“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
- Mark Twain
I’m an avid reader. Always have been. Growing up, I once got this “penlight” as an award for being a paperboy for the area newspaper. It was about the size of a pen (obviously), and by pressing the metal piece on the side, a tiny flashlight would illuminate things.
It wasn’t very powerful, but I would spend cold winter nights under the blankets, using that tiny penlight to illuminate the small space and read until all hours, listening carefully to click it off if mom were coming to check on us. I’d indulge in tales of history of the country, Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett, or stories about sports like books on Vince Lombardi or Bobby Knight.
I consume a lot of books still, on a wide range of subjects, but far and away, our nation’s history remains a favorite field of study for me.
In previous posts, I’ve referenced a book that I’ve read a couple of times now, called “Battle Cry of Freedom” by James McPherson. Written in 1988, it predates a lot of the political correctness and woke ideology that seems to permeate 21st century explorations of our nation’s history. As such, it’s probably a bit more authentic and accurate than similar historical works produced today.
I found myself recently reading Chapter 5 – “The Crime Against Kansas”.
As Mark Twain quips, history may not repeat itself, and there are valuable lessons to be learned in the way it rhymes, particularly in how current events mimic our past.
The chapter recounts the struggle between pro-slavery Democrats in the south and the new Republican party, staunch anti-slavery abolitionists. As a part of political compromises in the years leading up to mid-1850’s, the territory of Kansas was free to determine their own fate as they organized and planned to apply for statehood.
By “their own fate”, I mean the citizens of Kansas could choose whether to form a “free-state” government banning slavery or a “slave state” government allowing it.
Kansas lies in the heart of Flyover Country.
But at that time, it was on the edge of the frontier. And its proximity to Missouri and its straddling the lines dividing north versus south, and more importantly free state versus slave state, made it a critical fight for both sides of this contentious and frequently violent debate over the most polarizing issue of its day (and likely, our nation’s history).
Free-soilers sought to settle there and win the competition through settlement and advocacy.
The Democrats wouldn’t have that, though.
Senator David Atchison of neighboring Missouri said “The game must be played boldly…if we win, we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean, if we fail we lose Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and all the territories.”
He goes on, telling Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederacy, “We are organizing. We will be compelled to shoot, burn, & hang, but the thing will soon be over. We intend to ‘Mormonize’ the Abolitionists.”
By “Mormonize”, he’s referring to the harsh treatment they received in Missouri, which had driven them out of the state, through a series of violent clashes.
When the territorial governor arrived in 1854 to organize an election for a delegate to Congress, Atchison organized an “invasion of border ruffians” to vote in the pro-slavery candidate. It worked, as these ruffians cast more than 1,700 votes that a congressional committee later deemed as fraudulent.
That’s 1,700 fraudulent votes, where the total voting population was a little under 3,000.
Do any of these themes sound familiar to today’s Democrats?
Wide open borders.
Illegitimate invaders.
Intimidation of local, legal residents.
Fraudulent votes to enact an unpopular and polarizing agenda.
Seems to ring a bell.
Almost like it’s their playbook.
And even that wasn’t enough for Atchison and the 1850’s Democrats.
“Mark every scoundrel among you that is the least tainted with free-soilism, or abolitionism, and exterminate him,” an aide to the Senator told a St. Joseph, Missouri crowd. Atchison continued, “there are eleven hundred me coming over from Platte County to vote. And if that ain’t enough, we can send five thousand – enough to kill every G**-damned abolitionist in the territory.”
Another congressional investigation found that number to be fairly accurate as roughly 4,900 cast illegal ballots to elect a pro-slavery territorial legislature.
Actual residents of Kansas leaned heavily anti-slavery, so they elected their own territorial legislature. By 1856, Kansas had a pro-slavery legislature in Lecompton and an anti-slavery one in Topeka, the latter represented the will of the residents. The former represented the will of political powerbrokers (Democrats) and Southern slaveowners (also Democrats).
Again, this sounds oddly familiar, like the current Biden regime and our political class in Washington. They represent the will of powerful business interests, lobbyists, and the political class, regardless of what the citizens of Flyover Country and much of America want.
