Judge Andrew Napolitano's suicide pact with 1861 "secessionist-libertarianism" a sad & bad defense of government slave tryranny!

By Jake Jacobs

Back in early November, 2014, I tweeted the following line @ThomasEWoods "But you and the Judge are wrong about Slavery not being the PRIMARY reason the Confederate States rebelled vs. The USA." I sent this tweet to Dr. Woods after he defended Judge Andrew Napolitano's March 11, 2014 Lincoln bashing appearance on the Jon Stewart Show. This led to a twitter war between Thomas Woods and myself which led to my blog article titled, Thomas Woods' 1861 "Secessionist-Libertarianism": A Defense Of A Slave Civilization Gone With The Wind. This article was in response to Dr. Woods bogus twitter claims about secession and the Confederacy. My article led to me being blocked from Thomas E Woods twitter account. I must have hit a raw "neo-confederate" nerve as I exposed Thomas Woods past connections to the League of the South and his advocacy of their Confederate secessionist ways. I used the term "neo-confederate" as Thomas Woods was involved with writing and speaking for the neo-confederate white supremacist organization the League of the South. Woods has labeled me as a "Straussian-Clintonian" which is laughable and he puts me in the neo-conservative camp. There has been a battle between Thomas Woods and Mark Levin where Woods calls Levin a "neo-conservative" and Levin calls Woods a "neo-confederate." I guess it's neo-con versus neo-con. To get an overview of the neo-confederate worldview read Dr. Larry Schweikart's A Patriot's History of the United States, pp. 349-352 or to get details on Thomas Woods background and neo-confederates see the books NEO-CONFEDERACY edited by Euan Hague and THE CONFEDERATE AND NEO-CONFEDERATE READER edited by James W. Loewen. However, this article in not only about Thomas Woods but about his dear friend and comrade in "secessionist-libertarian" arms Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Before I discuss Napolitano's 1861 "secessionist-libertarianism" let me say that as a Christian libertarian-republican there is much that Judge Napolitano says that I wholeheartedly agree with. His expose of the Federal government's egregious and deleterious harm on the American people is in many cases superb. I have read a number of his books and agreeing with so much of what he has to say I recommend them to my students, audiences. I even recommend some of his works and Thomas Woods books in my latest book, Mother Should I Trust The Government?

However, like Thomas E. Woods, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano makes in my estimation a profound error with his evaluation of Abraham Lincoln and his defense of what I have coined as "secessionist-libertarianism." While I have no evidence that the Judge has worked or advocated for white supremacist organizations like the League of the South he works in tandem with Thomas Woods, Ron Paul and other secessionist-libertarians who teach that Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant and that the Confederacy was on the libertarian side of the argument in 1861 and that slavery was not the primary cause behind the Civil War. I believe they are wrong on all three accounts.

Let's start first with Abraham Lincoln whom Judge Napolitano repeatedly calls a tyrant, dictator, murderer and the worst President in American history. He blames the progressives and the public school system for mythologizing Lincoln "almost making him a fourth member of the Blessed Trinity." In typical secessionist-libertarian fashion the Judge conveniently ignores Southern public schools since the 1870's which have promoted Lincoln hatred and have perpetuated a false narrative of "The Lost Cause" of the Confederacy which largely downplays or outright ignores slavery's role in the Civil War. Fortunately like Thomas Woods the Judge does not fall into the trap of totally denying slavery's role in the Civil War but their secessionist-libertarian worldview causes them to malign Lincoln, to downplay slavery or give it lip service, to up-play tariffs and ignore the anti-libertarian slave tyranny of the Confederacy. It would be nice to see them be more intellectual honest about slavery's primary role in the Confederate action to secede and the Confederacy's anti-libertarian tyranny.

