The Saga of Gregorio Cortez....

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Chill is the fellow on the right

      There are thousands of tales about conflict, heroism, cowardice, hubris, and you name it, pertaining to Texas.   Inflation of stories, larding on of elements to an event that actually didn't happen just that way....well, that might be one of our characteristics.   Chill Wills, I think it was, said it best though when he pointed out, "The reason we make up such cock and bull stories is to entertain the ladies and children, of course, but it's also because the Truth about things that happen in Texas, nobody believes anyway."
     There is something to that observation.  One of those events occurred in the nineteen-aughts, in and around the Rio Grande, the Rio Nueces, the Rio San Antonio, the Rio San Marcos, and the Rio Guadalupe.  All of those rivers rather define what is the northern part of  southernmost Texas and the southernmost part of southern South Texas, if you will.
      This particular tale must be one that is known and understood in order to be a "real, live Texian".  It deals with a number of personalities.  Some are Mexican/Spanish.  Some are Czech, and others are Polish, and the rest are Heinz-57/Anglo.   All those lines remain to this day in the area with towns named Floresville, Shiner, Karnes City, Kenedy, Nixon, Goliad, Victoria, Laredo, Benavides, Oiltown, Three Rivers, George West, Tilden, and such.   These places lie west of Corpus Christi and south of San Antonio.
     The story points up, for those who want to paint Texas bad, the ethnic bigotry of the non-Spanish speaking Texans.  Ironically, much of the area lies within that zone where the Irish and some English Roman Catholics settled during the pre-Republican and Republican period in Texas (1836 - 1846).  The  Colony of San Patricio was a grant about the size of Connecticut,
       Those folks came and settled into a formal "Colony", as authorised by the Mexican government,  known as Colonia de San Patricio....the famous Roman Catholic saint who drove the snakes from Ireland.   Although English-speaking, they sided with the Mexican centralist forces when they invaded Texas during the Centralist pogrom and purging effort under President - General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.   The business they did frequently was conducted in Matamoros, to the south.

     As the years went by, and as the dust settled from various wars and dust-ups...such as several range-wars and transportation disputes between teamsters...four or five major ethnic groups made an easy to sometimes testy interrelationship.
    The family of Gregorio Cortez was a social unit that is hard to describe.  There were colonial Latins who had lived in the area from the time of the Spanish domain.  The Cortez's were not among that group.  The patriarch did originate in Matamoros, so it is possible that he might have been, and perhaps his wife as well, of those Spanish settlers who moved in and established Matamoros (Santa Maria del Refugio, originally) in the mid-1700s.   That would have made them part of the Escandon colonisation group.

    But such is conjecture.    It is known that Gregorio Cortez Lira was born on the 22nd of June, in 1875....about the same time as Pancho Villa, a thousand miles to the west.   Gregorio's father was, supposedly, an itinerant farm labourer who worked around Manor, Texas (near, and just east of Austin, Texas).   He had brought his wife and children up in 1887.   These are known facts, although El Gringo Viejo disputes them to some degree. 
     It was my pleasure to have encountered a person who was supposedly a relative of Gregorio's....a very old man, back in the Summer of 1967.  In those days, El Gringo Viejo was working a Summer job with the Institute of Texian Cultures, collecting ethnic and historical data for the ITC's cultural museum to present during the World's HemisFair the next year in San Antonio.
     Although I had some rough familiarity with the Gregorio Cortez legend, such as some old pictures, and some words from a wise old Latin Texan....who demonstrated to me his nepotic, by-blood relation to his Tio Gregorio….and who filled in a lot of holes left by the lore of the tale.   What is related from this point is a melding of the "common knowledge" after some filtering out of things that are obviously untrue, and mixing that with other scraps, tidbits, and that series of conversations I had with the "Viejito" (little old man) in Normanna  Texas, a few miles north of Beeville, Texas.
     While it may be the case that Gregorio's father was an itinerant farm-labouror during the 1880s, he either had or had acquired some resources.  He and another close relative bought a small tract of land near Kenedy and Karnes City....in Karnes County...for the raising of corn and flax.   When events began to catch up with Gregorio just after the "incident", it was said of him in the newspapers and barber shops that he was known to have been a long time horse thief, involved in organised crime.   Such could not have been the case, in that Gregorio, to state once again, was born in 1875, leaving little time to become a serious, organised horse thief in the 1880s.
     What is true is that older brothers Romaldo and Tomas were "chiflados" (bums, pranksters, and crooks) who actually were involved in midnight horse ranching.   Both had served time in the Texas prison system for rustling.   Had it been 20 years earlier, there would have been a 20 per cent chance that they would have been hanged, Mexican - Anglo - or Negro...with or without trial.
     Gregorio married in 1890, at the ripe old age of 15.  He and his wife had four children.   For some reason that I have not been able to establish, Gregorio and his wife divorced after 13 years of marriage, possibly because of the stress brought on by the "incident" which took place a little less than two years before the divorce.   Gregorio married shortly after that divorce, and then again in 1916 shortly before his death at the age of 41 years.

     The Cortez and Lira clan, which produced Gregorio were essentially white Latins...with little or no Indian ancestry.  Gregorio himself could read and write in both the English and Spanish languages.   He spoke English easily, as though an Anglo, and was even known to be eloquent.  He had musical ability in terms of singing, guitar, and accordion.
     Among his characteristics was the fact that he was always respectful.  He was not known to be a carouser or womaniser.   He was also considered to be a magic-man with horses, mules, and donkeys.....a "horse whisperer" of some sort.  He had a magic way of calming a mare during difficult delivery of a foal or breaking a horse to saddle simply by talking to him/her.   According to my "little old man" informant, he declared that all the rich folks would call on Gregorio when they had problems with their livestock, as if he were a veterinarian.
     Anglo and Latin alike thought of him as being similar in appearance to his brothers, but totally unlike them in terms of adhering to moral and legal standards.   He generally dressed well, and with a little flair, and could team a freight wagon and conduct it with ease.   He also farmed the acreage that his father had.

