​

12/13

Germination steps Johnny. 
Freedom does that.
The Underground Railroad was in Indiana. 
A big part.
My area was active.
Valparaiso. 
There was a big raid in Michigan when I was young.
The Kentucky Raid of 1847.
I was 16 that year.
The raid in Vandalia made national news Gus.
Vandalia is less than 100 miles from Valpo.
The raid was spoken of in Congress.
The Freedom Seekers won that day.
The Kentucky slavers didn't have the right paperwork.
So ruled a local judge.
Re-enslavement was what the Kentuckians wanted.
Expected their property rights Johnny. 
In 1847, with shotguns and pitchforks, the people of Vandalia said no to tyranny.
And in 1864, with faith in themselves, Betsey and James said yes to freedom.
Indeed.


​

​
​

What would have happened if they had been caught Johnny?
Caught running?
What if, after leaving the mansion on January 8th, Betsey and James get caught seeking?
Hard to know Yank.
Separated for sure. 
Common.
They were free according to Lincoln and federal law.
Just not free according to Jeff.
The war went on for 16 months Johnny. 
Betsey and James knew the risk.
Knew the reward.
Also knew Richmond.
Betsey and James had connections. 
People learn how to communicate Gus.
There's always an underground. 
Always.
You knew the risks Reb.
So did you.
Not like you did.
True.
You knew of the representation usurpation.

​

I, Johnny Reb, knew of the thirty Thousand.
I, Gus Kotka, didn't.
Neither did the people of Vandalia.
Nor Valpo.
We the People are 21st century freedom seekers.
Seeking freedom from the bondage of usurpation. 
Slavery is usurpation. 
Is usurpation slavery?
It ain't freedom Gus.
Usurpation is enslavement to an unlawful law.
Tyranny. 
Just like slavery.
We the People need each other Yank.
More than ever Reb. 
This passageway means that to me.
The thirty Thousand is our passageway. 
A utility. 
Built for time.
Like the truth.
A first order reality Johnny.
Makes a first order Republic.

*Next Up: 20 October and 13/13 The Turn of We the People.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

​
11/13

We have stepped Johnny.
We have Gus.
These are those stairs.
Servant slave stairs.
Someday stairs.
Someday.
Not much room Reb.
The main stairs are double-wide.
Betsey and James.
Yeah.
The second floor rooms were not public.
True.
Betsey and James had a right to be up here.
They aided Varina and Jeff.
Varina trusted Betsey.
Betsey kept secrets.
Observant.
Mansion ran well.

​
​

What's that small green door?
Privy Yank.
An indoor outhouse?
Of course.
Jeff had a private stool.
Imagine he shared it some.
Varina for sure.
Guests like Lee.
Cabinet members.
Probably. 
The Chesnuts?
Sure.
Who cleaned it?
Not Jeff Gus.
There would have been chamber pots too.
Nature calls.
And the slave servants cleaned up.
Somebody's chore for sure.
And down these steps. 
No doubt carefully.

​

​

​
​10/13

Women Reb.
Yes.
Our day ain't like today.
Expectations in both Gus.
Varina was expected to have babies.
It took several years. 
Jeff worrying of course.
Mary Chesnut felt the pressure too.
You said she was anti-slavery and anti-Black.
Mary never had children.
Oh-oh.
Her father-in-law wrote his will against her for it.
Punished.
Wrote that if no male heirs were produced, his property would revert to a male descendant.
Mercy.
None given to Mary.
Men did that to women.
Women were mostly a rightless class.
Much like the enslaved.
Correct. 

​



​
Women today Johnny.
Right.
That's not much of an answer.
Right.
Maybe women today should speak for themselves.
Perhaps in a new house for We the People.
Represented according to numbers.
In a coalition of the constitutionally willing.
What is their number Reb?
Women are more than 50 percent Yank.
And how much representation in the usurpation do women have Johnny?
About 20 percent.
Whoa. 
Women are the largest underrepresented group in America. 
So they stand to gain with the thirty Thousand. 
The most.
Exciting Reb. 

