The insurrectionists and the people defending the Country
i’ve stopped pretending this is “normal” politics. And, after writing two books on the secession crisis and living through the last year, I’ve stopped saying, “Well, a little bit, i suppose, but that was much worse” when people ask me if current events remind me of 1861.
The last pretense that Donald Trump (and his supporters) are on America’s side is out the window. So is the last pretense that Donald Trump abided by his oath to “protect the Constitution from all enemies, foreign or domestic.”
Speaking at a rally on behalf of the insurrectionists, Trump praised Ashli Babbitt and denounced the policeman who, defending the Capitol, shot her. “A murderer.”
And he left no doubt who he’d be locking up if he ever came back to power. “I will be looking very, very strongly about pardons. Full pardons... and I mean full pardons with an apology.”
So, a police officer defending the US Capitol against an attack that threatens the entire top of the line of succession is a murderer. And FBI agents carrying out a warrant that was personally approved by the Attorney General and signed off by an independent judge are comitting “Gestapo tactics.” And the people trying to occupy the Capitol, destroy the elections process, and assassinate the vice president are heroes who deserve not just pardons, but an apology.
We’ve always had political disagreements. But there was only one time in our past where everyone chose sides and one side considered soldiers carrying out the national business to be enemies: January–April 1861.
January 1861. Lincoln was elected two months ago. South Carolina is gone. Alabama is about to go, and five other states (GA, FL, MS, LA, TX) are on their way toward the door. But there are eight “loyal” slave states, who aren’t going anywhere, for now at least. But it’s not the Summer of Love.
So, there is no support whatever in North Carolina to secede. Well, the governor, John Ellis and a few politicians. But there isn’t even enough support to summon a Secession Convention, let alone call a vote. Some over-enthusiastic citizens seize a federal fort, but Governor Ellis orders them to leave – immediately. And he writes a personal letter to President Buchanan, apologizing for his over-enthusiastic constituents. But then he adds that the takeover had been triggered by a rumor that the National Government was about to garrison the forts “and begin the work of our subjugation… I now most earnestly appeal to your Excellency to strengthen my hands in my efforts to preserve the public order here by placing it in my power to give public assurances that no measures of force are contemplated towards us.” Hey, I’m the president and that’s MY fort and you’re Americans and shouldn’t I be allowed to put my soldiers wherever I want? Well, apparently not in North Carolina in January 1861, and again in Texas in August 2015. Remember the “federal takeover of Texas,” Jade Helm 15, which so alarmed Texas Governor Greg Abbott that he dispatched the State Guard to act as a tripwire force when the federal takeover started?
Three months later, after the fall of Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops, the 6th Massachusetts was the first fully organized and armed regiment to move down the east coast toward Washington. They were attacked by a pro-Southern mob while passing through Baltimore and several people on both sides were killed. In reply to Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, who wrote about recovery of his state’s fallen soldiers, George Brown, the mayor of Baltimore, noted, “No one deplores the sad events of yesterday in this city more deeply than myself, but they were inevitable. Our people viewed the passage of armed troops of another State through the streets as an invasion of our soil, and could not be restrained.”
Massachusetts Governor John Andrew wrote to Mayor Brown, thanking him for the courtesies shown to the dead bodies but then added, “I am overwhelmed with surprise that a peaceful march of American citizens over the highway to the defense of our common capital should be deemed aggressive to Baltimoreans.” A few days later, pro-Union Maryland Governor Thomas Hicks wrote 8th Massachusetts commander Col. Benjamin Butler, urging him not to land “northern” troops in Annapolis. Butler, a successful trial lawyer in civilian life, corrected Hicks’s terminology: “I beg leave to call your Excellency’s attention to what I hope I may be pardoned for deeming an ill-advised designation of the men under my command. They are not Northern troops; they are a part of the whole militia of the United States, obeying the call of the president of the United States.”
Now, the Trump faction, similarly, has decided that law enforcement and national security people carrying out the public business in accordance with the Constitution are the enemy.
Maya Angelou famously said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” When people show you they think insurrectionists are heroes and IRS agents, FBI agents, Capitol police, FBI, or soldiers carrying out the public business are their enemies, believe them.
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This series is written to promote political discussion and organizing. Permission is given to use this in fact sheets, talking points, letters to the editor, etc. We’d appreciate if you notified Gettysburg DFA (leonsreed@gmail.com) of any uses. Written by Leon Reed.