Taking a Stand for Maryland's History,  Heritage and Geography

This letter appeared on 25 July in The County Times, a St. Mary's County weekly newspaper.   

To the Editor:

The St. Mary's County Division of Tourism website states that during the “Civil War” Maryland had “Union loyalty and Southern sympathy,” a sophistry that is popular lately with those who are attempting to revise Maryland's history. Maryland was held in the Union by force as the North's own official records bear out. The website also implies that St. Mary's County was divided in that ugly internecine conflict because though most St. Mary's whites were “secesh,” 600 African-Americans “from” the county wore blue. In the occupied South, and that includes Maryland, however, there naturally would have been many slaves and freedmen joining the Union army. They would have had no such opportunity in unoccupied Southern states. The fact that black Marylanders fought for the North does not prove the state's loyalty to Lincoln. It is a non sequitur to consider a conquered Southern state a loyal Northern state.

And completely disregarding latitude, the Division of Tourism calls Point Lookout a Northern prison and designates Maryland as “physically part of the North.” To the contrary, the infamous Point Lookout was not located in the North any more than was Virginia's Fortress Monroe. It was a prison established by the Yankees in occupied Maryland, it's purpose as much to keep the local secessionist population in check as to keep Confederate soldiers penned up. Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon. For a little geographical perspective, consider that ninety five percent of Maryland lies east not north of Virginia. Annapolis is south of Winchester, while the southernmost point of Maryland is well south of Charlottesville.

Until more recent times Maryland has been considered part of Dixie by most Americans. She is being reconstructed by South haters, by carpetbaggers who despise the Old Line State but who have come here for the jobs created by military installations, the vast federal bureaucracy in nearby D.C. and local governmental offices such as the Division of Tourism. These newcomers with a profound and uninformed condescension have destroyed our way of life, ridiculed our ancient Tidewater speech and traditions to near extinction, replaced our comity with Northern rudeness and vulgarity. They have even tried to outlaw our state song because its words, including a reference to “Northern scum,” irrefutably affirm that which they have tried so smugly to deny. But no matter how many lies about our state these Yankee-come-lately cultural cleansers promote, Maryland, which Jefferson Davis called the Outpost of the South, will always have a Southern history, heritage and geography.

Joyce Bennett

Chairman
Maryland League of the South
Clements, Maryland

Southern Freedom Summit & Southern Independence Membership Drive

Please mark your calendars!  On 7 September there will be a Southern Freedom Summit in Leesburg, Virginia co-sponsored by the Maryland and Virginia LS chapters. There will be music, food and speakers addressing the topics of preserving Southern culture and real steps we can take to protect ourselves from an increasingly tyrannical Federal government. More details to follow. Please plan to attend and bring along a new member. 

 The Virginia and Maryland LS chapters have declared July Southern Independence Membership Drive Month.  We are asking each of our members to recruit at least one new member.  And those folks reading this who are not members, now is as good as any time to join the League of the South.  Help us celebrate our Southern culture, language, traditions and take a stand for liberty.  All freedom-loving Marylanders and Virginians who wish to preserve their Southern way of life are invited to join.  Go to dixienet.org for information on becoming a member. 

Also while you are visiting the national League of the South's website, be sure to donate to the Southern relief fund. 

 

 

What does the Second Amendment Really Say?

 

In any debate over gun rights, a command of the English language is much more useful I think than a degree in political science or history. For example, pro-gun control advocates, if they are honest, cannot argue with the rules of grammar although they will try. The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The word State does not refer to the larger American nation but to the individual states which created the union.

 

The first thirteen words of the Second Amendment form a dependent clause, that is a clause that cannot stand alone. While adding information to the sentence, making it more interesting to read, it is not a complete thought and by itself does not constitute a sentence because it lacks a subject and a verb, both of which are required even if the subject is assumed as in the command “Go!”

 

A dependent clause being unnecessary to the sense of a sentence, to its completeness, it can be deleted, and if we delete the introductory dependent clause from the Second Amendment, we are left with the complete sentence: “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms (complete subject) shall not be infringed (verb).”

