The Importance of Getting History Right, Part 7

Forgetting Flaws and Fabricating Fantasies: The Democrats’ Revisionist History

I am not a fan of the Republican Party. I’m not here as a Republican shill. I don’t like them. I’m not a member of the Republican Party. They’ve lost their way. But let’s get history right.
—Glenn Beck¹—

A condensed version of this article is available here.
Part 6 is available here.
Links to all the articles in this series are available here.

Is a college education everything it’s cracked up to be? Increasingly, conservatives are compelled to say no. While education can be defined concisely as a quest for truth, college students in the United States today, generally speaking, aren’t acquiring truth. They’re being indoctrinated, and not by accident.

Woodrow Wilson in 1902, President of Princeton University

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was president of Princeton University (1902-1910) before becoming governor of New Jersey (1911-1913) and president of the United States (1913-1921).² Wilson has been called a “progressive reformer”³ and even the “Godfather of Liberalism.”⁴ Ironically, it was in a speech about the Young Men’s Christian Association that Wilson made this significant statement: “I have often said that the use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible.”⁵

Dennis Prager indicates that what Wilson said hasn’t been forgotten. On the contrary, it is being consistently applied in higher education today.

In 1996, in his commencement address to the graduating seniors of Dartmouth College, the then president of the college, James O. Freedman, cited the Wilson quote favorably. And in 2002, in another commencement address, Freedman said that “the purpose of a college education is to question your father’s values.”⁶

The context for Prager’s insights is an article titled “What Kids Now Learn in College.”⁷ It can’t be good, given the admission made by Freedman.⁸ The truth is that warning signs about higher education are everywhere for Christian parents and others who hold to traditional moral values, and they have been for some time.⁹ Hopefully in the near future, I will be able to write an article about some of these signs for Word Foundations readers. For now, I want to highlight five of the 27 items Prager says parents are paying $20,000 to $50,000 annually per child for their children to learn.

The South votes Republican because it is still racist, and the Republican Party caters to racists.
Whites can be racist; non-whites cannot be (because whites have power, and the powerless cannot be racist).
Blacks are victims of whites.
The American Founders were sexist, racist slaveholders whose primary concern was preserving their wealthy status.
The Constitution says what progressives think it should say.¹⁰

Appropriately, Dennis Prager concludes his article with this piercing question: “Still want to go into years of debt?” Keep in mind we’ve listed here only a few of Prager’s observations!¹¹ Also keep in mind that it isn’t just institutions of higher education indoctrinating children, but the broader culture as well.

For the past several weeks, we’ve been discussing the importance of having an accurate understanding of history in general, and of black history in particular.¹² Last week we began making a list¹³ of historical truths that surprise and enlighten modern readers because they hardly ever are highlighted. Why do we only hear select portions of black history? The simple answer is that progressives and Democrats have revised history to their own advantage.

No longer will we ignore previously hidden historical truths or the lessons they teach! In Part 6 we had the privilege of discovering the contributions blacks made to the cause of liberty in the American Revolution and during Reconstruction.¹⁴ Our journey was prompted by these, the first two items on our list.

Historical Truths Democrats Have Successfully Concealed

First, many black soldiers fought alongside whites in the Revolutionary War.¹⁵ Their contributions to the cause of liberty and American independence truly were incalculable.

Second, all of the first black Members of Congress were Republicans.¹⁶ They courageously faced threats and fierce opposition from those who never wanted to free the slaves in the first place, many of whom were Democrats.

We now will add nine more items to the list. As you read, please remember that our primary goal isn’t to be pro-Republican or even anti-Democrat, but to learn the truth about history. We simply want to ask, “What happened?” Are you ready?

Third, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially ended slavery in the United States. The US Senate passed it on April 8, 1864, and the US House of Representatives passed it on January 31, 1865.¹⁷ One hundred eighteen out of 118 Republicans—100 percent—voted for the amendment, but a mere 19 of 82 Democrats—23 percent—voted for it.^18,19 “Among Democrats, 63 percent of senators and 78 percent of House members voted: ‘No.’”²⁰

Fourth, the 14^th Amendment specifies that all Americans will have equal protection under the law. “In 1866 94 percent of GOP senators and 96 percent of GOP House members approved” the measure. Every single Democrat in Congress voted no.²¹

Fifth, the 15^th Amendment guarantees the right to vote for every American, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”²² At the time Congress passed it, there were a total of 56 congressional Democrats, and not one of them voted for it.²³ The 15^th Amendment would go on to be ratified on February 3, 1870.²⁴

