Members and guests of the Dragoons of SCV Camp 1524 enjoyed their monthly camp meeting on Thursday January 12th. 1st Lt Cmdr Rob Schwartz hosted the meeting in the absence of Commander Waldo including providing music on his guitar prior to the meeting start. About 20 folks gathered, a smaller crowd than typical after a line of severe storms hit the area earlier in the afternoon including a deadly tornado which hit Selma and moved east right across Autauga County and the north portions of Prattville. Rob provided the opening Benediction and Color Sgt Dennis led everyone in the pledge to the US flag and salutes to the Alabama state and Confederate Battle flags. Rob then recited the SCV Charge and provided information on upcoming events and other updates including report-outs from the numerous Christmas events in which the Dragoons participated in throughout December. Dr. Robert Wieland who serves as curator at the First White House of the Confederacy in downtown Montgomery was teh guest speaker who provided insights into a recently released biography of Lincoln and contrasted the truth of Abraham Lincoln with the flattering portrayal of Lincoln today, the history revisionism which clouds the truth in favor of a PC myth. Some of the interesting facts provided by "Yankee Bob" was that Lincoln married Mary Todd, the daughter of Robert Todd who was Kentucky's largest slaveholder. In that era, the law assigned a woman's property to her husband and so when Robert Todd died, Lincoln inherited about 500 slaves which were a part of his estate. Instead of emancipating them, Lincoln instead sold them for a profit. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Lincoln made his position clear regarding blacks, "I will say then that I am not, not ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races." He went on to say that he opposed Blacks having the right to vote, sit on juries, hold public office or intermarry with whites. Throughout much of his career, Lincoln pushed the idea of colonization of the Blacks from America back to Africa or Central America as the best way to solve the problem of slavery in the eventuality of its end. Lincoln's two heroes, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson who both owned slaves also recognized the dilemma of slavery and also favored colonization as they saw no way black and white people could live together peaceably. Another bit of trivia was that Lincoln had syphilis - some of his photographs show his face appearing akin to that of a drug user because he was on a mercury treatment as they had not yet developed penicillin to treat that condition.
