The First Congress, with a hundred participants from the fourteen Southern States, met in December 2008 near Hendersonville, NC. In addition to formally giving birth to the SNC as a continuing institution, we passed seven resolutions on issues of most concern to our fellow Southerners. These measures, called “Remonstrances and Petitions for a Redress of Grievances,” represent the finest statement of principles to emerge from the Southern consciousness in a long time. You can read them Here.

A few Delegate slots remain open. Southern men and women of good will and good character are invited to apply to become Delegates for the Represented States, which are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Each State will have one vote in the 2nd Congress, regardless of its number of Delegates attending. Observers are also welcome from Oklahoma and from “Southerners Abroad”; that is, Southerners residing outside the 14 Represented States. Observers will be non-voting Delegates, but will enjoy Floor privileges and the right to address the assembly.

We seek only serious-minded, mature, discerning, and courageous applicants. Interested Southerners can review the qualifications in the “Call for Delegates” section and learn other details about attending the Second Congress Here. Each State Delegation is sovereign and is responsible for selecting and certifying its own Delegates.

What Is the SNC and Why Do We Need It?

If you’re reading this newsletter for the first time or aren’t otherwise familiar with our endeavor, the SNC is not quite like any other Southern organisation. In fact, we’re not an “organisation” per se, although we are organised. We seek to fill a looming void in the Southern political landscape. Our mission is to build a representative assembly of citizens of the Southern States; an alternative, legitimate forum in which all Southern organisations and individuals can express their grievances and advance Southern interests in a way no longer possible via today’s political process or the major political parties.

Unless you’re sunk deep in denial, you know that we face unprecedented threats to our freedom and prosperity – perhaps to our very survival. Today we live under a corrupt and lawless Regime. In essence, it’s government by a gangster-elite, and it’s engaged in the greatest act of mass plunder in human history. But the elites aren’t just stealing our wealth and property, they’re also stealing our liberty. The system is irredeemably broken. It can’t be fixed because it’s fallen totally into the hands of the big corporations and money power. By its oppression, greed, corruption, incompetence, and imperial folly, the centralised state has forfeited all moral authority.

This unfolding tragedy is enveloping all Americans. But we Southerners are the special target of the Regime. Why? To start with, we’re the last Christian nation on the planet and we retain some residual commitment to the ideals of Christian liberty held by great Southerners like Patrick Henry, John C. Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis. Second, we’re a distinct nation, a separate people, and the last true civilisation in the West. Our culture preserves the vestiges of the once-great civilisation centered on the British Isles and Northern Europe. The imperial elites hate us for this reason as much as any other, because their program of ultimate control depends upon breaking down all such local loyalties, distinctions, and identities with the corrosive acid of “multi-culturalism” and “diversity.”

Decent, honourable people of the South who still love liberty and justice, and who seek to preserve their livelihoods, their identity, and their heritage have no choice but to withdraw their consent from this corrupt and criminal Regime. But withdrawing our consent by itself is not enough. We must have alternative, legitimate institutions to which we can transfer our consent. We have to use the fleeting opportunity we still possess – and the limited sovereignty all men possess even under tyranny – to take responsibility for ourselves. These are the principles behind the SNC.

You can stay glued to the idiot box watching NASCAR and American Idol. You can wring your hands in futility and lament “Ain’t it awful?” Or you can start doing something constructive – something, by the way, based on historical parallels that have worked in similar circumstances – by joining the SNC family, as a Delegate if you’re qualified, as a volunteer, or as a financial supporter.

The Proven Historical Model

The SNC is based on several historical “cases” in which people like us and in similar predicaments exercised their sovereignty collectively to defeat tyranny. But the one closest to home and that inspired us the most is the First Continental Congress.

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774. The Crown-appointed governors and colonial assemblies were still the “legal” governments, but they served the exploitative British ruling class, not the American people. Colonial Committees of Correspondence appointed delegates to an alternative forum that would represent their interests and voice their grievances. The initial effort of 55 men evolved into the political and command structure that won our freedom and independence from the British Empire.

