presidential election.

“It is clear that the Republican Party of Florida does not have the institutional controls in place to be trusted as a third-party, voter registration organization,” said Scott Arceneaux, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party.

The Republican Party of Florida has paid Strategic Allied Consulting more than $1.3 million, and the Republican National Committee used the group for work in Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado and Virginia.