There are ten sunspots on the sun today, but the solar wind is a paltry 274. Solar activity is low. However, there are four sunspots facing Earth that pose a threat for geoeffective flares: AR2104, AR2107, AR2108, AR2109. NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance that one of those active regions will produce an M-flare during the 4th of July weekend. HEWITT: I’m going to borrow some of the power that I need. Now that does bring me, though, to one development that my guests have been split on. Michael O’Hanlon thought it was a good idea. It makes VDH a little bit nervous, which is that our friends in Japan have reinterpreted their constitution vis-à-vis the amount of military power that they can deploy, use in support of other allies, et cetera, abroad, away from Japan. Mike O’Hanlon said this is common sense. Victor Davis Hanson said this reflects the evaporation of American power in the world, and it’s not going to be just Japan. It’s going to be everybody running to get their own guns. What do you think, Mark Steyn? STEYN: Yes, I tend to agree with that, and Victor is a believer in the American umbrella, which is the situation that’s prevailed since the Second World War, where some of the wealthiest countries in the world like Japan or like Germany were able to not, in a sense, put up the money for their own defense, because America, the American umbrella was over them. Obama, if you learn anything from the last six years, it’s that we are entering the post-American world. And whether you’re an enemy of the United States or an ally of the United States, you’ve got to adjust to that. And I entirely understand why the Japanese would conclude, as the Polish foreign minister concluded a couple of weeks ago, that when it comes to it, the Americans are not going to be there for them. The Royal Australian Navy a couple of years ago held exercises with the Chinese, joint exercises. And I said to a naval officer down there that I know, I said well, didn’t you guys all find that a bit odd? And he said well, this is the reality. When America withdraws from the Pacific, Japan and Indonesia and Australia and China are all still going to be there, and we’re going to have to deal with the new reality as best we can. Japan is dealing with the post-American world. Poland is. Australia is. Singapore is. That is simply a reality of five years of Obama foreign policy. HEWITT: Well then, Dinesh D’Souza’s new movie, America: Imagine The World Without It, is not so much a dire projection, it’s reality. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, yet, by the way. It’s a terrific movie, and it’s not really apocalyptic. It simply presents what the left has been about, believes, and what Hillary’s about. I think it’s going to do very well as the box office, but I don’t know if the great turn is upon us. We’ll know in five months, Mark Steyn. What do you think? STEYN: Well, again, I think that’s the great question. You know, when you go back and look at some of the things Mitt Romney was saying, for example, about the economy in 2012, it made a lot of sense. The economy’s a disaster, the economy’s a bust, Obama hasn’t been able to jump start the economy. And I think the response of a big sliver of the American people was that’s all the more reason to vote for more permanent, multigenerational government dependency, which is a very sad thought for the eve of Independence Day. But a lot of Americans, particularly the ones who supplied his margin of victory, voted for a kind of big government nanny, because Obama has so flat-lined the economy, that they don’t want to take their risks out there in the new normal, and they’ll cling to nanny’s apron strings in the service of government dependence, a very sad thought. HEWITT: But Mark, we’ve seen that. We saw that in Great Britain in the 50s and the 60s. Do people not remember that? MS: Well, I think that’s what’s so interesting. There’s nothing new. There’s nothing new about Obama, what Obama’s doing. It’s ancient stuff that was applied in the rest of the Western world between the 1940s and the 1970s, in which they all gradually pulled away from, not just in Britain, not just in New Zealand, but even Sweden. And he has not, and so there’s nothing new about it. All that’s different is nobody’s ever tried to do it to a nation of 300 million people on the scale that this guy’s doing it. HEWITT: What a sobering thought on the eve of the 4th of July. America: The War of Northern Aggression

The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, which people in the South still call the War of Northern Aggression, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. The question I would like you to consider is why was this speech given at this time? I guess first, we need to understand what started it all, and why it came to historic violence to try to end the conflict. On December 20, 1860, shortly after Abraham Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860, South Carolina adopted an ordinance declaring its secession from the United States of America and by February 1861, six more Southern states had adopted similar ordinances of secession. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their temporary capital at Montgomery, Alabama. A February peace conference met in Washington, D.C., but failed to resolve the crisis. The remaining eight slave states declined pleas to join the Confederacy.[3] The seceding states seized numerous Federal properties within their boundaries, including buildings, arsenals, and fortifications. President James Buchanan protested but took no military action in response. Buchanan was concerned that an overt action could cause the remaining slave states to leave the Union, and while he acknowledged there was no constitutional authority for a state to secede, he could find no constitutional authority for him to act to prevent it.[4] The forts of Charleston

