Constitutional Reconstruction: Texas vs. White, and Its Legacy by John Emison Blog Post
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John Avery EmisonFebruary 24, 2021
Robert E. Lee vs. Twitter Historians Blog Post
In June 2017, The Atlantic published a hit-piece on Robert E. Lee titled “The Myth of the Kindly General Lee.” The article made the rounds on Leftist echo chamber social media accounts and quickly found favor with the popular Leftist Twitter historians, a collection of “distinguished professors,” some without a substantial publication record, who like to trumpet their status as “actual…
Brion McClanahanAugust 29, 2018
A Red and Blue Divorce? Blog Post
The red and the blue—states that is– are as different as the colorless black and white landscapes absent from the color spectrum. The concept of separate states for separate cultures is as old as Canaan and Egypt. The concept of separation for moral law is as old as these two, as well. Today on any given “news” outlet, maps are…
Paul H. YarbroughDecember 14, 2020
See ya–Signed C.S.A. Blog Post
A fellow by the name of Marcus Ruiz Evans was on Fox’s Tucker Carlson program recently. He offered his stance on secession vis-à-vis California’s consideration. His position stood apropos for the Golden Bears because the Supreme Court in its Texas vs White decision of 1869 had offered a loophole bearing on the people’s consent to secede. This bears, of course,…
Paul H. YarbroughJanuary 2, 2017
Why “Democracy” Has Failed–And How to Fix It Blog Post
Democracy in America has failed. In spite of the lack of any reference to “democracy” in both the American Constitution and its Declaration of Independence, the United States has institutionalized the democratic principle to become its world exemplar, which according to some intellectuals is henceforth to be the sole pattern for all governments on earth. Francis Fukuyama, a neoconservative until…
Terry HulseyApril 24, 2024
The South in the Interpretation of the Constitution Blog Post
Editor’s Note: This chapter is republished from The South in the Building of the Nation series (1909). In the making of the American Nation, the Southern states have played a conspicuous part-a part which has not received proper recognition at the hands of historians at home or abroad. This neglect of the South is largely the result of the views…
J.A.C. ChandlerNovember 17, 2023
The Confederate Constitution of 1861, Part I Blog Post
From the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School You know, you should ask yourself, “Why is the Confederacy so important?” Not only from a historical perspective, but also prospectively, what is it about the Confederacy and the leaders of that time that should encourage not only us people with Southern sympathies, but all people who are interested in good government generally,…
Marshall DeRosaMarch 14, 2023
The Attack on Leviathan, Part V Blog Post
XIII. The Dilemma of the Southern Liberals Originally published in The American Mercury, 1934 “The Dilemma of the Southern Liberals” Back when wild-eyed suffragettes were on the losing end of Oklahoma Drills with King George V’s horse, Vanderbilt and Sewanee were Southern football giants, and the Bull Moose Party was hawking the square new deal, Southern liberals—all hopped up on…
Chase SteelyDecember 2, 2022
The Federalist Crucible Blog Post
From the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson have dinner. It looks like funding an assumption of State debts by the general government is not going to go through, and Hamilton’s very worried because U.S. stock is plummeting in the international finance markets. So, a deal is struck. Jefferson will put pressure on his people to…
John DevannySeptember 16, 2022
Break It Up Blog Post
A review of Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union (Little Brown, 2020) by Richard Kreitner Horrors! Richard Kreitner, a neo-Confederate? How will he, in the stable of Leftist The Nation magazine, founded as a successor to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator, ever publish again! One must admire Kreitner’s gift of writing in…
Terry HulseySeptember 14, 2021
The Unwanted Southern Conservatives Blog Post
[The following essay forms my chapter in the recently-published book, The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism, edited by Paul E. Gottfried, 2020. Full publication credits and permission to reprint are found at the end of the essay. This chapter was re-published in the September/October issue of the Confederate Veteran magazine. A couple of small edits were made in the…
Boyd CatheySeptember 7, 2021
Defending the West Against the Barbarians Blog Post
Sometimes readers will ask me: “Why did you write on that? What were you trying to say?” My response has always been that just about everything I attempt to convey, to write, is in some way connected to and comes under a broad heading of “the defense of Western Christian civilization and culture.” Thus, everything, from my staunch defense of Confederate…
Boyd CatheyJune 17, 2021
Is Secession Treason? Blog Post
And they, sweet soul, that most impute a crimeAre pronest to it, and impute themselves…Tennyson, from Idylls of the King (1) The US Supreme Court, in Texas vs. White, ruled that secession from the Union was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, in 1869, wrote the majority “opinion of the court.” His opinion was not that of Thomas Jefferson, the…
H.V. Traywick, Jr.June 3, 2021
Robert E. Lee and Me Blog Post
A review of Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause (St. Martin’s Press, 2021) by Ty Seidule A number of good historians have written reviews recently of Ty Seidule’s book, Robert E. Lee and Me, including historian Phil Leigh who produced the video, Robert E. Lee and (Woke General) Please Like Me.[1]…
