American History Series: The Southern Revolution of 1861

If they tear down our monuments, but force us to rediscover the cause to which they were erected to honor in the first place, then it will have been worth it. The cause and the thinking that justified it was far more valuable and serviceable to our present circumstances than the statues. Slavery was only incidental to secession. There was a much deeper philosophical conflict in 1861.

“We now come to the Southern Revolution of 1861, which we maintain was reactionary and conservative – a rolling back of the excesses of the Reformation – of Reformation run mad – a solemn protest against the doctrines of natural liberty, human equality and the social contract, as taught by Locke and the American sages of 1776, and an equally solemn protest against the doctrines of Adam Smith, Franklin, Say, Tom Paine, and the rest of the infidel political economists, who maintain that the world is too much governed, “Pas trop gouvernor,” and should not be governed at all, but “Let Alone,” “Laissez nous faire.”

The organism of society is more complex and inscrutable than that of the individuals who compose it, for it includes the peculiar organization and idiosyncrasies of all such individuals, and to live and work healthfully, must adapt itself to the wants, failings and peculiarities of all its members. It is more “fearfully and wonderfully formed” than man himself. It is the grandest, noblest work of God, for what a miserable, helpless wretch would man be, without society and government.

This doctrine of the natural growth and origin of society is the distinctive Tory doctrine of England, the very opposite to the theories of Locke and the Fathers of our late Republic. In adopting it, we begin a great conservative reaction. We attempt to rollback the Reformation in its political phases; for we saw everywhere in Europe and America reformation running to excess, a universal spirit of destructiveness, a profane attempt to pull down what God and Nature had built up, and to erect ephemeral Utopias in its place. Liberty was degenerating into licentiousness, and “anarchy, plus the street constable” stared us in the face. We lead off in a new reactionary Reformation, and Christendom must follow our lead, or soon be involved in social chaos and confusion.

Viewed in this aspect, and it is only true in one, which to view it, the Revolution of ’61 is the grandest, most momentous event since the days of Luther and of Calvin. The grandest in conception, and the grandest in action; for never did a people of the same numbers display such heroic courage and giant strength as the people of the South in this revolutionary struggle. “Deo duce vincemus.” For we fight “to vindicate the ways of God” against the profane doctrines and schemes of charlatanic man.”

George Fitzhugh, The Revolutions of 1776 and 1861 Contrasted, December 1863

About Hunter Wallace 12378 Articles
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30 Comments

  1. Brad, I’m trying to remember the name of one of the 1st Methodist Bishops who was a South Carolina planter, and slave owner. He was made a Bishop at the same time as Francis Asbury, or shortly before or after. The United Methodist Church has conveniently forgotten about him, and I can’t find a mention of him on their website. Even though I do remember the UMC publishing a short news story about him in the last 20 years.

    John Wesley didn’t want Black slaves in Georgia, because he thought it would ruin things for White Englishman who wanted to settle in Georgia. Considering what is going on today, Wesley was right!

  2. Cult-ure is downstream from religion. I wish Fitzhugh had made the connection between the Reformation in its religious phases and political fruits.

  3. When I was doing my undergrad work at Ohio University in 1992-1996, I read Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and many others. Right from the start, after reading all of these great works, I believed that Hobbes, much more than all the others combined, had the most realistic, grounded in reality view of humanity and society. One of my professors dismissed Hobbes as being a “traumatized wittiness” to the English Civil war and was therefore “biased” against personal liberty. I thought her views were liberal BS.

    Thomas Hobbes, 1642

    Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War; and such a war as is of every man against every man.[15] […] In such condition there is no place for Industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual Fear, and danger of violent death; And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.[16]

    • @Geir…

      Fantastic comment and I thank you for that!

      Yes, there are some thing about this moment in our country’s history that a Hobbesian Approach could benefit. That said, your cousins, The New England Yankees are totally anti-Hobbesian, which is why they hate our Confederate Flag so very much, as do many of your Midwestern Brethren – because our Flag is based on the reality of White Southerners being in charge of The South.

      Blasphemous to contemplate for many, of that I am sure.

      One thing about Hobbes, however, and that was he was so totally anathema to that which could not be quantified via the senses, that he could only deal with the spiritual component of Mankind by denying it’s existence.

      But, of course, Mankind does have a very spiritual invisible, and therefore, unquantifiable component, so, Hobbes could do some, but, not in and of itself.

      We need some Hobbes mixed in with Voltaire, Pope, Dryden, and Rouseau.

      We used to have this, in our own style, in The South, but, alas, it is now forbidden.

      For now, Dear Sir, everything Hobbes, as you say, is on the run.

    • @Arian…

      No, this is not correct. Blacks, though it would infuriate them to hear it, have little to do with what is going on.

      All the issues before us are the issues of White People, and how White People think of themselves and their nation.

      I grew up in a South filled full of Blacks and it worked just fine.

      It was White Men who screwed that up – White Men and White Men, alone.

      • Ivan,

        You are so predictable in that you always deflect.

