The Confederate Constitution of 1861 Blog Post

The Confederate Constitution of 1861 is a misunderstood document that made improvements on the United States Constitution. What were they? Professors Donald Livingston and Marshall DeRosa discuss the Constitution and its currency in modern America.

Abbeville Institute
October 11, 2024

Self-Evident Truths Blog Post

Armies sometimes crush liberty, but they cannot conquer ideas. Jabez L. M. Curry (Lieutenant colonel, CSA, 1861-1865) From the African continent to the shores of America, the people coercively enslaved were victims of government action, inaction, or a combination of the two. Whether the government is led by a tribal chieftain or a so-called representative government, all governments are political…

Marshall DeRosa
February 21, 2024

The Confederate Constitution, Part II Blog Post

From the 2005 Abbeville Institute Summer School. Continued from Part One. Over the course of the 20th Century, the States have been increasingly sidelined. Everything is considered through a national lens and said to have a national scope. Consider, for example, the Seventeenth Amendment, which gave us the direct election of senators. In a recent Supreme Court case, the State…

Marshall DeRosa
April 10, 2023

The Confederate Constitution of 1861, Part I Blog Post

From the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School You know, you should ask yourself, “Why is the Confederacy so important?” Not only from a historical perspective, but also prospectively, what is it about the Confederacy and the leaders of that time that should encourage not only us people with Southern sympathies, but all people who are interested in good government generally,…

Marshall DeRosa
March 14, 2023

The Confederate Constitution Blog Post

From the 2003 Abbeville Institute Summer School I come from a somewhat different mold and my thought processes on these issues have changed a bit over the last couple of years. I have written on American jurisprudence and I have detected what I would deem to be ominous trends in American case law, and also in international law. I also…

Marshall DeRosa
June 6, 2022

Did the Confederacy Oppose the Rule of Law? Blog Post

Today is Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama. Most Americans believe the War and Southern history are synonymous, so much so that to many, the War has come to define the South. If you are reading this post and have followed the Abbeville Institute for any length of time, you know that our mission to “explore what is true and valuable…

Brion McClanahan
April 25, 2022

A Neo-Confederate Prediction of Post-Election America Blog Post

The political chaos that has accompanied President Trump’s first term will not abate anytime soon. From the Russian Collusion hoax to rioting in the streets to the public policy responses to the Covid-19 so-called pandemic, there appears to be something afoot that does not bode well for the future. Whether the motivation is ideological, economic, official incompetence, or a toxic…

Marshall DeRosa
October 27, 2020

Was Secession Treason? Blog Post

Recently an acquaintance of mine remarked that the Confederate statue in her hometown should be removed from its present place of honour and relocated to the Confederate cemetery which is presently (and sadly) in a state of neglect. The statue should be moved, she said, because while the boys who fought and died during the Late Unpleasantness deserve to be…

Earl Starbuck
September 18, 2020

The Atlantic Gets It Wrong, Again Blog Post

I don’t have time to detail everything the piece in question gets wrong, because it’s a lot. I’m sure this will be fodder for Abbeville posts for a long time, so I’m going to focus on the Constitutional issues. Stephanie McCurry writes: “In late February 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven breakaway states formed the C.S.A.; swore in a president,…

Aaron Gleason
July 28, 2020

Remembering Mel Bradford Blog Post

A review of A Defender of Southern Conservatism: M.E. Bradford and His Achievements (Missouri, 1999) by Clyde N. Wilson, ed. Clyde Wilson, Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun, has assembled and introduced this collection about a man notable, among other things, for his own affinity with Calhoun and…

J.O. Tate
May 6, 2019

A Society With Slaves Blog Post

A review Slave and Free on Virginia’s Eastern Shore by Kirk Mariner (Onancok, VA: Miona Publications, 2014). The book can be purchased by emailing Miona Publications. One of the ironies that plague the proponents of the “South is about slavery and slavery is about the South” school of history is the lack of knowledge we possess regarding the everyday lives and social…

John Devanny
August 21, 2018

Modern Heresy Blog Post

Essayist William Deresiewicz recently lamented that modern college students, and college life in general, have become “profoundly unintellectual.” The “snowflake” generation is the byproduct of educational institutionalization. Will this be on the test, and will I get a study guide? Deresiewicz should also indict the faculty and administration who encourage this “unintellectual” environment. This results in a crop of students…

Donald Livingston
April 18, 2018

Confederate Case Law: The Rule of Law, Not of Men Blog Post

The mark of an advanced civilization is the rule of law, with the highest being the rule of law that protects life, liberty and property. Based upon this standard, the Confederate States of America embodied an advanced Christian civilization. Accepting this truism goes a long way in understanding why the Confederacy has been demonized to the point of eradicating it…

Marshall DeRosa
August 23, 2017

“It is history that teaches us to hope” Blog Post

Malcolm X wrote that “History is a weapon.” He was right, and no topic encompasses this truth more than the War of Northern Aggression. And the most practical way we rebels can advance in this post-modern war being waged against the South is simply education. Sounds cliche, right? But how can we expect anyone who doesn’t have a clue about our past, its people and their divergent ancestry,…

