AS we sit before our Christmas Dinner today, let us remember a Christmas past. Let us read the words of a man drawn to a cause by love of and loyalty for his State: a man now called “Traitor” and otherwise insulted by trenchant Euroamericans and the dissolute descendants of field hands and house servants.
That man, a soldier of the rank of Surgeon, a husband and father, a man of honor, a man of duty, a man who understood, as did so many other brave men, his obligation to a righteous, noble and just cause, choose to defend the ideals and stirring words of the nascent Republic, words burned into his heart and soul by the very men who wrote them:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes DESTRUCTIVE of these ends, it is the Right of the People to ALTER OR TO ABOLISH IT, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Read here the words of that man, Dr. William McPheeters, Army of the Confederate States of America and Surgeon to Sterling Price, Major General, Trans-Mississippi Department, CSA:
On December 24, 1863 Christmas Eve, McPheeters sat down to write an entry into his diary,
“…the return of this anniversary brings sad reflections.” Earlier that year, he and his wife Sallie had lost their oldest son George. Additionally, in his role as a surgeon, McPheeters witnessed firsthand the destruction and devastation of warfare, particularly in caring for the wounded and sick and for the health of General Price. He went on to write, “May [my family] be happy though we are separated and I a wanderer and a refugee living in a tent, but I repine not – our cause is just and I have no regrets for my course though it may cost me the loss of all my earthly possessions.”
The next day, Christmas Day, McPheeters took time to celebrate with his comrades. He wrote, “commenced the morning by making a big bucket of egg nog of which the General and most of his staff and other partook and seemed to enjoy hugely for it was good and good cheer prevailed.” That evening, after enjoying “a good Christmas dinner,” the surgeon wrote to his family: “A merry Christmas to my dear wife and children – God bless them … how I long to be with them, but know not when that happy day will arrive – not until this cruel war is over. God speed its end and grant us an honorable peace and our independence with all the blessings of home and peace.” Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Is it so different now? On this Christmas Eve, 157 years hence, are we not faced with the same struggle, to live as Free Men, to choose our destiny, to live without subjugation to a National Government that suborns graft, corruption and the murder of innocents? A Government that would rip asunder the veil of the Republic and expose its purpose to the will of an uneducated mass of partisans whose allegiance is not to the Constitution, but to Political Parties which promulgate ideologies not only alien to our Constitution but foreign to our Founding Father’s blood oaths to the Declaration of Independence.
Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, not a whit of difference exists between them. The Rights of all are only protected when the Rights of Individuals, the Unalienable Rights… among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness … are extended to and guaranteed for every citizen… every man, woman and child living legally within our borders.
WE the people, and our respective States must stand up to the Federal Union, and reclaim our rights as specified in the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, ARE RESERVED TO THE STATES RESPECTIVELY OR TO THE PEOPLE.”
I honor William McPheeters, and all others who were willing to die for their Rights. I pray a Christmas Eve will come when our descendants will raise their glasses to toast us, to honor us, to thank us for our courage, perseverance and victory.