impactof1848benson

The Impact of 1848

Al Benson Jr.

1 December 2004

The socialist revolts in Europe in 1848 have been characterized as "wars of liberation" by many writers and they have had a definite impact on what has gone on in this country ever since. I was reminded of this years ago when I heard a man talking in a print shop I had gone into to have some newsletters printed. This individual was waxing eloquent about how Communists don't enslave people. According to him they "liberate" people. I don't know where this character got such information--maybe he was a government school history teacher--but as I turned to leave the shop after my business was concluded I said to him "May my children never have to live under the kind of 'freedom' you advocate." And I say today, may my grandchildren never have to live under it either!

Many writers in our day, both in the print and electronic media, take great pains when discussing the 1848 revolts in Europe, to let us know that the revolutionaries that fought in these uprisings were striving to produce "freedom" for the oppressed peoples in Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, and wherever else the revolts took hold. To reiterate, their concept of "freedom" is somewhat different than mine.

In 1848, Germany was composed of a decentralized collection of autonomous states. In their supposed quest for "freedom" Karl Marx and his disciples were actually trying to create a large, omnipotent central government (with their Communist friends in control of it naturally) with which they could overthrow local control. The destruction of the individual state governments was sought, and they were to be submerged into an all-powerful centralized socialist system. Now admittedly, the various state governments in Germany were not perfect, nor were those that ran them perfect, but to replace them with Communism or socialism was an even less perfect solution to their problems.

In an article "Demands of the Communist Party" writer Walter Schmidt has written that the revolutionary intent was to "...overcome the partition of Germany into a number of states and to create a unified German state of a decidedly democratic (read socialist) character..." The aim was to create a "radical-democratic transformation of civil society in the interest of urban and rural workers, in line with the degree of democratization reached during Jacobite rule of the great French Revolution." The cry was "All Germany is declared to be a united, indivisible republic." Does that sound familiar? We have similar wording in our Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag. This same principle had been enunciated earlier in the French Revolution and if we have done any reading at all, we know what wonderful "freedom" that event produced in France via the guillotine. Political prisoners were "freed" from their heads at an alarming rate, indulging that country in a revolutionary scenario from which it has never totally recovered and setting the stage for the advent of Napoleon.

The European revolts of 1848, far from liberating individual citizens in various countries, worked to introduce centralized, collectivist mega-states. Although the attempt failed in Europe at that time and many of the revolutionaries were forced to flee the countries they sought to centralize, yet their mindset had a profound effect on people in both Europe and the United States.

Researcher Zygmund Dobbs in his book "The Great Deceit" has noted that "Marxian socialism also was reinforced in the United States by a wave of German immigrants who fled Germany after the putting down of the abortive revolution of 1848. Large numbers of German immigrants immediately formed conspiratorial socialist organizations in America and published many newspapers and radical tracts...The German immigrants of 1848 also brought with them the philosophy of Fichte, who, with Hegel, helped lay the foundation of Marxian socialism...During the Civil War, the Fourierist socialists, along with the German Marxist immigrants, blended themselves into the radical wing of the Abolitionist movement..." The "history" books don't generally bother to inform us about such people being in the Abolitionist movement. One might, if he knew of this, begin to wonder just how much these German socialists affected and influenced what went on in the Abolitionist movement.

The fact that many of these European socialists of the 1848 stripe viewed what Lincoln was doing in the War of Northern Aggression as an extention of what they had been trying to do in Europe in 1848 should tell us, if we bother to think about it, what the "Civil War" was really all about from the Yankee perspective.

Far from being truly concerned about real liberty for ordinary people, the "forty-eighters" were really concerned about promoting the centralization of all power in the hands of the state, and they were going to make sure that their friends held the reins of power in the state. They saw, in the Lincoln administration, a collectivist program nearly identical to their own agenda and so they warmly embraced and supported the Union (socialist) position because it was so close to their vision of a truly socialist society.

Yankee "historians" don't like us to dwell too much on these things--which is precisely the reason we should continue to do it.

Al Benson Jr. Article Archive

Comments are always welcome.

Please send them to Cpprhd10@aol.com.

Al Benson Jr. columns are to found on many online journals such as The Sierra Times and The Patriotist. Additionally, Mr. Benson is editor of the Copperhead Chronicle and author of the Homeschool History Project a study of the war of Southern Independence.



