January Prattville Dragoons Camp 1524 Meeting

The monthly camp meeting for the Prattville Dragoons was held at the Shoney's on Cobbs Ford Rd in Prattville on Thursday January 12th.  Announcements made by Commander Booth included the Semple Camps Lee-Jackson banquet on Friday January 20th, the Robert E.Lee memorial downtown Montgomery on Saturday January 21st and the dedication of the new League of the South social hall in Wetumpka, also on Saturday.  The officer elections will take place in March which will be a business meeting for the monthly camp meeting.  Compatriot Myrick also reminded all about the Alabama Division reunion June 8-10 in Guntersville at the State Park lodge there with all business meetings on Saturday; he also announced the National Reunion/Convention in Murfreesboror TN July 11-14 and this blog was updated to provide the link for that event commemorating Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest.  Brigade Commander Carl Jones from Pelham AL provided a very good speech regarding the legality of secession, Vindicating the Cause. He recommended for reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution and The founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution.  He bagan asserting the "Civil War" was a conflict between the Hamilton and Jefferson views of the Constitution. The first five main points he enumerated as embodied by the Constitution were 1) rights are endowed by God and not by a government or judge, 2) rights cannot be arbitrarily taken away, 3) to secure individual rights, governments are instituted and that is their primary purpose, 4) whenever the government infringes on these rights, the governed can abolish the government, and 5) colonies want to become free and independent states.  In 1828 Websters dictionary defined State as a political body united under one government and defined Colony as a body of people transplanted from a parent state to another geographic area. From 1776 til 1787 the new States existed as independent States unde rthe Articles of Confederation. At Jefferson's inauguration he asserted the rights of the states to secede.  Jefferson and Madison authored explicit interpretations stating the federal government had limited power and it was the states duty to stand between the federal government and the people of the states.  The new England states nearly seceded over the Louisiana Purchase and over support for the War of 1812 and Lincoln himself espoused secession regarding the Mexican War in 1848.  It wasn't until 1787 that the Constitution was authored spurred on by Federalists who called a Virginia Convention to amend teh Articles of Confederation.  They pushed the Virginia Plan calling for a strong central government with a perpetual President, just like a monarchy or dictatorship. This Virginia Plan was rejected but led to the creation of the Constitution whoch delegated authority and representation thus creating the federal government and Congress. The Bill of Rights was deemed necessary to balance the Constitution, to limit the power of the federal government, especially the 9th and 10th Amendments.  Of course the 10th Ammendment states that all laws not specifically delegated to the federal government belong to the people.  "We the People" does not refer to a mass United States but the like-minded People of a group of united States.  Secession was not prohibited by the Constitution and indeed three states in their ratification process explicitly accepted the Constitution only with the understanding they could secede - VA, NY and RI.  The Confederate soldiers were defending the Constitution's original intent and indeed the Confederate States of America Constitution borrowed liberally from the original document. The first act of war was by Lincoln in illegally trying to reprovision Fort Sumter which was in Confederate territory.  The Confederate states legally seceded and were indeed a seperate country at that time.  Indeed, every 4th of July, remember we celebrate the secession of the Colonies from British rule and subjugation just as our Confederate ancestors did.