David Barton

Regrettably, many Democrats actually rejoiced over Lincoln’s election, for it had given them the excuse they wanted to secede and form their slaveholding nation. This was especially true with the Knights of the Golden Circle, an organization composed almost exclusively of Democrats. Before the Civil War, The Knights of the Golden Circle had worked to establish a separate slave nation that included the southern United States, Mexico, and part of Central America.

When the Civil War broke out; these Democrats narrowed their broad goals, focusing instead on making the Confederate States of America a separate slave nation.

Who were the leaders of that new nation of slaveholding States? Democratic U. S. Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi resigned from the Senate to become the

President of this new slaveholding nation, and Democratic Representative

Alexander Stephens of Georgia resigned from the House to become its Vice President. The citizens of this new slaveholding nation became known as “Rebels” since they were in rebellion against the United States.

This is not to say that every southern Rebel was a slaveholder or that every Southerner supported slavery, for such definitely was not the case. Yet many modern defenders of the southern Confederacy, in their misguided efforts to prove that slavery was not the primary issue during the Civil War, assert that only 5 percent of Southerners owned slaves. Such numbers are misleading, for while only 5 percent of Southerners may have owned slaves, 19 percent of Southerners lived in households that owned slaves. Furthermore, in several southern States such as South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and others almost half the population was slaves.  This means that in many of the southern States, almost two thirds of Southerners either were slaves, lived democrats Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens led the confederacy in slave households, or owned slaves; and much of the remaining one-third of Southerners made their living by supplying materials or services to the slave homes or plantations.

Therefore, the assertion that only 5 percent of Southerners may have owned slaves does not diminish the fact that slavery was the dominant industry in the southern States. Additionally, despite modern attempts to excuse the South through misleading claims that the conflict did not involve slavery, the secession documents of the States that left the Union as well as the official documents of the new nation itself prove otherwise. Consequently, since according to official documents of the South slavery was the primary distinction between the North and the South, Rebels therefore were fighting for the existence of a slaveholding nation.

While “States’ Rights” had been the cry of the southern States before the Civil War, that right had related primarily to the right of States to make their own decisions about slavery. When slavery ended, however, the cry of “States’ Rights” was still heard from the former States of the Confederacy, but this time it concerned the right of those States to make their own decisions about whether or not to recognize civil rights for black Americans. The phrase “States’ Rights” as related to southern States primarily became an euphemism first for holding blacks in slavery and then for subjecting them to Black Codes, segregation, and institutional discrimination. Returning to the election of 1860, with Republicans firmly in control of the federal government, they quickly began implementing signify slavery was THE dominant industry in the south cant changes. In 1862, they abolished slavery in Washington, D. C., and in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, freeing all slaves in the southern States in rebellion.

The Emancipation Proclamation was eagerly anticipated; many black Americans gathered in groups around clocks or watches eagerly awaiting the arrival of midnight on December 31, 1862. Frederick Douglass was in attendance at one such rally, and when midnight arrived, a celebration erupted and Douglass exclaimed:

It was one of the most affecting and thrilling occasions I ever witnessed, and a worthy celebration of the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the thralldom bondage of the ages. In 1863, Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation Frederick Douglass. In 1864, following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, several civil rights laws and laws preparing to facilitate civil rights were passed by Republicans. One was a bill establishing the Freedmen’s Bureau and another equalized pay for soldiers in the military, whether white or black. The Fugitive Slave Law was also repealed that year over the almost unanimous opposition of the northern Democrats still in Congress. 

It is worth noting that for over a century and a half, Democrats often have taken a position that some human life is disposable as they did in the Dred Scott decision. In that instance, a black individual was not a life; it was property; and an individual could do with his property as he wished. Today, Democrats have largely taken that same position on unborn human life that an unborn human is disposable property to do with as one wish.

African Americans were the victims of this disposable property ideology a century and a half ago, and still are today. Consider: although 12 percent of the current population is African American, almost 35 percent of all abortions are performed on African Americans. In fact, over the last decade, for every 100 African American live births, there were 53 abortions of African American babies. Democrats have encouraged this; and although black Americans are solidly pro life with almost two thirds opposing abortion on demand, a number of recent votes in Congress reveals that Democrats hold exactly the opposite view, with some 80 percent of congressional Democrats being almost rabidly pro-abortion and consistently voting against protections for innocent unborn human life. For over a century and a half, Democrats have wrongly argued that some human life is merely disposable personal property; black Americans have suffered most under this philosophy.