Charleston Harbor, showing forts and Confederate artillery positions Several forts had been constructed in Charleston's harbor, including Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, which were not among the initially seized properties. Fort Moultrie on Sullivan Island was the oldest—it was the site of fortifications since 1776—and was the headquarters of the U.S. Army garrison. However, it had been designed as a gun platform for defending the harbor, and its defenses against land-based attacks were feeble; during the crisis, the Charleston newspapers commented that sand dunes had piled up against the walls in such a way that the wall could easily be scaled. When the garrison began clearing away the dunes, the papers objected.[5] Major Robert Anderson of the 1st U.S. Artillery regiment had been appointed to command the Charleston garrison that fall because of rising tensions. A native of Kentucky, he was a protégé of Winfield Scott, the general in chief of the Army, and was thought more capable of handling a crisis than the garrison's previous commander, Col. John L. Gardner, who was nearing retirement. Anderson had served an earlier tour of duty at Fort Moultrie and his father had been a defender of the fort (then called Fort Sullivan) during the American Revolutionary War. Throughout the fall, South Carolina authorities considered both secession and the expropriation of Federal property in the harbor to be inevitable. As tensions mounted, the environment around the fort increasingly resembled a siege, to the point that the South Carolina authorities placed picket ships to observe the movements of the troops and threatened violence when forty rifles were transferred to one of the harbor forts from the U.S. arsenal in the city.[6] In contrast to Moultrie, Fort Sumter dominated the entrance to Charleston Harbor and, though unfinished, was designed to be one of the strongest fortresses in the world. In the fall of 1860 work was nearly done, but the fortress was thus far garrisoned by a single soldier, who functioned as a lighthouse keeper, and a small party of civilian construction workers. Under the cover of darkness on December 26, six days after South Carolina declared its secession, Anderson abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie, ordering its guns spiked and its gun carriages burned, and surreptitiously relocated his command by small boats to Sumter.[7] President Buchanan and the Star of the West

Maj. Robert Anderson South Carolina authorities considered Anderson's move to be a breach of faith. Governor Francis W. Pickens believed that President Buchanan had made implicit promises to him to keep Sumter unoccupied and suffered political embarrassment as a result of his trust in those promises. Buchanan, a former U.S. Secretary of State and diplomat, had used carefully crafted ambiguous language to Pickens, promising that he would not "immediately" occupy it.[8] From Major Anderson's standpoint, he was merely moving his existing garrison troops from one of the locations under his command to another. He had received instructions from the War Department on December 11, written by Major Don Carlos Buell, Assistant Adjutant General of the Army, approved by Secretary of War John B. Floyd:[9] ... you are to hold possession of the forts in this harbor, and if attacked you are to defend yourself to the last extremity. The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack on or attempt to take possession of any one of them will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act.[10] Governor Pickens therefore ordered that all remaining Federal positions except Fort Sumter were to be seized. State troops quickly occupied Fort Moultrie (capturing 56 guns), Fort Johnson on James Island, and the battery on Morris Island. On December 27, an assault force of 150 men seized the Union-occupied Castle Pinckney fortification, in the harbor close to downtown Charleston, capturing 24 guns and mortars without bloodshed. On December 30, the Federal arsenal in Charleston was captured, resulting in the acquisition of more than 22,000 weapons by the militia. The Confederates promptly made repairs at Fort Moultrie and dozens of new batteries and defense positions were constructed throughout the Charleston harbor area, including an unusual floating battery, and armed with weapons captured from the arsenal.[11] President Buchanan was surprised and dismayed at Anderson's move to Sumter, unaware of the authorization Anderson had received. Nevertheless, he refused Pickens's demand to evacuate Charleston harbor. Since the garrison's supplies were limited, Buchanan authorized a relief expedition of supplies, small arms, and 200 soldiers. The original intent was to send the Navy sloop-of-war USS Brooklyn, but it was discovered that Confederates had sunk some derelict ships to block the shipping channel into Charleston and there was concern that Brooklyn had too deep a draft to negotiate the obstacles. Instead, it seemed prudent to send an unarmed civilian merchant ship, Star of the West, which might be perceived as less provocative to the Confederates. As she approached the harbor entrance on January 9, 1861, Star of the West was fired upon by a battery on Morris Island, which was staffed by cadets from The Citadel, among them William Stewart Simkins, who were the only trained artillerists in the service of South Carolina at the time. Batteries from Fort Moultrie joined in and Star of the West was forced to withdraw. Major Anderson prepared his guns at Sumter when he heard the Confederate fire, but the secrecy of the operation had kept him unaware that a relief expedition was in progress and he chose not to start a general engagement.[12]

