Prattville Dragoons SCV

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The Prattville Dragoons, Camp 1524, Sons of Confederate Veterans, are preserving the history and legacy of the heroes who fought tyranny to preserve their constitutional rights.

Missouri Supreme Court Judge William B. Napton, who supported O’Conor’s presidential candidacy in 1872, quoted O’Conor’s...
12/02/2025

Missouri Supreme Court Judge William B. Napton, who supported O’Conor’s presidential candidacy in 1872, quoted O’Conor’s words about the war’s consequences admiringly. He agreed with O’Conor’s assessment of the war’s coercive effect on the rule of law, and insisted that the battlefield’s resolution of the secession issue was illegitimate:

“A Union such as we had under the old Constitution could never be created or preserved or restored by force. There might be territorial unity - there might be conquest - but there could be no Union, in the old sense of the term.” Napton believed that determining the legality of secession through military might was incompatible with the rule of law. “The right of secession was disputed and the rebellion was put down by force. So much paper assertions and declarations. The right is settled by might,” Napton lamented.

(Napton, The Union on Trial, 312-13, 530)

The Constitution made crystal clear the role of the States as the parties thereto by setting forth the terms whereby it ...
12/01/2025

The Constitution made crystal clear the role of the States as the parties thereto by setting forth the terms whereby it could be amended and was to be ratified. Article V required all amendments to be "ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof." And if there was any doubt about the fact that the Constitution was an agreement entered into by and between the States, Article VII proclaimed, "The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.” Plainly and simply, the Constitution agreed to by the delegates in Philadelphia and, ultimately, the ratifiers in each of the States, was a "constitution between the States so ratifying the same." It was not a constitution among the people.

~ Secession: A Constitutional Remedy That Protects Fundamental Liberties, Kent Masterson Brown

The new Constitution became effective when ratified by nine of the thirteen states, forming a union among the states as ...
11/30/2025

The new Constitution became effective when ratified by nine of the thirteen states, forming a union among the states as an aggregated whole, as the people of four of the states could remain separate from the other nine. Indeed, North Carolina and Rhode Island remained outside the Union for a year after the new Constitution went into effect. What was more, New York’s ratifying convention declared that “the powers of the government may be reassumed by the people [presumably within the states], whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness.” The Constitution was formed by the people within each individual state rather than the aggregate, and since the Union had been formed by secession despite the Articles’ declaration of the Union’s perpetuity, the states could again secede whenever they so desired.

Lincoln found upon himself the responsibility for the war. It is significant that he never convened Congress until July ...
11/30/2025

Lincoln found upon himself the responsibility for the war.

It is significant that he never convened Congress until July 4, 1861, months after he had the war actively inaugurated. In his message to this Congress, he acknowledged having committed unconstitutional acts. The flimsy sophisms by which he attempted to excuse his usurpations would not be allowed in any court. On July 10th, a joint resolution was introduced in the U. S. Senate to legalize Lincoln's unconstitutional acts.

The Joint Resolution names the following six unconstitutional acts, as confessed by Lincoln:

1. He called for 75,000 men, April 15th, 1861.
2. He proclaims a blockade, April 19th, 1861.
3. He proclaims a second blockade, April 27th, 1861.
4. He authorized a military officer to suspend Habeas Corpus in Maryland and Pennsylvania, April 27th, 1861.
5. He called for 35,000 volunteers, May 3rd, 1861.
6. He authorized a military officer to suspend Habeas Corpus in Florida, May 10th, 1861.

Here is the enacting clause of that Joint Resolution:

“Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled; That all the extraordinary acts, proclamations, and orders hereinbefore mentioned be and the same are hereby approved, and declared to be in all respects legal and valid, to the same, and with the same effect as if they 'had been issued and done under the previous express authority, and direction, of the Congress of the United States.”

In this enacting clause Congress itself brands Lincoln's acts as illegal, invalid, unconstitutional.

THE REAL REASON LINCOLN REFUSED TO ACCEPT SECESSION. The Confederate constitution outlawed protective tariffs, her lower...
11/29/2025

THE REAL REASON LINCOLN REFUSED TO ACCEPT SECESSION.