THE EVENT:    So, one day, the Sheriff of Karnes County, W.T. Morris arrived at the corn farm of the Cortez family, wishing to enquire concerning the purchase of a mare from another Mexican fellow back in town.  Sheriff Morris's deputy, an Anglo, was conducting the interview in Spanish, which he spoke relatively well.   But he asked Romaldo, in Spanish, if he had the horse in question, to which Romaldo responded that he had not bought or come into possession of any horse, only a "yegua".
     The deputy turned to the Sheriff and declared, "Cortez is lying.  We know he has the horse, and he says he doesn't."   The problem was that the deputy did not know that Romaldo had used the word "yegua", which means "mare".   The Deputy used the word "caballo" or horse for any and everything equine, and he thought that Romaldo was spinning gibberish in a sarcastic, evasive way.
     The Sheriff moved towards Romaldo to subdue and arrest him, at which time Romaldo withdrew.  The Sheriff tried to detain him by pulling his pistol, at which time Romaldo was shot and seriously wounded.  Gregorio then drew to defend his brother and killed Sheriff Morris with one shot.   The Deputy declared this sequence to be accurate.  He also said that Sheriff Morris had begun to turn his pistol onto Gregorio, and that Gregorio's reaction was instinctive and not premeditated
     In any regard, Gregorio disarmed the Deputy, and went on the lam.  In that he had punched cows and worked throughout the area and was very familiar with the hollows, draws, arroyos, brakes, and meadows...he managed to avoid a posse of over 300 local law enforcement.   He gained some cover from the homes of friends....even a couple of Anglo families who knew him and could not believe anything beyond his explanation....covered for him and provided him provision.
     Gregorio finally made it over to a place in Laredo, Texas where he had friends and cousins.   He might have been thinking about jumping the Rio Grande, but the fact that he had taken the route to the west seems to negate that notion....Had that been his intention, he would have moved more to the south or southwest, also territory with which he was very familiar.
     Telegraphed reports chronicled Gregorios odyssey to all major newspapers throughout the United States and the Republic of Texas.  Fervor against and in favour of the accidental desperado simmered and boiled over on both sides.  And before the wise and liberal commentator declares...."Sure, the unbridled racism of Texans guaranteed a short rope and a long fall." be aware that the story becomes....in true Texas style....much more complex. 
     Poor Gregorio, probably in order to confuse the constabulary, had first ridden to the  north to Gonzalez, Texas where he encountered a friend by the name of Martin Robledo (the Anglos called him Roy).   Robledo was the chief caretaker and lived on the farm of a Mr. Schnabel, a man of German extraction.  There, once again, there was a confused encounter.   Supposedly Mr. Schnabel had gone out to calm Sheriff Glover who was the chief lawman for Gonzalez County.  A shot was fired, some say from the posse, killing Mr. Schnable, then more shooting, and Gregorio had, after the smoke cleared, managed to have killed himself another Texas Sheriff.   It should be noted that no forensic matching was done on the bullet that killed the Sheriff.
     Gregorio faded into the night, and then walked literally 100 miles to the house of a friend by the name of Ceferino Flores who loaned Gregorio mount and tack.   And that was the way he made it to Laredo, travelling mainly at night.   As mentioned above, sides were drawn, but in no way did all the Latins support Gregorio, nor did all the Anglo-types support the lawmen.  For instance, after a short stay, Gregorio was ratted-out by a "friend", a Mexican fellow, to a Texas Ranger.
     It is true that various people caused pointless low-grade violence and vandalism that was truly suffered by a small but significant group of Latins in Refugio, Gonzalez, and in Hayes, just outside of San Marcos, Texas.   A few dumbo Latins railed about how it was time to "liberate Texas" once and for all from the Saxon invaders....but a peculiar thing happened.   The present day Mexican-American leftist activists do not like to listen to this fact, nor do those who might prefer that all Spanish surnamed people return to Spain....but the fact is a peculiar calm came over the sainted Republic of Texas.
     Newspapers that had been calling for exoneration of any lynch-mob that

Governor Joseph Draper
Sayers

was brave enough to hang Gregorio Cortez and "get it over with" during the pursuit, began to suggest that orderly judicial process should take place, due to the complexities of the case.   The Governor of Texas, Joseph Draper Sayers let it be known that this particular case was to be treated with decorum and deliberation.

    Gregorio Cortez, during his entire detention and processing was courteous and deferential.  He understood the gravity of his situation and the damage he had inflicted.  Equally clear was  that he had twice been placed in the position of naturally defending himself, and being realistically unable to trust in any reasonable detention to await a trial that he actually thought might exonerate him.
     He stood trial in Pleasanton, Gonzalez, and Karnes City, the latter two places for 2nd degree murder.  He was found guilty of the charges and was sentenced to various concurrent terms.  However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, (the Supreme Court for criminal matters) did, in fact, overturn all the verdicts, ordering a new trial on all charges, on a unified change of venue in Corpus Christi.  He was found guilty once again and sentenced to life in prison.

   Immediate intercession was sought, either through clemency or outright pardon, funded by various groups and individuals.  In 1913, Governor Oscar Colquitt issued a conditional pardon and ordered his immediate release from prison.  It was an event that was celebrated by the vast majority of Texans. Such might have been foreshadowed by the trial in Gonzalez when 300 citizens showed up to take possession and hang Gregorio....and they were stared down by a crowd of people that essentially made up the rest of the town of 3,000 people.....such was the true nature of the events.

