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Conflict Of Interest
A Weekly Column By Walter B. Hoye II
In the abortion debate, is there a "Conflict of Interest" within the Black community and among her leaders?
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Yes, Black American Slaves served as Confederate soldiers! Here's the story. In January of 1864, with the defeat of the South all but certain and since the Confederacy was "not fighting for slavery," Confederate Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, proposed using Slaves as confederate soldiers. In return for their loyal service to the noble ideals of the Confederacy, the Slaves would be offered their freedom if they fought and survived. 4 This proposal was met with abject abhorrence and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America quickly rejected it and wrote clearly that he thought it was:
" injurious of the public service that such subject should be mooted or even known to entertain by persons possessed of confidence and respect of the people. If it be kept out of the public journal its ill effect will be much lessened." 5
However, the Confederate Army suffered massive defeats in the spring and summer of 1864 and with her manpower and morale depleted by the winter of 18641865, President Davis was forced to change his mind. William Smith, Governor of Virginia, said:
"With two hundred thousand Negro soldiers already in the Union Army, can we hesitate, can we doubt, when the question is, whether the enemy shall use our Slaves against us or we use them against him; when the question may be between liberty and independence on one hand or our own subjugation and utter ruin on the other." 6
Apparently Governor Smith did not like the idea of his faith-filled and freedom loving Antebellum South lacking liberty, independence or being subject to subjugation. Still, the debate over using Black American Slaves as soldiers in the Confederate Army raged on in the Confederate Congress in 1865.
Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, the very powerful Confederate Senator from Virginia and caustic critic of Confederate President Jefferson Davis feared, such legislation would trigger Slaves running away in mass to join the Union Army said: "Negroes now are deterred from going to the enemy only by the fear of being put in the army. If we put them in they will all go over." 7
At the heart of this debate was the issue of freeing the Slaves to fight for the Confederacy. Henry Cousins Chambers, who killed his opponent for Confederate Congress, William Augustus Lake, in a duel in 1861, represented Mississippi in the First Confederate Congress and the Second Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1865.
It was the Honorable Mr. Chambers from Mississippi who said he was ashamed to debate the question. Since the Confederacy was "not fighting for slavery," Mr. Chambers expressed his heart felt sentiments this way: "All nature
cries out against it. The Negro was ordained to slavery by the Almighty. Emancipation would be the destruction of our social and political system. God forbid that this Trojan horse should be introduced among us." 8
Many viewed this proposal as a measure that would threatened the very foundations of the Confederacy. However, in the end, a compromise was reached and on March 13th, 1864 Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who made it clear that the Confederacy was "not fighting for slavery," signed a narrowly passed bill that did not include a provision to emancipate those Slaves who left the plantations to fight for the Confederate Army. 9 Facing their own "subjugation," "utter ruin" and the "destruction of [their] social and political system," should the South lose the war, the Confederate Congress chose to leave the freedom of the Slaves up to the individual states and General Order No. 14 (click here or on image to the left to enlarge and read) was officially issued setting a fixed number of 300,000 Slaves for the Confederate States Colored Troops. 10
"It's Not About Abortion" (21st Century) "This all deals with women's health. Everything has been resolved. Everything. It's an ideological battle. It has nothing to do with fiscal integrity in this country." Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada), the morning of the Friday, April 8th, 2012 deadline for the federal government's fiscal year 2012 budget 11 Did The Federal Government Almost Shut Down Over Abortion?
"A woman's ability to decide how many children to have and when, without interference from the government, is one of the most fundamental rights we possess. It is not just an issue of choice, but equality and opportunity for all women." Barack Hussein Obama II, as a United States Senator 12
On Thursday, April 7th, 2011 the nation was facing the possibility of the federal government shutting down if President Barack Hussein Obama II, the Democrat-Controlled Senate and the Republican-Controlled House in Congress cannot agree with a final 2011 budget by Friday, April 8th, 2011. 13 With the federal government twenty-four (24) hours away from shut down, Republican-Controlled House passed their third (3rd) Continuing Resolution (CR) to carry the federal government for at least one (1) more week. 14 However, the President Barack Hussein Obama II and the Democrat-Controlled Senate have rejected the latest
Republican-Controlled House proposed CR because it contains a policy rider in it that would cut abortion funding. According to a CNN report dated, on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 10:54 A.M. (EST), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada), admitted that "the abortion issue is the lone remaining stumbling block for negotiators trying to reach a budget deal that would stop the federal government from being shutdown." 15 In the end government shutdown was averted. When the Republicans agreed to drop their demand to defund Planned Parenthood and the Democrats agreed to much larger budget cuts, on Friday, April 8th, 2011, just before 11:00 P.M. (EST) House Speaker John Andrew Beohner (Republican, Ohio) announced a deal was done just before the midnight deadline. 16 Like it or not
largest abortion provider in the country continues to get funded. Apparently, political compromise is not the way to end the shedding of innocent blood through abortion on demand.
In Ecclesiastes 11:5 (GodsWord), King Solomon said: "Just as you don't know how the breath of life enters the limbs of a child within its mother's womb, you also don't understand how God, who made everything, works." 22
Apparently, King Solomon is right and what we don't know is killing us. However, at this point, I'm beginning to suspect that our problem is not, that we don't have at least some idea of when life begins. As the years roll by and the number of lives deliberately destroyed in the womb of their own mothers continues to rise higher and higher, it's becoming apparent to me that as a country, we don't care enough about when life begins to bring an end to abortion on demand. Apparently, we care more about our own lives and the quality thereof than we do about the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable among us. Like it or not, when it comes to ending abortion
20. United States Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov). 21. Dennis M. Howard, The Movement for a Better America, Inc., "America's Silent Killer: 55.3 Million Lives Lost!" (http://bit.ly/IprTXN). 22. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Bible.cc provides a parallel, verse by verse view of 8 translations (http://bit.ly/I659tF).
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