That first Congress -- and ours – derived its moral authority from this unassailable principle: political sovereignty resides in the whole People under a sovereign God, not in the temporary holders of public office. When oppressed, the People have the right and the duty to organize collective means to defend their liberty, their vital interests, and their physical persons. This is a constant theme in Western history and a hallowed precedent in English common law. Not only does this right have support in history and politics, it also has theological sanction in the Christian doctrine of “interposition of the lesser magistrate.” That is, when the higher magistrates fail in their duty or they betray their trust, as ours have done so miserably, then lesser magistrates may step forward and “interpose” themselves between the People and the despots who abuse them.

What Will We Do at the Second Congress?

The Second Congress will consider resolutions brought from the Floor by the State Delegations, and these may continue the work of the First Congress and use the same format of the Remonstrance and Petition for a Redress of Grievances. This type of resolution is aimed principally at the Federal and State governments. They “remonstrate,” which is a protest that also seeks to correct or restore -- in our case, by calling for an end to the abuses, usurpations, outrages, assaults, criminal folly, and negligence of our rulers.

In addition, we’ll take up a different type of resolution offered to the State Delegations by the SNC Board of Governors. This one directs our collective voice to our own Southern people and is called a “Resolution and Appeal.”

The first will be a proclamation calling for a day of repentance and intercessory prayer for the Southern nation. Now, the SNC is not an ecclesiastical organisation and we don’t by any means seek to intrude in the role of the church. But we also recognize that the problems and challenges confronting the Southern nation can’t be surmounted without God’s mercy and blessing.

The second Resolution and Appeal is directed at Southern sheriffs, State and local police, State Adjutants General and officers of the National Guard. This resolution will remind them whom they actually serve (and it’s not the gangster-elite in Washington!). It will appeal to them not to take part in the event of a national emergency – an economic collapse, natural disaster, or another terror attack – in the unlawful suppression of civil liberty, confiscation of legally-owned firearms, or the mass arrest of critics of the Regime (folks like us, in other words).

The third and perhaps most significant measure will be the Southern National Covenant. I’ll provide more details soon, so watch this space and the SNC website. Suffice it to say here that the Covenant is also based on proven, successful historical parallels. In fact, it’s drawn from some of the most exciting and uplifting episodes in our past. It articulates a renewed awareness of our identity as a worthy and proud people. It calls for a renewed commitment from all Southerners to stand for our right to exist; and by God’s grace, to work out our own destiny according to our own historic beliefs and values. And it concludes with a mutual pledge not to submit to tyranny or any attempt to obliterate the South as a distinct culture and people. The Covenant will be your voice “speaking truth to power.” It will be circulated throughout the land and give each Southerner a chance to sign and to invite others to sign. And thus you will be heard, and thus you can reaffirm our Southern identity and our traditions of individual liberty and human dignity.

The Covenant is coming. Will you sign the Covenant?

Call for Resolutions.

In today’s America, authentic Southern voices are suppressed by official acts and a hostile culture. This is why the SNC seeks to become your voice. We are your Congress if you choose to make it so. The SNC is not intended to replace any pro-South organisation but to serve as a forum where all can come together.

To that end, we’re asking committed Southerners to submit draft resolutions that you think the Second Congress ought to consider. Your grievance or concern may be expressed either as a Remonstrance and Petition for a Redress of Grievances (using the December 2008 resolutions as a template), or as a Resolution and Appeal.

If you have such a draft, e-mail it to me at chairman@southernnationalcongress.org by July 31. I can’t promise that the Second Congress will be able to take up all submissions since we have only one day and a half to complete our agenda. But all submissions will be honestly considered, and those deemed most urgent or significant by the Board of Governors will be offered to the Second Congress for action.

Time Is Short.

I don’t wish to over-dramatise, but I believe a crisis is about to break over our heads unlike any the modern world has seen – a perfect storm of economic meltdown and social and political collapse, darkened by the growing power of a demonic tyranny. The SNC is not the only answer to the threat, but it is a partial answer. It’s an instrumentality that can defend the cause of the South in whatever way becomes necessary. It’s the seed corn with the potential to produce all kinds of gains for Southern liberty. But time is running out – time to sign up to take part in the Second Congress; time to get something solid and constructive in place before the storm hits in all its fury.

If you’re a Southerner of special vision and courage, if you want to “light a candle and not curse the darkness,” then come join us at the Second Congress in September.

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