Slavery, Apologies & Duty
Commentary by Steve ScrogginsIn a recent column on absurd slavery apologies, I attempted to make the case that
such silly and insulting activities should not get serious consideration and should
be roundly rejected as absurd. After further reflection, I’ve changed my mind.Some slavery apologies are due. But not the one the race-hustlers want.
A convincing case has been made that Americans live under tax slavery. According
to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, in 2006 Americans had to work from January
1 to April 26th in order to pay their tax bill—that is to pay Massah Sam (D.C.)
and Massah Gov (Your-state-here). After that date, then and only then were American
taxpayers (i.e., slaves) working for their own benefit. That’s why they called
April 26th "Tax Freedom Day" for 2006. Coincidentally, April 26th
is the date many Southern states observe Confederate Memorial Day to honor the
soldiers who fought to preserve the Constitutional Republic and the principle
of consent.More on Tax Freedom Day
Economist and syndicated columnist Paul Craig Roberts argues that all Americans,
in terms of their ownership of their own labor, are worse off than medieval
serfs and more on a level with 19th century black slaves. In his essay entitled
"Compassionate Tyranny," Roberts writes,The U.S. has constructed a society, the first in modern history, in which native-born
productive citizens are the tax slaves of the welfare and immigrant lobbies.
The 35 million taxpayers who carry the burden of the income tax have no more
claim to their income than did medieval serfs or 19th century black slaves.I think it’s high time that the Georgia government and the U.S. empire apologize
for this outrage. They’re spending our money to buy their own re-elections and
we all have to work almost four months each year just to satisfy our masters’
demands. Expressed another way, out of 24 hours in each day, 8 hours belongs
to our masters; we get to keep whatever we can earn the other 16 hours.If you think you have "freedom," just try not paying the master.
If we don’t pay, we go to jail…unless, of course, we’re elected Governor…then
we can pay late or just get a retroactive law written to give us special tax
breaks.OK, even Gov. Perdue pays his slave taxes to fund the welfare "constituents,"
our military adventures, infrastructure, helicopter rides for the Governor,
$500 hammers, etc.—-he just gets an extra cut back, what we might call the
"windfall perks of office." When a Governor refuses to place his assets
in a blind trust and when his net worth almost doubles while he’s in elected
office like our Governor’s has, well, to paraphrase Shakespeare, Corruption
by any other name still smells. It’s fair to say that, despite the concepts
of the ‘rule of law’ and ‘equal protection,’ many in the political class are
more "equal" than the rest of us.And while the politicians are at it, they should apologize for violating their
Oaths of Office where they pledge to "preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution." Aside from being a really sick joke, it’s an insulting outrage.
Any thinking person knows that the Constitution has been widely ignored for
many decades (most notably since Lincoln’s immoral war 1860-1865) and violated
with greater frequency in the most recent decades.Abraham Lincoln was the first to implement an unconstitional income tax. The
Founders knew that an income tax was the predecessor to economic slavery….and
that war would likely be the pretext for seizing extraordinary powers. Lincoln
and his Congressional Republican ‘War Party’ opened that Pandora’s box to achieve
their lust for power. Prior to 1913 (16th Amendment), there’s NO question that
the income tax was unconstitutional.There are significant questions as to whether the 16th Amendment authorizing
the income tax was ever properly ratified by the required 3/4 of the States.
See these links below and draw your own conclusions based on the facts.www.givemeliberty.org/features/taxes/notratified.htm
www.thelawthatneverwas.com/new/home.asp
http://political-resources.com/taxes/16thamendment/default.htm
Don’t try the ratification argument with the IRS. They will seize your assets
and throw you in jail. You may be right, but you’ll be in jail making the argument.
As Voltaire once said, "It is dangerous to be right when the government
is wrong."Yes, we may be due an apology for gross misconduct carried out by our so-called
leaders and representatives. But truth be told, I really don’t want an apology
from those lying scoundrels. Let me get my hands around their throats, then
I’ll get my apology. What I really want is to correct the situation that leaves
most Americans as tax slaves. I want tax Emancipation. I want the Constitution
restored and followed in practice."The constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain
the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government –
lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." –Patrick HenryLike most reasonable people, I’d be happy (relatively speaking) to pay a reasonable
and fair share for the common infrastructure and defense. But my wallet is not
a bottomless well that politicians can plunder to buy votes from their welfare
constituents (kept on the government subsidy plantation)…and I mean BOTH the
private citizens (& immigrants) on the dole (mostly Democrat supporters)
AND the corporate welfare recipients (mostly Republican supporters).In 1776, thirteen American colonies seceded from the British empire primarily
over unfair taxation to become sovereign, free and independent states. In 1860-61,
the people of the Southern states peacefully withdrew from the united States
primarily over unfair taxation and formed a confederation with a similar Constitution
(slightly improved from the original U.S. version). All Americans lost the Constitution’s
protection when Lincoln crushed the federal Republic as defined by the Constitution
and forced the Southern states back into the new consolidated empire where the
"consent of the governed" was no longer an important concept."If the right of secession be denied…and the denial enforced by the
sword of coercion; the nature of the polity is changed, and freedom is at its
end. It is no longer a government by consent, but a government of force. Conquest
is substituted compact, and the dream of liberty is over." –Albert Taylor
Bledsoe, from Is Davis a Traitor?"The American people, North and South, went into the Civil War as citizens
of their respective states; they came out as subjects… And what they thus
lost they have never gotten back." — H. L. Mencken"The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive
abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin of all
that has proceeded it." –Robert E. Lee, letter to Lord Acton December
15, 1866The myth that slavery was abolished in 1865 is ridiculous. One form of slavery
ended, that is true, but the foundation was laid to create another horrendous
form of slavery. Now, we are all slaves with no real say in how much of our
labor we get to keep. Are we, the new slaves, willing to rise up and take back
our Constitution?Human history and American history are filled with injustices. Given human
nature, we know that we cannot eliminate them from our future. There is some
value—indeed, wisdom—- in recognizing our mistakes and resolving not to
repeat them. Chattel slavery was wrong and is wrong where it still exists today.
