John Henniger Reagan, Postmaster General of the C.S.A. John H. Reagan served as a United States Congressman from Texas both before and after the War Between the States. During the interim, he was a member of Confederate President Jefferson Davis' cabinet, Postmaster General of the Confederate States of America. In spite of severe difficulties he served with distinction and effectiveness. One historian called the postal service of the Confederate States "the only post office department in American history to pay its own way,"
On April 19, 1903, as the last surviving member of the Confederate States Cabinet, Reagan gave a very interesting and enlightening speech in Houston, Texas, on "Why the South Seceded." He said, in part:
"During the war, 1861 to 1865, and ever since there has been a studied, systematic effort on the part of those who were our adversaries to pervert and falsify the history of the causes which led to that war....
"Their (the North's) pretense was that They were fighting to save the Union, and they made thousands of honest soldiers believe they were fighting for the Union. Their leaders knew that the Union rested on the Constitution, and that their purpose was to overthrow the Constitution. The Union the soldiers fought for was the Union established by the Constitution. The Union the leaders sought was only to be attained by the subversion of the Constitution, the annulment of the doctrine of State rights, the making of a consolidated central republic, abolishing the limitations prescribed by the Constitution and substituting a popular majority of the people of the whole Union in their stead, and to open the way for individual and corporate gain through the agency of the government....
"Our people were not responsible for the war; it was forced on them. They were not rebels or traitors. They simply acted as patriots, defending their rights and their homes against the lawless and revolutionary action of a dominant and reckless majority."
You can read the entire speech here: http://civilwartalk.com/Resource_Center/General_Resources/Politics_and_Politicians/why-the-south-seceded-a442.html
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Thank you for making me aware of John H. Reagan and his excellent speech on the causes of the war and secession. I have started a thread at the Confederate Colonel web forum on this topic. Reading through the original speech prompted me to start a Southern Heritage Resources section on ConfederateColonel.com, with this being the first addition to it.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you sir!