Volume XXXVI, Issue 11 November, 2016fightingjoewheelercamp.org/assets/dispatch-nov-2016.pdf ·...
Transcript of Volume XXXVI, Issue 11 November, 2016fightingjoewheelercamp.org/assets/dispatch-nov-2016.pdf ·...
Volume XXXVI, Issue 11 November, 2016
Camp Officers:
Commander: David Rawls
1st Lt. Commander: David Fisher
2nd Lt. Commander: Hank
Arnold
Adjutant/ Treasurer: Pat Acton
Chaplain: Jeff Young
Color Sergeant: Bill Haas
Quartermaster: Tristan Dunn
Sergeant At Arms: Sam Nelson
Camp Surgeon: Dr. Rick Price
Dispatch Editor: Jim Darden
Commander Emeritus: Dr. Ira
West
Chaplain Emeritus: Dr. Charles
Baker
Fighting Joe Wheeler Camp 1372,
Inc. C/O Adjutant
P.O. Box 43362
Vestavia Hills, AL 35243
Please send articles or other
information for inclusion in
“The Dispatch” to
Jim Darden – Editor
645 South Sanders Road
Hoover, Alabama 35226
Or e-mail [email protected]
Alabama: We Dare Defend Our Rights “The principal for which we contended is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” - Jefferson Davis, May 1865
The Next Camp Meeting will be at 6:00 pm, Tuesday November 8 at
Miss Myra’s Restaurant, 3278 Cahaba Heights Rd, Birmingham, Ala.
SCV CALENDAR
November 8 Miss Myra’s BBQ 6:00 pm
December 13 Christmas Party / Ancestors stories New Merkle House
January 10 CSA Medical Department Dr. Rick Price
January 21 Lee/Jackson Banquet Dr. John Killian
February 11 AGCA Gun Show – recruiting table with Forrest Camp
February 14 Scouts, Skirmishers and Sharpshooters Bob Sorrell
March 14 The Jack Hinson Story Ronnie Slack
April 11 UDC Sandra Pennington
May 9 Nullification Crisis David Rawls
June 10 AGCA Gun Show –recruiting table with Forrest Camp
October 14 AGCA Gun Show – recruiting table with Forrest Camp
http://www.fightingjoewheeler.org
SCV Fighting Joe Wheeler Camp 1372
Page 2
Commander’s Report November 2016
Compatriots:
While the political pre-election madness known as the “silly season” is finally
winding down, the PC cultural war continues unabated despite the efforts of those of us who desire
some sort of sanity in our lives.
For example, after hearing about the tragic and brutal execution of 2 Iowa police
officers a short while ago I went online to see if I could find an article to learn the details of exactly
what happened. What I found in a way stunned me (at least in its openly direct nature), while at the
same time not surprising in the least. In the headline of the article the Associated Press went out of
its way to note that the accused was “a confederate flag waver.” The article was then accompanied
by two photos of the man, one being a mug shot and the second of him wearing a cap with the Battle
Flag on it as he waved a Battle Flag at a high school football game along with a photo of his house
containing a Trump sign prominently in his front yard (and we all know Trump is in league with the
Ku Klux Klan according to Hillary). The actual article itself went on to state that the accused had a
run in with police two weeks earlier at a football game where he was warned to quit waving the flag
in front of black students and their families stating without doubt that this was his motive for killing
the two officers. It was very clear from this that the writer was fully convinced he knew the motive
even before the police had time to properly conduct the investigation.
In response to this blatant attempt to politicize this tragic incident I have a number of
things to say. First, it is very unprofessional and downright propagandistic (Goebbels himself would
be proud) for a member of the media to publish his own skewed opinion as fact before any facts have
become known. The Associated Press’ use of this crime to further its own political agenda is beneath
contempt. Second, respect for the Battle Flag that flew over our ancestors who dared to stand up
against a tyrannical federal government that had gone far beyond its mandated constitutional limits
most certainly does not in and of itself make one a violent racist. Third (and most important), the
premeditated and unjustified taking of another’s life is never the answer for anything and if the man is
guilty of the act he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The families of all those
involved in this incident deserve our thoughts and prayers, not political tirades in the guise of
journalism.