Dissident Mama
July 3, 2017

The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act and the Political Market Blog Post

The political market, as the economic market, has the demand and supply dynamic. Interest groups make demands and the politicians provide the supply. In the case of Confederate memorials, interest groups demand Confederate memorials be dismantled in the public interest; the politicians supply the dismantling. The political market responds to strongest political forces. The strength of interest groups in the…

Marshall DeRosa
June 6, 2017

Essential Reading: The Confederate Constitution of 1861 Blog Post

This review was first printed in Southern Partisan magazine in 1995. Marshall DeRosa: The Confederate Constitution of 1861: An Inquiry into American Constitutionalism (University of Missouri Press, 1991). Let there be no doubt, my friends. Marshall DeRosa addresses a serious and important issue. He claims the struggle for American independence was renewed and, in a sense, reached a peak during…

Robert Martin Schaefer
September 8, 2016

April Top Ten Blog Post

The top ten articles for April 2016: 1. Andrew Jackson: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by James Rutledge Roesch 2. Confederaphobia: An American Epidemic by Paul C. Graham 3. Why the War Was Not About Slavery by Clyde Wilson 4. The Cause of Jackson is the Cause of Us All by James Rutledge Roesch 5. Lies My Teacher…

Brion McClanahan
May 1, 2016

The Confederacy’s Rule of Law Blog Post

As Southern States seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, the matter of transitioning the US Judiciary into the CSA Judiciary required both skill and determination. Issues of jurisdiction, personnel, legal codes, records, writs and ongoing processes had to be considered. Rather than starting de novo, the CSA Provisional Constitution mostly[i] adopted the structure of…

Marshall DeRosa
April 19, 2016

The Confederate Rule of Law Blog Post

Marshall DeRosa on “The Confederate Rule of Law: An American Patrimony Worth Fighting For, Then and Now,” from the October 2015 Abbeville Institute Conference in Stone Mountain, GA.

Marshall DeRosa
December 31, 2015

Hiding from History Blog Post

When I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina as a retiree over twenty years ago, I brought much of the Yankee historical baggage—as written by the victors—of the War Between the States, or Lincoln’s War as many Southerners know it. I’ve always been interested in history, so naturally I wanted to understand more about the Southern views of the war. I…

R.E. Smith, Jr.
October 15, 2015

September Top 10 Blog Post

Our top ten articles for the month of September.  Read ’em again and pass ’em along. 1. John C. Calhoun and States Rights by James Rutledge Roesch 2. The War for Southern Independence: My Myth or Yours? by Clyde Wilson 3. Revisiting 25 Years of Revisionist Claptrap by Gail Jarvis 4. Apostles of Racism by Brion McClanahan 5. Life in…

Brion McClanahan
October 6, 2015

Judah P. Benjamin: Able Statesman, Forgotten Patriot Blog Post

If you showed the average American pictures of famous figures from Confederate States of America, there is a good chance many would recognize Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Pressed further, some may even identify Alexander Stephens. All were influential men, and important to the establishment and development of the Confederacy. However, none of them assisted the Confederate cause in…

Dave Benner
September 4, 2015

Trump: A Southern Conservative Perspective Blog Post

There are several attributes of Donald Trump’s bid for the U.S. Presidency that this Paleo-Conservative finds to be interesting. To follow is an adumbration of the more salient. His campaign style is refreshing. The absence of teleprompters, which results in spontaneity, which in turn reveals the unvarnished candidate in contradistinction to the coached, stale, and unconvincing political hacks, is refreshing….

Marshall DeRosa
September 2, 2015

Caitlyn Jenner and the New South Blog Post

It is not necessary to detail Bruce Jenner’s transformation into Caitlyn Jenner. Suffice it to say that we have been informed that Bruce’s inner self was at war with his physical self. With the assistance of modern medicine, Bruce was physically modified into Caitlyn. This is not to say that Bruce the male was transformed into Caitlyn a female. Nevertheless,…

Marshall DeRosa
July 2, 2015

“Hang the Usurpers” Blog Post

On November 21, 1793, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill titled “An Act declaratory of certain parts of the retained sovereignty of the State of Georgia.” It’s unclear as to whether or not the Georgia Senate concurred. The bill was in response to the Chisholm v. Georgia [2 U.S. 419 (1793)], the case resulting in the ratification of…

Marshall DeRosa
June 15, 2015

New From Southern Pens, Part 2 Blog Post

Maryland Redeemed Everybody knows that our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was written by Francis Scott Key as he watched the British attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor during the War of 1812. Almost nobody knows the rest of the story. In 1861, Key’s grandson, Francis Key Howard, was locked up in Fort McHenry.   Howard wrote: “The flag which…

Clyde Wilson
May 8, 2015

Politics and Patriotism Blog Post

These are challenging times for the Christian patriot, as evidenced by controversies over recent renditions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts. The mere fact that these State legislative attempts to restore religious freedom are even necessary speaks volumes. For example, the First Amendment mandates that the “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free…

