Monthly Archives

July 2020

Blog

Gouverneur Morris in 1812

Northern secession was openly in the political brew again. Eleven (11) years before, Jefferson had cautioned New England's desire to secede while accepting their sovereignty to choose as they wished. Since then extensive changes had come about. Jefferson was retired and Hamilton deceased. Our landmass more than doubled with the Louisiana territory. 2 more States, Ohio and Louisiana, were added…
Vito Mussomeli
July 31, 2020
Blog

Southern Poets and Poems, Part XI

A Series by Clyde Wilson EDGAR ALLAN POE,  Part 2 Sonnet – To Science Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!   Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart,   Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,   Who wouldst not leave him in his wanderingTo seek for treasure…
Clyde Wilson
July 30, 2020
Blog

The Colored Sacred Harp

I have written here before about the history and mechanics of Sacred Harp singing, shape-notes, and Singing Schools.  James Kibler has delivered some truly excellent talks about Singing Billy Walker and the origins of Amazing Grace as an original tune called New Britain in Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, and I strongly urge you to listen to his presentations.  Listen…
Tom Daniel
July 29, 2020
Blog

The Atlantic Gets It Wrong, Again

I don’t have time to detail everything the piece in question gets wrong, because it's a lot. I’m sure this will be fodder for Abbeville posts for a long time, so I’m going to focus on the Constitutional issues. Stephanie McCurry writes: “In late February 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven breakaway states formed the C.S.A.; swore in a president,…
Aaron Gleason
July 28, 2020
Blog

The Remnant, Part I

How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have wronged me. And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me. If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me, know then that God has wronged…
James Rutledge Roesch
July 27, 2020
Podcast

Podcast Episode 224

The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, July 20-24, 2020 Topics: The War, Abraham Lincoln, Black Confederates, Southern Poetry, Southern Art https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/episode-224
Brion McClanahan
July 25, 2020
Blog

The Statue in the Glade

   ‘Only such men could tell what once could be,   Hear what we hear, see what we see.’    Donald Davidson, “Late Answer: A Civil War Seminar” The wind is all but silent in the pinesAround a glade whose light comes down from fire,Not filtered or aslant through needle, cone, A heightened brightness passing as it stays. And there, alone,…
David Middleton
July 24, 2020
Blog

Black Confederate Sharpshooters

One of the more interesting things about the Civil War is the primary evidence, from Union accounts, that show black men serving as sharpshooters for the Confederacy. Unfortunately today you have men such as Kevin M. Levin, among others, who ignore or gloss over these accounts. In a 2015 article by Ernie Suggs, of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, states “Boston-based historian…
Wayne Pease
July 23, 2020
Blog

Why the Civil War Wasn’t About Slavery

From the 1870s to the late 1950s, there was an unofficial truce between the North and South. Each side recognized and saluted the courage of the other; it was conceded that the North fought to preserve the Union and because Old Glory had been fired on, and the Southerner fought for liberty and to defend his home; the two great…
Samuel W. Mitcham
July 22, 2020
Blog

Legend and Lies at Gettysburg

The Legend of the Speech Abraham Lincoln’s dedicatory speech of the memorial cemetery at Gettysburg “Gettysburg Address” has, like its author, achieved a kind of apotheosis. The soldiers,  about whom it was written and to whom the memorial itself was dedicated, are virtually forgotten.  Observers today consider the Gettysburg Address the American political creed, a “prose poem” of the triumph…
Christopher Kirk
July 21, 2020
Blog

Civilization in the Balance

I am not a great fan of President Andrew Jackson.  Yet this equestrian statue (erected in 1852, five years after its commissioning), in front of the White House, is one of the most important pieces of sculpture in the world.  You see it was created by an American sculpture Clark Mills, in his studio and bronze foundry he established in…
Cliff Page
July 20, 2020
Podcast

Podcast Episode 223

The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, July 13-17, 2020 Topics: Yankees, Cancel Culture, Political Correctness https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/episode-223
Brion McClanahan
July 18, 2020
Blog

1619 Lies Matter

The dogs of racial war were released this May in Minneapolis by the senseless death of George Floyd, a black man, under the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white police officer.  Even though Chauvin had a long record of misconduct, the charges against him had been mainly disregarded by the local authorities, including former prosecutor, now Senator and failed Democratic…
John Marquardt
July 17, 2020
Blog

The Real Legends and Lies of the “Civil War”

I caught a snatch of news the other day that, even with all that is happening in our time, stunned me. It seems that Hollywood is gearing up its machinery to produce entertainment about “Confederate War Crimes.” This so contradicts the historical record that it can represent nothing but willful ignorance, dishonesty, and malice.  For Hollywood, anything they don’t like…
Clyde Wilson
July 16, 2020
Blog