The Confederate constitution outlawed protective tariffs, her lower tariffs would confront the remaining states of the Union with two consequences. One would be a shrinkage in tariff revenues. Articles imported into the Confederacy would divert the applicable import duties from the North to the South. Since tariffs represented ninety percent of all Federal taxes such a drop was significant. Even more importantly, a low Confederate tariff would induce Southerners to buy manufactured goods from Europe as opposed to the Northern states where prices were inflated by protective tariffs. Consequently, the market for Northern manufactured goods in the South might nearly vanish.

In discussing Robert E. Lee at different times in 1862-63, Mr. Stephens said:“I have always regarded him as the ablest m...
11/27/2025

In discussing Robert E. Lee at different times in 1862-63, Mr. Stephens said:

“I have always regarded him as the ablest man in our army; indeed, the first military man on the continent. The last time Mr. Davis consulted me on any question was about who should be sent to command at Charleston. I urged him to send Lee. Lee was sent. This was in November, 1861…I was wonderfully taken with Lee in our first interview. I saw him put to the test that tries character. He came out of the crucible, pure and refined gold.”

•Alexander Stephens, Recollections, p. 80-81

This excerpt from George Lunt’s Origins of the Late War, gives us a sense of what forced emancipation caused. . .Probabl...
11/27/2025

This excerpt from George Lunt’s Origins of the Late War, gives us a sense of what forced emancipation caused. . .

Probably, no more significant and forceable illustration of Negro freedom could be offered, then by the following incident of 1865, related in the Atlanta Intelligencer, as told to the editor by a friend:

“Coming,” he says, “to Atlanta, on Monday last, I saw an old freed woman King on the side of the road, dead, and two younger ones standing by her remains. I asked what had been the matter with her. The reply from one of the girls was, ‘she perish to death, sir; but she free though.’”

The voices of “the people” were always heard through the States, just as they were in 1860 and 1861. “. . . expounding t...
11/25/2025

The voices of “the people” were always heard through the States, just as they were in 1860 and 1861.

“. . . expounding the constitution. As the instrument came from them, it was nothing more than the draught of a plan, nothing but a dead letter, until life and validity were breathed into it, by the voice of the people, speaking through the several state conventions. If we were to look therefore, for the meaning of the instrument, beyond the face of the instrument, we must look for it not in the general convention, which proposed, but in the state conventions, which accepted and ratified the constitution.”

~ James Madison in Congress, April 6, 1796

Fort Sumter Timeline:Dec 6, 1860, an armistice was reached between President Buchanan and Gov. Pickens that there would ...
11/24/2025

Fort Sumter Timeline:

Dec 6, 1860, an armistice was reached between President Buchanan and Gov. Pickens that there would be no attempt to resupply the forts at Charleston Bay as long as there was no aggressive action taken against them.

Dec 20, South Carolina seceded.

Dec. 26, Maj. Anderson secretly moved his garrison from Ft. Moultre to Ft. Sumter.

In a letter delivered Jan 31, 1861, South Carolina Gov Pickens demanded of Pres Buchanan that he surrender Ft Sumter because "I regard that possession is not consistent with the dignity or safety of the State of South Carolina."

South Carolina Gov Pickens sent peace commisioners to Washington on Dec 26, to compensate them for the federal property in the seceded state.

Buchanan made it clear that he did not give the order to Anderson for his move.

Dec 31, the President had sufficiently stiffened his resolve to hold Sumter and he initiated measures to reinforce it.

Jan 5, the Star of the West sailed from New York with troops and supplies to relieve the fort.

Jan 9, the Star of the West arrived at Charleston Harbor to resupply Ft Sumter. The ship was fired upon by cadets from the Citadel Academy and was hit three times. Although Star of the West suffered no major damage, her captain, John McGowan, considered it to be too dangerous to continue and the mission was abandoned.

Feb 6, Pres Buchanan also reaffirmed the armistice in regard to Ft Pickens to the effect that there would be no further reinforcements.