Preparations for war

Fort Sumter before the battle Conditions at the fort were difficult during the winter of 1860–61. Rations were short and fuel for heat was limited. The garrison scrambled to complete the defenses as best they could. Fort Sumter was designed to mount 135 guns, operated by 650 officers and men, but construction had met with numerous delays for decades and budget cuts had left it only about 90 percent finished in early 1861. Anderson's garrison consisted of just 85 men, primarily made up of two small artillery companies: Company E, 1st U.S. Artillery, commanded by Capt. Abner Doubleday, and Company H, commanded by Capt. Truman Seymour. There were six other officers present: Surgeon Samuel W. Crawford, First Lt. Theodore Talbot of Company H, First Lt. Jefferson C. Davis of the 1st U.S. Artillery, and Second Lt. Norman J. Hall of Company H. Capt. John G. Foster and First Lt. George W. Snyder of the Corps of Engineers were responsible for construction of the Charleston forts, but they reported to their headquarters in Washington, not directly to Anderson. The remaining personnel were 68 noncommissioned officers and privates, eight musicians, and 43 noncombatant workmen.[13] By April the Union troops had positioned 60 guns, but they had insufficient men to operate them all. The fort consisted of three levels of enclosed gun positions, or casemates. The second level of casemates was unoccupied. The majority of the guns were on the first level of casemates, on the upper level (the parapet or barbette positions), and on the center parade field. Unfortunately for the defenders, the original mission of the fort—harbor defense—meant that it was designed so that the guns were primarily aimed at the Atlantic, with little capability of protecting from artillery fire from the surrounding land or from infantry conducting an amphibious assault.[14] Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard In March, Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard took command of South Carolina forces in Charleston; on March 1, President Jefferson Davis had appointed him the first general officer in the armed forces of the new Confederacy,[15] specifically to take command of the siege. Beauregard made repeated demands that the Union force either surrender or withdraw and took steps to ensure that no supplies from the city were available to the defenders, whose food was running low. He also increased drills amongst the South Carolina militia, training them to operate the guns they manned. Ironically, Major Anderson had been Beauregard's artillery instructor at West Point; the two had been especially close, and Beauregard had become Anderson's assistant after graduation. Both sides spent March drilling and improving their fortifications to the best of their abilities.[16] Beauregard, a trained military engineer, built-up overwhelming strength to challenge Fort Sumter. Fort Moultrie had three 8-inch Columbiads, two 8-inch howitzers, five 32-pound smoothbores, and four 24-pounders. Outside of Moultrie were five 10-inch mortars, two 32- pounders, two 24-pounders, and a 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore. The floating battery next to Fort Moultrie had two 42-pounders and two 32-pounders on a raft protected by iron shielding. Fort Johnson on James Island had one 24-pounder and four 10-inch mortars. At Cummings Point on Morris Island, the Confederates had emplaced seven 10-inch mortars, two 42-pounders, an English Blakely rifled cannon, and three 8-inch Columbiads, the latter in the so-called Iron Battery, protected by a wooden shield faced with iron bars. About 6,000 men were available to man the artillery and to assault the fort, if necessary, including the local militia, young boys and older men.[17]

Decisions for war On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as president. He was almost immediately confronted with the surprise information that Major Anderson was reporting that only six weeks of rations remained at Fort Sumter. A crisis similar to the one at Fort Sumter had emerged at Pensacola, Florida, where Confederates threatened another U.S. fortification—Fort Pickens. Lincoln and his new cabinet struggled with the decisions of whether to reinforce the forts, and how. They were also concerned about whether to take actions that might start open hostilities and which side would be perceived as the aggressor as a result. Similar discussions and concerns were occurring in the Confederacy.