Within America and the rest of Western civilization, no one is arguing that
chattel slavery was not wrong. It has been universally acknowledged as, to use
General Robert E. Lee’s words, "a moral and political evil."Lee wrote in an 1856 letter, "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened
age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and
political evil." Slavery was doomed as an institution in Western Christian
civilization by the 1850s. Every other western nation abolished slavery without
war or bloodshed. Brazil, formerly a Portuguese colony, finally abolished slavery
in 1888, again, without a war.What the present day demagogues and race-hustlers want is an apology for something
that has already been acknowledged as wrong. They really just want the cash;
we could skip the apology and hand over cash and they would shut up…temporarily.The real injustice here is that they (and many Americans) are too ignorant
to see that all Americans remain slaves and all the politicians who will acknowledge
this fact can be counted on one hand. Furthermore, it was the bitterness resulting
from "Reconstruction" that soured race relations in the South for
a century and resulted in Jim Crow laws and other indignities about which they
complain. Again, these too, were acknowledged as wrong and were changed.Where is the apology for Lincoln’s tyranny and the slavery his actions imposed
on millions of Americans? Five million black slaves (and their descendants)
were "emancipated" by the 13th Amendment’s ratification so that they
no longer provided unpaid labor to a master in the form of an "owner"….
so that they could join the other 26 million "free people" (and their
descendants) as slaves of the government. We now have over 300 million inhabitants
(with an unknown number of illegal immigrants) of which there are about 35 million
taxpayers (slaves).When are we going to pound the Lincoln Memorial into gravel? When do we destroy
the currency and coin that bears his ugly visage? Lincoln Mythology is so strong,
even among some southerners, that I’m sure some readers will recoil at this
suggestion. As Jesus said in John 8:32, "…the truth shall make you free."To be fair, the tax slavery didn’t begin until the 20th century, but Lincoln’s
crushing of state sovereignty and replacement of our federal republic with a
consolidated national empire paved the way for all the evils that have followed
including the income tax.Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, in his book "Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free
Men: A History of the Civil War, makes the case for my point. The 13th Amendment
(third version, not the ‘Slavery Forever Amendment’ or the original version)
abolished chattel slavery in the United States. But the destruction of states
rights and the federal Republic as a result of military conquest followed by
the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank and the illegal passage (implementation
without ratification) of the 14th Amendment, the questionable ratification of
the 16th Amendment (income tax) and the 17th Amendment (state’s right to have
legislatures elect U.S. Senators rather than popular vote) have effectively
enslaved ALL Americans and hobbled us with chains to make escape more difficult.
We are slaves and serfs whether or not we acknowledge the fact.Author Thomas DiLorenzo, in his essay entitled "Constitutional Futility,"
reaches essentially the same conclusion. DiLorenzo writes,"If there is any lesson to be learned here, it is that constitutional liberty
– in America or anywhere else – is an empty slogan unless the people
possess the rights of secession and nullification. This is how the founders
intended the people to be sovereign over their government. Until these powers
are restored – and the Fed, the income tax, and the Seventeenth Amendment
abolished – Americans have no hope of ever returning to a regime of constitutional
liberty.I don’t want to conclude on a hopeless note, so allow me to remind you of the
words of President Jefferson Davis, "The principle for which we contended
is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another
form." That principle, of course, was that "governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed." The Confederate motto "Deo
Vindice" means "God will Vindicate." Yes, but I believe that
God expects us help ourselves. We can do it with His help.The idea of liberty cannot be snuffed out. The U.S. empire can (and has) take
away our liberties by force. But our rights and liberties are God-given and
it’s our duty to protect and preserve them, or to die trying. Though our Constitution
is largely ignored and abused by those in D.C., it’s up to us, the people, to
rally under the Constitution and restore it to practice. We owe that to our
ancestors and, more importantly, to our descendants. Samuel Adams expressed
this thought well in his essays."The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are
worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all
attacks. We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors:
They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and
blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an
everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is,
if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle;
or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the
latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let
us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights
bequeath’d to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. — Instead
of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the
wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our
utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember
that ‘if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it,
and involve others in our doom.’ It is a very serious consideration, which should
deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers
of the event." —Samuel Adams (From The Rights of the Colonists, page
419) [Bold emphasis is that of the author]"Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or
delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again
rally and recall the people. They fix, too, for the people the principles of
their political creed." —Thomas Jefferson"….But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it
is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide
new Guards for their future security."…. –Declaration of Independence"Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all
things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less." –Robert
E. LeeIf tax slavery and serfdom is finally abolished here in America, then we can
celebrate a real "Day of Jubilo." I won’t hold my breath for apologies
from the tyrants and villains who held us in bondage. The victory of true liberty
will be enough.Adams in his essays and Jefferson in the Declaration state that it is our Duty
to "throw off" such a government that fails to protect our inalienable
rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness or which wields unjust
powers without the consent of the governed. The question remains, do we have
the "fortitude, perseverance and resolve" to win back our rights and
liberties and to maintain them against the relentless stealth and stalking of
tyranny? Or will we bear "an everlasting mark of infamy" in the minds
of "millions yet unborn" who will share the misery of our failure?Copyright © 2003-2007, GeorgiaHeritageCouncil.org
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