	The Impact of 1848 Al Benson Jr. 1 December 2004 The socialist revolts in Europe in 1848 have been characterized as "wars of liberation" by many writers and they have had a definite impact on what has gone on in this country ever since. I was reminded of this years ago when I heard a man talking in a print shop I had gone into to have some newsletters printed. This individual was waxing eloquent about how Communists don't enslave people. According to him they "liberate" people. I don't know where this character got such information--maybe he was a government school history teacher--but as I turned to leave the shop after my business was concluded I said to him "May my children never have to live under the kind of 'freedom' you advocate." And I say today, may my grandchildren never have to live under it either! Many writers in our day, both in the print and electronic media, take great pains when discussing the 1848 revolts in Europe, to let us know that the revolutionaries that fought in these uprisings were striving to produce "freedom" for the oppressed peoples in Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, and wherever else the revolts took hold. To reiterate, their concept of "freedom" is somewhat different than mine. In 1848, Germany was composed of a decentralized collection of autonomous states. In their supposed quest for "freedom" Karl Marx and his disciples were actually trying to create a large, omnipotent central government (with their Communist friends in control of it naturally) with which they could overthrow local control. The destruction of the individual state governments was sought, and they were to be submerged into an all-powerful centralized socialist system. Now admittedly, the various state governments in Germany were not perfect, nor were those that ran them perfect, but to replace them with Communism or socialism was an even less perfect solution to their problems. In an article "Demands of the Communist Party" writer Walter Schmidt has written that the revolutionary intent was to "...overcome the partition of Germany into a number of states and to create a unified German state of a decidedly democratic (read socialist) character..." The aim was to create a "radical-democratic transformation of civil society in the interest of urban and rural workers, in line with the degree of democratization reached during Jacobite rule of the great French Revolution." The cry was "All Germany is declared to be a united, indivisible republic." Does that sound familiar? We have similar wording in our Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag. This same principle had been enunciated earlier in the French Revolution and if we have done any reading at all, we know what wonderful "freedom" that event produced in France via the guillotine. Political prisoners were "freed" from their heads at an alarming rate, indulging that country in a revolutionary scenario from which it has never totally recovered and setting the stage for the advent of Napoleon. The European revolts of 1848, far from liberating individual citizens in various countries, worked to introduce centralized, collectivist mega-states. Although the attempt failed in Europe at that time and many of the revolutionaries were forced to flee the countries they sought to centralize, yet their mindset had a profound effect on people in both Europe and the United States. Researcher Zygmund Dobbs in his book "The Great Deceit" has noted that "Marxian socialism also was reinforced in the United States by a wave of German immigrants who fled Germany after the putting down of the abortive revolution of 1848. Large numbers of German immigrants immediately formed conspiratorial socialist organizations in America and published many newspapers and radical tracts...The German immigrants of 1848 also brought with them the philosophy of Fichte, who, with Hegel, helped lay the foundation of Marxian socialism...During the Civil War, the Fourierist socialists, along with the German Marxist immigrants, blended themselves into the radical wing of the Abolitionist movement..." The "history" books don't generally bother to inform us about such people being in the Abolitionist movement. One might, if he knew of this, begin to wonder just how much these German socialists affected and influenced what went on in the Abolitionist movement. The fact that many of these European socialists of the 1848 stripe viewed what Lincoln was doing in the War of Northern Aggression as an extention of what they had been trying to do in Europe in 1848 should tell us, if we bother to think about it, what the "Civil War" was really all about from the Yankee perspective. Far from being truly concerned about real liberty for ordinary people, the "forty-eighters" were really concerned about promoting the centralization of all power in the hands of the state, and they were going to make sure that their friends held the reins of power in the state. They saw, in the Lincoln administration, a collectivist program nearly identical to their own agenda and so they warmly embraced and supported the Union (socialist) position because it was so close to their vision of a truly socialist society. Yankee "historians" don't like us to dwell too much on these things--which is precisely the reason we should continue to do it. Al Benson Jr. Article Archive Comments are always welcome. Please send them to Cpprhd10@aol.com. Al Benson Jr. columns are to found on many online journals such as The Sierra Times and The Patriotist. Additionally, Mr. Benson is editor of the Copperhead Chronicle and author of the Homeschool History Project a study of the war of Southern Independence.