The BritishV8 Pub

I used this phrase on a another thread. Heard it all my life. Not sure about the accuracy of this article about its origin, but it was humorous & interesting.

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Those earliest hillbilly ancestors of the great state of West Virginia displayed the true mountaineer spirit, surviving in the face of overwhelming evolutionary and economic factors which were against them, and were the founders of the great lineage of West Virginia rednecks which to this day thrives in the hills and valleys of this beautiful state.

Hey! I know a few. :)

Naw, that story was written by a tidewater Virginian without a doubt. All you have to do to know that the West Virginians made the right choice is to take a short drive through Lee county, VA or some of the adjacent ones to realize that the standard of living across the border to the west is much better. They should have gone with us.

What actually happened is that Richmond could care less for what was over the ridge as long as they could collect taxes from them, which they then spent in the tidewater basin. This made them fat and happy. Meanwhile the American spirit took hold in the west and something had to be done about the taxation without representation. So, with the Civil War as a timely excuse, those rebel westerners succeeded in suceeding where no other state ever has. Nevermind the slavery question, that wasn't the issue. There were as many pro south as there were pro north, but almost everyone was pro west. With Virginia as the big dog in the fight for the south, the only way to clear victory was to get the blessing of the north, especially towards the end when it became clear who would win the larger battle. It was a high stakes gamble for the new representatives whose lives would be forfeit if if the gambit did not work. So that was done, and the results quite satisfactory, with the state government settling in the central location of Charleston, W.Va where a capitol building was raised with a gold dome to proclaim the pride of the people. I don't know what that talk of a govenment-in-exile is about, don't think it had any official recognition anyway, just a salve to some of the minority who didn't really want to be on the west of the alleghenies anyway. And just so you know, my and Dan's great-great uncle (maybe a couple more greats in there) DDT Farnsworth (Daniel Duane Tomkins) was interrim governor of the new state until an election could be held. His portrait hangs in a place of honor in the capitol building. One of his first acts was to pardon our direct ancestor, an unreconstructed rebel being held by the Union in Camp Douglas, an act for which I am clearly most grateful. As you can see, for me and mine the stakes couldn't have been higher.

By the way, the state slogan is Montani Semper Liberi: Mountaneers are Always Free.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2015 02:19PM by BlownMGB-V8.

That is waaay cool, Jim! See, I knew you & Dan were Rebels at heart.

FYI: Some of y'all may be Southern by the grace of God, but I was born in the South, b'God!

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The Constitution of the Confederacy was drawn up in Montgomery and Jefferson Davis took his oath of office in Montgomery, which served as the first Confederate Capital.

I was born 60 miles south of Montgomery. Raised in Huntsville. I was sure that the South ended at the AL/TN state line. I was so depressed to learn in school that we lost the Civil War. Oh well, East TN/SE VA/Western NC/SE KY/SE WV is all awesome LBC country!

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I was born 60 miles south of Montgomery. Raised in Huntsville. I was sure that the South ended at the AL/TN state line. I was so depressed to learn in school that we lost the Civil War.

I was born in Tennessee in 1940 but grew up in Indiana. While I was growing up, the war was still being fought. It some places, it ain't over yet.

Never will be, Dan. The South shall rise again!

Folks, it was not about slavery. It was the war against Northern aggression. States rights (where did that go?).





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2015 05:58PM by MGBV8.

If you go to the civil war cemeteries at Perryville, Ky or Franklin, TN you can actually see headstones where the first name of the confederate deceased was "States Rights"!
States rights was the burning issue and actually had been since the Bill of Rights was signed...
BTW, the entire area of Tennessee and some parts of NC were called Franklin in the late 1700's and early 1800's.

Just an earlier stage of the gradual erosion of individual rights that continues to this day and will keep right on until the inevitable. The war simply proved yet again that might makes right, regardless of what the original agreement might have been. It's a heck of a way to run a society but it seems in the end it always comes down to that.

Now almost anyone today would agree that slavery is just wrong. But we also know that it does continue in a number of forms and further, most of us would be willing to help eliminate it if we knew what to do. But even though it makes a handy handle for some to stick on the war, that wasn't what caused it in the first place. In this case some of the winners may be trying to rewrite the history but there were too many survivors on the other side to completely allow that to happen.

The war was all about power. The real question was, who has more, the state or the central government? Until that time it was clearly the state. The Civil war changed all that, and many would say, not for the better.

Jim

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The war was all about power. The real question was, who has more, the state or the central government? Until that time it was clearly the state. The Civil war changed all that, and many would say, not for the better.

Absolutely!

Why is the Supreme Court even getting involved with Gay Marriage? It is a States Right issue. Period.

Then again, this is a LBC Forum. We discuss cars, not politics. Like I said, West By God Virginia has some great LBC roads! Jim & Dan Blackwood know all about them. Some day they will take us on an awesome drive there.

WVBCC is taking one drive a month this summer. The next one is set for Saturday, May 30, meeting in Charleston at the Capitol. We will go through the mountains on US 60 to a couple of state parks & mountainous roads. It will probably take all day. Anybody interested in joining us is welcome!

And that is definitely worth doing.

Jim

As far as the West "By God" goes, it has always been my understanding it was used as an oath to emphasize the fact that WV is not part of VA.

Many people do not know that just prior to the civil war, Jeff Davis was Grants commanding officer in Texas, in the Mexican American war. Grants wife was tired of him being gone all the time and had given Ulysses an ultimatum that if he did not resign from the army and come home to Galena Illinois he would be in trouble. Jeff Davis did him a huge favor and let him resign and return to Galena. I am actually meeting my daughter (who lives in Minneapolis) in Galena Wednesday/Thursday of this week for some relaxation and family fun.
Only in America can a person go from being a clerk in a Tannery to president of the United States in less than a decade...which is what Grant did!

Or a community organizer...

Didn't see that one coming......;)

My mother was raised in Parsons WVA, I started visiting WVA to see my "mamal" (phonetic spelling as pronounced by a wee tyke) In the early 1950's.

My family lived in Norfolk at the time as Dad was a sailor. Dad was from NYC.

I love the roads in WVA. I did white water rafting for many years on the Gaulley and New.

Driving the RM through the tunnels was a real hoot.

Mom's family could trace ancestors back several hundred years, which included documents about a few who owned slaves.

Take me home country roads.