[18] After the formation of the Confederate States of America in early February, there was some debate among the secessionists whether the capture of the fort was rightly a matter for South Carolina or for the newly declared national government in Montgomery, Alabama. South Carolina Governor Pickens was among the states' rights advocates who felt that all property in Charleston harbor had reverted to South Carolina upon that state's secession as an independent commonwealth. This debate ran alongside another discussion about how aggressively the installations—including Forts Sumter and Pickens—should be obtained. President Davis, like his counterpart in Washington, preferred that his side not be seen as the aggressor. Both sides believed that the first side to use force would lose precious political support in the border states, whose allegiance was undetermined; before Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, five states had voted against secession, including Virginia, and Lincoln openly offered to evacuate Fort Sumter if it would guarantee Virginia's loyalty.[19] The South sent delegations to Washington, D.C., and offered to pay for the Federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln rejected any negotiations with the Confederate agents because he did not consider the Confederacy a legitimate nation and making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government. However, Secretary of State William H. Seward, who wished to give up Sumter for political reasons—as a gesture of good will—engaged in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed.[20] On April 4, as the supply situation on Sumter became critical, President Lincoln ordered a relief expedition, to be commanded by former naval captain (and future Assistant Secretary of the Navy) Gustavus V. Fox, who had proposed a plan for nighttime landings of smaller vessels than the Star of the West. Fox's orders were to land at Sumter with supplies only, and if he was opposed by the Confederates, to respond with the U.S. Navy vessels following and to then land both supplies and men. This time, Maj. Anderson was informed of the impending expedition, although the arrival date was not revealed to him. On April 6, Lincoln notified Governor Pickens that "an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only, and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice, [except] in case of an attack on the fort."[21] Lincoln's notification had been made to the governor of South Carolina, not the new Confederate government, which Lincoln did not recognize. Pickens consulted with Beauregard, the local Confederate commander. Soon Jefferson Davis ordered Beauregard to repeat the demand for Sumter's surrender, and if it did not, to reduce the fort before the relief expedition arrived. The Confederate cabinet, meeting in Montgomery, endorsed Davis's order on April 9. Only Secretary of State Robert Toombs opposed this decision: he reportedly told Jefferson Davis the attack "will lose us every friend at the North. You will only strike a hornet's nest. ... Legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary. It puts us in the wrong. It is fatal."[22] Beauregard dispatched aides—Col. James Chesnut, Col. James A. Chisholm, and Capt. Stephen D. Lee—by rowboat to Fort Sumter on April 11 to issue the ultimatum. Anderson refused, although he reportedly commented, "I shall await the first shot, and if you do not batter us to pieces, we shall be starved out in a few days." The aides returned to Charleston and reported this comment to Beauregard. At 1 a.m. on April 12, the aides brought Anderson a message from Beauregard: "If you will state the time which you will evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree in the meantime that you will not use your guns against us unless ours shall be employed against Fort Sumter, we will abstain from opening fire upon you." After consulting with his senior officers, Maj. Anderson replied that he would evacuate Sumter by noon, three days hence on April 15, unless he received new orders from his government or additional supplies. Col. Chesnut considered this reply to be too conditional and wrote a reply, which he handed to Anderson at 3:20 a.m.: "Sir: by authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that he will open fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." Anderson escorted the officers back to their boat, shook hands with each one, and said "If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next." [23] At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, Lt. Henry S. Farley, acting upon the command of Capt. George S. James, fired a single 10-inch mortar round from Fort Johnson. (James had offered the first shot to Roger Pryor, a noted Virginia secessionist, who declined, saying, "I could not fire the first gun of the war.") The shell exploded over Fort Sumter as a signal to open the general bombardment from 4003 guns and mortars at Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson, the floating battery, and Cummings Point. Under orders from Beauregard, the guns fired in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor, with 2 minutes between each shot; Beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition, which he calculated would last for only 48 hours. Edmund Ruffin, another noted Virginia secessionist, had traveled to Charleston to be present for the beginning of the war, and fired one of the first shots at Sumter after the signal round, a 64-pound shell from the Iron Battery at Cummings Point. Major Anderson held his fire, awaiting daylight. His troops reported for a call at 6 a.m. and then had breakfast. At 7 a.m., Capt. Abner Doubleday fired a shot at the Ironclad Battery at Cummings Point. He missed. Given the available manpower, Anderson could not take advantage of