The video at the beginning of this post celebrates, I think that is the correct term, the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860. The video is hilariously inaccurate, most notably in not recognizing the historical fact that a right of secession had been hotly debated and contested prior to the Civil War and in failing to breathe a word about slavery, the reason why the secession crisis occurred. In contrast to this Neo-Confederate balderdash, I think the words of former Congressman James L. Petigru at the time were apt: “South Carolina is too small to be a Republic and too large to be an insane asylum.” Here is the ordinance of secession for the little state that started the big war: (more…)
Almost Chosen People 