‘Christian Patriots’: The Intersection Between Proto-fascism and Clerical Fascism in the Antebellum South

This article examines the convergence between clerical fascism and proto-fascism in the Antebellum South of the United States. The author employs Roger Griffin’s theories of palingenetic ultranationalism and clerical fascism to understand the worldviews of Southern intellectuals. The author argues that a cadre of Southern theologians rejected the liberal heritage of the United States and redefined the relationship between the individual and state. Southern clerical fascists reconceived of an alternative modernity that reflected God’s precepts. Slaves, laborers, and slave masters all had a mandate to guide secular and spiritual progress. Furthermore, these Southern clerics believed the best hope for securing God’s order was to be found in the birth of a new Southern society – the Confederate States of America. This study builds upon the works of other historians who discerned the illiberal and authoritarian qualities of the American South while also contributing to delineation of the protean qualities of clerical fascism.

Innovazione e tradizione nelle costituzioni del Novecento. Note preliminari

The balance that constitutions must find between tradition and innovation is a complex issue. Respect for the tradition is essential to signal the continuity of the political community; the planning of innovation is essential to signal the break with a constitutional order overwhelmed by history. Examples of such a difficult balance are countless (particularly significant is that of the Confederate States of America) and can easily understood by studying the evolution of political symbols, especially in times of constitutional transition. The issue of the balance between tradition and innovation is studied here with particular reference to the constitutions of the twentieth century.

George Trenholm Sees the Future

This chapter tells the story of George Trenholm, one of the savviest businessmen in the United States and probably the richest man in the South when the Civil War began. It describes Trenholm's international powerhouse firm that was highly respected by the powerful in New York and Europe. The chapter then turns to review the impact of Abraham Lincoln's election as president on the slaveholding Southern states and the more industrial Northern states. Three days later George Trenholm introduced a measure in the South Carolina General Assembly denouncing the election and stating that South Carolina should preserve her sovereignty by securing supplies and weapons to arm the state. As South Carolina joined Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida in establishing the Confederate States of America, Trenholm started a trend that would be rapidly copied by others: he began to change the registry of his ships to British and obscuring the names of the true owners. The chapter then introduces Captain Sam Whiting, the person who paid the courtesy of dipping his US flag to the Union defenders of the fort. It investigates how both the Union and Confederate governments scrambled to put people in the right places to win the war.

The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia: Select Papers from the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symposia

<p>Writers in the field of postal history have incredibly diverse interests and approaches. As a result, the postal history symposia have been organized around themes. The three themes represented in papers here are mail and the Civil War (2012), the development of transoceanic air mail service (2014), and the influence of postal treaties on post office reforms (2016).</p><p>The American Civil War affected mail in many ways, particularly in the Confederate States of America, which faced the challenge of quickly developing its own postal system, as well as shortages of supplies, including paper. The mail itself can be used to tell the story of the conflict through the examination of patriotic and propaganda images on envelopes and through the study of shifts in mail routes and practices as the war progressed.</p><p>The histories of aviation and of mail delivery are intertwined. Pressure to deliver mail faster and more efficiently helped to propel investment in aviation innovations. In turn, developments in flight opened new possibilities for carrying the mail. The development of transoceanic air mail from its very early days in the 1920s through the rise of military air mail services during World War II is examined.</p><p> Throughout much of history, mail has been the primary means of communication both within and between nations; thus, the regulations and agreements concerning what may be mailed, and for what cost, have had a profound effect on a population’s access to information. Postal reform, and particularly the creation of national postal systems, required that immediate needs as well as political and economic visions of the future be considered and addressed legally and structurally during state-building. Cases of the United States in the revolutionary era and Brazil in the nineteenth century are examined here.<br></p>

The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia: Select Papers from the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symposia

<p>Writers in the field of postal history have incredibly diverse interests and approaches. As a result, the postal history symposia have been organized around themes. The three themes represented in papers here are mail and the Civil War (2012), the development of transoceanic air mail service (2014), and the influence of postal treaties on post office reforms (2016).</p><p>The American Civil War affected mail in many ways, particularly in the Confederate States of America, which faced the challenge of quickly developing its own postal system, as well as shortages of supplies, including paper. The mail itself can be used to tell the story of the conflict through the examination of patriotic and propaganda images on envelopes and through the study of shifts in mail routes and practices as the war progressed.</p><p>The histories of aviation and of mail delivery are intertwined. Pressure to deliver mail faster and more efficiently helped to propel investment in aviation innovations. In turn, developments in flight opened new possibilities for carrying the mail. The development of transoceanic air mail from its very early days in the 1920s through the rise of military air mail services during World War II is examined.</p><p> Throughout much of history, mail has been the primary means of communication both within and between nations; thus, the regulations and agreements concerning what may be mailed, and for what cost, have had a profound effect on a population’s access to information. Postal reform, and particularly the creation of national postal systems, required that immediate needs as well as political and economic visions of the future be considered and addressed legally and structurally during state-building. Cases of the United States in the revolutionary era and Brazil in the nineteenth century are examined here.<br></p>