​

​9/13

Never seen a light like this Reb.
Special.
It has a tube attached.
Charlie said it was a gas.
Davis smoked. 
Children running around too Yank.
Kind of a small Knights of the Round Table.
Jeff was a late nighter.
Quiet time.
Plan your destruction time Gus.
And yours Johnny. 
War touches all. 
How many of us died?
Something like 700,000.
In 48 months Johnny. 
Nearly 15,000 a month.
All those sons.
Fathers.
Brothers.
Someone's child Gus.
Everyone had a momma.

​

​


Jeff sits here by the fire.
Varina asleep next door.
Their children sleeping in the other room.
Jeff sits here by the light.
While holding the keys of war Gus.
Hard to understand Jeff ignoring the Constitution. 
Jeff was against the self-made man.
Lincoln.
Against the idea that a child is its own light.
Couldn't see Betsey and James as equal in light. 
Thought Betsey and James inferior Yank.
Damn it Reb.
Jeff?
The whole damn slavery thing. 
Slavery economics Gus.
Are economics of oppression.
Usurpers don't think of all the children.
This room tires.
Next.

​
8/13

Den of traitors.
Treason happened here Gus.
It's a small room compared to the others.
Secrets don't like a crowd.
Too many eyes.
And ears.
Indeed.
Which is why anti-republic forces always want We the People asleep.
Eyes closed.
Can't see a thing that way Yank.
Sleep right through the usurpation.
It's Constitution Day.
Smudge Day.
The day We the People need to remember. 
A republic for which we stand.
And we stand wide-awake Yank.
Not asleep like before.
Correct.

​
Reb, is that all America has today?
Can't read?
Can't wake up?
Maybe likes being asleep?
Seems so Johnny. 
Maybe being anti-woke is a new virtue?
Shame on the anti-woke.
Honor to the woke.
Jesus was woke.
Maybe We the People need to look at our reflection.
Look at ourselves, see ourselves. 
Eyes open Gus. 
Wake up from the usurpation. 
Wake up from the thievery of our rights.
And see again.
Ever higher.

*Next Up: 22 September part 9/13 The Turn of We the People: Think of the Children.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution 

​7/13

This is weird Johnny.
Which part?
Us standing in the bedroom of Jeff Davis.
And about to enter his private office.
What's that closed door ahead?
Children's room Gus.
Children, war room, and sleepy time with Varina.
Jeff was out of the mansion during most days.
Had that other office. 
Public one.
This one was private.
Place to talk.
Secrets Reb.
All the special plans.
Plans like conscripting Johnnies permanently into the war.
We had only volunteered Gus.
I recall you saying Robert E. Lee wrote the first draft for conscription.
Bobby did.
Where's the bed?
Why?
Cuz.
Turn to eleven.

​


Bedtime stories Johnny.
Looks comfy don't it.
Bad dreams though.
Bad days too.
Like when they lost a child.
Jeff paced all night.
No doubt.
Way more bad days than good days Gus.
In the war, which one was the worst?
That would be 4 July 1863.
The surrender of Vicksburg.
You were in the Vicksburg theatre.
I was Johnny.
Quite a day I imagine.
The same day as Gettysburg Reb, 4 July 1863.
The last of three bloody days. 
And there was another one Johnny, another Union victory.
The victory without a battle.
Won by maneuver.
Tullahoma.

​6/13

Look at that clean Richmond street.
Never seen it cleaner Gus.
How'd Betsey and all keep house?
Good question. 
All the traffic.
All the mud.
And other things Reb.
And other things.
Full-time job.
Clean at night I suspect.
All them stairs.
Rooms and windows. 
Betsey and James would have looked out this window, so to speak Reb.
Yes.
Maybe even had forward thoughts.
Higher thoughts. 
Like let's keep moving.
We got the bedroom next.
Double time it!
Forward Yank!

​


​


​Uh-oh.
There is a window.
Where Reb?
On the porch side.
What the heck?
Just move.
Moving.