Marshall DeRosa
April 28, 2015

January Top Ten Blog Post

Thank you for making January one of the most visited months in the history of the Institute.  Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.  Here are the top ten articles from last month: 1. The Martin Luther King Congressional Cover Up: The Railroading of James Earl Ray by Marshall DeRosa 2. Lies My Teacher Told Me: The True…

Brion McClanahan
February 3, 2015

The Martin Luther King Congressional Cover-Up: The Railroading of James Earl Ray Blog Post

John Avery Emison, Martin Luther King Congressional Cover-Up, The: The Railroading of James Earl Ray. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 2014. The assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, has its various storylines that continue to this day. The recently disclosed 1964 FBI letter to King manifests the establishment’s disdain for King and its attempt to relegate…

Marshall DeRosa
January 20, 2015

Infanticide and Hobby Lobby Blog Post

The US Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) has uncovered a somewhat disturbing reality. Consider the following. In 1993 Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The law stipulates that government may not burden a person’s free exercise of religion unless the burden furthered a compelling governmental interest…

Marshall DeRosa
December 15, 2014

The Transformation of American Citizenship via the Crucible of War Blog Post

Citizenship in these United States has consistently been in a transformative mode. From early American settlers, through the colonial period to Statehood and nationhood, and through transition from territorial to Statehood status, citizenship was a phenomenon appreciated but not necessarily understood. It was loosely defined, but yet highly valued. This was tolerable within the framework of limited government and widely…

Marshall DeRosa
December 3, 2014

The Underlying Realities of Obama’s Amnesty Blog Post

Focusing on the cultural, political and economic long-term consequences of President Obama’s amnesty executive action obscures placing attention on a more fundamental problem lurking in the shadows of American culture and politics. That problem can best be described as political cowardness. The primary source of this pathetic state of affairs stems from the socialization of the American people regarding race….

Marshall DeRosa
November 24, 2014

Ron Paul and Secession Redux? Blog Post

Ron Paul recently opined about Scotland’s recent flirtation with seceding from the United Kingdom. He wrote that the: possibility that people will break away from an oppressive government is one of the most effective checks on the growth of government. It is no coincidence that the transformation of America from a limited republic to a monolithic welfare-warfare state coincided with…

Marshall DeRosa
October 3, 2014

Southerners Not Welcome Blog Post

California AB 2444 has cleared all legislative hurdles by overwhelming majorities (71 to 1 in the Assembly and 33 to 2 in the Senate) and is now on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk awaiting his certain signature. The bill mandates that “The State of California may not sell or display the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, also referred to as the…

Marshall DeRosa
August 28, 2014

Ferguson Blog Post

Events over the past several days in Ferguson, MO, should not surprise those familiar with the motives of the political class operationalized by Mr. Lincoln. We know that the the rhetoric utilized to justify the so-called American Civil War was a ruse to conceal the money-making opportunities concommitant with centralized political power. The slave qua freedman was and is nothing…

Marshall DeRosa
August 19, 2014

Those People Part 2 Blog Post

The flag which he [my grandfather, Francis Scott Key] had then so proudly hailed, I saw waving at the same place over the victims of as vulgar and brutal despotism as modern times have witnessed. —Francis Key Howard, a prisoner of Lincoln at Fort McHenry, 1861 Slavery is no more the cause of this war than gold is the cause…

Clyde Wilson
July 15, 2014

De Tocqueville and the South Blog Post

I’ve been perplexed about Tocqueville’s posture towards the South for quite some time. On the surface, he seems to have a rather dismal view of the South. However, a more penetrating reading of Democracy In America* opens up new possibilities. Consider the following: First, according to Tocqueville, the “seed of complete democracy” has its origin in New England. But there…

Marshall DeRosa
June 6, 2014

Cliven Bundy and American Politics Blog Post

Cliven Bundy recently stepped in it with his impolitic racial comments. The unfortunate comments are nevertheless an opportunity to learn some important lessons about American politics. First, the punditry’s reaction to the comments manifests the success of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in shaping public discourse and policy. CRT maintains: that racism is engrained in the fabric and system of the…

Marshall DeRosa
May 5, 2014

The Virus of Centralization Blog Post

In my previous post on this website I addressed the Lincoln’s 1863 revelation to Governor Pierpont that the war must be protracted in order for the politically connected to rape the South of its cotton. The recent events in Nevada, during which the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) squared off with rancher Cliven Bundy, are symptoms of a sick…

Marshall DeRosa
April 14, 2014

Lincoln’s War for Cotton Blog Post

Early in the winter of 1863 Francis Pierpont, the Governor of the Restored Government of Virginia, met with President Lincoln at the White House requesting he countermand the order sending General Nathaniel P. Banks to New Orleans. Governor Pierpont argued that Union forces be focused on Richmond, with the objective of forcing the CSA Government to flee and thereby resulting…

Marshall DeRosa
April 12, 2014