    Gregorio Cortez Lira removed to Laredo, Texas and was recruited to the service of the Mexican Federal Army, at that time under the command of provisional President (Gen.)Victoriano Huerta, a pleasantly brilliant little despot, who made Woodrow Wilson dance on a pin.  He made Wilson make a fool of himself in several diplomatic faux pas during Wilson's early years in the White House.  From there, a very bad beginning of Wilson's tenure only became worse.
     Gregorio's service in the Mexican Army was brief because he married once more, but before two years had passed, he had died of pneumonia, after having been poisoned through his food.  Rumour had it that the deed was done by one of his cousins  who was involved with the revolutionary forces of Venustiano Carranza...who would later become president of Mexico for a couple of years before being run out of town.   It serves to mention that Carranza's train did not make it to Vera Cruz City....with Carranza alive.  The fellow he displaced, Victoriano Huerta, however, picked up a good job in El Paso, Texas at the Texas Hotel's very fine saloon as the chief bartender.

     Like El Gringo Viejo always says, "Better a good chief bartender at the Texas Hotel, than a dead ex-president rotting in the baggage car as  the train pulls into Vera Cruz."

Thanks to one and all for the time and interest invested in this summary.
El Gringo Viejo

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The Old Telephone

The Old Telephone:

When I was a young boy, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the Wall.

The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box.  I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

     Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone's number and the correct time.

     My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway.
The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing.  Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear.

"Information, please," I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear.

"Information."

"I hurt my finger..." I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me," I blubbered.

"Are you bleeding?" the voice asked.

"No, "I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."

"Can you open the icebox?" she asked.

I said I could.

"Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger," said the voice.

     After that, I called "Information Please" for everything. I asked her for help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was.

She helped me with my math.  She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park just the day

before, would eat fruit and nuts.

Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called, "Information Please," and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I asked her, "Why is it that birds should sing so

beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?"

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Wayne, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone, "Information Please."
"Information," said in the now familiar voice.

"How do I spell fix?" I asked.

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All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much.

Information Please" belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

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A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. 
Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information Please."

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well.

"Information."

I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying,

"Could you please tell me how to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have healed by now."

I laughed, "So it's really you," I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time?"

"I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your calls meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

"Please do," she said. "Just ask for Sally."

Three months later I was back in Seattle.

A different voice answered, "Information."

I asked for Sally.

"Are you a friend?" she said.

"Yes, a very old friend," I answered.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this," She said. "Sally had been working part time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago."

Before I could hang up, she said, "Wait a minute, did you say your name was Wayne?"

"Yes." I answered.

“Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you.”

The note said, "Tell him there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know what I mean."

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

Never underestimate the impression you may make on others. Whose life have you touched today?

Why not pass this on? I just did....

Lifting you on eagle's wings.

May you find the joy and peace you long for.

Life is a journey... NOT a guided tour.

I loved this story and just had to pass it on.. I hope you find it lovable too.  Life is short ~ drink the good wine first!

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Árstíðir - Heyr himna smiður (Icelandic hymn) in train station

Just Saying......

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Second Man Arrested In Deadly Gang-Related Drive-By Shooting

on 10/07/2015 | 0 Comment

LOCAL

A second Valley gang member is behind bars in the expressway shooting death of a Brownsville teenager last week. 17-year-old Isaac Cerda was identified as another of the four suspects who were in a Ford Focus that drove up to a Ford Mustang on Expressway 83 in Donna. One of the gang members opened fire on the Mustang, hitting 17-year-old Javier Olmedo in the head.

The suspected shooter, 21-year-old Rolando Rodriguez of Donna was arrested several days later, and charged with murder and engaging in organized crime. Cerda is being held also on organized crime, as well as drug possession, charges. Investigators are still working to track down two other suspects

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Two points:   This is Satan's spawn from the last amnesty.  That amnesty was another Trojan Horse the Democrats trotted out.

   They took advantage of the fact that the Mexicans, the Mexican/Spanish colonials, the Braceros, and the Wetbacks of the period before 1970 were, in their 91%, a complete positive for America and the Republic of Texas. 

     We are now, daily, inundated with this total septic slime.  The first point is that all the people who came in during the last amnesty....the "originario" along with every known relative down to the third mistress of the cousin of the brother-in-law of the great-grandmother of the "originario", were allowed to ride in on the coattails with said "originario".   The word "originario" means nothing more nor less that that individual upon whom and from whom all subsequent actions are based.

     The piece of syphllitic camel vomit pictured above is one of those who was born here, but of what used to be referred to as "questionable ancestry".   If I had to estimate, and beware of my estimations because they are frequently either dead on or "within the margin of error", this piece of scum has been  arrested between four to eight times and detained for serious misdemeanours and/or felonies as a juvie, and is probably under parole and/or probation at this time.   He is certainly the spawn of the people we tried to tell the White House back in the time of the first Great Amnesty were not real Mexicans or anything like that.

     It was obvious to us that they were from the indisciplinate, parasitical class of people who would search out and avail themselves of every available "free" benefit that all good parasites require.

      Racist?  Ethnic bigotry?   Please.  The English have them, the Spanish have them.  The Germans and Japanese have them.  Parasites, malingerers, bums, slothful, lazy, and disposed-to-criminality-type people.  One thing for certain....the mommies figure out or already know how to barnacle onto the AFDC, HeadStart, WIC, Lone Star Card, Section VIII, etc.

POINT Two:

     When folks are surprised that there are so many "Hispanics"  who are cleaving unto the Republican Party, although we have been told by the Obsolete Press that the opposition to "La Nueva Amnestia" would end any chance of Republican success at the polls, we can only shake our heads in sadness.   The fact is that a majority....perhaps even a large majority....of the Latin element in the Republic of Texas is disposed to....will probably execute...voting for the Estampeda de los Elefantes".    One of our best electoral instruments?   The dumb s.o.b. pictured above.

     Here lies Rolando Rodriquez.   Born without a soul.  Suffering from terminal food-stamp poisoning.   Defaming an otherwise noble and positive group because of his hubris, mental and emotional retardation, and narcissism.....Rolando Rodriquez and all his ilk who turned the Magic Rio Grande Valley from a pleasant little dump on the border where everyone almost or pretty well "got along", into a combat zone of Changos (gorillas).  We commend this sub-human organism to the Cosmos, hoping that something can be done to prevent any further of his type.

