One of the characteristics which distinguishes the Southern tradition from that of New England (which since 1865 has been the US tradition) is a willingness to accept mankind as he is, with all of his flaws. As the nineteenth century Southern nationalist leader and statesman Robert Barnwell Rhett said, ‘We have to deal with erring man.’ The Southern position, summed up so succinctly by Rhett, is in contrast to the Northern or US tradition, founded by religious outcasts who became preoccupied with creating a shining ‘city upon a hill.’ The Northern ‘new Israel’ was to be achieved by (a later secularised version of) Cotton Matther’s do-good philosophy. Over time, this cultural impulse manifested itself through a penchant for social crusades. Southerners often identified this tendency as a fanaticism which they viewed as intolerant and hostile towards traditional society. In fact, Confederate President Jefferson Davis famously described such people as ‘traditionless and homeless.’
On pages 8-10 of his book Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of the Disquisition and Discourse, Dr H Lee Cheek, Jr, professor of political science and religion at Gainesville State College, identifies one of the important aspects within the ‘stream’ of the traditional Southern (or ‘South Atlantic,’ as he prefers) view on government which separates it from the New England or US view. This has everything to do with the Southern view of man himself and how his negative impulses could be best checked within the confines of what Rhett liked to call ‘free government.’
Patrick Henry
It required a sustained effort to inculcate virtue and to allow each generation to hear the “voice of tradition,” Patrick Henry urged. If the witnesses expired without fulfilling the need to “inform posterity,” social and political life might suffer the consequences of such a collective loss of memory and purpose. Although Calhoun did not define himself excitedly as an Antifederalist, he imbibed Antifederalist political theory from his father, Patrick Calhoun. As a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Patrick Calhoun opposed the work of the Philadelphia Convention on the grounds that it had sacrificed liberty to protect the regime. The elder Calhoun would also impart his concern regarding the prevention of revolutionary changes to democratic mechanisms to his sons, who would come to champion the older constitutional limitations upon popular rule.
[T]he Antifederalists accepted the imperfections of the Articles of Confederation concerning governmental authority while advocating many impediments to the dangers resulting from what George Mason decried as “the natural lust of power so inherent in man.”
…Both the Antifederalists and Calhoun were part of a clear republican understanding of the nature of the American regime. Quite distinct from the “puritanical” republicanism of New England, this second comprehensible “stream” of interpretation assumes an “agrarian” character. …While the New England version stressed purely moral solutions to the problems of maintaining civic virtue, the South Atlantic or agrarian persuasion offered institutional means of providing for a virtuous republic.
Also see: Southern colonial subsidiary & traditional world-view
And here we are today….
It will take something cataclysmic, I fear, to bring us back to a state “free government”.
However, maybe that is what is needed…..
By now you know how I disagree with you on this.
It’s short-sighted to think that today’s yankees are yesterdays. The “New Englanders” today are largely hispanic (look at the demographics of New Haven Ct where Yale is —60% hispanic— like a lot of Westchester County NY which is right by it (see Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, Yonkers, etc, etc). They are more motivated by Jesuit run Liberation Theology and ANTI anglicism than the old “New England enlightenment” ideas.
The “new Yankees” HATE New England and everything it stood for (in their minds). The new South haters are the new “white Ethnics,” the Tarantinos (releasing Django Unchained on Christmas this year).
Wasps do not exist in the areas where Southerners get the most flak— hollywood, ny, chicago. DO NOT EXIST. Your new enemies dislike you just as much as your old ones—but THEY ARE NOT THE SAME group.
You’re now dealing (and have been for 80 years) WITH THE PEOPLE WHO DISPLACED the old Yankees.
With all respect, yankees are has-beens. The Northeast people are another animal (and dislike the south just as much as the previous enemies).
These are ALSO not very kind to the colonials— which is why, along with the intensive Anti-South and anti-germanic propaganda, you’ve got attacks to the constitution, etc.
In some cases, the hates conflate, like in Django. The slave involved is Broomhilda—- perversion of the name Brunnhilda, the norse warrior, mentioned in the Wagner ring cycle, etc.
So who are these people lumping together (and hating) the Southern, the German, the colonist?
They are NOT New England wasps— they are NOT driven by any utopian ideas of perfecting society, (not really).
They are driven by Guilt-tripping and USING the old yankee ideas to Tax, tax collect, stamp on public money, etc
Dixiegirl,
I’m not sure if it is me or Michael you are disagreeing with (I didn’t have that much to say).
I understand what Michael is saying, however I understand what you are saying as well.
I may be incorrect but I believe today’s version of “liberal” has adopted many of the same, warped outloooks that New Englanders of yesteryear had when they tried to impose their world view on the South and others. Todays bunch may not be lily white, but they do want to impose their views on the rest of us nonetheless.
Anyway, my two cents worth for today….
You’re addressing a different subject than I am, Dixiegirl. I don’t disagree with you that most people living in the North today aren’t WASPS. I don’t remember ever claiming that they were.