Comments on: The Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue

By: James

James — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:00:38 +0000

most of them considered themselves integral parts of their masters’ families. And they hated Yankees as much as white Southerners

Is that why blacks across the former Confederacy celebrated as Juneteenth the arrival of Union forces and their emancipation?

I'm usually the first one to say that we've largely forgotten, in this country, how much the North profited from slavery and was complicit in it. The demonization of the South does no one any good. But do you honestly want to suggest that Southern slaves didn't mind their captivity, or that they cared much about Yankees, except that Yankees meant their freedom from bondage?

By: Michael Ezzo

Michael Ezzo — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:16:21 +0000

The anti-South bombs that are dropped here every month or so illustrate what I got in public school : all abstractions; no particularities. This view is not monopolized by Northern people, but is more broadly characteristic of people who don't/can't/won't acknowledge a man's connection with his past. I keep The Morality of Everyday Life close at hand these days; reading it for the third time. One cannot get enough inoculation.

By: David Wihowski

David Wihowski — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:45:26 +0000

Here's one vote from the North in support of Dr. Wilson's excellent article. My German father lived in a German settlement in Ukraine during Stalin's rule. He passed on to me a healthy skepticism of socio-political sophistry (and, in fact, sophistry of any kind). Much of the "history" of the Lincoln era has the same air of sophistry that my father knew first-hand. I remember asking some "naive" questions in high school and my first level US History course at college; I questioned the constitutionality of some of Lincoln and Congress's actions. (At the time my questions were naive and honest.) I was quickly informed that the slavery and union issues transcended a narrow interpretation of the Constitution, or frankly that I misunderstood the Constitution. I admit that for a time I fell under that spell, but good sense, inherited skepticism and Chronicles helped me break the spell. (In case you notice the apparent disjoint between the surname and my father's ethnic heritage, the US immigration officials inadvertently [or sloppily] converted the original Germanic "ske" into the Polish "ski" in the family name. My great-great-grandfather was from Berlin.)

By: Allen Wilson

Allen Wilson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:29:48 +0000

Dr Wilson has hit the nail on the head. I know from personal experience that his words are true. It is pure and simple bigotry, supported by wilful ignorance and refusal to see reality. They choose to believe in propaganda and refuse to question it lest they lose their excuse for hatred. What slaves they are.

By: Clyde Wilson

Clyde Wilson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:57:19 +0000

26. Matt demonstrates in his style and content the venom that these people always have. They do not argue real issues, they vent their spleen. They hate Southerners. We don't hate them. In fact, we never even notice them unless they attack us. There is something deeply wrong inside the minds and souls of people like this. Their identity seems to depend upon hatred of others.

By: Brock H.

Brock H. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:49:51 +0000

Matt,

Prefer being an ally of the British or German Empires of the mid- to late-19th century rather than the Yankee-ruled American Empire born at the beginning of the War for Southern Independence? Yes I would. The British and the Germans at least ran their empires competently, whereas today's Yankee-run American Empire . . . well, I needn't say any more unless I'm talking to an idiot.

As for slavery, I for one do not look upon the methods used for acquiring our black slave labor force with any fondness. That is, I would not have allowed the kidnapping of Africans from their home and shipping them in brutal conditions over the oceans. But a couple of hundred years later, when they had been Americanized and immersed in our culture and grown up with their master families for several generations, most of them considered themselves integral parts of their masters' families. And they hated Yankees as much as white Southerners. Does it bother your Marxist sentiments, Matt, to see old battlefield illustrations of black Confederates marching alongside white counterparts?

And I do not use the word Marxist lightly. There is certainly nothing in the U.S. Constitution about people of other races being required by the federal government to be treated the same as whites, or to be allowed to rise to the same socio-economic status as whites. This is a page right out of Marx and Engels's playbook - you should read their writings. Serve your imperialist left-wing false gods, Matt, like Lincoln and MLK Jr. As for us at Chronicles and our house, we will serve the Lord.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:18:31 +0000

The southern politicians at the Montgomery Convention and Provisional Congress were just as money grubbing as any Northern politician you condemn, only they were grossly incompetent as compared to their Northern Counter parts. You would would happily prefer that the South prefer to be a satellite of the British or German Empire than be with the Union. Curse all of you! Since you believe that slavery was OK, then you got a taste of your own medicine so stop your belly aching. Since you believe that it was OK for Blacks to be slave through conquest, kidnapping and not protected by the law, then, after reading your morally diseased scrawlings, you make me rejoice that the South got a tast of its own medicine.

By: Robert Bruce

Robert Bruce — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:17:15 +0000

It is a sad day when one finds out just about everything that they were taught in the public school system, even up to a private institution of higher learning(graduate school)is either just a half truth or outright lie. In tha annals of history I have never seen such half turths or lies being spewed out as gospel truth as with the cases of the Confederacy and Germany(2nd and 3rd Reichs).

By: Herman King

Herman King — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:16:20 +0000

I rate Lincoln as the worst president in AMERICAN HISTORY or at least tied with Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and the younger, imbecilic Bush. A black flag of mourning should be hoisted on their birthdays. My criteria: who did most harm to America. Lincoln and Bush acted as if someone hired them to deliberately destroy their country.Lincoln destroyed the Republic and the smirking, strutting Bush junior did away with what was left of the twitching corpse.

By: I am not Spartacus

I am not Spartacus — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:51:20 +0000

This is the basis of a kind of plenary indulgence that automatically prejustifies the motives of American wars and the goodness inherent in America’s acts to force the world into conformity with America’s ideal version of herself. Dr. Wilson. I love your thinking and your writing so I will cut you a long length of slack re. that most common protestant misunderstanding. What is an indulgence? "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints." "An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin."82 The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.