The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia: Select Papers from the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symposia

Writers in the field of postal history have incredibly diverse interests and approaches. As a result, the postal history symposia have been organized around themes. The three themes represented in papers here are mail and the Civil War (2012), the development of transoceanic air mail service (2014), and the influence of postal treaties on post office reforms (2016).The American Civil War affected mail in many ways, particularly in the Confederate States of America, which faced the challenge of quickly developing its own postal system as well as shortages of supplies, in-cluding paper. The mail itself can be used to tell the story of the conflict through the examination of patriotic and propaganda images on envelopes and through the study of shifts in mail routes and practices as the war progressed.The histories of aviation and of mail delivery are intertwined. Pressure to deliver mail faster and more efficiently helped to propel investment in aviation innovations. In turn, developments in flight opened new possibilities for carrying the mail. The development of transoceanic air mail from its very early days in the 1920s through the rise of military air mail services during World War II is examined.Throughout much of history, mail has been the primary means of communication both within and be-tween nations; thus, the regulations and agreements concerning what may be mailed, and for what cost, have had a profound effect on a population’s access to information. Postal reform, and particularly the creation of national postal systems, required that immediate needs as well as political and economic visions of the future be considered and addressed legally and structurally during state-building. Cases of the United States in the revolutionary era and Brazil in the nineteenth century are examined.

The Confederacy

In forming the Confederate States of America at a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861, the delegates made the protection of slavery their top priority. They wrote into the Provisional Confederate Constitution explicit guarantees for the perpetuation of slavery. Anxious to project an image of bipartisan moderation, they denied leadership positions to the fire-eaters, the original hard-core radicals, and chose Jefferson Davis, a latecomer to secession, for president, and Alexander Stephens, who had warned against the dangers of secession, for vice-president. As inducements for the Upper South to join the Confederacy, the convention adopted a moderate tariff instead of free trade and constitutionally mandated the prohibition of the African slave trade. God was invoked as their protector on the official seal of the Confederacy, a confirmation of the evangelical belief that Southerners were undertaking a holy mission in forming a new Christian republic dedicated to the glory of God. Although specifically authorized only with drafting a provisional constitution, the delegates conferred the powers of a legislative body or congress on the convention in order to move ahead quickly in shaping their new government and preparing for a possible war with the North. By March, a functioning government and army were in place.

Confederate Citadel

Richmond, Virginia, became the capital of the Confederate States of America in May 1861. From that point on, it would be the target of multiple Union “On to Richmond” campaigns. Richmond was symbolic: its capitol building bore the imprimatur of the Revolutionary War generation and had been designed by Thomas Jefferson; on its grounds was a famous equestrian statue of George Washington. Nearby was St. John’s Church, where Patrick Henry had demanded liberty—or death. But Richmond was an anomaly in the antebellum South. It supported a diverse population of whites, slaves, free people of color, and immigrants. It had modernized during the 1850s. By 1860, it ranked thirteenth nationally in manufacturing and boasted a robust commercial economy. When civil war erupted in 1861, it was only logical to shift the Confederate capital to the city on the James. Richmond became the keystone of the rebellion. Its people would sacrifice until there was literally nothing left. Rather than allow the Union army to take the city in 1865, the Confederacy’s military leaders fired the tobacco housed there, which created a firestorm that nearly destroyed the city. When the Federals entered Richmond on April 3, they could see the detritus that was a testament to the city’s and its citizens’ contributions to the Confederacy.

Introduction

The Reconstruction era embraces the twelve years, from 1865 to 1877, of active effort to rebuild and reconstitute the American union after the attempt by the Confederate States of America to secede from it. The Introduction explains how it left a long legacy of bitterness, especially among Southerners who believed that they had fought an honorable war and were handed a dishonorable peace. Reconstruction also coincided with an eruption of unprecedented levels of graft, corruption, and fraud in American civil governments. But Reconstruction is probably best known, and least liked, for its failure to erase the treacherous impact of slavery and race in a reconstructed and unified nation.

Synthesis and Conclusion

This chapter begins with a synthesis of key themes, covering derivatives, debt instruments, and structured notes. It considers the case study Securities and Exchange Commission v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. & Fabrice Tourre. It then describes the Erlanger “cotton” bonds issued by the Confederate States of America to raise money during the Civil War. This is followed by discussions on range notes, internal leverage and market risk, and risks (interest rate risk, liquidity risk, reinvestment risk). The chapter concludes by describing the bulletin issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on May 22, 2002, to all national bank CEOs and all federal branches and agencies in regard to risky “yield-chasing” strategies that were returning to the markets.