First Southern National Congress a Resounding Success
For Immediate ReleaseThe following is an excerpt from the Press Release about the First Southern National Congress, held December 5-7. For the entire Press Release use the following link: http://spofga.org/build/2008/dec/southern_national_congress.php or visit the SNC website at: http://southernnationalcongress.org
Marion, VA; December 11, 2008 – Over one hundred Southern men and women, from all walks of life and from fourteen States, gathered near Hendersonville, NC December 5 through December 7 to convene the First Southern National Congress ! (SNC). This historic meeting at the Kanuga Conference Center in the shadow of the Blue Ridge was the first all-South congress since 1861. It was a “resounding success,” according to Thomas Moore of Charlottesville, VA, who was elected Chairman.
Delegates attended from the following States: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
The SNC is a representative assembly of citizens of the Southern States, providing an alternative, legitimate forum to express Southern grievances and advance Southern interests in a way that is no longer possible through today’s political process or the major political parties.
Eminent historian and South Carolina Delegate Dr. Cly de Wilson said, “The SNC will reclaim the political legacy of great Southerners like Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and John C. Calhoun. That legacy is individual liberty and a small central government limited to its enumerated powers; and which is the creation, the servant, and the agent of the sovereign people acting through their respective States. But these principles enacted in the Constitution of 1789 have been violated. The Federal Government today is engaged in ‘a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evincing a design to reduce us under absolute Despotism,’ to borrow the words of Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.”
In his opening Charge to the Delegates, Chairman Thomas Moore observed, “We Southerners are well acquainted with the attacks on our symbols, our heroes, our heritage. This is bad enough, but it only highlights the deeper attack on our liberty, our prosperity! , and our very identity as a People. An authentic Southern voice is suppressed by a hostile culture, and our elected leaders have either failed us or actively betrayed us. The U.S. Government no longer represents the people’s interests; it represents the interests of the highest bidder, the big corporations and money power. We Southerners have been among the most loyal and patriotic Americans, but in sadness we must acknowledge that Washington, DC has forfeited its moral authority by its folly and its unlawful acts. Now the people of the South who still love liberty and justice have no choice but to withdraw their consent from this corrupt Regime. However, withdrawing our consent is not enough. We must have alternative, legitimate institutions to which we can transfer our consent. This is the principle behind! the SNC.”