Sixth, the Democrat platform of 1860 “continued to campaign for immigrant rights and slavery. The 1864 platform denounced the Civil War and called for negotiations with the Confederacy. The 1868 platform denounced ‘negro supremacy’.”²⁵ Blacks haven’t been the exclusive targets of Democrat racism, however. Democrat Party platforms from the last thirty years of the 19^th century, as well as the 1900 platform, show that Asians, the Chinese, “the Mongolian race,” “servile races,” and the Japanese have been targets as well.²⁶ During this time, Democrats didn’t abandon racism toward blacks, either; their 1892 platform decried blacks’ voting rights.²⁷

Seventh, Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan (KKK):

The KKK was founded in Tennessee immediately after the end of the Civil War as a sort of social club for former Confederate Soldiers whose influence quickly spread through the decimated Southern states. As Columbia professor Eric Foner wrote in his A Short History of Reconstruction, in its early days, the group was loosely bound by one main principle: launching a reign of terror against Republican leaders black and white.

Racism was, of course, a guiding principle, but not quite as guiding as the hatred of the Republicans, the party of Lincoln, the Yankees who[m] early Klansmen believed destroyed their homeland through what they termed a “war of northern aggression.”²⁸

According to Larry Elder,

In 1872 congressional investigations, Democrats admitted beginning the Klan as an effort to stop the spread of the Republican Party and to re-establish Democratic control in Southern states. As PBS’ “American Experience” notes, “In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power. The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in Pulaski, Tenn., in 1865.” Blacks, who were all Republican at that time, became the primary targets of violence.²⁹

“A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democratic Party as continuations of the Confederacy”

Eighth, the election of 1876 sent Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to the White House, but only after a compromise was reached that gave him just enough electoral votes to be elected.

Hayes

The results of the election were mired in controversy, although Democrat Samuel J. Tilden had, without question, won the popular vote.³⁰According to the website Digital History,

Tilden

At a meeting in February 1877 at Washington, D.C.’s Wormley Hotel (which was operated by an African American), Democratic leaders accepted Hayes’s election in exchange for Republican promises to withdraw federal troops from the South, provide federal funding for internal improvements in the South, and name a prominent Southerner to the president’s cabinet. When the federal troops were withdrawn, the Republican governments in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina collapsed, bringing Reconstruction to a formal end.

Under the so-called Compromise of 1877, the national government would no longer intervene in southern affairs. This would permit the imposition of racial segregation and the disfranchisement of black voters.³¹

When the federal troops were withdrawn from the South, the Republican governments in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina collapsed, bringing Reconstruction to a formal end. Under the so-called Compromise of 1877, the national government would no longer intervene in southern affairs. This would permit the imposition of racial segregation and the disfranchisement of black voters.
—Digital History—

Ninth, the presidential election of 1880 is notable for several reasons. First, it was the first presidential election that took place following Reconstruction. Second, the Democrats nominated Winfield Scott Hancock, who had been a Union general during the Civil War. He’d emerged a war hero, but significantly, “Hancock was a Democrat who fought to preserve the Union but not to end slavery or see Black Americans protected by the United States Constitution.”³²

Hancock

It was a very shrewd move on the part of Democrats. Recognizing this, Republicans distributed a handbill that highlighted the stark differences between the two parties—and that effectively laid out reasons not to vote for the Democratic ticket.

For a larger copy of this image, click here.

While today some of the language used in the flyer would be considered inappropriate, the points it conveyed resonated with the public.³³ In the end, the popular vote was very close, even though the vote in the electoral college was not.³⁴ James A. Garfield was elected.

Garfield

Tenth, Democrats in the South after the Civil War no longer had the institution of slavery to bring blacks down, so they found other ways. “Jim Crow laws” were widely used for this purpose. Jim Crow was a character created by Thomas “Daddy” Rice. In the 1830s, Rice wrote and performed for audiences in blackface and spoke in a black dialect.³⁵ The name Jim Crow caught on, and by the late 1830s it had become a negative term people used to refer to a black man.³⁶ We’ve noted that during Reconstruction (a period lasting from 1855-1877), federal laws were passed that afforded certain basic civil rights to blacks. However, in

the 1870s, Democrats gradually regained power in the Southern legislatures, having used insurgent paramilitary groups, such as the White League and Red Shirts, to disrupt Republican organizing, run Republican officeholders out of town, and intimidate blacks to suppress their voting. Extensive voter fraud was also used. Gubernatorial elections were close and had been disputed in Louisiana for years, with increasing violence against blacks during campaigns from 1868 onward. In 1877, a national Democratic Party compromise to gain Southern support in the presidential election [an event we highlighted in our eighth point on this list] resulted in the government’s withdrawing the last of the federal troops from the South. White Democrats had regained political power in every Southern state. These Southern, white, Democratic Redeemer governments legislated Jim Crow laws, officially segregating black people from the white population.³⁷

—Not Just in the South—
Democrats running for office in Ohio in 1867
Go here for more information.