     We request that all OROGs try their best to differentiate between amnesty slugs, anchor baby slugs, and Central American arrogant, demanding gimme-gimme slugs and the substantially positive Latino group....heavily intermarried (reference President of the Republic of Texas and his wife and progeny at this moment. El Gringo Viejo has the same situation)....and integrated into the productive economy of Texas.

     This request/admonition is especially important during these times leading up to the elections.   Words like "they all" or "they are all doing...."  and so forth, we need to remember that our door is open to all people of faith and understanding of common law.
      Remember that the Latin thing in the Republic of Texas is very complex.   All of its failings are the fault of the vote-buyers who need and demand and dependent class. Most of our (Texian)(Tejano) Latin group is not in that demographic cohort.   Most of the Latin blue-collar, skilled and semi/skilled, professionals (doctors, dentists, farmacistas, accountants, teachers/professors), small business people, and ranchers/farmers are Republican, and ultimately ultra-conservative voters.   Remember Cruz and Rubio.

     And the final point is.....?   When the Bishop of Rome and Obama speak with weepy tones about the poor prisoners who are imprisoned solely because they are "minority" of extraction.....and their crimes were so, so, so, very inconsequential, we really should give them early-out or parole.....I mean....who are we to judge?

        The problem with all of this is that the prisoners usually had pled guilty to a lesser felony because the DA was offering to drop "all the other pending charges" in order to obtain one felony plea of "guilty, your Honour" on one significant charge.   So when the Rev. Obamaham grants early-outs to these nice boys...be aware , they were not charged with the entire panoply of their crimes.   Clearing dockets at times is more important than being reasonable.

More later,

El Gringo Viejo

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From Extreme Central Texas comes this reminder from our more Noble Past

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“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. 

Thomas Jefferson 

“All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without His Aid?”   Benjamin Franklin

“If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws, —the first growing out of the last... A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.     Alexander Hamilton

“All Americans should reflect upon the precious heritage of liberty under law passed on to us by our Founding Fathers. This heritage finds its most comprehensive expression in our Constitution. The framing of the Constitution was an arduous task accomplished in the spirit of cooperation and with dedication to the ideals of republican self-government and unalienable God-given human rights that gave transcendent meaning and inspiration to the American Revolution... The wisdom and foresight of the architects of the Constitution are manifest in the fact that it remains a powerful governing tool to the present day. Indeed, a great British statesman has called it ‘the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.’ For over 200 years, people from other lands have come to the United States to participate in the great adventure in self-government begun in Philadelphia in 1787... All citizens should reread and study this great document and rededicate themselves to the ideals it enshrines.”     Ronald Reagan

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    We add, lamentably from Wiki, the following reminder about any notion that the First Amendment had to do with anything like "freedom from religion".  To wit:

   The Establishment Clause addressed the concerns of members of minority faiths who did not want the federal government to establish a state religion for the entire nation. The Baptists in Virginia, for example, had suffered discrimination prior to the disestablishment of the Anglican church in 1786. As Virginia prepared to hold its elections to the state ratifying convention in 1788, the Baptists were concerned that the Constitution had no safeguard against the creation of a new national church. In Orange County, Virginia, two federalist candidates, James Madison and James Gordon, Jr., were running against two anti-federalists (opponents of the Constitution), Thomas Barbour and Charles Porter. Barbour requested to John Leland, an influential Baptist preacher and fervent lifelong proponent of religious liberty, that he write a letter to Barbour outlining his objections to the proposed Constitution.^[4] Leland stated in the letter that, among his other concerns, the Constitution had no Bill of Rights and no safeguards for religious liberty and freedom of the press.^[5] A number of historians have concluded on the basis of compelling circumstantial evidence that, just prior to the election in March 1788, Madison met with Leland and gained his support of ratification by addressing these concerns and providing him with the necessary reassurances. In any event, Leland cast his vote for Madison. Leland's support, according to Scarberry, was likely key to the landslide victory of Madison and Gordon.

     As an old, un-reconstructed Episcopalian, member of the Anglican Communion, we state again, that not only the Virginia Baptist, but the Dutch Reform (Lutherans), and various and sundry denominations of the national population were concerned that there were too many people with considerable power and position who were Anglican (Episcopalians).   Among them, of course, was George Washington.

     There was a prayer in the ancient Book of Common Prayer wherein is found in the liturgy of conduct of services, the "Prayer for HRH and all in Civil Authority".  At that time, one would petition via one of two prayers.  Both were changed to modify the  phrase, "Grant to His Majesty, George III..." around 1786, to a  new, slightly more "American" prayer   Our church used the following,

O LORD,

our Governor, whose glory is in all the world,

We commend this nation to thy merciful care,

that being guided by thy Providence, we may

dwell secure in thy peace.  Grant to the President

of the United States, and to all in authority, wisdom

and strength to know and to do thy will.  Fill them

with the love of truth and righteousness;  and make

them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people

in thy fear; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth

 and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God,

world without end.

AMEN

     So, as has been stated here many-a-time, the First Amendment to the Constitution was to clarify, once and for all, that the new Republic would not  force its citizens to kiss the Pope's big toe, nor the King of England's big toe (as the head of the Anglican Church, and its Protector of the Faith), nor any person's or institution's big toe.  There was to be No National Official Church.

And that is from whence the term and legal title "Protestant Episcopal Church of America" came.    As a substantially Catholic Church by traditional Orthodoxy, the various diocese of the Anglican Church in America had to reorganise to the extent that they would no longer recognise the Monarch of the British Empire as the head of their communion.  Thence, the word "protestant" was included into the official title of the new denomination.   It remained a "Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church", but without the King or Queen of England as its head.

