TO: Our Southern Brothers and Sisters
FROM: The Southern National Congress Committee
SUBJECT: Call for Delegates
DATE: July 21, 2008
The Southern National Congress Committee, now grown to some 350 members from the thirteen Southern States and beyond, will convene the First Southern National Congress on December 5-7, 2008 at the Kanuga Conference Center near Hendersonville, NC. (See www.kanuga.org).
The SNC Committee is the convening authority and support body for the actual Congress. The SNC Committee is issuing this Call for Delegates to Southern men and women of good will and good character and who meet the qualifications discussed below. Delegations are now being organised from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. Each of these States will have one vote in the initial Congress, regardless of its number of Delegates attending.
Observers are welcome from Maryland and Oklahoma and from “Southerners Abroad”; that is, Southerners residing outside these 15 States. Observers will be non-voting Delegates. They will enjoy Floor privileges and the right to address the assembly, but not a vote.
What Is the Southern National Congress?
The Congress will be 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.
SNC Committee Executive Council member and noted historian Dr. Clyde Wilson says, “The Southern National Congress is being organised around the proposition that we Southerners are a separate and distinct people, rooted in kinship and place, with a common culture and history. In other words, we are a nation. We respect the rights of other national and ethnic communities to self-preservation and self-determination, and we demand the same. But we Southerners won’t restore our rights unless we assert them ourselves.”
Dr. Wilson, the country’s leading authority on John C. Calhoun, notes, “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 of checks and balances, 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 irretrievably 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.”
Thomas Moore, Chairman of the SNC Committee, observes, “We believe the courts and especially the U.S. Congress no longer provide the necessary checks on the growth of the centralised state and its threat to our liberty and prosperity. The U.S. Congress no longer represents the people’s interests; it represents the interests of the highest bidder, the big corporations and money power. Through oppression, greed, corruption, incompetence, and imperial folly, the centralised state in Washington has forfeited its moral authority. The result is increasingly harsh measures against the people as the Regime loses control. Decent, honourable people of the South who still love liberty and justice, and who seek to preserve their livelihoods, their identity, and their heritage have no choice but to withdraw their consent from this corrupt and criminal Regime. But withdrawing our consent by itself is not enough. We must have alternative, legitimate institutions to which we can transfer our consent. This is the principle behind the SNC.”
What Will the Congress Do?
The first and most vital task is to give birth to itself as “…the means by which Southerners regain control of their own destiny. The pathway to that goal is to create an independent forum in which we Southerners can voice our interests — a forum with moral authority and legitimacy because it will reflect the wishes and concerns of the Southern people,” according to Ray McBerry, member of the SNC Committee Executive Council, former candidate for Governor of Georgia, and President of Dixie Broadcasting.
This will be the focus of the December session. The First Congress will also take up a number of resolutions addressing the most urgent threats to Southern liberty, identity, and prosperity. In this we will exercise our Constitutional rights recognized by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights; to assemble peaceably, speak freely, and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Future deliberations beyond the December session will be the decision of the Congress, which will be sovereign over its own acts.
What Are the Qualifications to Become a Delegate?
There are formal qualifications and informal qualifications.
First, there are no restrictions based on race, creed, or sex.
The formal qualifications are as follows:
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A Delegate must be a resident of one of the 13 Southern States cited above.
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A Delegate must be 18 years of age on the date of the initial session of the Congress, December 5, 2008.
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A Delegate must be willing to affirm the following: I believe that I have a duty to my home State. I believe that the Southern people are a distinct people. I believe in the right of voice, the right of preservation, and the right of recognition, for the South and her people.
Other qualifications, no less important because they are informal, are related to the character of the individual Delegates. Unless Delegates possess a high degree of these essential traits, the Congress will not achieve its full potential.
Maturity and judgment. The SNC Committee is seeking Delegates who are mature, purposeful, and wise in discerning the perils of the times we live in. They should be well schooled in the traditional Southern principles of liberty, individual responsibility, and independence. They also need to understand human nature and practical politics. A sense of humour would also be welcome, and that usually comes with maturity.
