"Newsletter of the Southern Phalange"
What If the South Had Won the Civil War?
By William S. Lind
CNS Commentary from the "Next Revolution" Television Program - 8 July, 1999.
If the South had won the Civil War, where might our two countries be today? It is of course impossible to know, and as someone who proudly wears his great-grandfather’s G.A.R. ring-he served in the 88th and 177th Ohio Volunteers, and his diary records the monitors bombarding Fort Fisher as he watched from a Union transport-I’m not entirely comfortable asking the question. But given how bad things have gotten in the old U.S.A., it’s not hard to believe that history might have taken a better turn. Slavery of course would be long gone, for economic reasons. Race relations today in the Old South, in rural areas and cities such as Charleston, South Carolina, are generally better than they are in northern cities, so we might have done all right on that score. When southerners say they have a special relationship with blacks based on many generations of living together at close quarters, they have a point. The real damage to race relations in the south came not from slavery, but from Reconstruction, which would not have occurred if the South had won. And since the North would have been a separate nation, the vast black migration to northern cities that took place during World War II might not have happened.
Certainly Southerners would not be living under the iron rule of an all-powerful federal government, as we all do now. Northerners might not be, either; a Union defeat would have given states’ rights a boost in both countries. The Tenth Amendment might still have the force of law even up north.
It is possible that both countries might still be republics, instead of a single empire. That transformation traces to America’s entry into World War I, which might not have happened. Southern sympathy would probably have been with Britain and France, but the North, with a large German population, might well have lined up with the Kaiser (the Irish would have liked that, too).
No American entry into the war would have meant no Communism in Russia and no Hitler in Germany. That’s not a bad bargain. It is highly unlikely that the Confederacy would have embraced the cultural Marxism of Political Correctness that is fast becoming the official American state ideology. So at least part of North America would still stand for Western culture, Christianity and an appreciation of the differences between ladies and gentlemen. Decency might have taken its stand in Dixie, along with some other good things such as an appreciation for the merits of rural life. Perhaps most important, Americans north and south might have a choice. If the North had turned left, as the United States has during this century, Northerners who didn’t care for that development could cross the Mason Dixon line and become Southerners. That’s an option more than a few of us Yankees would appreciate having, even if it did mean having to eat grits. What would my great-grandfather, Union Army sergeant Alfred G. Sturgiss, say to all of this? If he could see the sorry mess the country he fought for has become, I think he might sadly say that he’d fought for the wrong side.
Bill Lind is director of the Free Congress Foundation’s Center for Cultural Conservatism, and is the co-host of the television program "Next Revolution"
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Dental Student Arrested In E-Mail Threats
Updated 11:46 p.m. ET (0346 GMT) April 20, 2000
By Greg Smith
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A black dental student was charged Thursday in a series of racist and threatening e-mails directed at her minority classmates. Prosecutors blamed Tarsha Michelle Claiborne, 23, for a three-week period of threatened violence that frightened students at the University of Iowa's College of Dentistry and forced the closing of the school's main building on Wednesday. Claiborne, of Baton Rouge, La., was arrested early Thursday. According to court records, the second-year dental student confessed when faced with allegations. A motive remained unknown. Authorities charged Claiborne with a felony count of threats in violation of individual rights, related to a Tuesday bomb threat, and misdemeanor charges for three previous e-mail threats. She also was charged with one count of criminal trespass-hate crime for an April 4 incident in which red noodles were left on another black student's doorstep with a note referring to a dead black man's brains. Claiborne was being held at the Johnson County Jail on $52,000 bond. It could not be determined if she had an attorney. Last week, some 1,000 people gathered at a rally to condemn the threats. The dental college has an enrollment of 381 students, of which 49 are minorities. Thirteen of the 49 are black.
The dental building was closed Wednesday after the bomb threat. After an extensive search turned up nothing, it reopened Thursday. "I've been having nightmares since this all started," said Dana Vetter, a white third-year dental student from Mount Pleasant. "It's been pretty scary, but I feel totally safe now." Ann Rhodes, vice president of university relations, said she could not discuss Claiborne's academic status. She also said she was not aware of any ill feelings Claiborne had toward the college. "I don't have any reason to believe there were major problems there," she said. Rhodes said authorities, including the FBI, located the computer that was used early in the investigation. Authorities then set up a surveillance videotape at the site, a few of blocks from the dental school. Claiborne's classmates had mixed feelings after being told of the arrest. "She was in one of my classes and she seemed really normal," said Julie Farrell of Ottawa, Ill., who's white. "So it was a pretty big shock when we found out. I'm relieved, but I'm also sad that, obviously, something is so wrong mentally."
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Here's An Interesting Item
We saw this item for bid on the eBay auction site. It appears that Clinton and Gore weren't too ashamed to use the Confederate Battle flag when they wanted the Southern vote back in '92. Gee, wonder why it wasn't a symbol of hate then? It's just as well that they no longer use this flag as we can't think of a worse way to desecrate this sacred symbol than having their names on it.
[Updated 10/19/04]