        You think the South worked fine? You mean with blacks controlled and segregated? How about with blacks integrated, not controlled, and exercising political power?
        How is that working out?

        I am not even one of you and I know how you will answer before you even answer. When I first came on this website about the time of the New Zealand murders of those Moslems I thought of keeping notes of how the regulars responded and their characteristics.

        I quickly changed my mind when I realized how everyone is so predictable in how they write. This was especially true since only about a couple dozen people write about 80-90% of the comments.

        Anyway, You just encountered the real Cristina not the courtly Cristina.

        Adios.

        • @Cristina…

          Yes, absolutely – I deflect.

          But, why?

          Because Whites are nearly constantly blaming everybody but ourselves.

          Blacks do not have much power in this nation, nor do Latins or Indians.

          It all belongs to us, The Whites – the land, the ideas, the institutions, the traditions, the customs, the history, the monuments.

          This is our nation to lose or our nation to win.

          So long as people keep looking to non-Whites to blame, I will keep deflecting.

          • Ivan Turgenev,

            I hope you are not mistaken enough to think that I am naive enough to believe what you wrote.

            America has not been white for a long time and it is not coming back.,

        • @Cristina…

          “You think the South worked fine? You mean with blacks controlled and segregated? How about with blacks integrated, not controlled, and exercising political power? How is that working out?”

          Yes, we had this in The South, and, indeed, The North for centuries, because there is no alternative in this world to a majority insisting that minorities, if they are present in the lands of the majorities, abide by their rules.

          As to segregation it worked out fine for centuries.

          I grew up in a South that had a very successful and well-behave Negro Community.

          Thanks to our cowardly refusal to confront The New England Yankees and Jews who run The United States’ Government, that has all been shot to hell.

          The Negro Community is in now a shambles, compared to what it used to be.

          This is our fault, The Fault of White Southerners, because we knew better, and we know better.

          Today we have Segregation, but, it is of a different kind that has been fashioned by wild New England and Jewish fancies of a brave American egalitarian world of brotherhood that does not exist.

          The America people belief in does not exist, never has existed, never will exist.

          Ultimately, no matter how nice i am to everyone, Mexicans will remain Mexicans, Anglo-Saxe Anglo Saxe and Blacks Blacks.

          Somebody has to be in charge.

          if it is not Anglo-Saxe, this nation will go quickly to hell, for it was conceived and built by Anglo-Saxe.

          There you go – I told you the unvarnished truth.

          It will be hard for you, however, because the truth is not appealing to read in words.

          • Ivan the Terrible,

            Why would it be hard for me? Nothing you wrote upsets me. i have my own agenda and Southern Nationalism is not part of it. It however does not bother me in the slightest,

            What you people do/did in the South is only something I note. As long as it does not affect my religion and ethnic group I am generally indifferent.

          • Ivan Turgenev,

            I might mention that there was a case in the South in the early 1960’s where the Catholic Church was integrating church schools. Many of the white Catholics were against integration of church schools.

            The Bishops/Cardinals said it was not up to the laymen to decide such matters. That integration or segregation of church schools is determined by the proper authorities.

            The Church Bishops/Cardinal etc. did say that Catholics are free to support segregation in temporal society however since segregation in itself is not a sin.

            That decision is and has to be my view as well.

  4. On practical & theroretical levels there are no easy ways out of this period.

    Why?

    Because what is occurring is a confluence of things that have been ongoing for decades and centuries.

    Yet, if I strip away many layers and take things down to it’s core, what is occurring today is about one thing.

    And that thing?

    A debate between White Men about what America is to be.

    This debate got going in earnest in 1861, though, after 1877 it settled into an uneasy truce which lasted up all the way to, oh, let’s say, ‘Brown vs. The Board of Education’, about 70 years back.

    At that point Northeasterners, Federalists, and all their sympathizers in The South proposed to do away with the truce founded in 1877, and return to the battles of the early 1860s, only this time the battles would be fought chiefly without guns.

    What is the basic thrust of The Northeastern/Coastal Northwestern point of view?

    That America is a place where White People are only one of many, and, at that, the least attended to voice; that the United States’ Government will exist to forward the interests of the Corporate-Globalist Alliance with Leftists to continue to erect a new America, it a place without any kind of borders, without any peoples, but, instead, only persons and consumers.

    Borderlessness of every sort vs Borders of many sorts is the question at hand.

    This is what is going on, so, in reality, we, The White Majority, need to decide which one of this two we want.

    If those of us who are inclined towards any version of The Olde America hem and haw, the decision will be made for us.

    It’s deciding time, and wishful thinking and tone deafness won’t get us out of that.

      • @Flaxen…

        I was referring to our national debate, Dear Flaxen – not in the history of the world.

        That said, I agree with you – the debate has been going on long before this country.

  5. Just if only the North and South would have really figured it out. I’d say all the above (if they could see all this now) would have deported every single Black back to Africa. My how much better this country would be right now! Deo Vindice !

    • I think selling them off to Brazil would have been a more likely outcome had things been solved back then.