Enough is enough. It is time that we, both as individuals and as an organization, go
on the offensive to curb this misrepresentation of our ancestors and culture as a whole before our way
of life as we know is regulated to the trash heap of history.
Now to get off my soapbox and deal with other matters. I would like to remind
everyone that the November meeting has been revised since the New Merkle is used as a polling
place during the election. We will meet at 6:00 at Miss Myra’s BBQ for supper and a conversation.
The December Meeting will be held at the New Merkle House where we all shall have the
opportunity to speak directly about our ancestors and the things they did for the Southern Cause.
After this discussion, we will hold elections for the 2017 officers. I ask that not only everyone come
and participate but invite any and all to come and enjoy. Our ancestors fought for a just cause and
they deserve far more honor and respect for what they did. Let us always honor their memory!
Deo Vindice,
David L. Rawls
Commander
Commander’s
Report
2nd Lt. Cmdr. Report November, 2016
Camp,
The most important thing we can do at this time is VOTE! We still
have the opportunity to have our say in the way the country is run with our vote. I
know how I will vote, and I hope you vote the same way, but is your decision at
this point. It might not always be that way, so save the country while you still can.
Remember your fore fathers were disenfranchised during reconstruction and the
country was not well represented to put it mildly. Do your part and let's hope it is
a fair election.
There have been questions asked as to the future AGCA gun shows.
These are every 4 months, 3 times a year. The next one should be the weekend of
Feburary 11th, followed by June the 10th, and October the 14th. We need to talk
about the activity of the camp supporting a joint recruiting table with the Forrest
Camp at these events. The show of camp support has not been good to say the
least. It seems that some of us are ashamed to show support for the cause of the
SCV. Please don't that be the case! You now have plenty of time to plan ahead.
Remember that the New Merkle House is a polling place, so the
meeting will be at Miss Myras BBQ in Cahaba Heights at 6:00 on the 8th. This
will be an informal get together so vote, enjoy dinner with your camp members,
and go home to watch the election returns. Miss Myras address is 3278 Cahaba
Heights Rd, Birmingham, AL 35243. This is just down the street from the New
Merkle house. We hope to see you there.
The December meeting will be back at the New Merkle House on
the 13th. This is when we vote for new camp officers. Please let us know of any
changes you would like to make and please feel free to run for office in the camp.
Geroge Soros will not count the votes here so your vote will count. We will also
vote for this years recipient of the Robert E. Lee award.
The topic of the program will be you presenting one of your fore
fathers to the camp in a 2-3 min. presentation. This is always a great meeting, one
of my favorites.
Go out and have a great November, hope to see you at Miss Myras
Tuesday!
Thanks,
Hank Arnold
2nd Lt. Cmdr.
FJW Camp 1372
2nd LT Commander’s
Report
ELECTION ~ 1860
From https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1860
Following on the heels of the Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which the U.S.
Supreme Court voided the Missouri Compromise (1820), thus making slavery legal in all U.S.
territories, the election of 1860 was sure to further expose sectional differences between
those, especially (but not solely) in the North, who wanted to abolish slavery and those who
sought to protect the institution. The Democratic Party held its convention in April–May
1860 in Charleston, S.C., where a disagreement over the official party policy on slavery
prompted dozens of delegates from Southern states to withdraw. Unable to nominate a
candidate (Sen. Stephen A. Douglas received a majority of the delegates’ support but could
not amass the required two-thirds majority needed for nomination), Democrats held a second
convention in Baltimore, Md., on June 18–23, though many of the Southern delegates failed
to attend. At Baltimore the Democrats nominated Douglas, who easily defeated Kentuckian
John C. Breckinridge, the sitting vice president of the United States. Trying to unite Northern
and Southern Democrats, the convention then turned for vice president first to Sen. Benjamin
Fitzpatrick of Alabama, who declined nomination, and eventually to Herschel V. Johnson, a
former U.S. senator and former governor of Georgia, who was chosen as Douglas’s running
mate. Disaffected Democrats, largely Southerners, then nominated Breckinridge, with Sen.
