As of 1861 the U.S. flag, “Old Glory,” represented a government that had been defending and protecting the institution of slavery for eighty-five years.  The 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision solidified the state’s protection of slavery.  In his first inaugural address, delivered on March 4 1861, Abraham Lincoln clearly stated that in his opinion slavery was already constitutional, but that he would support a constitutional amendment (the Corwin Amendment) that would make the protection of slavery “express and irrevocable” (his exact words).  If any flag ever “represented” an American slave empire, it is the U.S. flag.

At the same time, the newly-formed Confederate government adopted a new flag based on the Saint Andrew’s Cross.  Saint Andrew is said to have been crucified on the cross, shaped like an “X.”  Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, which is why the Scottish flag has been a rendition of the Saint Andrew’s cross since the ninth century, as are numerous other national flags, as well as the state flags of Florida and Alabama, and even of cities in other countries.

The Confederates chose the Saint Andrew’s Cross, apparently, because of the overwhelming numbers of Scots-Irish immigrants in the Southern states.  As James Webb wrote in his book, Born Fighting: A History of the Scots-Irish in America, “his people,” the Scots-Irish, dominated the ranks of the Confederate Army, where the average soldier was a yeoman farmer who did not own slaves and fought “because he was provoked, intimidated, and ultimately invaded.”  The tendency to resist outside aggression was bred deeply into every heart” of the Scots-Irish, writes Webb, which is why they fought.  In every major battle of the war, Webb points out, Confederate non-slave owners fought against Union Army slave owners from border states where slavery was still protected during the Lincoln regime as long as those states remained in the union and continued paying federal taxes.

Now along comes a hilariously-ignorant blog in the June 11 Reason magazine online by one Zenon Evans, who is very, very upset that Ukrainian secessionists have adopted a version of the Saint Andrew’s cross as their flag.  He ignorantly calls it a “Confederate flag,” and chastises the Ukrainians for not knowing anything about “Dixie.”  It is of course Zenon Evans who knows nothing about Dixie and the subject he is writing about here.  It is yet another pathetic attempt by the phony “libertarians” at Reason to pander to the “mainstream” politically-correct Left.

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