On the Fox Business News program The Independents Napolitano opined that "instead of allowing it to die, or helping helping it to die, or even purchasing the slaves and then freeing them.....Lincoln set about the most murderous war in American history in which over 750,000 soldiers and civilians – all Americans – died...That of course spawned Jim Crow, that of course spawned Klu Klux Klan...but the so called freedom that Lincoln thought he was bringing would not come for another 125 years because of its birth in violence, rather...than its birth in the natural progress of human freedom."

Does Judge Napolitano think the American Revolution was birthed in Olive Branches and the singing of Kumbaya? The Judge's so-called "natural progress of human freedom" in 1776 came by sacrificing lives, fortunes and sacred honor as it did in 1861. Judge Napolitano's historical analysis is a sad reflection of the scholarship that is disseminated by Thomas Woods, Woods mentor Clyde Wilson, Woods one-time League of the South colleague Michael Hill, Ron Paul et.al. where non-sequitur, follows non-sequitur, follows non-sequitur.

Abraham Lincoln did not start the Civil War! In violation of the libertarian "non aggression principle" the Confederate Slave-Republic did. Ask the people of eastern Tennessee and the county of Scott how anti-libertarian the Confederacy was in 1861. Lincoln understood the logical and illegal outcome of a disgruntled minority that would secede and secede and secede. For years Southern Slave-State Republics worked in tandem with the Democrat controlled Federal Republic to advance slavery. The 1854 birthed Republican Party was dedicated to stopping the advance of slavery by utilizing every peaceful and legal means available to them up to the Presidential election of 1860. The Southern Slave-Republics rejected the voice of the people in 1860 believing that Americans had just elected a "Negro Republican" as President and they could not live with a "Black Republican" in the Federal government whom they believed was going to take away their Negro slaves-the very lifeblood of their economy and society. Lincoln and the Republicans knew that an economy that was based upon slavery was not truly libertarian and in alignment with the freedom our forefathers fought for.

Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans also knew they could not immediately or legally stop slavery IN the Southern Slave-Republics but they believed they could surround them with "a corridor of freedom" that would eventually see slavery die a natural death. Unfortunately the Slave-Republics would have none of that. Northern Free-Republics that advocated the God-given "natural right of freedom" for all men where a thorn in the side of Southern Slave-Republics that declared that "the natural right of property" made Americans of African ancestry not equal to white men but equal to pigs, cows and chickens. Liberty loving Republicans disdained the Southern John C. Calhoun "pig property" theory thus they dedicated their speeches, platforms, and actions to the eventual eradication of that pernicious institution in the territories and new states of the Union. Southern Slave-Republics hated the Republican peaceful libertarian goals and set out to stop them with the denial of freedom of speech, press, assembly and violent anti-libertarian means.

Last November 8, 2014, Judge Napolitano gave an excellent speech titled, The Natural Law as a Restraint Against Tyranny at the Mises Institute Circle in Costa Mesa, California. In Napolitano's speech he reminded his audience that: "the Declaration is a STATUE enacted by the Congress if you go to the first book of the US Code and go to the first page you'll see the Declaration of Independence, probably the most violated STATUTE by government that we have, even though its the first and the oldest."

Yes, Judge Napolitano the Southern Slave-Republics and the Confederate Slave-Republic violated the Declaration of Independence statute of equality for all over and over again! However, Judge Napolitano that was a no, no for you to speak that way at the Mises Institute. If you're not careful Mises Institute professor, your friend Thomas Woods might call you as he did me a "Straussian" who links Lincoln's worldview to the Declaration of Independence proclamation that "all men are created equal." According to secessionist-libertarians, neo-confederates, Calhounians, and many within the Mises Institute, Lincoln's original sin was his legal interpretation of the Jeffersonian-Lockean phrase that "all men were created equal."