all of his 60 guns. He deliberately avoided using guns that were situated in the fort where casualties were most likely. The fort's best cannons were mounted on the uppermost of its three tiers—the barbette tier—where his troops were most exposed to incoming fire from overhead. The fort had been designed to withstand a naval assault, and naval warships of the time did not mount guns capable of elevating to shoot over the walls of the fort. However, the land-based cannons manned by the Confederates were capable of high-arcing ballistic trajectories and could therefore fire at parts of the fort that would have been out of naval guns' reach. Although Sumter was a masonry fort, there were wooden buildings inside for barracks and officer quarters. The Confederates targeted these with Heated shot (cannonballs heated red hot in a furnace), starting fires that could prove more dangerous to the men than explosive artillery shells. At 7 p.m. on April 12, a rain shower extinguished the flames and at the same time the Union gunners stopped firing for the night. They slept fitfully, concerned about a potential infantry assault against the fort. During the darkness, the Confederates reduced their fire to four shots each hour. The following morning, the full bombardment resumed and the Confederates continued firing hot shot against the wooden buildings. By noon most of the wooden buildings in the fort and the main gate were on fire. The flames moved toward the main ammunition magazine, where 300 barrels of gunpowder were stored. The Union soldiers frantically tried to move the barrels to safety, but two-thirds were left when Anderson judged it was too dangerous and ordered the magazine doors closed. He ordered the remaining barrels thrown into the sea, but the tide kept floating them back together into groups, some of which were ignited by incoming artillery rounds. He also ordered his crews to redouble their efforts at firing, but the Confederates did the same, firing the hot shots almost exclusively. The fort's central flagpole was knocked down at 1 p.m. on April 13, raising doubts among the Confederates about whether the fort was ready to surrender. Col. Louis Wigfall, a former U.S. senator, had been observing the battle and decided that this indicated the fort had had enough punishment. He commandeered a small boat and proceeded from Morris Island, waving a white handkerchief from his sword, dodging incoming rounds from Sullivan's Island. Meeting with Major Anderson, he said, "You have defended your flag nobly, Sir. You have done all that it is possible to do, and General Beauregard wants to stop this fight. On what terms, Major Anderson, will you evacuate this fort?" Anderson was encouraged that Wigfall had said "evacuate," not "surrender." He was low on ammunition, fires were burning out of control, and his men were hungry and exhausted. Satisfied that they had defended their post with honor, enduring over 3,000 Confederate rounds without losing a man, Anderson agreed to a truce at 2 p.m. The Union garrison surrendered the fort to Confederate personnel at 2:30 p.m., April 14. No one from either side was killed during the bombardment. During the 100-gun salute to the U.S. flag —Anderson's one condition for withdrawal—a pile of cartridges blew up from a spark, mortally wounding privates Daniel Hough and Edward Galloway, and seriously wounding the other four members of the gun crew; these were the first military fatalities of the war. The salute was stopped at fifty shots. Hough was buried in the Fort Sumter parade ground within two hours after the explosion. Following the surrender, Northerners rallied behind Lincoln's call for all states to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. With the scale of the rebellion apparently small so far, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days.[34] Some Northern states filled their quotas quickly. There were so many volunteers in Ohio that within 16 days they could have met the full call for 75,000 men by themselves.[35] Other governors from border states were undiplomatic in their responses. For example, Gov. Claiborne Jackson wrote, "Not one man will the state of Missouri furnish to carry on any such unholy crusade", and Gov. Beriah Magoffin wrote, “Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern states.”[36] The governors of other states still in the Union were equally unsupportive. Most of the victories went to the Confederates, but the Union army succeeded in securing New Orleans and the control of the Mississippi River, thus splitting the Confederacy in two. There was no rallyinh point to secure additional investment in Lincoln’s illegal war until a skirmish broke out at Gettysburg over a rumor a shipment of shoes had come into town. At the start of the Gettysburg Campaign both armies were separated by the Rappahannock River in Virginia. The North had attacked across the river twice, in the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862) and the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1863). Both were Confederate victories, but both times the North was able to withdraw back across the river and safely rebuild. Lee knew he could not just sit south of the river and throw back Northern attacks. His army could not stand the casualties, and the Southern rail system could not supply his army properly. Without an ability to shut off the supply lines from the North, he knew that someday the North might find the winning combination. Lee's