Defining Moments

One hundred fifty years ago today at 4:30 a.m. Lt. Henry Farley fired a 10-inch mortar round from Ft. Johnson on the south side of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The shell arched high over Ft. Sumpter and exploded directly above the Union troops in the fort. From across the harbor, Edmund Ruffin, an irascible, ardent secessionist from Virginia, fired the first shot directly at the fort, a 64-pound shell, from the Iron Battery at Cummings Point. The American Civil War was on.

Major Robert Anderson, in command of the fort, waited for daylight to return fire, partly because having been under siege since December, his supplies and ammunition were low. Although the fort had 60 guns, more than their Confederate attackers had available, only a few were actually manned and used. In the next 34 hours, 3,000 rounds hit the fort, fires broke out and smoke was so thick the defenders could scarcely breathe. When the flagpole was knocked down at 1 p.m. on the 13th, Anderson finally asked for terms.

The battle ended with no casualties. Major Anderson upon surrender asked to be able to fire a 100-gun salute to honor the American flag. During the salute a spark set off a pile of cartridges and the explosion killed Private Daniel Hough instantly. Several others were injured and one, Private Edward Gallway, died a few days later, the first two of what would become over 620,000 within four years.

The Civil War, along with the American Revolution are the two most defining moments in American history. The Revolution gave us a country, but the Civil War determined what kind of country it would be.

The Revolution united thirteen colonies under one Constitution in a government ruled by the people, an experiment in freedom that was unprecedented in world history. A Bill of Rights guaranteed not only the rights of free citizens, but in the Tenth Amendment, the rights of the individual States to rule themselves in any area not specifically covered by the Constitution. From this came the Doctrine of Nullification, the right of the States to overturn any law the Federal government passed that infringed upon the Tenth Amendment rights of the States.

The issue of nullification usually reared its head in the debate over slavery, and the rights of the Southern States to continue the slave trade. By 1860 the issue had grown to include the right of secession from the Union. When South Carolina fired on Ft. Sumpter they very clearly expressed their intention of going to war in order to secede.

What followed was the greatest war in terms of loss of life that the United States has ever fought. It was a war shocking in the level of violence and hatred that ofttimes brothers, cousins, and even fathers and sons hurled at each other. While 20th century wars with machine guns, tanks, and airplanes would kill many times the numbers of the Civil War, most of the deaths in those later wars came from a distance; artillery shells or bombs accounted for 90% of combat deaths in World War II. In the Civil War, 90% of the deaths were from rifles, small arms, bayonets and hand-to-hand combat. For sheer, wanton destruction, the Civil War was the most violent war America ever fought.

The end result, however, was that the right of secession was denied. The United States would remain one nation. The healing of the rift would be slow, and the recognition of equal rights to all races long in coming, but America would continue as one people and be a stronger presence in the world for it.

Today we are at another defining moment. It's not that there haven't been struggles along the way since 1865. There have been corrupt administrations, usurpation of non-designated constitutional powers by certain branches of government, and derelict leadership in the White House. Most of these have been held up, turned back, or overcome through the ballot box every four years. The wisdom of our Founders in creating this system was never more evident than in the 2000 elections.

But through every crisis we've faced, every monstrous growth of government, every burden of added taxes, every failure of leadership, we have always remained a free society. Our free enterprise economic system, the envy of the world, has always recovered when sensible people recognizing the necessity of limited government return to power in Washington. This time things are different.

We are facing a crisis of monumental proportions, a kind not seen since the Civil War, and one more egregious than any issue we have faced since that day. The danger in our time is not of states seceding, but of an entire overthrow of our constitutional system of government and our freedom in favor of a socialist welfare state run by an uncontrolled dictator. Nullification is again a watch word as many states are seeking to undo the overreaching agenda of the Obama administration.

Many, including some from his own political party, are beginning to call for Obama's impeachment. Their complaints among others include:

* Implementing the unconstitutional Obamacare even though a Federal Court has ordered it stopped.

* Ordering the EPA to bypass Congress and enact Cap and Trade even though Congress rejected it.

* A pathetic foreign policy that overlooks the abuses of Iran and Syria while encouraging the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt, who had been our best Arab ally in the region, and sending military forces into battle in Libya without authorization from, or even consulting with Congress. It was not too long ago Obama joined the band wagon calling for President Bush's impeachment for what they claimed was the same thing.

* Preventing oil drilling even though a Federal Court lifted his ban, all the while telling the public he is encouraging oil companies to drill.

* Preventing Arizona from protecting its border with Mexico from drug cartel armies that are killing Americans while he refuses to do anything to protect the border.

* Usurping the position of the US Supreme Court by declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional even though it was passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by Clinton.

* His refusal to provide a legitimate birth certificate to prove his eligibility for the office he holds.

Obama promised change, and he's bringing it all right, but the change he's bringing is a revolution. It's an attempted overthrow of our free society and constitutional government in favor of socialist slavery and dictatorial rule. It has brought us to a defining moment in our history.

When the South surrendered in 1865, poor old Edmund Ruffin could not bear the thought of living in a restored Union and committed suicide. The question for us is, are we going to commit national suicide by surrendering to an illegitimate dictator, or will we put a stop to this arrogant, potential tyrant, and restore constitutional law? What will history say about this defining moment for America?