States' Rights and All That Stuff

All this revisionist theory regarding the glorification of the old South, the sacred honor of the Confederacy, nullification, secession and other blather by people who only used history books for propping up the entertainment center is more than a little weird.

Forget the high falutin’ ideals of Abraham Lincoln. Take a look at “Old Hickory” himself, President Andy Jackson, a true Southerner before he became a Westerner, South Carolina born, and the first “common man” to gain the presidency.

When in 1828 he was faced with the most vexing problem of his administration, a tariff on British trade that would curtail profits in the south, his arch enemy was his own vice-president and S. Carolinian John C. Calhoun.

When Calhoun started spouting off about nullification rights (states could nullify federal laws they consider unconstitutional or could secede) and talked of “setting up their own government” Jackson understood, and stated, that the question was not about the tariff but of Union and the threat of disunion, which he considered treason.

Jackson stated bluntly that such talk was treasonous and if anything came of it he would “hang Calhoun from a tall tree.”

According to Jackson “the tariff can be modified” and it was.

Jackson also stated emphatically that the goal and purpose of the United States was Liberty and Union and as long as he had the power he would uphold that dual premise.

Of course Jackson threatened so often to hang somebody from a tall tree you had to kind of assume he probably had at one time or another. Jackson was not a gentleman’s gentleman.

Easter, the Time of New Beginnings

Around here Easter is the real beginning of the year. It comes at the most marvelous time.

Just a few short weeks ago sleet and ice lashed and beat us. But now, in an eye blink of time, all snow and ice is gone and nothing but green stretches away across the pasture. Newborn calves dot the fields passed on my way to work and geese, who never do anything quietly, wake me early with the whoosh, whoosh of many wings and their excited discussion of travel plans laid down in their DNA by ancestors almost as old as the earth over which they fly.

The mother skunk who lives under Rudy’s Discount Smoke Shop, where I work, is not to be seen. I suspect she is tending a new family and the occasional white-tail does seen at the roadside are more alert..on guard and newly slimmed, from their late winter birthings.

The neighbor had the first yard sale of the year and “Eggs for Sale” signs are being posted up and down the road. I am anxious for the “perfect conditions” necessary to spring plow the garden. It has to be right. Not to wet… not too late…

Yes, Easter is the real New Beginning. I hope and pray a good and happy one for all of you.