FINALLY, original decision to remove God, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Creator, or any such deferential recognition to the Great Cosmic Force and Providential Entity from the public theatre was ill-founded.   The decisions that began to emanate from the minds of very small, very mean jurists that the Founders meant to strike religion from the public forum were ill-established, unfounded by any intellectual standard, statements of hatred for any notion that there was any such thing as a "Supreme Being''.   It was the hubris of the Serpent, winning a battle at the Fig Tree of Eden.   When those silly interpretations of the intent of the First Amendment occurred, much of it centre'd around the Madeline Murray case, we truly sewed the seeds that would cause us to later reap the whirlwind of social disintegration.

'Nuff sed, thanks for your patience and attention.  More to follow about more interesting stuff.
El Gringo Viejo

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A Confederate's Understanding - Repost with amendments and additions

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    During these days of the pushing the Confederate banners into the darkest part of the closet and generally turning our backs on accurate history for the purpose of buying a false peace or a false sense of approval, we encounter further insults.   It has been determined that because there are so many black folks killing each other in Memphis, Tennessee.   One can note that Memphis has a violent crime rating that is 2.5 times higher than the national average.   The statistics, by any reading, are horrific, for a city of 700,000.

     It has been determined, however, that the cause for the high crime rate is not the fault of those who are perpetrating said crimes.   Higher minds have determined that the cause for the high crime rates and all the other ills of Memphis, which are legion, is the fact that Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate soldier, is buried in Memphis.  His, and his wife's, remains were transferred from a cemetery to an honorific place in a city park.
     Now, however, it has been determined that, like the Confederate banner in South Carolina that caused all the killing, General Forrest and his wife are causing high levels of crime in Memphis.  They will be dug up (disinterred)   and transferred to some place not on public property, preferably somewhere other than Memphis, altogether.

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A Southerner's Explanation

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Preambulation:

     First and foremost, the greatest mistake ever made by the Caucasian race during the history of humanity was to have uprooted Black Africans and then to have brought them over to the New World to toil in bondage.   In the short, medium, and long run there were and would be no winners in the arrangement.   What the black man gained in having a bit of protection from the uncertainties of life in the jungle and savannah was lost in the absence of any form of liberty, lest it be granted by another person.

     What the white man lost was a similar liberty, it being true that a good master became a slave to his slaves and a bad master became a social ogre to all, black and white, and almost always died a miserable, lonely death with few to grieve his passing.

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     One of the main problems with the understanding of race, bondage, and the American situation...along with the Peculiar Institution...is that there is so little understanding about the issue.   It was not long ago that a history professor advised me that he had never heard of the word 'manumission'.   The word means, of course, that process by which a slave owner cancels the estate of slavery held by a person, and with his authority grants the slave his unconditional status of freeman.  While in the South, manumission could come with all kinds of social and legal appendages, it generally meant that a person was free to move around without a written or well-known publicly understood permission.   It meant that a person could buy and own land, cattle, implements, and accoutrements with no others person's permission.  It meant that he or she was free to marry whosoever he/she might deem worthy.

Voting was usually a no, and marrying outside of the race was generally legally prohibited.   States and locales generally varied on permitting a Negro to carry a firearm or significant knife (Bowie, etc.).  Home ownership of fowling and self-defence firearms were generally allowed.

     It should be remembered that at that time, there was still no direct election of United States Senators anywhere in the South, and most other States as well.   Some States had their U.S. Senators named by the governor with the approval of the State's senate or legislature, other States elected their Senators from the State's legislature.   Many white people could not vote because they were not property holders in the amount of some specified value.

     An oddity of the Peculiar Institution that is almost always overlooked is that a Negro freeman was the fourth largest holder of slaves during the period leading up to the War Between the States.    Allow us to submit an excellent summary of the issue:

