The Blue and Gray
(By R.P.Edwards)
Something old
And something new
Something gray
And something blue
Something evil
Something same
A common thread
A different name
"This stone which was rejected by the first builders
"is become the chief of the corner"
the real "corner-stone" in our new edifice."
(Alexander H. Stephens)
11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
(Ephesians 5:11 NRSVACE)
At first I thought it might be a clever substitute. You know, one of those well written falsehoods attributed to a notable "someone." But no, in a speech given on March 21, 1861, the new Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander H. Stephens (just before the bloodletting that was the Civil War) unabashedly espoused the twisted thinking of the age. Following are some excerpts:
The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating
questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it
exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of
civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and
present revolution....
The prevailing ideas entertained by him (Jefferson) and most of the leading
statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were
that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of
nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and
politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the
general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in
the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass
away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the
prevailing idea at that time...
Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the
assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy
foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the “storm came
and the wind blew.”...
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its
foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that
the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to
the superior race is his natural and normal condition....
That's enough.
It was the recent celebratory codifying of late term abortion in the State of New York that nudged me in the direction of seeking Mr Stephens' ancient reasonings. Why? Because then, as now, there are those who see through a prism (a religious one, at that) that views obvious evil as wholesome and God blessed. Then as now there are those who work their wicked bloody will and then blithely sip on their mint juleps while clucking to their equals of their moral superiority.
And sadly, then as now there are the many who are far removed from the "seeing" who will, nevertheless, be sucked into the maelstrom that must result when God is openly mocked and evil embraced.
When the Civil War began there may have been many superfluous "side issues" and concerns, BUT, dear reader, by the time it was over SLAVERY was the relentless and all consuming pestle that ground this nation to its very core. I fear, therefore, for the new Democrat Party. More than ever they are choosing a path that God (the real one) must answer. I hope before then an inner uprising will reject the rebranded dogma of the DNC; that unholy doctrine that one human life is of more value than another. And, if there are still any hopeful believers residing on the left, know that your allegiance, first, must be to the Creator. And that, of course, applies to all.
Here's a link to the whole "Corner Stone" speech. Corner Stone
****