Go here and here to read some examples of Jim Crow laws and to learn about the segregation and oppression they engendered. Jim Crow laws were enacted not just during the 19^th century in the years following the Civil War, but also well into the 20^th century.

Eleventh, the Ku Klux Klan continued its campaign of intimidation, and no tactic in the KKK’s arsenal was more effective than lynching.³⁸ You can understand why. If you can stomach it, take a few moments to watch this prezi.com presentation on lynching.³⁹ Among other things, it’s important for us to know these facts.

• Between 1886 and 1968 there were 4,743 lynchings recorded.
• There were 3,446 blacks lynched out of the 4,743 lynchings. That calls [counts] for 72.7% of [the] lynchings.
• Whites accounted for the extra 27.3%.⁴⁰

These are just the lynchings that were recorded! In 1922, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill authored by Missouri Republican Representative Leonidas Dyer that would have made lynching a federal crime. President Warren G. Harding supported the bill, but senate Democrats from southern states filibustered it, thereby blocking its passage.⁴¹ They filibustered it again in 1923 and 1924.⁴²

In 1922, 1923, and 1924, Senate Democrats from southern states filibustered a bill authored by Missouri Republican Representative Leonidas Dyer that would have made lynching a federal crime.

This last item took place in the early 20^th century, and there’s a good bit more to cover. We’ll complete this list next week by highlighting several 20^th-century events, personalities, and attitudes. This will by no means become an exhaustive list, but I believe it will become—and already is—an informative one.

Elbert Lee Guillory is a former Louisiana state senator. In 2013, Guillory switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. As you hear him explain why, you’ll be reminded of the historical discoveries we’ve made this week and get a foretaste of next week’s discussion.

Before concluding, I feel compelled to underscore the following three items.

First, let’s reiterate. We’re diving into history and trying to learn from what it teaches us. We’re simply trying to uncover what happened. We do this because so many of these important historical facts never are discussed. They should not remain hidden in America’s past, because they hold too many lessons for Americans today.

Second, while this written presentation, in a sense, airs Democrats’ “dirty laundry” with regard to racism, we would never try to make the case that Republicans have a perfect record in this area. Yet their record doesn’t have to be perfect to be a far cry from what the Democrats claim.

Third, in recent years Republicans have developed an unfortunate and disappointing track record of campaigning on conservative principles and then, once elected, acquiescing to Democrat pressure without a fight. Voters who put these Republicans in office are rightly angry over this. This is relevant to our discussion because it is clear to many that Democrats still use intimidation and misinformation as vicious weapons. They have enthusiastic allies in the mainstream media, as well. Republicans need to stand up to Democrats unwaveringly and fight for the principles they ran on when they campaigned for office—the way they used to do when they fought against slavery and fought for equality for all Americans! Can you imagine Republicans of the era of history we’ve been highlighting calling their party a “big tent” that welcomes pro-slavery adherents into its ranks? Can you imagine their saying, “Well, I’m personally opposed to slavery, but I believe every person has a right to choose whether or not to become a slaveowner”? This sounds ridiculous because it is! Republicans, rediscover your roots and stand once again on solid ground! Your constituents long for you to do these things!

Can you imagine Republicans of the era of history we’ve been highlighting calling their party a “big tent” that welcomes pro-slavery adherents into its ranks? Can you imagine their saying, “Well, I’m personally opposed to slavery, but I believe every person has a right to choose whether or not to become a slaveowner”?

Until next week, remember this insightful quote from Winston S. Churchill: “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”⁴³ Let’s make sure we look back, and that we do so with clarity of vision.

These posts are offered, hopefully, as means to these ends.

Part 8 is available here.

Top image: The First Vote: African Americans vote for the first time, as depicted in 1867 on the cover of Harper’s magazine. Engraving by Alfred R. Waud.

Notes:

¹http://www.glennbeck.com/2015/04/28/the-real-history-of-the-civil-rights-movement

²https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson

³http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/woodrow-wilson

⁴http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/07/woodrow-wilson

⁵http://www1.cbn.com/churchandministry/woodrow-wilson-the-power-of-christian-young-men

⁶http://www.nationalreview.com/article/292108/what-kids-now-learn-college-dennis-prager

⁷Ibid.

⁸https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O._Freedman

⁹http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2005/09/warning_signs_about_higher_edu.html

¹⁰http://www.nationalreview.com/article/292108/what-kids-now-learn-college-dennis-prager

¹¹Ibid.