Cancel Culture Will Decimate Us–If We Let It

Often as I work at my computer I keep on the Sirius FM Classical Music Service, “Symphony Hall,” with an occasional switch-over to a Bluegrass channel. Both, I believe, reflect at their finest superior elements of our Western cultural tradition with deep popular roots in our civilization, in the songs and compositions of people—our ancestors—which are inspired by their faith,…
Boyd Cathey
July 15, 2020
Blog

19th Century Fake News

While Fake News may be a new term, the concept has a long history.  We have been taught that a free, independent, and ethical press is essential for a free society to function and thrive; however, in practice, the American press has typically been far from these ideals. The press has been most malicious in times of crisis, acting not…
James (Jim) Pederson
July 14, 2020
Blog

Pietas in the Era of Revolution

Pietas, the most Roman of virtues, referred to the duty owed to one’s country, parents, kin, and ancestors.  It is from pietas that patriotism, not nationalism, springs forth.  It is a virtue once esteemed by Americans, for once upon a time Americans were formed by classical learning, and most especially they were formed in their political and literary imaginations by…
John Devanny
July 13, 2020
Podcast

Podcast Episode 222

The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, July 6-10, 2020 Topics: Southern music, Southern tradition, Political Correctness, John C. Calhoun https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/episode-222
Brion McClanahan
July 11, 2020
Blog

Landscape

The sun, a single red eye, burnt what was left of the earth, holding everything beneath it in a heavy, never-dimming glare.  It never left the sky, not even in those hours once reserved for night and the stars. The land lay red and uneven under it like flayed flesh, gorges deep and hills steep.  Almost nothing remained, all flora…
Randall Ivey
July 10, 2020
Blog

Can Liberty Survive the Marxist Purge?

While mobs continue tearing down monuments and shaming elected officials into removing statues of historical significance — from Christopher Columbus to Gen. Robert E. Lee and even Thomas Jefferson and George Washington — Clemson University (which receives over $100 million annually from the State of South Carolina) quietly decided to remove John C. Calhoun’s name from its honors college. Never…
Stewart O. Jones
July 9, 2020
Review Posts

The Seventeenth Amendment and the Siren Song of Democracy

A Review of The Road to Mass Democracy: Original Intent and the Seventeenth Amendment (Routledge, 2017) by C.H. Hoebeke On April 8, 1913, the requisite three quarters of the State legislatures kneecapped themselves, surrendering to “the people” their authority to elect Senators of the United States. The ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, which provided for the direct popular election of…
Neil Kumar
July 8, 2020
Blog

Southern Rock for the Apocalypse, Charlie Daniels Edition

Charlie Daniels is dead. Just a shade over three years ago, I wrote this piece in honor of his birthday. The South has lost one of its greatest bards, and Dixie is worse for it. Daniels recorded arguably his best album, Fire on the Mountain, at Capricorn studios, the Peach State's famous recording studio in Macon. Unlike FAME or Muscle…
Brion McClanahan
July 7, 2020
Blog

Leave Calhoun Alone

Perhaps no American thinker has suffered more in recent days than John C. Calhoun, whose work and personage are often dismissed by his critics for a single phrase attributed to him, diminishing the careful and complicated analysis he deserves. Critics of Calhoun simplistically suggest his statecraft and thought, as well as his critique of America, serve a single purpose: the…
H. Lee Cheek, Jr.
July 6, 2020
Podcast

Podcast Episode 221

The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, June 29-July 3, 2020 Topics: Political correctness, Confederate monuments, Abraham Lincoln, the War, Southern culture, Dixie https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/episode-221
Brion McClanahan
July 4, 2020
Blog

Southern Rock for the Apocalypse, Dixie Version

The Orwellian nightmare known as 2020 continues. Not only are Confederate monuments and symbols under attack, seemingly benign references to anything Southern are now considered "racist." Real estate listings that use the term "master bedroom" are being changed because the term is a reference to slavery, as does the word "plantation." The State of Rhode Island is considering changing its…
Brion McClanahan
July 3, 2020
Blog

Southern Poets and Poems, Part X

A series by Clyde Wilson EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809--1849) of Virginia was the great creative genius of 19th century American literature in poetry, fiction, and criticism. Although accidentally born in Boston and spending part of his foreshortened life earning a living in New York, Poe was, and unequivocally considered himself to be, a Southerner. In all his career he was…
Clyde Wilson
July 2, 2020
Blog

Waving the White Flag Won’t Save the UDC

“Very late in the war, when defeat seemed inevitable, Northern generals were complaining that the Confederate soldier refused to give in and admit defeat, that Southern women remained indomitable in spirit….” – Dr. Clyde Wilson, “Rethinking the War for the 21st Century,” The Abbeville Review, September 14, 2016 “God bless…ALL who boldly defend the good name and honor of our…
J.L. Bennett
July 1, 2020