 

Reducing this most hotly-debated amendment down to “bare bones,” it does not say that the president, the U.S. Congress or the Supreme Court, because an evil man in Connecticut committed an unspeakable act, may now infringe even a little, even with “common sense” measures or rulings from the bench, on this precious right of the people who reside in the several states. Federal usurpers of the power that is constitutionally reserved to these states are fond of using those first thirteen words of the Second Amendment to justify regulating arms. But the Bill of Rights expressly protects the states from all three branches of the federal government, a government, as we have seen in recent times, that is inclined to grow ever more tyrannical improperly applying the Fourteenth Amendment or using the excuse that something must be done “for the children.” President Obama and the Congress have no authority to force extra-constitutional gun “safety” legislation on the states. SCOTUS has no right to rule on state laws regarding guns. State governments may deal with the regulation of militia, the regulation of guns, if their citizens allow these governments to do so.

 

Many of us oppose the gun grab in Maryland, and we are fighting it tooth and nail. But this fight is taking place as it should-- at the state level (and all the shouting might be over by the time this letter is published). If those of us who love liberty in Maryland should lose this battle as we did the one over “marriage equality,” we can shrug our shoulders and give up, continue to fight or vote with our feet...the latter more and more the remedy Marylanders are seeking as carpetbaggers continue to ruin our once free state. On the other hand, because the “red” counties in Maryland outnumber the “blue,” another option might be secession or, more correctly, partition from Montgomery County and the other urban areas now holding conservative, freedom-loving Maryland hostage. It's worth thinking about at least.

 

Please read this clear, cogent and irrefutable argument which the Maryland League of the South's chaplain Pastor David Whitney would have made in testimony before the Maryland State Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee had he been permitted to do so.  

Pastor Whitney testifies in Annapolis against the Gun Grabbing Legislation of Martin O’Malley

February 7, 2013 · Pastor David Whitney

 

Pastor Whitney joined by thousands in protest of Gun Grabbing Legislation

I was joined by thousands on Wednesday Feb 6th to voice our strong opposition to the Governor’s unconstitutional, that it to say, illegal gun confiscation bill. After waiting for 12 hours, much of that time standing, I was the last one attempting to give testimony to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. As I began I was gaveled down by the Chairman, Senator Frosh, who refused to allow me or the hundreds after me to speak, we were only to state our names and where we were from. If I had been allowed to speak, what follows are the remarks I would have made.

SB 281 Firearms Safety Act of 2013
Opposed

Honorable Chairman and Senators, I am Pastor David Whitney Senior Instructor at Institute On The Constitution where I teach the only course available anywhere on the Maryland State Constitution. I oppose this bill because it clearly and directly violates two specific provisions of the Maryland State Constitution. The first provision is from the Declaration of Rights Article 28

Art. 28. That a well regulated Militia is the proper and natural defence of a free Government.

What is critical to answer then is, what is the Militia? It is critical because our Constitution says if we do not have a well regulated Militia then we do not have the natural and proper defence of a free Government. This clearly implies that a tyrannical Government which destroys the liberties of the people will arise without a well regulated Militia. The word Militia had a clear meaning when our Constitution was ratified. Websters 1828 gives the definition as;

The militia of a country are the able bodied men organized into companies, regiments and brigades, with officers of all grades, and required by law to attend military exercises on certain days only, but at other times left to pursue their usual occupations.

In other words the Militia is the citizens of the State of Maryland. Now take that thought and consider it in the light of the body of the Maryland State Constitution Article IX

SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall make, from time to time, such provisions for organizing, equipping and disciplining the Militia, as the exigency may require, and pass such Laws to promote Volunteer Militia organizations as may afford them effectual encouragement.

The word “shall” does not give the State Legislature an option, you must make “provisions for, organizing, equipping” – and that would be with military grade firearms at minimum – as well as “Disciplining the Militia.” This bill does the exact opposite of the requirements of our State Constitution, instead of arming, it disarms the Militia. In addition Article IX Sec 1 requires you to pass laws which would “promote Volunteer Militia organizations” to the end of “affording them effectual encouragement.”