Gene Kizer, Jr.April 6, 2021
Secession’s Magic Numbers, Part One Blog Post
A serial review of books numbering the States after a dissolution of the Union. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard; ISBN: 978-0-14-312202-9, Penguin, September 25, 2012, 384 pages. American Nations is simply the most brilliant book I have ever read on American history. Almost every page is compact with some…
Terry HulseyFebruary 23, 2021
No Worse Enemy. No Better Friend Blog Post
A review of In Defense of Andrew Jackson (Regnery History, 2018) by Bradley J. Birzer I was recently in Nashville, Tennessee, with family, and took the opportunity to visit Andrew Jackson’s home-turned-museum, “The Hermitage.” I have to admit, it was amusing for me to hear the historians whom were interviewed by the museum become outright “historicists” (as the Straussians/Jaffaites would…
James Rutledge RoeschApril 21, 2020
A Southerner’s Movie Guide Part XI Blog Post
15. Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Southerners: Films for the Family The major movie stars of the 1930s through the 1970s came from the East and Midwest. Nevertheless, there was a strong presence of native Southerners in the top ranks: Oliver Hardy, Ava Gardner, Randolph Scott, Joseph Cotten, Jeffrey Hunter, Miriam Hopkins, John Payne (an almost forgotten Virginian star of film…
Clyde WilsonFebruary 27, 2020
The Left’s March Through Southern Institutions Blog Post
A photograph of the University of Mississippi Majorettes graced the cover of the September 24, 1962, issue of the popular national magazine, Sports Illustrated. This national magazine thought nothing of showing college majorettes wearing gray, quasi Confederate, uniforms while carrying numerous Confederate Battle flags.[1] In 1964 the Louisiana State Archives in conjunction with the State Superintendent of Public Education and…
James Ronald KennedyJanuary 6, 2020
Strom Thurmond, the “Dixiecrats,” and Southern Identity Blog Post
This essay was presented at our 2019 Summer School on The New South. James Strom Thurmond, or Strom, was born on December 5, 1902 in Edgefield, South Carolina. This historic county was also the home of Francis Hugh Wardlaw, the author of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession, and Preston Brooks, who caned Charles Sumner in 1856. These three are…
Michael MartinAugust 21, 2019
Conan the Southerner? Blog Post
“Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to bear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high…
Joel T. LeggettJuly 5, 2019
Defusing a Second Civil War Through Peaceful Secession? Blog Post
Secession? Nullification? A second Civil War in the presently not-so United States of America? According to a historic and highly fascinating Abbeville Institute event that took place November 9 and 10, 2018 in Dallas, Texas, a number of influential American thinkers, political figures and activists gathered to discuss how peaceful secession and nullification could very well be one of the most important…
Matthew SilberNovember 15, 2018
A Question of Sovereignty Blog Post
Although the nation recently recognized the 150th anniversary of the end of the War of Northern Aggression, we are still plagued with questions about the legality of secession, issues and inquiries that unfortunately may never end. In exchanges on social media over the years, I have argued our principles as passionately as anyone can, while kindly, but at times very…
Ryan WaltersApril 4, 2017
The Free State of Jones: History or Hollywood? Blog Post
Hollywood has struck again with another “Civil War” movie that, unsurprisingly as it may seem, does not do justice to the real Southland or the Confederacy. The latest episode is an epic by director Gary Ross, “Free State of Jones,” starring Matthew McConaughey as the film’s hero, Newt Knight. “Free State of Jones” tells the story of a Knight-led rebellion…
Ryan WaltersJuly 12, 2016
Ludwell Johnson: Master Southern Historian Blog Post
Life and Work Why Read Ludwell Johnson? Both Ludwell Johnson’s style of work and choice of subject matter strongly recommend him to our consideration. As a working historian he is calm and measured, with just the degree of detachment that historical work ideally requires. As he puts it, “trying to identify cause and effect is, to me, the very…
Joseph R. StrombergMay 26, 2015
Literature in the Old South Blog Post
In an ideal world the separate studies of history and literature would enlighten one another. A historian—whether of republican Rome, seventeenth century France, the Old South, or any other subject—would gain insights into an era from its imaginative literature. Insights of a kind to be found nowhere else, for the best imaginative literature is created by the most acute consciousnesses…
Clyde WilsonDecember 2, 2014
Confederate Hollywood Part 2 Blog Post
In Part 1 we demonstrated how during Hollywood’s Golden Age nearly every Northern-born major star willingly portrayed a sympathetic and admirable Confederate character. That phenomenon has continued up to the present. Admirable Confederates still appear played by major actors. What has changed in recent times is that there have been evil Confederates appearing more often on the screen and the…
Clyde WilsonMay 28, 2014
Confederate Hollywood Part 2 Blog Post
In Part 1 we demonstrated how during Hollywood’s Golden Age nearly every Northern-born major star willingly portrayed a sympathetic and admirable Confederate character. That phenomenon has continued up to the present. Admirable Confederates still appear played by major actors. What has changed in recent times is that there have been evil Confederates appearing more often on the screen and the…
Clyde WilsonMay 28, 2014
