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T Lee Horne III

Male. Lives in Pensacola, Florida, United States. Is single.

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I retired when I turned 50 years old. I am working again at 72 years old.

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CSA II: The New Confederate States of America

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T Lee Horne III

November 17, 2025 8:51 am

By Chet McAteer KICKING THE CONSTITUTION TO THE CELLAR: How Radical Republicans’ Own Words Expose Their War on Law, Liberty, and the South The Radical Republican Party, born amid the fervor of abolit... View MoreBy Chet McAteer KICKING THE CONSTITUTION TO THE CELLAR: How Radical Republicans’ Own Words Expose Their War on Law, Liberty, and the South The Radical Republican Party, born amid the fervor of abolitionism and sectional strife, cloaked its aggressive pursuit of centralized power in the guise of moral righteousness, yet its own leaders’ words reveal a profound contempt for the very Constitutional framework they swore to uphold. This deception not only justified an Unconstitutional war of coercion against the South but also perpetuated a narrative that vilified Southern Secession while ignoring the legal and moral foundations of States’ Rights. President James Buchanan, in his final message to Congress, asserted that the federal government possessed no authority to compel seceding States back into the Union, a view echoed even by Republican voices. As the Lemars Sentinel, a Western Republican newspaper in 1879, candidly admitted, “No reasonable man will say that President Buchanan was wrong when he said that the North had no Constitutional right to coerce seceding States, but what of that? Up jumped Abraham Lincoln… and kicked the Constitution into the Capitol cellar.” This brazen acknowledgment exposes the party’s willingness to trample legal norms for political gain, transforming a voluntary union of Sovereign States into an empire enforced by arms. Morally and legally, the Southern States’ Secession rested on the bedrock principle that the Union was a Compact among equals, entered freely and exit-able under duress. The Constitution, silent on perpetual union, implied no prohibition against withdrawal, especially when Northern states repeatedly nullified federal laws like the Fugitive Slave Act, eroding the Compact's mutuality. Southern leaders invoked the Declaration of Independence’s right to alter or abolish governments destructive to their ends, viewing Secession as a defensive act against encroaching federal overreach that threatened their economic and cultural autonomy. Yet Radical Republicans, in their zeal, inverted this moral imperative, portraying the South as traitorous while their own rhetoric betrayed a disdain for Constitutional fidelity. Wendell Phillips, a prominent abolitionist and Republican ally, denounced the Constitution as a “covenant with death and an agreement with hell,” urging its destruction. William Lloyd Garrison, founder of The Liberator, publicly burned a copy of the document, proclaiming it pro-slavery and unworthy of reverence. Even Henry Ward Beecher, from his pulpit, dismissed it as a mere “sheepskin” deserving no respect. These condemnations, uttered by the party’s intellectual vanguard, unwittingly affirm the South’s moral stance: if the Constitution was so flawed as to sanction evil, how could it morally bind States against their will? Such was the ultimate question, not only morally but legally speaking! The deceptive practices extended into the Party’s internal machinations, where power-lust overshadowed principle, as evidenced by the domineering tactics of figures like Edwin Stanton over Lincoln himself. Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln’s close confidant and U.S. Marshal, recounted in his Recollections how Stanton “arbitrarily refused to obey or carry out President Lincoln’s orders,” treating the chief executive with “almost insulting domination.” In one vivid episode on March 3, 1865, as peace loomed, Stanton erupted in rage at Lincoln’s inclination toward lenient terms for the South, berating him: “Mr. President, you are losing sight of the consideration… If you are not to be President of an obedient and loyal people, you ought not to take the oath of office.” Lincoln, submissive, retracted his position and deferred to Stanton’s dispatch. Such bullying, documented by Lamon, reveals a party elite more interested in vengeance than reconciliation, using deception to mask their cruelty—Stanton, described by contemporaries like Don Piatt as “drunk with lust of power,” rioted in authority, crushing dissenters and favoring the ruthless. This internal tyranny foreshadowed Reconstruction’s horrors, where Radical Republicans overrode Andrew Johnson’s merciful policies, nearly impeaching him for adhering to what they claimed Lincoln might have intended, all while professing unity. Further exposing the Party’s deceit is the systematic suppression of truthful accounts that challenged their sanctified image of Lincoln and the war. William H. Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, penned by his longtime law partner, offered an honest portrait—depicting Lincoln as a “tricky man” with a “cadaverous and woe-struck” appearance, far from the deified savior Republicans promoted. Yet, as Herndon’s relative later revealed, copies were hunted down and destroyed, plates broken, because “Mr. Herndon had told too many truths about Lincoln.” Lamon’s own Recollections faced similar fates, with Republicans fostering hagiographies that whitewashed flaws, ensuring the “real Lincoln disappeared from human knowledge,” as Piatt lamented. This censorship perpetuated the myth of Republican moral superiority, concealing how leaders like Senator Wade stormed at Lincoln, calling him the “father of every military blunder,” or how Hale assailed him from the Senate floor. By their own admissions, these men viewed Lincoln as “weak as an old woman,” yet posthumously elevated him to justify their conquest. Ultimately, the Radical Republicans’ words condemn their legacy of deception, from discarding the Constitution to dominating their own president and silencing dissent. The South’s cause, rooted in legal sovereignty and moral self-determination, stands vindicated against such hypocrisy—a voluntary union perverted into subjugation, all under the false banner of liberty. In Liberty and Eternal Vigilance, C.M.McAteer January 9, 2002

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