plan was to take the war to the north in a move up the Shenandoah Valley. This would let the farmers there harvest their crops for the Confederacy, while Lee's army could forage in the rich and untouched lands of Pennsylvania. It would threaten Union cities such as Baltimore, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. And it would give Lee a chance to fight and win a battle in the open, where he could finally pursue and possibly destroy the beaten enemy. Lee saw it as the best way to end the war before the South was trapped in an unwinnable battle of attrition. As Lee moved north The Union army shadowed him, moving to stay between Confederate forces and Washington. Both armies were looking for a fight. It might have happened at several places, but the road network feeding into Gettysburg turned a chance encounter into the largest battle of the war.

Who won the Battle of Gettysburg? The Battle of Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union. Tactically it may have seemed about even. Both armies lost about the same number of men, and Lee kept his army on the field until the evening of the day after the battle, waiting for a counterattack by Meade which never came. But Meade's larger army could better afford the losses - all eight of Lee's infantry divisions lost about a third of their strength, while Meade's largest Army Corps was virtually untouched. Lee was almost out of artillery ammunition, while Meade had enough for another battle. And Meade had no need to throw himself into a dangerous counterattack; time was on his side as Union reinforcements moved to surround Lee, deep in enemy territory with no hope of reinforcement.

Strategically there was no question. The Battle of Gettysburg stopped the Confederate invasion of the North and forced Lee to withdraw to Virginia. He was successful in his secondary goal of gathering supplies from untouched Northern regions, but his goal of moving the fighting out of war-ravaged Virginia only lasted for a few weeks; by August the armies were back on the Rappahannock. And Lee's primary goal of finally being able to exploit a Confederate victory by pursuing and destroying a beaten Union army would remain an elusive dream. Lincoln knew he had effectively lost the war, because although they had prevented the invasion into the North, he had not stopped the Confederates. He had not stopped them from trading with Europe. He had not stopped them from printing their own currency, backed by gold, and thus economic sanctions were useless. Wars are expensive. The take money to wage successfully and require a marshaling of resources to defend the political system under armed attack. Weapons and munitions need to be purchased in large quantities. Naval forces need to be augmented. Such seemingly mundane actions as clothing and feeding large numbers of men enlisted for the defense effort need to be attended to. All these activities and functions take a considerable amount of money The monetary system in effect on the eve of the Civil War simply failed to provide the necessary elasticity in the money supply to accommodate these needs. Indeed, with the system of banks chartered and/or supervised by state banking departments that applied immediately prior to the Civil War, one couldn’t even be certain that the privately issued bank notes in circulation would or even could be redeemed by the issuing institution as promised on its printed obligations. One of the responses of the federal government to the financing needs of the Civil War was to undertake a radical transformation of the banking and money issuing system that had applied prior to the outbreak of the war. While the Confederacy resorted largely to printing paper currency that amounted to little more than fiat money to finance its operations – with the result being substantial price inflation in the states in rebellion during the war, the Union undertook a more measured approach. On February 25, 1863, President Lincoln signed what was known as the National Currency Act. The National Banking Act of 1863 was superseded by the National Banking Act of 1864 (ch. 106, 13 Stat. 99; June 3, 1864) just one year later.[1] The new act also established federally issued bank charters, which took banking out of the hands of state governments. Under its provisions a system was established under which the federal government issued charters – essentially a grant of authority to operate under the newly established national bank system — to banks that agreed to meet certain capital and other regulatory requirements. But just how does this relate to the needs of the government to finance its war operations? This flow of fiat currency was available to North, but was not accessible by the South. In effect, it created an endless flow of money to fight wars to the Federal government. One of the central features of the National Currency Act, the federally chartered banks could then issue their own money, what we call National Bank Notes, that constituted obligations of the federal government and would be redeemed by the government itself in the event of a bank failure. The security for this pledge was the value of the federal bonds purchased by the issuing bank, which was authorized to print National Bank Notes up to 90% of the value of the federal securities left on deposit with the government as security to back the bank issues Lincoln had done what the Founders feared most. He had authorized a National Bank. He was losing the war, and would likely have been voted out of office for causing the States to lose control over their own currencies. He needed a photo opportunity. He needed a rallying cry. The Emancipation Proclamation was not pulling in the support needed to defeat this new economy from competing against the Union. He needed a way to get the big banks to back this war, or he was going to lose it. He took four months following the victory at Gettysburg and hundreds of thousands of dollars to build an elaborate stage and to market the event to get support for his mission. Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil War not as the illegal Federal War against sovereign States, but rather as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by what he politically termed the secession crisis with "a new birth of freedom", that would bring true equality to all of its citizens. Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality. Beginning with the now-iconic phrase "Four score and seven years ago"—referring to the Declaration of Independence, written 87 years before at the start of the American Revolution in 1776. He needed to unravel the Southern States who used the very same Declaration and the grievances levied against King George to secede from British Rule. There were no recording devices in that day, so there are many “Official versions,” of the speech. The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech. Many modern people have heard a myriad of revisions of this war and why it was fought. My son was taught in the third grade that Lincoln fought the Civil War to free the slaves. The truth is far from this political tripe. I am going to bring the past to the present, so that you can perhaps see the future. This is the setup for the Gettysburg turned out to initially collided as I said over a shipment of shoes at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. Lee rapidly and urgently concentrated his forces there with his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south. The high ground now belonged to Lee. On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union right, Confederates attacked Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines. On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army. Some say the grandiose charge by Pickett was too soon and was too foolish to work in this battle. The charge’s failure left a hole in Lee’s plan. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle. As I said, Lincoln’s directive caused thousands of white tombstones to be arranged in rows. A careful review of the secured battleground was made, selecting the perfect natural stage so Lincoln could be heard by an outdoor crowd. He knew he would have one chance to rally the financial support for this war. He knew that unless he was successful, he was going to be outvoted in the upcoming election in November just a few months away from this battle. The plan was successful. He dissolved the South’s quest for liberty and freedom. He used the backdrop of tens of thousands of bodies as the sledge hammer to revise the history of what had transpired the previous two years. Listen to these words with that picture in your mind.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Lincoln’s plan was successful. He garnered the support of the national banks, and financially wiped away the refusal of many of the Northern and Western States to support the war. He would now order the annihilation of the South. He would order his generals to destroy everything in their path. He ordered them to tear up the railroads, burn crops, kill livestock, and to burn barns full of harvest to the ground. His generals would commit atrocities such as murder, rape, robbery, and torture to break the will of the proud and free South. He left 13 States smoldering from in ashes with his war machine and his bank that could print their own money to pay for it.

The war industrialists could not be more pleased. These warlords grew 100 fold in two years and the last vestige of State’s rights was left in the charred remains of countless towns, villages, and even some major cities. The Executive Branch would fight every war with the banks financing the bullets, bombs, and armor for both sides for the next 150 years. The national bank charter was renewed in 1883, 1903, and then in 1910 in a secret meeting on Jekyll Island, the dark work of the Federal Reserve was signed into law. Within 4 years, the world would begin a war that would last for 31 years. It would involve every nation on Earth, and it would create the most powerful banking system the world has ever known. The National Banking Acts served to create the (federal-state) dual structure that is now a defining characteristic of the U.S. banking system and economy. The Comptroller of the Currency continues to have significance in the U.S. economy and is responsible for administration and supervision of national banks as well as certain activities of bank subsidiaries (per the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999).[1] In 2004 the Act was used by John D. Hawke, Jr., Comptroller of the Currency, to effectively bar states attorney generals' offices from national bank oversight and regulatory roles. Many blame the resulting lack of oversight and regulation for the 2009 recession, the bailout of the U.S. financial system and the subprime mortgage crisis. To this very day, any bank attempting to lend to the local community without federal approval will be closed.