Thomas Woods' mentor Dr. Cylde Wilson (John C. Calhoun is their hero) who took Dr. Woods from a "neo-con" to a "neo-confed" at least for a while, tells us that the Confederacy's worldview was shaped by John C. Calhoun who rejected the Jeffersonian view that "all men are created equal" as "negro man" was inferior to white man and could never be his equal. Calhoun's Democrat philosophy was the intellectual seedbed of the Confederacy and was the motivation behind their slavery-secession of 1860-61. It's not a coincidence that Thomas Woods is an associate scholar for the Abbeville Institute named for the birthplace of John C. Calhoun. The Chronicle of Higher Education's June 6, 2009 article titled "Scholars Nostalgic for the Old South Study the Virtue of Secession, Quietly To Avoid Being Tagged As Racist" is an interesting read on the Calhounian Abbeville Institute which has an affinity with the League of the South.


After the shift of Northern freedom power over Southern pig power into the hands of the Federal government due to the 1860 victory of Lincoln and the Republicans, Democrat Southern slaves-states one by one ignored Republican pleas of peaceful coexistence declaring that SLAVERY was the essence of Southern existence. Judge Napolitano declares it was tariffs over and over again when in historical CONTEXT tariffs where proportionately much, much larger in the North and passed by the Democrat President Buchanan not Abraham Lincoln. Tariffs where rarely if ever mentioned in their polemics on secession and in rare cases where they were mentioned it was tied to the preservation of slavery. Study Confederate documents, debates, the Confederate Constitution, even their February 27, 1861 Peace Conference, it was always and primarily about SLAVERY! Tariffs were not a big issue in 1860 since Southerners had written the tariff of 1857, under which the nation was functioning as tariff rates in 1860 were lower than at any point since 1816.

After 7 Southern Slave-States had seceded and created a new Slave-Nation, President Abraham Lincoln laid out his Constitutional thinking in his March 4, 1861 inaugural address where he calls for "a more perfect Union" predicated upon the 1776 principles that "all men are created equal." Lincoln once again pleads with the new Southern Slave-Republic to think again about their rebellious actions. He solemnly said, "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one "to preserve, protect, and defend it. Lincoln feared their anti-libertarian slavery worldview was soon to start a war.

The Confederate Slave-Republic hell bent on "maintaining, enlarging and perpetuating human slavery" attacked the Federal government on April 12, 1861 thus starting the bloodiest war in American History. Judge Napolitano and his fellow secessionist-libertarians like Thomas Woods, Michael Hill, Clyde Wilson and Ron Paul like to pontificate on the "tyranny" of Lincoln but very conveniently ignore the tyranny and hypocrisy of a Confederate Slave-Republic which violated the libertarian non-aggression principle, mandated slavery, did not allow secession within the Confederacy, destroyed civil liberties and massacred, raped and pillaged all over America in it's short lived history.

Judge Napolitano's statement that Lincoln "spawned Jim Crow...and the Ku Klux Klan" fly's in the face of historical reality. It was the racist Southern States' Rights Democrats that created white supremacist Southern state laws that perpetuated Jim Crow and these evils laws and mores were encouraged and enforced by the ex-Confederate creature the Ku Klux Klan. Napolitano's spurious stretch linking Lincoln to Jim Crow and the KKK to Progressivism to today's D.C. Big Brother may sell books to unsuspecting limited government lovers and make for good sound bites in speeches and on Fox News but falls flat on its face with the FACTS of historical context.

Judge Napolitano as a lover of liberty and a self described Roman Catholic libertarian I plead with you to come to your senses on secession. Whether it is your 1861 defense of Confederate slave-secession or your 2012 defense of Texas session you are on the wrong side of history. With your great legal mind do not make the same mistake as John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Thomas Woods, Michael Hill, Clyde Wilson and Ron Paul with this very treacherous advocacy. Yes I am aware of the call for the creation of the State of Jefferson in northern California and the call for secession in Vermont, Texas and even in my home-state of Wisconsin and while I too am very frustrated by the illegal explosion of the Federal government, the call for secession is unrealistic, illegal, and a little looney . Even Rick Perry came to is senses on this issue. He may be FED UP! like the rest of us with the Federal government but he has not fallen for such radical and potentially bloody ideas. Judge Napolitano fight the Leviathan federal government through the democratic process and a balanced education on Constitutional law. Don't be like the 1860 Southern Slave-Republics that rejected the democratic process and advocated for an anarchical rebellious minority.