This bill does the opposite of that as well. Therefore this bill is patently unconstitutional. If passed by this body and the House and even signed by the Governor, this bill would not be law in the State of Maryland. It cannot be law unless you first amend out of the Constitution both Declaration of Rights Art. 28 and Art IX Sec 1.

So unless you amend the State Constitution, all those who are sworn to uphold this Constitution as well as all the citizens of this state have a moral obligation to oppose any application of this law including even to the point of using of force. Why? Because the citizens and oath takers must uphold the law – the Militia must never be disarmed, to do so would be the height of tyranny.
On a personal note, remember that you swore an oath to Almighty God to uphold this Constitution. To give a favorable report on this bill will be to violate your oath, showing you are not only unfit for this office, but that you are bound for the last judgment with the curse of oath breaking hanging over you. I ask for your own sake, for the sake of maintaining lawful government in Maryland return an unfavorable report.

     

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Taking a Stand for Maryland's History

In St. Mary's County citizens are waging a campaign to honor a Maryland hero.  They are asking only that a new school be named for him.  So much of Maryland's proud history has been lost to the ages much as Captain Walter Duke, flying ace, was lost for so many decades in the Burmese jungle. I think it appropriate that we take a moment to pay tribute to one of our fallen Southern warriors.    The following was written by Maryland LS member G. P. Wigginton. 

 

A Maryland Fighting Man Comes Home

On 6 August 1921, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, Walter Francis Duke was born into an old Leonardtwon family.  With eight brothers and sisters, he grew up and became a popular, talented and sincere young man.  His father, "Colonel" Duke, and grandfather, Confederate veteran and Point Lookout POW John Francis Duke, were highly respected civic leaders in Leonardtown, and young Walter learned well from them, forming an intense martial spirit and sense of responsibility. 

 

Walter graduated from high school in May 1940 and left home shortly thereafter to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. He learned to fly, sharpened his skills, transferred to the United States Army Air Force in March of 1942, trained more in Alabama, and by spring of 1943 was in India. There, given new formidable Lockheed Lightning P-38 s, he became the leading ace not only of his unit, the 459^th Fighter Squadron, but of the entire China-Burma-India theater. On 6 June 1944, now Captain Duke, returning from a mission, flew back over the Burma jungle to seek out a missing wingman. Walter found him, was satisfied that he was safe, and radioed, “Ok, I’m going home.” This was his last transmission; he was never seen again. It later transpired that a swarm of Japanese fighters pounced on him and that Walter turned into them and knocked three down before they got him. His Lightning crashed and was lost in the vast, almost impenetrable jungle.

In December of 2012 a timber crew, clearing the Burmese forest, found the old wreckage of an American fighter plane. In the cockpit were human remains. The authorities verified that the plane was the one flown by Captain Walter Duke, and DNA analysis confirmed that the pilot was definitely he. It seems that after two-thirds of a century Walter’s last words will be fulfilled: He’s coming home – and he’ll rest in the 18^th century Catholic graveyard near his hometown rather than in some fetid, alien jungle.

He is still, we understand, Maryland’s leading ace. He was officially credited with ten air combat victories and that does not count the three he nailed in his last minutes of life. He also destroyed nine more planes on the ground. A combat report, with uncharacteristic levity, mentioned that Captain Duke scored another coup in that while fiercely strafing an enemy airfield, he managed to shoot up one hostile black sedan.

Some community leaders are requesting that a new school be named for Captain Duke. This is good. By rights there should be one so named already. He’s no more a hero now than he was twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. However, Captain Duke was a warrior, a local boy informed by true patriotism, and proud of his valiant grandfather. All this does not endear him to modernists, so that even though old St. Mary’s County never forgot him, many deracinated young Countians and “right thinking” new people have not even heard of him. But no matter, because whatever else may occur, his final homecoming will be attended by the comforting rites of his ancient church, the condign honors afforded him by the military, and the consoling knowledge that a Marylander will at last be where he belongs: interred with his ancestors in St. Mary’s County.

With apologies to Ennius for the necessary changes, I “quote” his apt aphorism:

Moribus antiquis res stetit Terra Mariae vetus virisque.

Roughly: On ancient codes and on real men stood old Maryland.

G.P.Wigginton