Rhett had clear vision even as early as 1828. Why did it take so many others until December of 1860 to see what he saw?
Wishful thinking. Self delusion. Moral cowardice. Social ostracism. Failure of leadership. All the same reasons that marginalize us today.
Rhett was profoundly eloquent and possessed that essential requirement of leadership–vision. He was not alone, however. Calhoun was at the center of the nullification crisis around this same time. There were others as well.
I’m sure you know that it is easier to get into trouble than to get out of it.
Even earlier Southerners had tried to safeguard their rights with the Bill of Rights and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. In hindsight, they should have never ratified the Constitution at all. This is easy to see now, but it wasn’t back then.
There were visionary voices such John Randolph of Roanoke sounding the warning.
“I am an aristocrat. I love liberty, I hate equality.”
“The people of this country, if ever they lose their liberties, will do it by sacrificing some great principle of government to temporary passion. There are certain great principles, which if they are not held inviolable, at all seasons, our liberty is gone. If we give them up, it is perfectly immaterial what is the character of our sovereign; whether he be King or President, elective or hereditary — it is perfectly immaterial what is his character — we shall be slaves — it is not an elective government which will preserve us.”
The eradication of mistakes is a painful, difficult, and uncertain process. Recognition of the situation evolves over time, until the full reality can be articulated and acted upon. This is why vision is so vital to leadership and why leadership is so vital to our future.
Our times are not unlike theirs. The growing recognition of the insufferable burden of BRA continues. We hope and pray that leaders such as Rhett, Calhoun, and Randolph will arise as they must. Their legacy is our future.
Deo Vindice
If this Rhett person truly had any brains he would have rounded up a posse and shot down all the slave traders in Charlestown, if he truly had any brains. There’d be alot less negroes around today, if this Rhett person truly had any brains.
Joe: Your last post has got to be among the top 10 stupidest comments I’ve ever seen on the net. And that’s THE TRUTH, yes sirree Bob!
@ Wayne
Well, barbeque my ham hocks!
Google : “knights of the golden circle”.
America ceased importing slaves many years before Rhett. The danger of increasing numbers of blacks was recognized by southerners back as far as the 1790s.
Joe just provided the John Brown solution. The ass who actually started the conflict by running into a town trying to stir up black chimpout.
@John
Not true. There was a huge, ongoing slave trade even after it was made officially illegal to bring more Africans into the US. Google it. The law is one thing, what actually occurred is another.
Rhett supported that illegal importation of Africans into the US. He wasn’t law-abiding, for all his fine words. He wanted to break off with the Union so as to be part of The Golden Circle Slave Empire :” Dixie + Mexico + Cuba + Brazil”
Doesn’t sound like a patriotic American sort to me. He didn’t give a shit for what his own Southern Founding Fathers had to say. He just wanted a Slave Empire.
That’s all he was about. I have no use for him.
I’ve always wondered if Southron people ratified the constitution because they feared the British would invaded them without the additional military support of the other colonies
Brazil wasn’t part of the Golden Circle. It is true though that Rhett was an expansionist.
As for conspiracy theories, they are mostly ridiculous because Rhett was marginalized years before secession and even Rhett and Yancey – the two foremost secessionists in the Lower South – barely cooperated to bring about secession.
Rhett had clear vision even as early as 1828. Why did it take so many others until December of 1860 to see what he saw?
Wishful thinking. Self delusion. Moral cowardice. Social ostracism. Failure of leadership. All the same reasons that marginalize us today.
Rhett was profoundly eloquent and possessed that essential requirement of leadership–vision. He was not alone, however. Calhoun was at the center of the nullification crisis around this same time. There were others as well.
I’m sure you know that it is easier to get into trouble than to get out of it.
Even earlier Southerners had tried to safeguard their rights with the Bill of Rights and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. In hindsight, they should have never ratified the Constitution at all. This is easy to see now, but it wasn’t back then.
There were visionary voices such John Randolph of Roanoke sounding the warning.
“I am an aristocrat. I love liberty, I hate equality.”
“The people of this country, if ever they lose their liberties, will do it by sacrificing some great principle of government to temporary passion. There are certain great principles, which if they are not held inviolable, at all seasons, our liberty is gone. If we give them up, it is perfectly immaterial what is the character of our sovereign; whether he be King or President, elective or hereditary — it is perfectly immaterial what is his character — we shall be slaves — it is not an elective government which will preserve us.”
The eradication of mistakes is a painful, difficult, and uncertain process. Recognition of the situation evolves over time, until the full reality can be articulated and acted upon. This is why vision is so vital to leadership and why leadership is so vital to our future.
Our times are not unlike theirs. The growing recognition of the insufferable burden of BRA continues. We hope and pray that leaders such as Rhett, Calhoun, and Randolph will arise as they must. Their legacy is our future.
Deo Vindice
If this Rhett person truly had any brains he would have rounded up a posse and shot down all the slave traders in Charlestown, if he truly had any brains. There’d be alot less negroes around today, if this Rhett person truly had any brains.
Joe: Your last post has got to be among the top 10 stupidest comments I’ve ever seen on the net. And that’s THE TRUTH, yes sirree Bob!
@ Wayne
Well, barbeque my ham hocks!
Google : “knights of the golden circle”.
America ceased importing slaves many years before Rhett. The danger of increasing numbers of blacks was recognized by southerners back as far as the 1790s.
Joe just provided the John Brown solution. The ass who actually started the conflict by running into a town trying to stir up black chimpout.
@John
Not true. There was a huge, ongoing slave trade even after it was made officially illegal to bring more Africans into the US. Google it. The law is one thing, what actually occurred is another.
Rhett supported that illegal importation of Africans into the US. He wasn’t law-abiding, for all his fine words. He wanted to break off with the Union so as to be part of The Golden Circle Slave Empire :” Dixie + Mexico + Cuba + Brazil”
Doesn’t sound like a patriotic American sort to me. He didn’t give a shit for what his own Southern Founding Fathers had to say. He just wanted a Slave Empire.
That’s all he was about. I have no use for him.
I’ve always wondered if Southron people ratified the constitution because they feared the British would invaded them without the additional military support of the other colonies
Brazil wasn’t part of the Golden Circle. It is true though that Rhett was an expansionist.
I’m reviewing this book down the road:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0813025125
As for conspiracy theories, they are mostly ridiculous because Rhett was marginalized years before secession and even Rhett and Yancey – the two foremost secessionists in the Lower South – barely cooperated to bring about secession.