PRESS KIT FOR THE STEPHEN DILL LEE INSTITUTE
FEBRUARY 6-7, 2009
FRANCIS MARION HOTELCHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
DAVIS v. LINCOLN
The International Sons of Confederate Veterans headquartered in Columbia, Tennessee, is pleased to bring to historic Charleston, South Carolina, the Winter Meeting of the Stephen Dill Lee Institute. The program represents the principal educational outreach program of the SCV. The Institute is named after famed Confederate General and Charleston native Stephen Dill Lee who spent much of his life promoting the honoring of Confederate soldiers and educating the public as to the true history of the South. The SCV recognizes the need today to defend the good name and motivations of the Confederate soldier and the Confederate role in the war in the face of never ending revisionist historical attacks and modern day political correctness.
The goal of the Institute is to organize and present to the public accomplished and professional scholars at events such as the Charleston meeting. To that end, it was felt that in the bicentennial anniversaries of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln and with the upcoming Sesquicentennial rapidly approaching, a theme such as Davis v. Lincoln would be both educational and highly entertaining.
The Institute will have its initial lecture on Friday February 6 at 8pm at the Francis Marion Hotel. We are pleased to present a giant in the person of Edwin Cole Bearss, the former Chief Historian of the National Park Service and today Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service. Ed Bearss is recognized as a legend in interpreting the War Between the States and as a national leader in battlefield preservation. He has received nearly every national honor imaginable for his incredible talents and contributions. Perhaps the most famous battlefield tour guide of all time, he is in great demand, working over 300 days a year. He has written numerous books and articles and was prominently featured in THE CIVIL WAR PBS series on television. He is also featured on CIVIL WAR JOURNAL, a popular television series. He has a devoted following which will grow after this event.
The topic for Ed Bearss is “The Assassination of Jefferson Davis – The Dahlgren Raid. Ed Bearss is also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. His lecture is the only lecture Friday night. The Institute resumes Saturday morning at 8:30am with Host and Moderator Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo delivering initial introductory remarks. Dr. Dilorenzo has gained a huge niche in the history community with the popular and widely printed volume titled The Real Lincoln. This book has ignited a national debate on Lincoln and his legacy. It has gone through many printings and continues to counter mainstream Lincoln ideas. Dr. Dilorenzo is an economics professor at Loyola College of Maryland and is the author of numerous articles both on Lincoln and on economics. His role as host and moderator will be to summarize and analyze the individual lectures during the day.
Leading off the Institute program on Saturday morning will be Dr. Donald W. Livingston. A longtime faculty member of the Institute, Dr. Livingston is a Professor of American Philosophy at Emory University and a former National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow. Professor Livingston is a renowned constitutional scholar on issues such as the compact nature of the Union, federalism, states’ rights, Nullification and secession. He helped found the Abbeville Institute and is a Director of the League of the South Institute. The title of his lecture is Davis, Lincoln and Liberty.
Following Dr. Livingston will be South Carolina native and well known War Between the States author and lecturer, Walter Brian Cisco. His intensive research has led to numerous articles and books on such South Carolina Confederate luminaries as Wade Hampton, Henry Timrod and States Rights Gist. His latest book is titled War Crimes against Southern Civilians and vividly documents the numerous atrocities committed by Union troops throughout the South including rapes, beatings, lootings, and the wholesale burning of homes, businesses and towns. He also includes a detailed account of the inhumane treatment of blacks by Union troops. His topic for the Institute will be Davis, Lincoln and the Rules of War.
The Institute will break for lunch after Mr. Cisco’s lecture and will reconvene with a presentation by Dr. Marshall DeRosa. Dr DeRosa is a Fellow with the Heritage Foundation and a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University. A longtime Institute scholar, he is the author of numerous articles and books including Redeeming American Democracy - Lessons from the Confederate Constitution. As a constitutional expert, Dr. DeRosa is well known for his analysis of the age old American dilemma, centralization versus de-centralization. His Stephen Dill Lee lecture topic is aptly titled The Confederate Experiment in Constitutional Government.
Next on the speakers list is Dr. Samuel Smith, Associate Professor of Education at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. His expertise centers on education and religion and is a well know history of religion scholar, authoring numerous articles on the two topics. His lecture on Saturday afternoon is titled Davis, Lincoln and the Christian Faith.
Following Dr. Smith is the well known Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and Editor of the Papers of John C. Calhoun, Dr. Clyde N. Wilson. Dr. Wilson also serves as the Dean of the Stephen Dill Lee Institute. He is active in the Abbeville Institute, League of the South and the Ludwig Von Mises Institute. He has often been identified as the intellectual heir of Richard Weaver and the Southern Agrarians. He is an important figure in modern day Southern and American history and is the author of numerous books and articles including Carolina Cavalier, Defending Dixie and From Union to Empire. His Stephen Dill Lee topic is A Sacrifice for his People: Jefferson Davis’ Persecution and Imprisonment.
A two hour question and answer session is then planned which will include all of our scholars and will give the audience a chance to pick the brains of the finest collection of Southern academics in America.
The Institute concludes its program with a banquet featuring nationally recognized historian and legal scholar, Kent Masterson Brown. Mr. Brown has for over 30 years practiced law in Lexington, Kentucky, and Washington D.C, specializing in health care and constitutional issues. A graduate of Washington-Lee University, he has received numerous awards for his historical scholarship. Many of his books and articles concern his native Kentucky during the War Between the States. He is active in preservation causes and his latest book, Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics and the Pennsylvania Campaign has been a best seller and received rave reviews. Active in battle field preservation, he is the founder of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association and has served on numerous civil war related boards and institutions. His topic which concludes the Institute seminar is titled Jefferson Davis Constitutionalist.
The Stephen Dill Lee Institute welcomes the public. Information about the Institute can be obtained by visiting the Institute website—www.StephenDLeeInstitute.com or by calling Event Coordinator Brag Bowling at 804-389-3620.