Before his inauguration, Lincoln had sent a confidential message to Gen Winfield Scott to be ready, when his inauguration, Mar 4, should take place, to hold or retake the forts. President Lincoln on Mar 12, directed Montgomery Blair, one of his Cabinet members, to telegraph Captain G. V. Fox, formerly of the Navy, to come to Washington to arrange for reinforcing Ft Sumter. G. V. Fox, on Mar 15, was sent to Ft Sumter, and arranged with Maj Anderson for reinforcement.

Mar 29, Lincoln, without consent of his Cabinet, ordered three ships with 300 men and provisions to be ready to go to Ft Sumter. All orders were marked “private.” On that same day Lincoln directed Seward to address to the Confederate Peace Commissioners in Washington, and say “that they had no design to reinforce Ft Sumter.” In expeditions were ordered to garrison and provision Ft Sumter and Ft Pickens while the armistice was yet in force. South Carolina observed her agreement faithfully, to make no attack on Ft Sumter on account of promises made to evacuate the premises by Seward, as well as its permission, continued into Apr, 1861, for Maj Anderson to purchase fresh provisions in the markets of Charleston. This points out a peaceable disposition which cannot be misunderstood, unless Lincoln was looking to provoke war.

April 7, Maj Anderson was informed that reinforcement of Sumter was underway.

Not until sufficient time had elapsed to cover the estimated landing of the vessels were the Confederate Peace Commissioners informed of these facts regarding Lincoln’s intent to reinforce the forts. On the Apr 8, South Carolina was officially informed that “an attempt would be made to supply Ft Sumter, peaceably if they could, forcibly if they must.” 8 armed vessels with soldiers aboard had been sent and moved so quickly on this expedition that only an unexpected storm at sea caused delay enough for the Confederate authorities to successfully meet the issue.

April 11, permission was given to Confederate Gen P G T Beauregard to demand the surrender of Ft Sumter. Anderson was ordered to surrender the fort. He refused to do so until he could receive orders from the U. S. authorities.

Gen Beauregard exchanged the usual formalities with Maj Anderson which included a directive that unless the fort was surrendered within a specified time it would be fired upon. At 4:30 am on Apr 12, the Confederates opened fire on the fort.

Anderson on the 14th surrendered and on the 15th evacuated the position with honors.

The States were forced into submission to the central government. We went from citizens of the States, to citizens of th...
11/23/2025

The States were forced into submission to the central government. We went from citizens of the States, to citizens of the USA, by unconstitutional means.

The Republican majority in Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Thereafter, Congress ignored the guarantee clause - "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government" in favor of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, authority for persistent intervention in each state's affairs. These amendments shifted the primary explanation and enforcement of citizenship rights from the states to the national government and centralized power in Washington while depriving the states of their separate and autonomous political responsibilities. They demonstrated this in 1873 when the federal courts, supported by the military force of the U.S. Army, emerged as the primary agencies to enforce equal rights in the South.

(Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution by James M. McPherson, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992, pp. 141-142)

Secession into small republics is the only answer. Have we not reached that condition today where the States are conside...
11/23/2025

Secession into small republics is the only answer.

Have we not reached that condition today where the States are considered little more than administrative units of the central government? Nearly every aspect of life is under regulation of the central government. A lawmaking majority in Congress along with the president is only 269. That small number rules 305 million people.

It is simply not possible for that small number to manage such a vast sum for the public good. And what could the "public good" even mean at the scale of 305 million people? By virtue of size alone, Washington could not be anything other than a scene of frenzied pork-barrel spending, waste, inefficiency, corruption, and special-interest patronage for the politically well connected.

~ Donald Livingston

"When the State of Virginia became one of the Confederate States, and her troops were turned over to the Confederate Gov...
11/22/2025

"When the State of Virginia became one of the Confederate States, and her troops were turned over to the Confederate Government, I embraced the cause of the whole Confederacy with equal ardor, and continued in the service, with the determination to devote all the energy and talent I possessed to the common defense. I fought through the entire war, without once regretting the course I had pursued; with an abiding faith in the justice of our cause; and I never saw the moment when I would have been willing to consent to any compromise or settlement short of the absolute independence of my country."
~ Confederate States of America by Jubal A. Early, 1867

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