“The Southern Tradition and the Renewal of America” St. Christopher Conference Center Seabrook Island, South Carolina June 12-17, 2016 Disordered by the fumes of political correctness, our cultural and political elites are falling over themselves to rid the land of Confederate symbols and monuments. They forget that the South was largely the guiding moral and political force that created the America of 1776-1861. That America was overwhelmed by the brute force of an aggressive sectional Northern nationalism. The new Lincolnian…

The general government in Washington D.C. is out of control.  All three branches of government are complicit in the destruction of real federalism, what was once considered the cornerstone of the American polity.  "States' Rights," in fact, were a recognized fact of the original Constitution, both North and South.  As virtually every proponent of the Constitution insisted during the ratification process, the States were to be the pillars of the American federal republic with virtually unlimited power over the domestic concerns of their people.  The general government had expressly delegated powers for the general purposes of the Union, namely commerce and defense.

Before “political correctness,” Americans respected Confederate memorials. They knew the War was a conflict that went back to the founding fathers and that the secessionist descendants of Jefferson were as much good Americans as the Union descendants of Lincoln. Today, however, our elites are kindling fires to consume not only Confederate symbols but much else besides. A modest plaque with only the words: “In Memory of George Washington” was removed from Christ Church in Alexandria along with an identically styled…

Southern Identity Through Music St Christopher Conference Center, July 15-20, 2018 Seabrook Island, South Carolina Music has been described as "the soul of the world embedded in sound." Southern music exemplifies the traditions and culture of its people "embedded in sound." It sprang from the mud, the rivers, the forests, the fields, and the mountains. From the land and place, to religion, folk songs, poverty and defeat, a "new South" and and old culture, the South has a story to…

TOPIC: The secession of 15 states from the Soviet Union in 1991 was the greatest peaceful revolution in modern history. Secession and decentralist movements are firmly entrenched throughout Europe. Discourse of secession and state interposition to federal tyranny is now mainstream in America on the left and right. Are we witnessing a paradigm shift away from runaway centralization? Join us for a thoughtful discussion of secession and the prospects for decentralization in the United States. FORMAT AND COST: Lectures and…

DUE TO THE COVID-19 AND OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION, WE HAVE DECIDED TO CANCEL THE 2020 SUMMER SCHOOL   ABBEVILLE INSTITUTE EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL SUMMER SCHOOL “Recovering What is Valuable in the Southern Tradition” St. Christopher Conference Center, Seabrook Island, South Carolina June 21-26, 2020  TOPIC. The South was once  an independent country. Though conquered, it retained a distinctive identity and was known as “a nation within a nation.” But the American nation that contained it is being hollowed…