Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Secessionist classic now online

Alexander H. Stephens' book, A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States, has been posted online at constitution.org. In a series of conversations ("colliloquies") originally published in 1868, the Confederate Vice President explains the relationship between the Federal Government and the States from the Constitution itself, the writings of the Founding Fathers, and the ratifying debates. He also discusses the views of Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, and relates it to the Confederate cause during the War Between the States.

The .html file is not terribly easy to read, being a direct scan from the original, which requires some adjustment to reading the footnotes as they appeared at the bottom of each page in the original. It also contains a number of helpful appendices, including the Confederate Constitution. On the other hand, the book is difficult to find, and is expensive to purchase (I bought mine about ten years ago for $80.00).

It is excellent reading for anyone who wishes to understand the Constitutional and legal bases for State sovereignty.

3 comments:

Andrea Muhrrteyn said...

FYI:

Cape Republic of Good Hope Secession Discussion:I Luv South Africa, but I Hate My Goverment:

* 2552 Cape Secessionists Vote for Independence from South Africa

* Secession Anyone? Q & A on Cape Party Issues

* Secession Riddle: Are You Seriously Considering Viability of Secession?

* Parallel Goals: Political Secession and Economic Relocalisation

* Financial Secession from the Tape Worm Debt Slavery Economy: Local Currencies

Daily Paul: Secession Networking: Cape Republic of Good Hope

Mercurius Aulicus said...

There is a copy available on Google Books too: http://books.google.com/books?id=fsMLAAAAIAAJ&oe=UTF-8

PhreedomPhan said...

Great find! I'll be copying and pasting that and adding it to my library disk.

If you haven't already been there, www://yamaguchy.netfirms.com has a great collection of old books. Many are on the monetary control by banks that has contributed most to the decline of our liberty.

If you haven't already visited my post on regionalism on my lostliberty blog, you should. The link below should take you right to the post skipping everything else. It shows the 20th Century drive to eliminate our State and local governments.

http://phreedomphan-lostliberty.blogspot.com/2008/07/regionalism-death-of-american-system.html

Rick
http://PhreedomPhan-lostliberty.blogspot.com
http://phreedomphan-americasenemies.blogspot.com