Self-sacrifice. The Congress is not for the vainglorious, the egotistical, the contentious. Southerners are proud and combative by nature. This fighting blood is strong in our culture; indeed, it’s one of our virtues. But it must be subdued to the greater good lest we tear ourselves to pieces before we can create our forum. This demands self-discipline and self-sacrifice. Be able to “deny yourself,” in the words of Robert E. Lee.
Realism. The Southern National Congress is not play-acting. It is a serious enterprise with high stakes, based on the example of our ancestors of the Revolution more than of the War Between the States. It is not an effort to create a make-believe Confederacy or a forum for reliving a romanticised Southern past. A high degree of realism is necessary to be an SNC Delegate.
Courage. The SNC will not advocate or engage in breaking any law, by word, deed, or thought. But keep in mind we live under a Regime that is increasingly lawless. It will disobey any law it chooses, including the Constitution; and criminalise any dissenting word, deed, or thought it chooses. Taking part in the Congress is by its nature a form of dissent. In normal times it would be a Constitutionally protected act. But today it could bring you to the attention of surveillance-and-police-state authorities; and they may arbitrarily ascribe “unlawful” motives to your participation. These are some of the stakes we mentioned. You need to engage in serious reflection before you commit. You need moral and physical courage and must be prepared to exercise it.
Charity and magnanimity. We seek Delegates with a spirit of Christian charity toward all others, including our black brothers and sisters. Black people are a part of the South, have been, and always will be. Black Southerners have contributed immeasurably to the building of our country. Black and white Southerners share a common culture, including religious faith, manners, and attitudes toward life that are part of our distinctiveness. We encourage black Southerners to become Delegates. Those unwilling to accept this, those who nourish animosity toward black Southerners, we invite you not to apply.
Resources. You must have the necessary means to take part. Regrettably, we are not able to offer a stipend or defray Delegates’ individual costs. Daily accommodations including meals at Kanuga are quite reasonable, only about $100, although between now and December 5, it’s possible the rate may increase as the value of the US dollar collapses and the cost of everything goes up. We recognize travel expenses may be considerable for Delegates coming from long distances. This is a condition we have no control over in today’s world of high energy costs and the plummeting dollar.
If you meet these formal and informal requirements and wish to become a Delegate, please fill out THIS FORM. We will forward your name to the SNC Registrar for your State who will contact you.
If you wish to participate in some way other than as a Delegate, we urgently need folks to join the ranks of the SNC Volunteers to handle publicity and media relations, administration and logistics, and many critical support functions. To be considered for a post with the SNC Volunteers please visit the sign-up page.
A Final Word
In the Book of Genesis, God allowed the Patriarch Abraham to intercede over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which He had resolved to destroy because “their sin was very grievous.” Abraham actually bargained with the Lord, and the Lord agreed to relent if fifty righteous could be found therein. Then He agreed to forty, then thirty, twenty, and finally to ten. In the end, there weren’t even that many, and the cities were buried in a hail of fire and brimstone. Now, we don’t presume to place our undertaking on the same level as this, and the SNC is not an ecclesiastical enterprise. Nevertheless, the Biblical story does suggest the number ten is a good number, enough to act in an intercessory capacity. If all we can find are ten good men and women from each Southern State to act as agents for their people in this First Southern National Congress, we of the SNC Committee believe there is no limit to what we can accomplish.
This project is still in its infancy, and like most Southern efforts, our resources are few compared to the magnitude of the crises facing us and the urgent needs of the day. Consequently, at this early stage we may not be able to answer every question or resolve every issue you might raise. We ask you not to be discouraged as we struggle to make this beginning. The important thing is to keep our eye on the main task of planting the seed, in the confidence that Southerners of good will and good character will be able, with mutual respect, to work out the inevitable differences that arise in such an undertaking. But above all, we must begin, for
We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, And history to the defeated May say ‘alas’ but cannot help or pardon.
No one else will magically step in and solve our problems. We must take responsibility to meet our own challenges, under God’s mercy and providence. If we don’t, then whatever fate befalls us will be deserved. It’s up to us. We ourselves.
The SNC Committee
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