Preston Brooks & Joe Wilson — South Carolina Congressmen

Tuesday night US Congresssmen Joe Wilson broke the etiquette rules of political decorum by shouting out “You Lie, You Lie” during a Yankee President’s speech. The last time a South Carolinian Congressman broke Washingtonian decorum in such an arresting fashion for the sin of Yankee lying US Congressman Preston Smith Brooks beat the snot out of a Yankee Senator named Charles Sumner using a walking cane to administer the lashing. Given the firestorm that Wilson’s shout out has created one would have thought that Wilson had cane lashed Obama as opposed to merely boisterously correcting the Yankee President’s lies.

Congressman Brooks lived in a culture of honor that demanded retribution against Sumner’s lies against a family member serving in the US Senate. Having long jettisoned a culture of honor it may be that shouting out “You Lie, You Lie” is the closest thing a South Carolinian today can get to administering a cane lashing to a notable liar. At the very least in both cases, each of the South Carolinian Congressman felt deeply aggrieved by the lies that they were being subject to. Congressman Brooks, living in a culture of honor, and having vindicated his family’s honor never apologized and was amply resupplied by well wishers and admirers for the cane he broke over Sumner’s back. Congressman Wilson, living in a culture of political correctness, immediately apologized for speaking the truth at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

The one and only point here that we need to take to heart is how each response to lies heard by our respective US South Carolina Congressmen reflected and reflects, during their respective eras, the division that was then and is now present in this country. When Rep. Preston Brooks took exception to a Jacobin Politician’s lies the nation was being violently pulled apart over a intense disagreement over the role and nature of the Government. On one side were those, like Sumner, who sought to expand the role of the Federal Government beyond its Constitutional boundaries. On the other side were those, like Brooks, who sought to restrict the role of the Federal Government to its Constitutional boundaries. The occasion of, what was to become a bloody disagreement, was the issue of slavery.

153 years later is a South Carolina Congressman once again serving as a harbinger of a violent national contest? Like Brooks, Wilson took exception to a Jacobin Politician’s lies. Like the era that Brooks lived in, Wilson lives in an era where the nation is violently being pulled apart over an intense disagreement over the role and nature of government. Today, on one side are those, like Obama, who is seeking to expand the role of the Federal Government even further beyond our Constitutional boundaries. Today, on the other side are those, like Wilson who is seeking to restrict the role of the Federal government to its Constitutional boundaries. The occasion of this disagreement once again is the issue of slavery.

Both in 1856 and in 2009 Jacobins and Marxists in the country were and are seeking to enslave men to the Nation State. It was in order to avoid enslavement to the ambitions of a burgeoning National government that the South seceded. We are once again at the point where we are going to have to make some difficult decisions on how to deal with the ambitions of a burgeoning National government that intends to enslave the citizenry through controlling our lives through a socialized health care mechanism.

Citizens today should perhaps look at the attempt at socialized health care the way that Southerners looked at the attempt at the socialized Morrill Tariff act. Both proposed acts, in the end, were about the ability to enrich the government at the expense of impoverishing American citizens. Perhaps the way we are threatened to being financially squeezed today by the Federal Government will cause us to sympathize with the way that Southerners were being financially squeezed in the run up to the War.

South Carolina US Congressman Preston Brooks was upset by that.

So is South Carolina US Congressman Joe Wilson.

Maybe we should send Joe some canes in appreciation.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane