Pope Pius IX and the Confederacy.
The Catholic Knight: Pope Pius IX and the Confederacy
One of the most overlooked facts of the American Civil War Era is the sympathy the South gained from Europe's most influential monarch - the pope of Rome.
Pope Pius IX never actually signed any kind of alliance or 'statement of support' with the Confederate States of America, but to those who understand the nuance of papal protocol, what he did do was quite astonishing. He acknowledged President Jefferson Davis as the "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America."
From this we can glean three things about Pope Pius IX...
- He called Jefferson Davis by the customary title "Honorable."
- He acknowledged him as president of a nation.
- In doing so, he (at least on a personal level) effectively recognized the Confederate States of America as a sovereign entity, separate from the United States of America.
News of this reached the North, and the Whitehouse was considerably irate about it, prompting a response from the Vatican that the pope's letter did not amount to an "official" recognition in the "formal sense."
The pope's letter to Jefferson Davis was accompanied by an autographed picture of the pope.
There are many possible reasons why this pontiff would be sympathetic to the CSA and her president, but the most likely one was that Pope Pius IX recognized in the traditional Christian culture of the South, a mindset opposed to the advance of liberal Modernism. You see it was Pius IX who composed the famous "Syllabus of Errors," which condemned the Modernist philosophies of liberalism, humanism, secularism and marxism. It is speculated that Pius IX saw in the Confederacy a political movement steeped in European Christian tradition, and therefore a potential ally against liberal modernism on the North American continent. Alas, the Confederacy was ultimately defeated, and President Davis was captured. As the 'Deconstruction' of the South commenced, and Davis awaited his trial, it is understandable why the pope would be sympathetic.
Pope Pius IX was a revered figure in the post war South. General Robert E. Lee kept a portrait of him in his house, and referred to him as the South's only true friend during her time of need. Both Davis and Lee were Episcopalians, as were many Southerners before the War, a denomination which had many things in common with Catholicism before the 20th century influence of Modernism of course. Davis was frequently visited by Southern Catholic nuns during his imprisonment, who delivered messages for him and prayed for his release. He eventually was released, having never stood trial, on the grounds that he committed no real crime. It is believed the majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court at that time acknowledged the right of secession.
Southern Americans of today should take comfort knowing that the old Confederacy did have a European friend, and it just happened to be one of the most respected men in the world - not only a head of state, but also the leader of the world's largest Christian religion. The day will come when Pope Pius IX will be canonized as a Saint. He has already been beatified, which puts him well on his way. When that day comes, Southerners will have a special bragging right, not enjoyed by many nations even today. They will not only be able to boast of his sympathies during and after the great War, but they will also have in their collective possession a relic of the man - a hand written letter and autographed photograph.
Re: Pope Pius IX and the Confederacy.
Please keep in mind that the U.S. Civil War isn't so easily reduced to "anti-slavery north" vs. "pro-slavery south." A dirty little secret is that slavery also existed in the northern states when the conflict took place.
Re: Pope Pius IX and the Confederacy.
I know that. It was not as simplistic as they make us believe. The fact is there were Carlistas fighting on the Confederate side, but that is another secret most history books won't tell you about.
Re: Pope Pius IX and the Confederacy.
If the preservation of slavery was the only (or even the most important) matter at stake during the American CW, then slave owners wouldn't have almost anyone to fight for their cause in the confederate army. How many of the "greys" actually kept slaves? How many of them were tenants, single farmers and artisans, denied of a scarcely remedied living by the unfair competition of slave owners? The pieces of the puzzle don't really fit in, do they?
The abolition of slavery was the perfect battle flag for the Lincoln administration to rally the yanquies to fight their fellow Americans of the southern states. Not to make of the negroes equal citizens, oh no! It would have to come the Year of Our Lord 2008 to see one of them elected president - and a damn lousy one at that! No... the real purpose was to annihilate the state's self-governance, as it was meant by the nation founders, the constitution signers, several of them from the south. No state was to leave the union even if it was massively voted for! No state was to escape the federal rule over the most unsuspected and particular matters of their citizens. No federal law was to be proposed and voted by the states (as actual union members) but by the HR and the Senate. That's what, in my view, the American CW was all about.
Re: Pope Pius IX and the Confederacy.
Cita:
Iniciado por
Irmão de Cá
If the preservation of slavery was the only (or even the most important) matter at stake during the American CW, then slave owners wouldn't have almost anyone to fight for their cause in the confederate army. How many of the "greys" actually kept slaves? How many of them were tenants, single farmers and artisans, denied of a scarcely remedied living by the unfair competition of slave owners? The pieces of the puzzle don't really fit in, do they?
Outside of the gentry in the south, like Robert E. Lee, slavery wasn't as common as the casual observer of U.S. history may think- and for a Christian gentleman like Lee slavery was an evil that had to be tolerated until an acceptable solution was found, such as a process of gradual emancipation:
http://www.monticello.org/slavery-at...l-emancipation
Or how many black slaves were owned by free blacks? Or how many blacks fought in the Confederate forces? Or how many men from the Union fought without a single concern about slavery but many concerns about preserving the nation? The American Civil War ishas been subjected to politically correct revision and alot of its hidden facts have been forgotten, such as this:
"U.S. Civil War: The US-Russian Alliance that Saved the Union"
U.S. Civil War: The US-Russian Alliance that Saved the Union
The international aspect of the American Civil War is largely overlooked and not even known, hence the willingness of tsarist Russia to go to war with Britain and France if it sided with the Confederates. Why? Now that's an interesting question!
Cita:
The abolition of slavery was the perfect battle flag for the Lincoln administration to rally the yanquies to fight their fellow Americans of the southern states. Not to make of the negroes equal citizens, oh no! It would have to come the Year of Our Lord 2008 to see one of them elected president - and a damn lousy one at that! No... the real purpose was to annihilate the state's self-governance, as it was meant by the nation founders, the constitution signers, several of them from the south. No state was to leave the union even if it was massively voted for! No state was to escape the federal rule over the most unsuspected and particular matters of their citizens. No federal law was to be proposed and voted by the states (as actual union members) but by the HR and the Senate. That's what, in my view, the American CW was all about.
Lincoln is an interesting figure to me. He was ambivalent about the issue of slavery and was willing to accept its existence in the southern states to preserve the country. Lincoln was pressured from all sides to act on slavery, most notably from the radical abolitionists in the north (the future Radical Republicans) and from international critics in Britain and France. There's a belief that his assassination was orhcestrated by the Rothschild gang because he was attempting currency reform in the U.S. to free the country from international finance.
US Presidents Murdered By Rothschild Banksters***
