Not all that long ago I highlighted how the stumbling Gary Adams, the self-proclaimed Jeopardy fact checker, renowned plagiarist, and leading light of the Southern Heritage Preservation Group (otherwise known as the gift that keeps on giving), managed to mangle the story of the Hampton Roads Conference of 1865 by claiming that references to the Thirteenth Amendment at that meeting was in fact the proposed Corwin Amendment, not the amendment that destroyed slavery forever. Adams and his friends at the SHPG, who read this blog on a regular basis, attempted to sidestep Adams’s mistake. Now, however, it seems that Adams knows that something’s wrong. Perhaps a recent commenter here alerted him to his error, for once more Adams attempted to offer his version of the Hampton Roads Conference. This time, however, he offered the following remark:
To continue the dialog next Lincoln made a comment that the Confederates could soften the blow (of emancipation) by ratifying the amendment (I had presumed everyone knew since the first 13th was never ratified that the conversation was on and about the 2th or what most consider was the only 13th amendment), clearly I was wrong, it is on the current 13th amendment.
Yet as recently as September 12, 2012, Mr. Adams offered the following:
Corwin Amendment (First 13th Amendment)
“In an unusual move, Democratic President James Buchanan signed the Corwin Amendment on March 3, 1861, his last day in office (the Constitution does not require presidential approval for proposed amendments). It was ratified by only two states—Ohio on May 13, 1861, and by Maryland on January 10, 1862—and therefore fell far short of the necessary three-quarters majority of states in order to become part of the U.S. Constitution. Had it achieved ratification, the Corwin Amendment, which protected slavery, would have become the Thirteenth Amendment”. (In 1861 there were 34 States so it would have only taken 26 states to secure the amendment, now consider the Northern Slave trade, New York large slave population and how blacks were viewed; it is clear they could have secured the right to have had slaves). If the war had been over slavery the South could have at any time rejoined the Union passing the amendment securing her slaves, and even though Lincoln repeatedly made that offer (The last time on February 1865 on the ‘River Queen’ outside Fort Monroe, when both Seward and Lincoln again made the offer return pass the amendment and keep your slaves) they refused.
Adams has offered this same bizarre argument before, and several times within the past month.
It’s always the cover up, isn’t it? Adams always proclaimed that the amendment in question was the Corwin Amendment … until today. Then, instead of showing some integrity and courage and saying that he was wrong, he attempts to claim that he was misunderstood, and that his meaning was obvious.
Sorry, Gary, that dog won’t hunt.
Once more we have evidence that the spokesperson for these self-proclaimed defenders of Confederate heritage lacks both intelligence and integrity. However, one must still wonder whether he holds the intelligence of his fellow heritage advocates in contempt (surely anyone could see that first he bungled the story, then he lied about bungling it) or that he rests secure in the knowledge that they share his utter disregard for the truth. So much for southern honor.
As I’ve said before, the SHPG is the gift that keeps on giving … and Gary Adams is that group’s Santa Claus.
Crossroads 