It was really “Deconstruction”

What the “history” books referred to as “Reconstruction” after the War of Northern Aggression was really the complete destruction of what was left of the Old South when the war ended. It was what Karl Marx glowingly referred to as “the reconstruction of a social world.” The Northern government, peopled at that time with a plethora of “South haters,” much like today, planned on destroying the history and traditions of the Old South and replacing them with Marxist monstrosities much like we see today. No Confederate flags were allowed to be displayed in the South and even the buttons on soldiers’ uniforms that said CSA had to be removed. Sound familiar?

Rev. James Hugh McNeilly wrote about this way back in 1920 and some of his commentary was reproduced in the book Twelve Years in Hell published by Sea Raven Press last year. Rev. McNeilly said, in part, “To those who passed through the experiences of Reconstruction in the South after the War Between the States the memory of those evil days lies on heart and mind ‘with a weight heavy as frost and deep almost as life.’ They can never forget the cruel humiliations to which they were subjected, the stupendous iniquities perpetrated in the name of law, the pitiful and cowardly tyrannies inflicted on them by adventurers who followed in the wake of war and who were backed by all the powers of the (then leftwing Republican) government. It was the nightmare period of Southern history. A radical and fanatical (socialist and communist) majority in the United States Congress, moved and inspired by leaders who were themselves the embodiment of frenzied and malignant hatred of the South, trampled on and flouted the very foundation principles of liberty and exercised a despotism as brutal as the oppression of Turk or Russian…”

Rev. McNeilly continued: “It may be properly asked: ‘If it is all over and gone, why recall the story to a new generation which is free from its evils?’… First, the truth of history demands and justice requires that the character and deeds of the Southern people of that day be vindicated against the falsehoods by which Northern speakers and writers try to justify or excuse the wrongs then forced on the South; and, second, the present generation is not free from the evils brought on by Reconstruction. Its fruit largely remains, and a knowledge of the source of present ills may help toward correcting them.”

Only problem is that they haven’t really been corrected and the mindset that spawned them is still alive and well. All you have to do is look at the current comments and worldview of commentators on Fox News. They still rant and rave about how evil the Old South was and how the “Great Emancipator Lincoln” straightened it all out with what he did. Their view of our history, especially the part to do with the War of Northern Aggression and the reasons for it comports admirably with the views of Lincoln’s leftist associates back in that day. If you doubt that, just listen to Mark Levin sometime when he touches on this subject and how bad Southern Democrats were back then. The fact that many in the Republican Establishment were socialists and/or communists of some stripe is totally ignored. You’re not supposed to know about that and Levin and his crowd ain’t about to let you in on that fact.

If you want to learn about the leftism so apparent in the early Republican Party, you need to check out books like To the Victor Go the Myths and Monuments by Arthur R. Thompson which goes into some detail about the leftist proclivities of the early Republicans. Back in the 1860s, the Republicans were the Democratic Socialists of that day. Believe it or not, the Democrats were the conservatives while the Republicans were the screaming leftists. Today, the positions are somewhat reversed, though there are still Republicans that fit that mold. Can anyone say Liz Cheney?

Although Reconstruction only officially lasted 12 years, it continued for much longer than that and still lingers even today. Part of Reconstruction was the advent of the public school system in the South. Up until the War, education in the South had always been private and/or locally controlled. During Reconstruction, all that changed, and the states were required to now have state controlled public education funded by taxation. If some of you all check out your property tax bills you can see how much of that money goes to public schools. That’s one reason, among others, why I support private education and homeschooling.

Reconstruction has never ceased in the South and the state is still trying to do away with any remembrances of the Old South. They’re still removing your flags and monuments and telling you your ancestors were traitors, so what has changed really in the last 150 years? They don’t call it Reconstruction anymore, so the names have changed. Now, it’s “Critical Race Theory” or some other phony euphemism that basically denigrates any and all Southern history and tradition. This is why I still say so often that “Reconstruction is ongoing.”

-By Al Benson Jr.