In an 1856 letter to his wife Mary Custis Lee, Robert E. Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." Yet he concluded that black slaves were immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically.  (El Gringo Viejo points out here that Robert Edward Lee, Commanding General, Army of Northern Virginia, never owned a slave.)   The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society at large. In 1860 only a small minority of whites owned slaves. According to the U.S. census report for that last year before the Civil War, there were nearly 27 million whites in the country. Some eight million of them lived in the slaveholding states. The census also determined that there were fewer than 385,000 individuals who owned slaves (1). Even if all slaveholders had been white, that would amount to only 1.4 percent of whites in the country (or 4.8 percent of southern whites owning one or more slaves).      In the rare instances when the ownership of slaves by free Negroes is acknowledged in the history books, justification centers on the claim that black slave masters were simply individuals who purchased the freedom of a spouse or child from a white slaveholder and had been unable to legally manumit them. Although this did indeed happen at times, it is a misrepresentation of the majority of instances, one which is debunked by records of the period on blacks who owned slaves. These include individuals such as Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, of Colleton District, South Carolina, who each owned 84 slaves in 1830. In fact, in 1830 a fourth of the free Negro slave masters in South Carolina owned 10 or more slaves; eight owning 30 or more (2).      According to federal census reports, on June 1, 1860 there were nearly 4.5 million Negroes in the United States, with fewer than four million of them living in the southern slaveholding states. Of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country's leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.      To return to the census figures quoted above, this 28 percent is certainly impressive when compared to less than 1.4 percent of all American whites and less than 4.8 percent of southern whites. The statistics show that, when free, blacks disproportionately became slave masters.   The majority of slaveholders, white and black, owned only one to five slaves. More often than not, and contrary to a century and a half of bullwhips-on-tortured-backs propaganda, black and white masters worked and ate alongside their charges; be it in house, field or workshop. The few individuals who owned 50 or more slaves were confined to the top one percent, and have been defined as slave magnates.      In 1860 there were at least six Negroes in Louisiana who owned 65 or more slaves The largest number, 152 slaves, were owned by the widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards, who owned a large sugar cane plantation. Another Negro slave magnate in Louisiana, with over 100 slaves, was Antoine Dubuclet, a sugar planter whose estate was valued at (in 1860 dollars) $264,000 (3). That year, the mean wealth of southern white men was $3,978 (4).      In Charleston, South Carolina in 1860 125 free Negroes owned slaves; six of them owning 10 or more. Of the $1.5 million in taxable property owned by free Negroes in Charleston, more than $300,000 represented slave holdings (5).   In North Carolina 69 free Negroes were slave owners (6).      In 1860 William Ellison was South Carolina's largest Negro slaveowner. In Black Masters. A Free Family of Colour in the Old South, authors Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roak write a sympathetic account of Ellison's life. From Ellison's birth as a slave to his death at 71, the authors attempt to provide justification, based on their own speculation, as to why a former slave would become a magnate slave master.      At birth he was given the name April. A common practice among slaves of the period was to name a child after the day or month of his or her birth. Between 1800 and 1802 April was purchased by a white slave-owner named William Ellison. Apprenticed at 12, he was taught the trades of carpentry, blacksmithing and machining, as well as how to read, write, cipher and do basic bookkeeping. (El Gringo Viejo points out here that the law in South Carolina and most Slave States prohibited the instruction of Negroes in matters of reading, writing, and ciphering.  It was urged by the authorities to read scripture and teach hymns to the slaves instead.  The laws were most frequently overlooked, and some plantations even had three grades of school, with tutors.  Small holders, those with fewer than 10 charges, could teach by osmosis, and the children were known to delight in demonstrating their recitations and ciphering skills.)      On June 8, 1816, William Ellison appeared before a magistrate (with five local freeholders as supporting witnesses) to gain permission to free April, now 26 years of age. In 1800 the South Carolina legislature had set out in detail the procedures for manumission. To end the practice of freeing unruly slaves of "bad or depraved" character and those who "from age or infirmity" were incapacitated, the state required that an owner testify under oath to the good character of the slave he sought to free. Also required was evidence of the slave's "ability to gain a livelihood in an honest way."      Although lawmakers of the time could not envision the incredibly vast public welfare structures of a later age, these stipulations became law in order to prevent slaveholders from freeing individuals who would become a burden on the general public.   Interestingly, considering today's accounts of life under slavery, authors Johnson and Roak report instances where free Negroes petitioned to be allowed to become slaves; this because they were unable to support themselves.      Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (University Press of Virginia-1995) was written by Ervin L. Jordan Jr., an African-American and assistant professor and associate curator of the Special Collections Department, University of Virginia library. He wrote: "One of the more curious aspects of the free black existence in Virginia was their ownership of slaves. Black slave masters owned members of their family and freed them in their wills. Free blacks were encouraged to sell themselves into slavery and had the right to choose their owner through a lengthy court procedure."      In 1816, shortly after his manumission, April moved to Stateburg. Initially he hired slave workers from local owners. When in 1817 he built a gin for Judge Thomas Watries, he credited the judge nine dollars "for hire of carpenter George for 12 days." By 1820 he had purchased two adult males to work in his shop (7). In fewer than four years after being freed, April demonstrated that he had no problem perpetuating an institution he had been released from. He also achieved greater monetary success than most white people of the period.      On June 20, 1820, April appeared in the Sumter District courthouse in Sumterville. Described in court papers submitted by his attorney as a "freed yellow man (usually a quadroon or mulatto) of about 29 years of age," he requested a name change because it "would yet greatly advance his interest as a tradesman." A new name would also "save him and his children from degradation and contempt which the minds of some do and will attach to the name April." Because "of the kindness" of his former master and as a "Mark of gratitude and respect for him" April asked that his name be changed to William Ellison. His request was granted.      In time the black Ellison family joined the predominantly white Episcopal church. On August 6, 1824 he was allowed to put a family pew on the first floor, among those of the wealthy white families. Other blacks, free and slave, and poor whites sat in the balcony. Another wealthy Negro family would later join the first floor worshippers.      Between 1822 and the mid-1840s, Ellison gradually built a small empire, acquiring slaves in increasing numbers. He became one of South Carolina's major cotton gin manufacturers, selling his machines as far away as Mississippi. From February 1817 until the War Between the States commenced, his business advertisements appeared regularly in newspapers across the state. These included the Camden Gazette, the Sumter Southern Whig and the Black River Watchman.      Ellison was so successful, due to his utilization of cheap slave labor, that many white competitors went out of business. Such situations discredit impressions that whites dealt only with other whites. Where money was involved, it was apparent that neither Ellison's race or former status were considerations.      In his book, Ervin L. Jordan Jr. writes that, as the great conflagration of 1861-1865 approached: "Free Afro-Virginians were a nascent black middle class under siege, but several acquired property before and during the war. Approximately 169 free blacks owned 145,976 acres in the counties of Amelia, Amherst, Isle of Wight, Nansemond, Prince William and Surry, averaging 870 acres each. Twenty-nine Petersburg blacks each owned property worth $1,000 and continued to purchase more despite the war."      Jordan offers an example: "Gilbert Hunt, a Richmond ex-slave blacksmith, owned two slaves, a house valued at $1,376, and $500 in other properties at his death in 1863." Jordan wrote that "some free black residents of Hampton and Norfolk owned property of considerable value; 17 black Hamptonians possessed property worth a total of $15,000. Thirty-six black men paid taxes as heads of families in Elizabeth City County and were employed as blacksmiths, bricklayers, fishermen, oystermen and day labourers. In three Norfolk County parishes 160 blacks owned a total of $41,158 in real estate and personal property.      The general practice of the period was that plantation owners would buy seed and equipment on credit and settle their outstanding accounts when the annual cotton crop was sold. Ellison, like all free Negroes, could resort to the courts for enforcement of the terms of contract agreements. Several times Ellison successfully sued white men for money owed him.      In 1838 Ellison purchased on time 54.5 acres adjoining his original acreage from one Stephen D. Miller. He moved into a large home on the property. What made the acquisition notable was that Miller had served in the South Carolina legislature, both in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, and while a resident of Stateburg had been governor of the state. Ellison's next door neighbor was Dr. W.W. Anderson, master of "Borough House, a magnificent 18th Century mansion. Anderson's son would win fame in the War Between the States as General "Fighting Dick" Anderson.      