In the 1860 presidential election, there was a split in the Democratic Party: the northern Democrats and the southern Democrats. Both factions supported slavery; but while southern Democrats were democrats proudly distributed the DRED SCOTT ruling with their platform willing to split the United States to form their own nation over the issue, northern Democrats refused to do so. Northern Democrats voted for Stephen Douglas for President while southern Democrats voted for John C. Breckenridge. With this split in the Democratic vote, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected with only 40 percent of the popular vote, but 59 percent of the Electoral College vote. Republicans also won a majority in the U. S. House and Senate in that election, thus giving Republicans control of the lawmaking process for the first time.

Given the bold anti slavery and pro civil rights positions set forth by Republicans in their platforms, it was obvious to Democrats what was soon to occur: the anti slavery and pro civil rights positions of the Republicans were about to become reality. What was the Democrat’s response? Southern Democrats left Congress and took their States with them, forming a nation that described itself as the “slaveholding” Confederate States of America. While northern Democrats did not support this secession, they still supported slavery and opposed civil rights for black Americans. In short, the main difference between southern and northern Democrats at that time was their view on secession, not slavery. Lincoln’s inauguration as president the slave holding nation formed by democrats.

The original vice-presidents of the American Bible Society, in addition to John Langdon and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, also included several members of the Supreme Court: Justice John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and one of the three authors of The Federalist Papers; Justice Bushrod Washington; and Justice Smith Thompson, a former Secretary of the Navy. (Justice John Marshall – an officer on George Washington’s staff during the Revolution, a Secretary of State under President John Adams, and the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – later became a vice-president of the American Bible Society.)

David Barton shows us that other founding officers of the American Bible Society included Felix Grundy, Attorney General under President Martin Van Buren; William Wirt, Attorney General under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams; Matthew Clarkson, Major-General during the American Revolution; Caleb Strong, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a governor of Massachusetts; William Gray, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts; John Cotton Smith, Governor of Connecticut; Jonas Galusha, Governor of Vermont; William Jones, Governor of Rhode Island; Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky; George Madison, a later governor of Kentucky; Thomas Worthington, Governor of Ohio; Thomas Posey, Governor of Indiana; James Brown, U. S. Senator from Louisiana; William Tilghman, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; William Gaston, Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina; and Richard Varick,

Attorney General and Speaker of the House in New York. In fact, the original founders of the American Bible Society were a veritable “Who’s Who” of American political founders. 61  Another of the signers who appears in the painting of the signing of the Constitution is James McHenry. James McHenry was a military officer who served during the American Revolution as an aide to General George Washington. When Washington became

President, he selected McHenry as Secretary elias boudinot president of congress c. c. pinckney constitution signer john langdon constitution signer smith thompson u. s. supreme court bushrod washington u. s. supreme court john jay u. s. supreme court caleb strong governor of mass. william wirt u. s. attorney general felix grundy u. s. attorney general isaac shelby governor of kentucky richard varick new york attorney general william gaston n. c. supreme court some of the original founders of the american bible society of War, and McHenry continued in that post under President John Adams. (The fort named for this signer of the Constitution – Fort McHenry – was the site under bombardment observed by Francis Scott Key when he wrote the “Star Spangled Banner.”)

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Langdon are two others in the picture of the signing of the Constitution. There is a strong connection between these two signers and the 1997 landmark Promise Keepers Rally which took place on the National Mall fronting the Capitol on the west. The Promise Keepers Rally – a gath alexander hamilton pinckney (left) and langdon (right) ering of between one and two million men dedicated to being Godly influences in their family and their world – has been described by official observers as the largest gathering ever to occur at the Capitol.

David Barton explains that the American Bible Society prepared one million copies of a special commemorative edition of the Bible for that rally, and those million Bibles went quickly. Of course, it is not unusual for the American Bible Society to distribute a million Bibles in one day, for they distribute upwards of 200 million Bibles in a single year. The Society which handed out those million Bibles at the Promise Keepers Rally was founded two centuries ago with the help of signers of the Constitution, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Langdon.

The original constitution of the American Bible Society lists its founders, and the list is quite impressive. Its first president was the Honorable Elias Boudinot, who had served as a president of the Continental Congress, signed the final peace treaty with Great Britain to end the Revolution, and helped frame the Bill of Rights. Incidentally, Elias Boudinot also authored a book called The Age of Revelation – a Biblical refutation of Thomas Paine’s anti-religious work, The Age of Reason. elias boudinot, first president of the abs elias boudinot’s book original abs constitution