Cypriot Model now Being Deployed in America

This is new just a couple of weeks ago. You’re probably thinking that inflationary devaluation of your savings or paying negative interest rates on cash deposits is about as far as government is willing to go in its efforts to keep funding its debt-laden endeavors. They certainly wouldn’t consider touching the bank accounts of hard working Americans. Only the Europeans have the audacity to go after the savings of the average depositor. Well, the Europeans and apparently now the Georgians, too. And we’re not talking about the western backed country that went to war with Russia in recent years. We’re talking about the U.S. state that claims “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation” as its motto. According to Simon Black at Sovereign Man, the State of Georgia has taken the unprecedented step of lowering the threshold on inactive or dormant bank accounts to just twelve months. What that means to average Georgians is that if you fail to utilize your account within one year your deposited funds will be confiscated by the state. Though all 50 states have regulations pertaining to dormant bank accounts, Black says that Georgia takes the grand prize in how swiftly they’re prepared to go after your money. Georgia’s Disposition of Unclaimed Properties Act sets the threshold as low as one year. In other words, if you have a checking account in Georgia that you haven’t touched in twelve months, the state government is going to grab it. So much for setting aside money for a rainy day and having the discipline to never touch it. If you’ve locked away money for your children’s savings or unforeseen emergencies, your government might be sharpening its knives ready to dig in. And just like central bank policies punish savers with interest rates that don’t come close to keeping up with inflation, these policies provide disincentives for people to be responsible and save money. It’s just another example of how the entire system is rigged against the individual… and all the more reason to divorce oneself from it. Physical gold, anyone? Full report at Sovereign Man via Zero Hedge In 2013 Australia passed similar legislation, but their threshold was set at three years. “In the last 12-months since the legislation was passed,” says Simon Black, “the Australian government has seized a whopping 80,000 accounts totaling A$360 million.” The implications of the new law are staggering. In that single year Australia confiscated more money than in the previous five decades combined. Governments on the local, state and federal level are getting desperate amid underfunded retirement plans and bloated budgets. Going forward they’ll have no choice but to get more and more creative at how they “generate” revenue. We hope you’re keeping an eye on that IRA. You haven’t really touched that for twelve months either, have you? Congress has already held hearings on whether or not they should reappropriate retirement savings and pool them into a government run investment fund. You know, kind of like Obamacare. Or how about that parcel of land you own out on the countryside for weekend camping trips and hunting? You haven’t been out there for a while, nor have you really built anything on it, which must mean you’re not using it anymore… There is historical evidence that suggests that government, when left with no way to pay for their massive budgets and spending, will resort to extraordinary methods to ensure the money keeps coming in to State coffers. As the Roman empire was collapsing because of unfunded pension liabilities for its military the government devalued its currency by removing 90% of the silver content from its coins. Roosevelt confiscated gold during the Great Depression and imposed stiff penalties for those who didn’t comply. Struggling to keep up with its massive budget deficits, last year France passed their “millionaire tax,” which authorized the government to levy a 75% tax on companies that pay out more than €1 million in salaries. Devising innovative ways to separate the citizenry from its money is business as usual within legislative institutions. Georgians who haven’t touched their accounts since last year should either withdraw their money or, as government officials and banks would prefer, go spend it on something and put that cash to work. Otherwise you face the real possibility of having those assets seized. As for the residents of the other forty-nine states, keep an eye on what your respective state legislators are doing. I have been telling you for more than a year now. Get to your bank and begin a plan to withdraw your funds in cash. If you have a 401K plan, liquidate it. Take the 10% tax hit and get rid of your debt and put the rest in your house.