By 1847 Ellison owned over 350 acres, and more than 900 by 1860. He raised mostly cotton, with a small acreage set aside for cultivating foodstuffs to feed his family and slaves. In 1840 he owned 30 slaves, and by 1860 he owned 63. His sons, who lived in homes on the property, owned an additional nine slaves. They were trained as gin makers by their father (8). They had spent time in Canada, where many wealthy American Negroes of the period sent their children for advanced formal education. Ellison's sons and daughters married mulattos from Charleston, bringing them to the Ellison plantation to live.      In 1860 Ellison greatly underestimated his worth to tax assessors at $65,000. Even using this falsely stated figure, this man who had been a slave 44 years earlier had achieved great financial success. His wealth outdistanced 90 percent of his white neighbors in Sumter District. In the entire state, only five percent owned as much real estate as Ellison. His wealth was 15 times greater than that of the state's average for whites. And Ellison owned more slaves than 99 percent of the South's slaveholders.             Although a successful businessman and cotton farmer, Ellison's major source of income derived from being a "slave breeder." Slave breeding was looked upon with disgust throughout the South, and the laws of most southern states forbade the sale of slaves under the age of 12. In several states it was illegal to sell inherited slaves (9). Nevertheless, in 1840 Ellison secretly began slave breeding.      While there was subsequent investment return in raising and keeping young males, females were not productive workers in his factory or his cotton fields. As a result, except for a few females he raised to become "breeders," Ellison sold the female and many of the male children born to his female slaves at an average price of $400. Ellison had a reputation as a harsh master. His slaves were said to be the district's worst fed and clothed. On his property was located a small, windowless building where he would chain his problem slaves.            As with the slaves of his white counterparts, occasionally Ellison's slaves ran away. The historians of Sumter District reported that from time to time Ellison advertised for the return of his runaways. On at least one occasion Ellison hired the services of a slave catcher. According to an account by Robert N. Andrews, a white man who had purchased a small hotel in Stateburg in the 1820s, Ellison hired him to run down "a valuable slave. Andrews caught the slave in Belleville, Virginia. He stated: "I was paid on returning home $77.50 and $74 for expenses.     William Ellison died December 5, 1861. His will stated that his estate should pass into the joint hands of his free daughter and his two surviving sons. He bequeathed $500 to the slave daughter he had sold.    Following in their father's footsteps, the Ellison family actively supported the Confederacy throughout the war. They converted nearly their entire plantation to the production of corn, fodder, bacon, corn shucks and cotton for the Confederate armies. They paid $5,000 in taxes during the war. They also invested more than $9,000 in Confederate bonds, treasury notes and certificates in addition to the Confederate currency they held. At the end, all this valuable paper became worthless.     The younger Ellisons contributed more than farm produce, labour, and money to the Confederate cause. On March 27, 1863 John Wilson Buckner, William Ellison's oldest grandson, enlisted in the 1st South Carolina Artillery. Buckner served in the company of Captains P.P. Galliard and A.H. Boykin, local white men who knew that Buckner was a Negro. Although it was illegal at the time for a Negro to formally join the Confederate forces, the Ellison family's prestige nullified the law in the minds of Buckner's comrades. Buckner was wounded in action on July 12, 1863. At his funeral in Stateburg in August, 1895 he was praised by his former Confederate officers as being a "faithful soldier."      Following the war the Ellison family fortune quickly dwindled. But many former Negro slave magnates quickly took advantage of circumstances and benefited by virtue of their race. For example Antoine Dubuclet, the previously mentioned New Orleans plantation owner who held more than 100 slaves, became Louisiana state treasurer during Reconstruction, a post he held from 1868 to 1877 (10).     A truer picture of the Old South, one never presented by the nation's mind moulders, emerges from this account. The American South had been undergoing structural evolutionary changes far, far greater than generations of Americans have been led to believe. In time, within a relatively short time, the obsolete and economically nonviable institution of slavery would have disappeared. The nation would have been spared awesome traumas from which it would never fully recover. (red-letter emphasis added by El Gringo Viejo) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~      We move on now, for the purposes of exemplification and elucidation by considering the person and actions of Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA.  He is the most commonly reviled of all Southern officers and soldiers and Southerners in general because he was such a horrid racist and brutalizer of the Negro.   However, when one leaves the New Plantation, and reaches out to reliable factual information about this man, one learns that he never said he won his battles because, "I gets there fustest wif the mostest".   Nor was he an ignorant unlettered, and un-schooled white-trash bumpkin.  That he was generally un-schooled is true.  But that he was intensely tutored is also true, and he was quite literate, and born into an aristocratic plantation family whose early poverty was due to its determination to make a new beginning in far western Tennessee.  That new beginning was generally successful and led to Forrest's being able to answer the Governor's call to for a brigade of heavy cavalry, which Forrest did at his own expense.      These excerpts are examples  which demonstrate how the truth about Forrest has been degraded by the repetition of untrue "information" rendered by leftist history professors at all the finest schools.   The fact is that Forrest was integral in the founding of the first post graduate school for Negroes in the South, a school that offered j.d. degrees that would be recognised by the Tennessee Bar.  Forrest was active on various fronts including the hiring of Negroes into high skill positions such as locomotive engineer, design engineers for rail-grading and design, and architects for major buildings for his railroad company.      Below is the treatment of the 44 slaves who joined his "Praetorian Guard", his closest command squadron at the beginning of the war.  They were thought to have been somehow magically or angelically protected because they fought from the beginning until the end of the War, served in the middle of seven major battles and two score or more major skirmishes, moved around for over 5,000 miles, went through the most hideous weather and illness epidemics, along with horrid close-in combat.    And....not one of the Black Confederate Heroes was killed or seriously wounded.   This excerpt included below indicates that one trooper deserted, although other accounts say that a nearby explosion of a cannon-launched bomb threw him from his mount, causing a serious inner ear injury from which he never recovered.  He was ''teched" and out of balance due to that ear problem...having lost his ability to balance.....the "seventh sense" as it is known.   Forrest had offered each of these 44 his manumission at the end of the War, saying ''When we win you will be freemen, and honoured as heroes.  If we lose, you will be free in any regard, and you will remain heroes among your neighbours."      When it became apparent that the War might well be lost, Forrest turned over the notarised manumissions to his men anyway and told them they were free to leave.  They had served enough.  They all stayed.       Also, the article below indicated that the 44 were dispersed in his command but had re-unified towards the end of the War.  Most of the articles El Gringo Viejo has reviewed about these men (some in university 'historical records and documents' sections), indicate that they remained all mounted, and all heavily armed, and all in the immediate Headquarters Command....a form of Praetorian Guard.       A bit of a twist is included to show some concurrence but not total agreement to El Gringo Viejo's reading of the fact.  To wit:          When the Civil War began, Forrest offered freedom to 44 of his slaves if they would serve with him in the Confederate army. All 44 agreed. One later deserted; the other 43 served faithfully until the end of the war.       Though they had many chances to leave, they chose to remain loyal to the South and to Forrest. Part of General Forrest's command included his own Escort Company, his Green Berets, made up of the very best soldiers available. This unit, which varied in size from 40-90 men, was the elite of the cavalry. Eight of these picked men were black soldiers and all served gallantly and bravely throughout the war. All were armed with at least 2 pistols and a rifle. Most also carried two additional pistols in saddle holsters. At war's end, when Forrest's cavalry surrendered in May 1865, there were 65 black troopers on the muster roll. Of the soldiers who served under him, Forrest said of the black troops: Finer Confederates never fought.       When Forrest died in 1877 it is noteworthy that his funeral in Memphis was attended not only by a throng of thousands of whites but by hundreds of blacks as well. The funeral procession was over two miles long and was attended by over 10,000 area residents, including 3000 black citizens paying their respects.     The above trio of paragraphs concerns the most maligned of all Confederate generals and personalities, especially over the affair at Fort Pillow.  He was very active in the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan, and usually the story stops there.  That is convenient for the South haters, and those who like to change the colours and tones of the history because they won the War.  But victory cannot, en fin, change the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Forrest was present during the establishment of the Klan, but he was also the most instrumental in its abolition when it had fallen off the track.   It was originally thought to be a good vehicle for the establishment of a Confederate Veterans' society, but when it fell of the tracks and became a agency for thuggery (at times at the behest of Union Reconstruction interests), Forrest was the most influential at the first de-activation of the Ku Klux Klan.

