Dear Cousin Henry,

Congratulations on your challenge to the federal government. You have taken up

the charge so often led by South Carolinians of the past. Your name is sure to be added

to the history books.

Remember my lessons at A.C. Flora High in the 1960s when you sat at the front

of my history taking voluminous notes? Here are some of the historical events we discussed.

183 2. John C. Calhoun boldly resigned as vice president of the U.S. to run for the

U.S. Senate so he could lead the effort in S.C. to nullify President Andrew Jackson’s tariff.

S.C.’s Ordinance of Nullification declared that a state could declare an act of

Congress null and void and, thereby, not obey it. The federal government threatened

military action, and our brave state backed down. Nullification became a null and void

issue.

1 860. After Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election, Fire–eater Robert

Barnwell Rhett and other pro–slavery South Carolinians convened a convention in

Columbia then moved to Charleston where they unanimously passed a resolution of

secession. Within a few months the C.S.A. was formed, and Palmetto militia attacked

Fort Sumter. The Civil War ended four disastrous years later. Secession was proven

impossible, and slavery was abolished.

1948. Southern Democrats opposed the Civil Rights movement as they had

unsuccessfully sought to derail Social Security in 1935. They were dedicated to preserving

the Southern Way of Life (such as Jim Crow laws). Strom Thurmond left the

Democratic Party and helped form the State’s Rights Party (nicknamed Dixiecrats) and

ran for president. Harry S. Truman was reelected. Thurmond became a Republican.

1954. The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared “separate

but equal schools” unconstitutional. Gov. James F. Byrnes and other palmetto

politicians cried foul. Supporters of integration were branded communists and outside

agitators. Freedom of choice and zoning were used to bypass the federal law. South

Carolina schools were forcefully desegregated in 1970.

In each of these cases, we declared “states rights” and sought to maintain our

“sovereignty” over the United States of America. We sought to deny American rights to

our citizens. We were eventually forced by the United States government to obey

national law and remain in the union. The law of the land has been a hard lesson to

learn.

2010. Now you, our state attorney general and a candidate for governor, are taking

up the charge against the Health Care Bill, crying, “It’s unconstitutional,” “States

rights,” and “Sovereignty.”

When your legal action fails, as it surely will, will you call for us to take back Fort

Sumter?! Think about it, Henry, wouldn’t you rather be in the history books as the

leader who helped the citizens of South Carolina become healthier, happier, and more

productive than the firebrand who led yet another failed rebellion.










Faithfully,
Warner M. Montgomer y