Monday, June 7, is an official state holiday in honor of Jefferson Davis, the last American president of the voluntary union of the “free, sovereign and independent states” established by the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Treaty with Great Britain, which is the supreme law of the land according to the U.S. Constitution, Article VI.

Abraham Lincoln became the first American president of a compulsory union of colonies, which were held together with a bayonet, when he started his tax war by ordering 11 armed warships to attack the Charleston (S.C.) Harbor on April 8, 1861, to occupy Fort Sumter, which at the time was a tax-collection fort.

At the Confederate States Capitol in Montgomery, President Jefferson Davis told Congress, “I was sincerely anxious to avoid the effusion of blood, and directed a proposal to be made to the commander of Fort Sumter, that we would abstain from directing our fire on Fort Sumter, if he would promise not to open fire on our forces unless first attacked.

“This proposal was refused, and the conclusion was reached that the design of the United States was to place the (Confederate) besieging force at Charleston between the simultaneous fire of the (U.S.) fleet and the fort.  There remained, therefore, no alternative but to direct that the fort should at once be reduced.”

In response, on April 15 and 19, Abraham Lincoln stated, “Whereas, the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed,” he ordered 75,000 troops to invade the Confederate States and their ports be blockaded.

Until Lincoln’s Tax War, the United States was a voluntary union of independent states, like the European Union and United Nations.

Today, it is a compulsory union of colonies of the Federal government with the average American taxpayer paying more than 40 percent in taxes on income, sales and property.

Roger K. Broxton, Andalusia

President of the Confederate Heritage Fund