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   The following is an account of General Forrest's brief speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers, a group dedicated to the advancement of integrality of black and white society and common legal treatment via the vote; thence Pole-Bearers, as a play on words for the Polls (or election processes).   It was a precursor of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.


Nathan Bedford Forrest's speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association July 5, 1875.


      A convention and BBQ was held by the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association at the fairgrounds of Memphis, five miles east of the city. An invitation to speak was conveyed to General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the city's most prominent citizens, and one of the foremost cavalry commanders in the late War Between the States. This was the first invitation granted to a white man to speak at this gathering. The invitation's purpose, one of the leaders said, was to extend peace, joy, and union, and following a brief welcoming address a Miss Lou Lewis, daughter of an officer of the Pole-Bearers, brought forward flowers and assurances that she conveyed them as a token of good will. After Miss Lewis handed him the flowers, General Forrest responded with a short speech that, in the contemporary pages of the Memphis Appeal, evinces Forrest's racial open-mindedness that seemed to have been growing in him.       "Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. ( Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man to depress none. (Applause.) I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I'll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand. (Prolonged applause.)" 

     Whereupon N. B. Forrest again thanked Miss Lewis for the bouquet and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. Such a kiss was unheard of in the society of those days, in 1875, but it showed a token of respect and friendship between the general and the black community and did much to promote harmony among the citizens of Memphis.

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     El Gringo Viejo has borrowed greatly from other sources, sources that are independent and academic, resulting from true studies and analysis, and not from popular understanding.   Our American popular understanding has, by-in-large, contributed to an inability to discern fact from fiction, and to think in platitudes and trite phrases that are frequently false.   At this point, most American students, for instance, cannot determine whether or not the First World War preceded the Second World War, and broad numbers would not be able to tell if we were fighting Germany or Australia, France or the Planet Zombar in either War. 

     The continuous assault on critical thinking and on the construct of historical explanation...not to mention facts...has gone a long way into the cultural destruction of the Republic.  Contradictory facts cannot be appreciated either for instruction or for ironic, only-in-America humour.  Lee never owned a slave, and Grant, through a series of situations did own a slave even during the War.   It should serve as a guide as well that no leaders of the Union forces...not the President, the Vice-President, none of the generals, not Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, Meade, none of them....and precious few if any in the Congress or among the Governors of the Union States believed in any way in the intellectual and moral equality of the Black man to the White man.  Lincoln himself saw the liberation of the Black man as an opportunity to begin thinking quickly about taking up Mexican President Benito Juarez Garcia's offer of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for the building of the "Panama Canal", because "Black men are better suited to working in the Tropics."

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     We shall continue to examine these Confederate facts during the coming days, along with other idiocies that seem to be infecting the common understanding during these times.   We must be about our work quickly to  demonstrate that we are losing any true understanding about how the Black Race has been tooled by the Progressives for the purpose of being re-enslaved political robotrons.   It is so evident that in sociological terms one could say, "It's hiding in plain sight."

Thanks for working through this analysis of why we have the Basketball and Range Race Wars.
El Gringo Viejo

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