​

​
​Here Gus.
That wasn't bad.
Just a big room.
Up words Reb.
I remember.
Betsey and James would have spent time in here. 
James some, Betsey lots.
Because of Varina?
This was definitely a private space for Varina.
How so?
Recall the half cabin of the two-and-a-half cabins.
I do.
That would have been Jeff's office.
Why wasn't it Johnny?
People would have been walking through the bedroom. 
To get to the half cabin.
Correct. 
A problem, yes.
So the office is straight ahead.
Oh my.

*Next Up: 8 September part 7/13 The Turn of We the People: Jeff Had A Bad Day.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

​

​



​5/13

Was I the only casualty on 11 August?
Book says Rebs killed Augustus Kotka.
We saw that.
And two others wounded during a night of skirmishing.
Names?
Riley Kingen and John Brown.
John Brown?
Imagine that.
Quite the name after 1859.
You Yanks had a Jefferson C. Davis.
From Indiana.
Infamous too.
Shot and killed a fellow officer Johnny.
Did.
Because of an insult.
A lot like our Jeff.
Unless you deferred. 
Jeff was always quick to fight.
Go figure.

​
It was an issue.
For all of us Johnny. 
During our times people spoke of a higher power.
Got caned in the Senate for it. 
And murdered in Kansas for it.
That's why it was bleeding. 
We didn't turn our problems over to the constitutional higher power.
The thirty Thousand. 
Our not yet named Gus.
And already is.
The not yet named is the answer.
To every political question.
Taxes.
War.
Debt. 
Justice.
Homelessness. 
Immigration.
Not In the name of the Usurped States of America.

​​4/13

We are taking the stairs up.
That's the tour Yank.
What's up here?
First floor was what most people saw. 
Second floor private?
More than the first. 
And the fourth floor?
Not tourable.
What was it back in our time?
Sleeping quarters Gus.
Betsey and James?
That is my guess.
Varina had a baby up there.
Did.
Who else Reb?
Staff like James Chesnut.
You said the Chesnuts had a place nearby. 
They did for a while.
And then?

​
They went back to South Carolina.
What for Johnny?
Food shortages and inflation here in Richmond.
And in South Carolina more food at better prices.
Everyone was broke too.
That early?
Got worse every year.
Privation.
Also, Jeff needed James Chesnut in South Carolina for political reasons.
You said Chesnut was a deferer.
Good on a committee. 
Okay.
He was part of a committee that ran South Carolina during the war.
So Jeff had a guy.
Definitely. 
What'd the committee do Johnny?
Impressment of slaves for one.
Took slaves from slavers?
By force of law.
War labor.
The construction of coastal defenses.
Freed up Johnnies.
Made slavers mad.

​

Cuz?
Slavers didn't like losing hands.
Sorry.
And us Johnnies didn't like digging defenses. 
You learned.
Necessity.
These stairs are quite the up.
There are two bedrooms and Jeff's office.
We can skip their bedroom. 
What's up with that?
I imagine it will be too upscale for me.
Two and a half cabins.
We need Up Words Johnny.
Seeing an elegant bedroom would be a downer.
We know how we slept.
Under the stars quite often.
Stripes nor bars needed.
Up Words Yank.
And words of up.

*Next Up: 25 August part 5/13 The Turn of We the People: Not Yet Named.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution 

​



As He Died To Make Men Holy.
Let's Kill Rebels To Make Men Free.
Gus?
What?
That's not the line.
Trying to be clear Reb.
You died to make men free.
Yes.
You died to end slavery.
Yes.
What's your point?
I don't think I wanted to die.
Okay.
I would have been just fine killing you.
I imagine so.
We had to kill each other.
War.
Still shameful. 

​




You did right Gus.
I don't mean the particulars of that day in 1864.
What do you mean?
I spent 23 months at war with you.
Lots of battles.
Lots of skirmishes.
Lots of walking.
All the way to Georgia to be buried.
To kill me Yank.
It was me or somebody else had to kill you.
I hear ya.
I was shooting at you all the time.
Right.
I killed you just like you killed me Johnny. 
Just you didn't have to die.
I had to kill.
Damn it.
Damn it.

*Next Up: 18 August part 4/13 The Turn of We the People: Up Words.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution