On 1 October 2011 the Maryland League of the South held a "Liberating Maryland" forum in Buckeystown. Built in the late 1700's Alexander's Restaurant provided an historic, welcoming setting in which to meet and to address some important issues. The room where we convened houses statuary inspired by the War of Secession era. [One of our participants Raleigh Boaze did us the favor, however, of turning the only offensive statue to the wall for the duration of our meeting...it was a depiction of the author of the tyranny against which we spoke that Saturday and two of his henchmen...and we thank Raleigh for his thoughtfulness and quick thinking in sparing us the necessity of having to look at "Honest" Abe. ] Our speakers included Michael Peroutka, former Constitution Party presidential candidate; Reverend David Whitney, senior instructor at the Institute on the Constitution; Shane Long, vice chairman of the Maryland League of the South; and the writer of this post, Joyce Bennett, Maryland LS chairman.
I got things started with a recitation of the most common misconceptions about our state. [See "The Ten Biggest Lies You've Been Told About Maryland" below] Then Shane Long spoke to us about taking a stand for our Southern heritage. He pointed out that there are many Marylanders who are traditionalists but who just need to be encouraged by a determined few bold enough to fly the Battle Flag, to put Southern bumper stickers on our vehicles and to display Southern pride. Shane has been conducting "flagging" events around the state. He says the response to the flag waving is most often positive. Shane also called attention to the need to establish regional chapters of the Maryland League of the South. Anyone who is interested in doing so can contact us at chairman@marylandls.org.
The discussions that followed centered around partition and secession and the constitutionality and practicality of both. Michael Peroutka, who founded the Institute on the Constitution, challenged the faulty presuppositions many of us hold regarding government. Contrasting the Biblical view versus the pagan socialist view of the American republic, he reminded us that our rights are derived solely from our Creator--not from the state-- and that the purpose of government is to protect these "God-given rights." There is no right to single payer national health care or to Head Start programs or to stimulus money, only to that which is divinely bestowed: the right to life for the born and unborn, the right to practice one's faith, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.
He also challenged the notion that the U.S. Constitution calls for the "separation of Church and state." It does no such thing. It simply states that Congress cannot establish a national religion or keep us from worshiping as we please. In fact there is nothing in that document that prevents, for example, Maryland from establishing a religion...it is only the federal government that is prohibited from doing this. [We are not interested in what the Marxists at the ACLU think regarding religious freedom. ]
Michael asked us to consider the fact that "our" current form of government is a product of secession...nine states seceded from the union established under the Articles of Confederation to enter into a compact called the Constitution. Most importantly, he warned us that those who have a stake hold in the perpetuation of the extra-constitutional powers of the nationalist regime will resort to all sorts of trickery and name calling to silence dissent. And he cautioned us not to be manipulated by their Stalinist attempts to label those who seek freedom as "extremist" or "crazy."
Reverend David Whitney, who is also the pastor of the Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Pasadena, Maryland, followed Michael with a discussion of Maryland's Constitution and the constitutional case for the partitioning of "red" Maryland from "blue" Maryland. Rev. Whitney spoke of State Senator Richard Colburn's introduction of a 1998 bill calling for a referendum on the secession of the Eastern Shore from the rest of Maryland. Rev. Whitney cited Article I of the Declaration of Rights in the Maryland Constitution as the basis for such a move:
"That all Government of right originates from the People, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole; and they have, at all times, the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their Form of Government in such manner as they may deem expedient."
Senator Colburn had proposed that the seceded Eastern Shore counties unite with certain counties in Delaware and Virginia to form a new state called Delmarva.
Secession, according to Rev. Whitney, is "...far from a dead issue in...Maryland..," and in 2011 testifying before the State Judicial Proceedings Committee on proposed "marriage equity" legislation, he called for the separation of the morally and culturally intact counties of Maryland from certain liberal, urban counties. He called on legislators to be mindful that as the Maryland Constitution clearly states God is the Guarantor of freedoms, and His law prevails.
Our forum ended on this note. With 26 attending that day, many who were new to our organisation, we considered it a success. The staff of Alexander's were gracious and did a superb job. Look for more events in the future in various locations across our state. JLB
The 10 Biggest Lies You've Been Told About Maryland
1. Maryland is located in the Northeast. No our state lies east not south of Virginia and West Virginia. Our growing season is comparable to Northern Mississippi. Annapolis, Maryland is south of Leesburg and Wincester, Virginia. The northernmost point of Virginia is less than 20 miles from the Mason Dixon, Maryland's northern border. The growing season of tidewater Maryland is comparable to Northern Mississippi and cotton, peanuts,figs, pecans, kudzu, magnolias, azaleas, cypress and red cedar grow in our state.
2. Maryland has a Northern culture. Maryland's traditional culture is Southern and was recognized at such until very recently. Along with Virginia, Maryland comprised what is known as the First South. Maryland recipes are routinely found in old Southern cookbooks; Maryland contributed bourbon and the mint julep, ham stuffing and fried chicken to the cuisine of the Southland. Maryland contributed tobacco growing and horse racing to the Southland. Movie makers at one time routinely portrayed Marylanders as Southerners. "Maryland! My Maryland!" --a hymn to secession-- is heard twice in the film "Gone with the Wind."
3. Marylanders speak "Northern." We have not traditionally spoken Northern, but authentic Maryland accents are heard less and less today because of shifting demographics and the influence of the mass media. But our language is still alive, and we need to take a stand for this linguistic legacy. 2002 Washington Times article, Jon Ward writes that the farmers at a tcco auction in Upper Marlboro, Maryland “... communicated by mutters and grunts. When they spoke loudly enough teard, it was with a distinct Southern twang.” ["Tobacco Tradition Terminal, March 27, 2002]
4. Fourth graders in the Old Line State's public schools are taught Maryland history. No they are taught revisionist history in which Barbara Frietchie is celebrated but not Rose O'Neal Greenhow, the Confederate spy who saved the day at First Manassas. Henry Kyd Douglas, Stonewall Jackson's aide, said that the flag incident never occurred in Frederick, Maryland, and even Barbara Frietchie's own kin denied the tale's veracity. This legend, however, is emphasised at the expense of real events in Maryland schools.
5. Maryland loved Lincoln. Lincoln took no county in Maryland in the 1860 presidential election and received only 2½% of the popular vote in the state. John Breckinridge was the victor in Maryland.
6. Maryland was a "loyal" state during the "Civil War." Maryland was occupied and invaded by Lincoln's armies.
7. About 63,000 Marylanders fought for the North. If duplicate names are deducted from this number, according to Wayde Chrismer, Maryland historian, the number is reduced to 40,000. From this new number must be subtracted the starving foreigners induced to fight the "Dixies" with empty promises and who comprised 25 % of Yankee troops; the Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers recruited above the Mason and Dixon to fill Maryland's quota, a quota never satisfied; and the freemen and slaves [19%] who joined or who were drafted by the Yankees [the numbers of Union troops from an occupied Southern state cannot be compared to the numbers from an unoccupied Southern state].
8. Regardless of statistics on Marylanders who fought for the Confederacy, Southerners have always considered Maryland a Northern state. This is false. In a 1902 speech before the Eighth Annual Convention of the Georgia United Daughters of the Confederacy, Anna Caroline Benning in lamenting the lack of credit given to Southern states for their contributions to the founding of America included Maryland in the South:
“Georgia expended in 1901 more than a million and a half dollars on the education of her children. Yet she will receive scant honor from these children if they are to learn it from the text-books used in her schools. For example, in Eggleston's 'A First Book in American History,' colonial Georgia is not mentioned. The same is true of the Carolinas and Maryland, but we find eleven pages about Miles Standish, with illustrations galore.” 1
And no less an authority on the South than Jefferson Davis said of our state: “...Maryland was the outpost of the South on the frontier first to be approached by Northern invasion. The first demonstration against southern sovereignty was to be made there ..."
10. Maryland will never be free again. Help the League of the South make this the biggest lie of all. Please join today by going to dixienet.org.
Finally! The New York people have trashed our state long enough! They have come down from up there because their own state has been raveged by Hillary Clinton and job losing politics of the left wing. They are destroying the culture of Maryland, Virginia and are starting to destroy Carolina too.
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