Joseph Lane of Oregon as his running mate. Both Douglas and Breckinridge claimed to be
the official Democratic candidates.
The Republican convention was held in Chicago on May 16–18. The party,
which had formed only in the 1850s, was largely opposed to the extension of slavery in the
U.S. territories. Though many party members favoured the total abolition of slavery, the
party pragmatically did not call for abolition in those states that already had slavery. Entering
the convention, Sen. William H. Seward of New York was considered the favourite for the
nomination, and on the first ballot he led Abraham Lincoln, who had been defeated in Illinois
in 1858 for the U.S. Senate by Douglas, as well as a host of other candidates. On a second
ballot the gap between Seward and Lincoln narrowed, and Lincoln was subsequently
nominated on the third ballot. Sen. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated as Lincoln’s
running mate.
Trying to transcend the sectional divide was the Constitutional Union Party,
which was formed in 1859 by former Whigs and members of the Know-Nothing Party. The
Constitutional Unionists nominated former senators John Bell of Tennessee and Edward
Everett of Massachusetts as their presidential and vice presidential nominees, respectively. In
attempting to ignore the slavery issue, the party’s platform particularly appealed to border
states.
After his nomination, Lincoln put aside his law practice and ran a stay-at-home
campaign, in which he made no stump speeches, though he did give full time to the direction
of his campaign. His “main object,” he had written, was to “hedge against divisions in the
Republican ranks,” and he counseled party workers to “say nothing on points where it is
probable we shall disagree.” With Republicans united, and with division within the
Democratic Party and surrounding Bell’s candidacy, the primary fear that Republicans had
was that some disunity might appear and hamper their chances. Breckinridge also did little
campaigning, giving only one speech. Douglas, however, was an active campaigner, in both the North
and the South, where he gave a passionate defense of the Union and strenuously opposed secession.
Still, much of the campaigning that did follow consisted of parades and rallies that boosted interest in
the election (on election day some four-fifths of eligible voters turned out).
Despite four main candidates (and Douglas’s forays into the South), the contests in the
states were sectionally fought, with Douglas and Lincoln dominant in the North and Breckinridge and
Bell dueling for support in the South. On election day Lincoln captured slightly less than 40 percent of
the vote, but he won a majority in the electoral college, with 180 electoral votes, by sweeping the North
(with the exception of New Jersey, which he split with Douglas) and also winning the Pacific Coast
states of California and Oregon. Douglas won nearly 30 percent of the vote but won only Missouri’s 12
electoral votes. Breckinridge, with 18 percent of the national vote, garnered 72 electoral votes, winning
most of the states in the South as well as Delaware and Maryland. Bell, who won 12.6 percent of the
vote, secured 39 electoral votes by winning Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The results in the
South are instructive in understanding the deep sectional divide. Lincoln did not win any votes in any
state that would form the Confederacy, with the exception of Virginia, where he garnered only 1 percent
of the total vote (Douglas won slightly less than 10 percent). By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration in
March, seven Southern states had seceded, and barely a month after Lincoln became president, the
country became engaged in war.
presidential
candidate
political party electoral votes popular votes
Abraham
Lincoln
Republican 180 1,866,452
John C.
Breckinridge
Southern
Democratic
72 847,953
Stephen A.
Douglas
Democratic 12 1,380,202
John Bell Constitutional
Union
39 590,901
Sources: Electoral and popular vote totals based on data
from the United States Office of the Federal Register
and Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed.
(2001).