And just like the violent trans activists and antifa thugs, it didn’t stop with just doing illegal things at the ballot box (like 1854 and 1855 Kansas or 2020 and 2022 nationally). No, a Congressman, Preston Brooks, decided that a fiery speech by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner must be “addressed”.
So, one evening, after adjournment, he walked into the Senate chamber, found Sumner writing at his desk, and proceeded to beat him with a gold-headed cane over the head.
More than 30 times.
Here are a few of the press accounts. Contrast the north (Republican, largely) response to the south (mainly Democrat).
“The South cannot tolerate free speech anywhere and would stifle it in Washington with the bludgeon and the bowie-knife, as they are now trying to stifle it in Kansas by massacre, rapine, and murder.”
Reminds me quite a bit of current Democrat attempts to stifle speech on social media, enact “hate speech” laws, and ban or criminalize anything that doesn’t support their most radical and heinous agenda items. Think Biden’s “ultra MAGA” speech in front of a blood-red background. Think Merrick Garland, the DOJ, and FBI going after parents who speak out at school boards or pastors that pray outside of abortion clinics.
Like slavery, the radical elements of their agenda are immoral. Abortion on demand up until birth. Teaching kids that their skin color matters – whites are oppressors and people of color are victims – like they do with Critical Race Theory. “Gender is a construct” so let’s mutilate minors and cut off breasts and penises to satisfy the most Mengelian impulses of the Democrats.
Here’s another response from a northern newspaper:
“Has it come to this? That we must speak with bated breath in the presence of our Southern masters? Are we to be chastised as they chastise their slaves? Are we too, slaves, slaves for life, a target for their brutal blows, when we do not comport ourselves to please them?”
Sounds similar to what’s happening to January 6th detainees or anyone who vocally protests or speaks out against the regime’s radical agenda.
Want to know how the south responded? This, too, shows the past rhyming with today.
“Brooks has stood forth so nobly in defense of the honor of South Carolinians.”
“The act, good in conception, better in execution, best of all in consequence. The vulgar Abolitionists in the Senate are getting above themselves…They have grown saucy, and dare to be impudent to gentlemen! The truth is, they have been suffered to run too long without collars. They must be lashed into submission.”
They had dutiful regime media, like CNN or MSNBC, even then!
Braxton Bragg, namesake of the military base formerly known as Fort Bragg, said this: “You can reach the sensibilities of such dogs, only through their heads and a big stick.”
The arrogance and elitism smacks of our current divide of “us” versus “them” as I wrote about last week here:
They see themselves not as our peers, but as our masters. They see themselves not as elected representatives of the people, but as our anointed rulers. They’ve replaced actual chains of slavery to virtual ones by subverting our popular will through fraud at the ballot box, corruption with the government till, and deceptive, censorious social media algorithms to filter out information harmful to their power. They throw nonviolent protestors who wandered through the Capitol into pre-trial detention for years on end now because they agree we “must be lashed into submission”.
The plantation and outright slavery may have ended with the Civil War, but it’s ideology and legacy live on with the current Democrat Party and the political class in D.C. They see themselves as “gentlemen”, and we’re the basket of unwashed deplorables in Flyover Country.
The good news for Flyover Country is that history does rhyme.
Our current rulers are softer and even more fearful than their 1850’s predecessors. Like them, they realize their agenda whether radical transgenderism, climate change zealotry, CRT, etc. just like slavery in the 19th century, rests on a thin reed of support within an echo chamber of affirmation. Outside of that echo chamber, it falls flat as illicit and immoral.
Like their 1850’s counterparts, they live in constant fear of an uprising against them and their “peculiar institutions”. When you read about that time period, you find Southern Democrats in constant fear that their slaves would rise up against them.
To wit, “The Crime Against Kansas” spurned a man named John Brown into violent action against pro-slavery forces – first in Kansas in 1856, and later at Harper’s Ferry in 1859. That last event sought to create an uprising among southern slaves and unnerved the Southern Democrats.
That era required physical violence to create radical change that ultimately wiped out slavery and the Southern Democrats way of life.
That won’t be necessary for us to win.
Today’s Democrat, the Chuck Schumer’s, AOC’s, and Joe Biden’s talk a great game, but they’re weak – mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Stand strong, Flyover Country. Don’t be intimidated by them or tricked into violence, because change is coming, much to the dismay of the same ol’ Democrats.