Here is my MAJOR concern over these issues. As a history and government teacher at a Catholic Academy with over twenty years as an adjunct history instructor at a local College and a public speaker at Universities and various liberty events across America, I am concerned that many of our youth are being influence by the radical ideas that have infiltrated Young Americans for Liberty and other liberty conferences, seminars and schools.

We know you defended Rand Paul's co-author Jack Hunter, the one time Southern Avenger and an ex-member of the League of the South. The re-imaged Jack Hunter now speaks and writes with Ron Paul's YAL-Young Americans for Liberty and there are too many within this organization that are being influenced by Neo-Confederate thinking. We know you work with Thomas Woods one of the 1990's intellectual leaders for the League of the South and who unfortunately to this day stills advocates secession with the League of the South.

Judge Napolitano let true consistent libertarian principles bring balance to your presentations. Abandon the short sightedness of 1861 secession-libertarianism that defends the creation of a Slave-State Nation. You do not hesitate to repudiate Abraham Lincoln in the name of libertarianism, well then why don't you disavow and repudiate individuals and organizations that are white-supremacist and anti-libertarian?

Study Thomas Woods words, read his works with the League of the South (If you can't find them I have through using the Wayback Machine) ask why he has attempted pulled them off the internet, ask your friend why in 2014 he would hold up a League of the South "SECEDE" sign with a league member and member of Ron Paul's Young Americans for Liberty. I have pleaded with Dr. Woods to repudiate his association with the League of the South and others of like ilk. His response was to block me from his social media. Thomas Woods has much to offer America but he needs to come clean on this issue, if he does he will give more credence to his limited government arguments.

Judge Napolitano I do not believe for a moment that you have any respect for such a vile organization as the white-supremest League of the South. While I am still baffled by Thomas Woods affinity to it, I want to encourage you to discern the repugnant nature of this organization and any like it. In many ways libertarians of today are on the fine cutting edge of articulating and defending liberty and limited government. But when we fail to vet our sources and spoke persons we ask for trouble. When Glenn Beck brings on Thomas Woods or League of the South President Michael Hill he needs to make a loud and clear disclaimer as to their connections to white supremacy.

Just recently Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was discovered to have given a speech to a white-supremacist group and he is paying the price. We need to help conservatives, libertarians, liberty lovers and our youth to learn to discern these pernicious groups and to never associate with them!


Judge Napolitano from all that I can tell you are a good and decent man who loves people and the sacredness of life and liberty, maybe I cannot change your thinking on secession in 2015 but in the name of a fair and balanced presentation (hmm where have I heard that phrase before) you should do a program with Glenn Beck, Thomas Woods, Ron Paul, Clyde Wilson, Michael Hill, Jim Oates, Eric Foner, Gary Gallager, Thomas Krannawitter, Rev. Peter Marshall and Rev. Steve Wilkins about how slavery was very instrumental in causing the Civil War. As a lover of civil liberties that should be easy for you to do. Then you could do a segment where you deal with the white supremacy associated with the Confederacy of 1861 and the League of the South of 2015. That way you will protect naive or ill informed lovers of liberty from being duped into following erroneous thinking on issues of Confederate secession and white supremacy and this would clear the air from the criticism the Left, the Right and big government lovers give us as they put us all in the same category.

Please contact your friend Thomas Woods and try to help him see that his relationship with the League of the South was not wise in the 1990's and was not wise in 2014 as he speaks to Young Americans for Liberty and proudly holds their white supremacist SECEDE sign. I believe with your gentle demeanor and persuasive personality you will be able to help him on this issue.

Godspeed to you in 2015 and may you be a help to Thomas Woods and liberty lovers across our great Republic!

© Jake Jacobs