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by Staff of The Southern Independence Party of Arkansas
Today the major parties try to convince people not to throw their vote away on some third party who can't win. However, looking at history we see that third parties have obtained some of their goals, if not by winning the offices that they campaigned for, then by forcing one of the two major parties to adopt some of its platform. Thus a third party in American politics is a viable choice after all.
In the beginning the founding fathers envisioned a nation without the influence of political parties, but early in Washington's administration the cabinet began to split over the influence of two very strong political forces, those being Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. After Washington's Administration the nation found itself under the influence of the first political parties, the Republican-Democratic Party led by Thomas Jefferson, and the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton. Up until the nation began to extend west these two parties dominated the political scene. However, once the nation began admitting new states, some people began to notice that a majority of the nation's leaders where Masons. That concerned many and gave rise to America's first third party, the Anti-Masonic Party in 1826. Although the Anti-Masons did not win the election, they did obtain their goal of less Masonic control, by arousing public concern which resulted in a lowering of the Masonic membership from over one hundred thousand down to about forty thousand.
Until 1850 the Democratic Party and the Whig Party, both parties that had originated from the Republican-Democratic Party, had dominated the political scene, once again leaving the nation with only two choices, but in the 1856 presidential election a new third party was growing in popularity, so well liked was this party that their first presidential candidate John C. Fremont, had gained 114 of the 292 electoral votes needed to win the election. This gave rise to a new major party known as the Republican Party. Although the Republican Party did not win the 1856 election they did gain the popularity to replace one of the two major parties, the Whig Party. In the following election the Republicans won the presidential election and thus the first third party president, Abraham Lincoln was elected in the fall of 1860. By this time regional economics had become a major issue for political parties and a serious national problem and the South was talking about secession.
Northern propagandists would have folks believe the so-called civil war was fought over slavery. But, the Southern States had for several decades prior to the 1861 war of Northern Aggression banned further imports of slaves into the South and had been working on various proposals for the abolition of slavery as well long before Lincoln was elected. Slavery was not really an issue which brought on the war.
What really drove the war between the North and the South was the Northern system of tariffs on exported cotton in favor of Free Trade which would have helped the South and British textile factories. The Northern tariff was imposed to benefit Northern industrial interests by subsidizing their production through public works and by making English, French and German machinery expensive so that Northern machinery could be sold to the South at unfairly higher prices. Additionally, the steam ship companies were controlled to come into Northern ports with the European machinery where the tariffs could be collected. Meanwhile, Southern Cotton being exported to textile mills in Europe was taxed with excise tax, thus assuring a cheaper cotton price for Northern textile mills. This all had the effect of forcing the South to pay more for manufactured goods, get less for their cotton and pay a disproportionate tax to support the central (Federal) government. The South's trading relations with other parts of the world was seriously controlled and injured.
In effect, the South was being looted to pay for the North's industrialization. The main battle over the tariff began in 1828, with the "tariff of abomination." Thirty year later, with the South paying 87 percent of federal tariff revenue while having their livelihoods threatened by protectionist legislation, it become impossible for the two regions to be governed under the same regime. Some Southern States began building ports and passing laws for the exporting of cotton and importing of goods without the tariffs, causing Federal/State's rights conflicts. The South as a region was being reduced to a slave status for both white and blacks, with the federal government as its master.
Lincoln was a leading advocate of the tariff and public works policy and he pledged to "collect the duties and imposts" which the Southern States were resisting which is why his election prompted the South to secede. The South wanted "free trade" which would have taken away the unfair pork barrel advantage from the Northern factories and forced them to compete on the world market and would have allowed the South to save itself from utter bankruptcy. Why did the South fire on Ft. Sumter? It was a customs house located in the South, and when the North attempted to strengthen it, the South knew that its purpose was to collect taxes, as newspapers and politicians said at the time.
Thus a movement developed rapidly after the election of Lincoln on a State basis until several adversely effected States passed bills of secession and then came together to form a new government completely separate and independent from the United States called the Confederate States of America. Because of the subsequent military invasion of the South by Northern troops, the new country hardly had time to organize its government, much less break into political parties. The war against Northern Aggression and for Southern independence required so much of their time and effort that political parties never developed.
The eventual conquest of most of the South by Northern Yankee troops and the following occupation, subjugation and reconstruction allowed no Southern political party movements to develop for nearly a century. Rather the South was subjected to the politics and economic bondage of the North which included Federally appointed Governors and Legislatures referred to as (scallywags and carpet baggers).
After 12 years of severe military, economic and political occupation, the South was allowed to form its own State governments beginning in 1876 so long as they met with the general approval of Washington. Although this allowed a partial normalization of Southern culture, the Southern States were encouraged to enact Jim Crow laws beginning in 1877 because of the abuses of authority and confiscation of property the White Southerners had received at the hands of Black Governors and Legislators forced upon them by Yankee Reconstruction vengeance.
In 1912 former President Theodore Roosevelt had seen that the nation had not fulfilled his personal goals for this country, so he decided to run for the office again. Although President Roosevelt's Progressive Party, more commonly known as the Bull Moose Party, had not won the election, it did rank second in votes, and forced the winning party to adopt the Bull Moose platform.
Later, in 1968 a Southern third party known as the American Party, ran on a strong State's Rights/Local Control platform with their presidential candidate former Alabama Governor George Wallace and even won nice percentages of votes in the North. Although Wallace did not win the election, his party did obtain a partial victory by forcing Richard Nixon and the Republican Party to relax their stand against State's Rights. Even as recent as the 1992 and 1996 elections with Ross Perot, the third party has forced changes in the political scene by forcing the two major political parties to adopt changes in their views on balancing the budget and fiscal responsibility.
But, the Southland has remained a surrogate territory of the North to the present day with semi-Federally controlled State governments and has been dragged into several wars the United States became involved in. Additionally, the Southland has suffered from the formation of the Federal Reserve Bank and the personal income tax which has been illegally forced upon the American people including Southerners.
Finally, during 1999 - 2000 A.D. a new political party began developing as a renewed movement for Southern secession and independence, again brought on by the severe abuses, excess taxes and harassment by U.S. Federal Agents and the threat of confiscation of firearms with the total loss of what freedoms are still possessed including freedom of speech and of the press and from arrest and search by the army. This new movement became organized on a multi-state basis as the Southern Independence Party, being furthered by such organizations as the Federation of States, the League of the South, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Black Confederate Soldier's Foundation, the Southern Legal Resource Center and other groups by encouraging the formation of Southern Independence Parties in the various Southern States in accordance with such State's election laws. These State Parties became organized much as they had in 1860 by organizing within the States in order to gain votes for secession by these States for the restoration of the Confederate States of America which, by the way, never surrendered as a nation to the United States. The party leaders state that Southerners are a people not a race and that the new Southern Independence Party is the only party with a strong cohesive history and cultural heritage as a separate nation. The various State Parties organized under this multi-state plan will not concentrate on running candidates for U.S. Federal positions. Rather they plan to concentrate on State governors, Judges and legislators.
So, keep in mind, when you go the polls this November and later to vote, that contrary to wasting your vote if you vote for a third party candidate, such a vote might be preferable to wasting your vote on candidates of the two major do-nothing parties.. At least you will not be responsible for the garbage being produced by these major parties and a strong third party vote, even if it fails to win the race, still may make a difference by allowing the third party involved to demand certain policy changes prior to throwing their support one way or the other to one of the major parties.
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