A Little Whiskey Rebellion
“I plainly perceive that the time will come when a shirt shall not be washed without an excise.”— Representative James Jackson of Georgia, speech against the Whiskey Tax delivered on January 5, 1791 in the… »
Washington and Lee: Southerners
Abbeville Institute scholar Dr. William Wilson presents a talk on the congruity between Washington and Lee at our 2016 Abbeville Institute Summer School.
Heil to the Chief
A Review of: The American Presidency: An Intellectual History by Forrest McDonald Kansas, 1994. Since the surrender at Appomattox, the South has been virtually excluded from two of the three branches of the national government.… »
The American President: From Cincinnatus to Caesar
The great body of the nation has no real interest in party. — James Fenimore Cooper, The American Democrat, 1838 The American presidency offers many fascinating questions for historical exploration. And by historical exploration I… »
Washington vs. Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln and George Washington stare silently at one another across the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington D.C., their paths inextricably linked by the historians who consider both to be the greatest… »
Washington’s Rye
Every student of history knows at least a brief sketch of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, but most people don’t realize that Alexander Hamilton’s excise tax on distilled spirits hit George Washington in the wallet as well,… »
Women of the Southern Confederacy
Editor’s Note: A Mother’s Day special dedicated to all Southern wives and mothers, this piece was originally published in 1877 in Bledsoe’s The Southern Review. It is strange how we undervalue the historical interest of… »
George Washington
From Washington and the Generals of the American Revolution by Rufus Wilmot Griswold and William Gilmore Simms, 1847. (Editor’s Note: Thank you to Simms scholar Jeff Rogers for correcting the auhtorship of this article. Griswold,… »
The Confederacy, Oscars, and Social Justice
“Social Justice” is one of today’s manipulative phrases. In this case “justice” is defined as the equal distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges among all groups in a society. In past generations, the concept of… »
A Tale of Two Plantations
In the 1850s, Ann Pamela Cunningham, a frail woman from South Carolina, was responsible for preserving the plantation home of George Washington, founding the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, an organization which still maintains this historic… »