    • Truth be told:

      The ‘Great Emancipator’ and the Issue of Race

      Abraham Lincoln’s Program of Black Resettlement
      By Robert Morgan

      Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the “Great Emancipator,” he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War (1861-1865) to free the slaves.

      While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it is also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad. As President, he supported projects to remove blacks from the United States.”~ http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v13/v13n5p-4_Morgan.html

    • Exactly. This notion that things were just fine with segregation, etc. is ridiculous.

      Yes it contained the problem, but the problem still existed. The best solution is total separation.

      • SC Rebel,

        I agree with you. Just reading an Encyclopedia Britannica Article on lynching and it mentioned that partly it was caused by how prevalent negro rape of white women in the South was. This encyclopedia was from 1957.

        So even in the Jim Crow south under segregation there was a lot of black on white crime. Not as much as now but for it’s time a whole lot.

        The article was surprisingly fair. Not condoning lynching but giving reasons for it.,

        It pays to have source materials written way before massive censorship and political correctness completely took over.

        My grandmother mentioned how one of the operators at the phone company was gang raped by blacks in Houston. This was around 1950. And how in Houston’s 5th Ward some negroes in 1948 tried to bust in the screen window to try and rape my grandmother and her sisters. It failed and she knifed one and pinned his arm so when the police arrived he was still there.

        The police proceeded to beat the black senseless and then took him away. I am sure some people on this website would call this excessive force.

        If so then may they live with their wonderful blacks that segregation somehow changed their nature and made great.

  6. “””…If they tear down our monuments, but force us to rediscover the cause to which they were erected to honor in the first place, then it will have been worth it…..”””

    Wow. Just wow. Probably the best quote of the entire 3 moths long Floyd 19 saga. Warrior mindset i very important. We may lose the battle when it help us to win the war.

    Russia let Napoleon invade the country and burn down everything. 100 years later they repeated this trick with Hitler.

    Now Donald does this. It is absolutely irrelevant to defend some dumb crook. it is much more important that entire population understands that we have genetic white liberals inside the gates.

    America has one great specialist for those issues. This gentleman is William Lind with his 4thgen warfare, OODA loop and much more I highly recommend check this guy blog about asymmetric warfare.

  7. Is this from the Avery Craven book “Southern Revolution”? Fantastic job of inserting the cringe inducing pictures along with this incredible text as a contrast of the clown world we exist in today

  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfRG18ruXg

    Brits and Americans are responsible for ending slavery in much of the world. Do we get credit for it from the dark ones? Hell, no. Stopping the Barbary and West African slave trades hasn’t brought any thanks, just ahistorical, unreasoning hatred over having had any slaves in the first place. The fact that slavery was practiced in all cultures means nothing, as does the truth that the Ebil Cracka is the one responsible for halting the practice.

    So f*ck all the other racial groups for being ingrates. They wouldn’t even have indoor plumbing without European ingenuity, and their flooding us with their refuse proves they can’t build functioning societies. All Whites supporting the other groups over our own are suicidal tards that will continue to endanger the entire race. They need to marginalized and exiled, if only by our own realist tribe. The hope for the world (not only us) is for Europeans not to be dragged down by the darker tribal groups, so that a higher civilization can be preserved.

  9. UNDERSTANDING AMERICA 2020 IN 30 SECONDS…

    The Blacks are not in charge.

    The Latins are not in charge.

    The Indians are not in charge..

    The Orientals are not in charge..

    The Arabs are not in charge.

    The New Englanders regard it as their highest calling to make sure no one is in charge.

    Jewry supports the aim of The New Englanders because nobody being in charge means they can usually fanagle their way to whatever they want.

    White Southerners are tired of the fight and agree to allow The New Englanders to leave whomever they want in charge – in this case nobody.

    RESULT?

    The Blue Ribbon Award goes to New England, for it is their love of having a nation where anything is possible.

    Thus, we have that – a nation where Wendy’s and Targets are set on fire in plain view, and nobody does anything about it.

    Riots are the crowning glory of nobody being in charge in a nation where anything is possible.

  10. Deo Vindice says:

    Not all are of the people of Dixie, some are scoundrel thieves within Dixie no better than the yankee!

    “Deo duce vincemus.” For we fight “to vindicate the ways of God”… and what are those ‘ways of God”? Which God?!

    Are they the struggle to perpetuate the usury oligarchy and it’s priesthood’s of temple, lodge, and church of the counterfactual hierarchy y’all so much pontificate, the hierarchy of thieving ponzi scheme of your god proxy as espoused by your God proxy’s agent Calvin? ‘Southern nationalists have failed because they deny the root of their demise and in a culture shaped by almost two thousand years of Christian delusion and a white race imbued with the conviction that a Jew is God is a fool’s errand’. —R.M. Devaluing the Scholastics: Calvin’s Ethics of Usury: John Calvin first and foremost with the liberation of usury from medieval economic thought. ~https://www.calvin.edu/library/database/crcpi/fulltext/ctj/88050.pdf

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