In his Age of Reason pamphlet (1807), Thomas Paine declared that “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.“ Thomas Jefferson’s famed letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut mentions how the First Amendment effectively establishes a “wall of separation between church and state.” These men, plus the many others that influenced or participated in the founding of the United States, were very familiar with the dangers of state religions and wished to prevent establishing such a religion in America.

Underlying the First Amendment is the concept of freedom of conscience. It can be defined as: ”The right to follow one’s own beliefs in matters of religion and morality.“ Freedom of conscience is normally considered a human right, which is “any basic right or freedom to which all human beings are entitled and in whose exercise a government may not interfere (including rights to life and liberty as well as freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law).” Continue reading →

Imagining an entirely different educational system reveals some strengths—and flaws—of the current one.

On a crisp fall morning, parents lined the school’s circular driveway in Audis, BMWs and Land Rovers, among other luxury SUVs, to drop their high-schoolers off at Detroit Country Day School. Dressed in uniforms—boys in button-down shirts, blazers with the school crest, khaki or navy dress pants, and ties; girls in largely the same garb, though without the ties and the option of wearing a skirt—the students entered a lobby adorned with green tiles from the nearby Pewabic Pottery, a legendary Detroit ceramic studio. Continue reading →

Compatriots, how do y’all seek to maintain alive the Confederate heritage within your family & relatives? This would be a great discussion point for any Sons of Confederate Camp or United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter. Continue reading →

Whoever weds himself to the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next. ~ William Inge

Few realize that Florida was so committed to The War Between the States that she gave more soldiers to repel Northern invaders than she had registered voters. Gainesville was among the towns that responded. As a result, the local United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) chapter erected a statue of an ordinary infantryman in honor of the hometown boys who had fallen, including many buried anonymously far from home. When erected in 1904 most of the living veterans were in their sixties and seventies

In May 2017 the county commissioners voted to remove the monument, which had become known to most residents during the previous 113 years as Old Joe.

After the vote one audience member raised her hand to ask a question. The Chair recognized Nansea Markham who is President of the local UDC chapter. She asked, “What will you do with the memorial?” Continue reading →

In the post-War between the States mythology supported by the victors, the Antebellum South was Satanic and subject to “slave power,” the alleged immense power of the plantation owners and their demonic desire to perpetuate slavery at all costs. This mythology goes further and claims that the War between the States was caused by slavery, with the North desiring to end slavery and the South desiring to increase its range by moving it into the territories. The North, it is alleged, accepted the Founding Fathers’s real vision for America while the South, with its outdated notion of “States’s Rights,” was poisoned by treason against the ideals of the American Founders.

It is now trite to say that “The victors write the history books,” but the saying rings true in the case of the War between the States. Such myths are difficult to dispel since they are thoroughly engrained in the general culture. Continue reading →

“There are influences that never sleep.”

BOSTON, Mass., November 26, 1850 – Rufus Choate, former Senator now returned to private life in the practice of the law that has made him a national figure, spoke tonight with all the eloquence for which he is noted in favor of the Compromise efforts being led in the Congress by the southern Senator Henry Clay, of Kentucky.

Before an audience that packed Faneuil Hall, Mr. Choate argued that however meritorious the effort to force the South to free its slaves may be, the cause is not sufficient to invite a civil war.

He warned that the public should beware of attempts to mold public opinion to such an extreme action that “this Union may melt as frostwork in the sun.” Continue reading →