Shabbat & Texas Declaration of Secession: Lost Cause and Truth in History
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: American Empire, Black History, Love, Race Relations
Shabbat celebrates God’s siding with and liberating slaves (Deut 5.12-15). Numerous politicians have arisen claiming to be the “party of Lincoln” (some dare to invoke Martin Luther King Jr!) but whose values and knowledge of history are nothing but a repudiation of Lincoln (and never remotely connected to King).
Politicians are either liars or ignorant, possibly both. They give lip service support for the Confederacy, make claims of why the War happened, etc. All at fundamental odds with anything Abraham Lincoln remotely stood for. (Lincoln was hardly perfect but we do know where he stood on these matters!).
The creation of the Confederate States of America came with “founding documents.” The States that left the United States to create the CSA left an UNAPOLOGETIC rational for their actions. They even called what they were doing as “creating a great slave holding Confederacy.” People manufacture all kinds of unhistorical fake reasons while denying what these people actually stated clearly about themselves. It is hard to argue with what Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc stated as their own reasons. They enshrined their views in the slave holding Confederacy’s Constitution and laws.
Here is the State of Texas’s “Declaration of Secession from the Union of the United States” adopted on February 2, 1861. Please note this is a full four weeks before Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States on March 4, 1861.
The first paragraph (literally the first sentence) of this Declaration is stunningly clear. Note the explicit repudiation of the values of the Declaration of Independence in the very first sentence. Governor Abbot should be dared to read it on TV. Read it beloved. All the Confederate flags and all the Confederate “monuments” are tied to these words. Please Read it.
“In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color– a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States.
“For years past this abolition organization has been actively sowing the seeds of discord through the Union, and has rendered the federal congress the arena for spreading firebrands and hatred between the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States.
“By consolidating their strength, they have placed the slave-holding States in a hopeless minority in the federal congress, and rendered representation of no avail in protecting Southern rights against their exactions and encroachments. They have proclaimed, and at the ballot box sustained, the revolutionary doctrine that there is a ‘higher law’ than the constitution and laws of our Federal Union, and virtually that they will disregard their oaths and trample upon our rights.
“They have for years past encouraged and sustained lawless organizations to steal our slaves and prevent their recapture, and have repeatedly murdered Southern citizens while lawfully seeking their rendition …
“In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.
“We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
“That in this free government ALL WHITE MEN ARE AND OF RIGHT OUGHT TO BE ENTITLED TO EQUAL CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS [emphasis in the original]; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.
“By the secession of six of the slave-holding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in an isolated connection with the North, or unite her destinies with the South.”
– Adopted in Convention on February 2, 1861
There are few things that are PLAINER than these words … Some will absolutely refuse to read. Some will read and accuse me of buying into political correctness when I had nothing to do with writing these words.
“Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5.15).
Related Relevant Posts
The Confederate Flag & the Nation for Which it Stands
Understanding the Times: Historical & Theological Thoughts on the Civil War and our Crises Today
Memorial Day(s): American Martyrs for Freedom, A Meditation
Forever Free: Emancipation & Reconstruction (Eric Foner): A Review
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