Our Confederate ancestors founded their
nation to preserve the Jeffersonian principles of State Rights. They believed in a decentralized government,
individual liberty, God and family as the bedrock of their society, sustained
by individual responsibility and self-sufficiency. But today a growing portion of our nation
relies on entitlements instead of working for their families. The federal government has grown into a
behemoth which intrudes into every conceivable corner of our lives. Washington tells us what kind of light bulbs
we can buy and use. The tires on our car are
registered with the federal government. Our phone conversations are
recorded. Our money is confiscated with
income, property and sales taxes totaling up to 50, 60 or 70% of our hard-earned
wages.
At the Alabama Division Reunion in
Foley, Army of Tennessee Commander Tom Strain read CiC Givens’s address urging
attendees to resist federal domination.
At the Confederate Heritage event in Biloxi earlier this past spring,
Past CiC Chuck McMichael bemoaned the long tentacles of the federal
government. The irony in his words was
that his speech was delivered in front of the beautiful new Jefferson Davis Presidential
Library, funded primarily through Federal Emergency Management Agency
monies. Recent editions of the Confederate
Veteran magazine contain a full-page advertisement explaining the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs--the
Veterans Administration--denying funding for government markers on the
Confederate graves at Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
A quote attributed to President
Gerald Ford but actually originated by Harvard McClain of the Economic Club of
Chicago warns, "A government big
enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away
everything that you have."
Thomas Jefferson declared in his
first inaugural address in 1801, “A wise and frugal government, which shall
restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate
their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the
mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
Lincoln waged a war on our
Confederate forebears, a war on the Jeffersonian principles of limited
government and self-determination. Our
government has unceasingly expanded and infringed ever more on our inalienable
rights and freedom ever since, for the past 150 years. As we are reminded, we have an “obligation to
our forefathers, who gave us the undeniable birthright of our Southern Heritage
and the vision, desire, and courage to see it perpetuated.” Our ideals as Sons of Confederate Veterans
are relevant today perhaps as never before, since the War for Southern
Independence. As Jefferson Davis foretold, “The principle for which we contend
is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another
form.” Let us carry the Charge and
advance the Cause for our ancestors, for our families today, and for our future
generations.
Stuart Waldo
