Bess Regan
Box 1465
Hendersonville, N. C.

Dear Bess:

Your welcomed letter of January 1, 1962, together with its treasures arrived today.

Esther and I have made repeated unsuccessful inquiries of governmental departments concerning the military service record of our uncle George. Imagine, if you can, our delight when we received the official Discharge. It is prized so highly that I will have it mounted and laminated so that it can be preserved for the view of his existing namesakes, there being three in as many generations, and for all of the same who come hereafter. It will occupy a place along side of the Honorable Discharges of my son George Michael Curran and of yours truly. Another such is in the offing, too. George M. Jr. is now 17 and is looking forward to an early hitch in the military. Unlike my soldier-uncle, my son and I served in the Navy.

 

Our father, James, told us that George was killed in the last battle of the Shenandoah during the year 1865. We would welcome any further information you can furnish concerning his re-enlistment, service, and death.

 

We did know that Denis was a Southerner at heart, but we are mighty proud to learn he was among those who dared to defend a cause deemed by its supporters to be just. It's too late now to take sides, but we cannot forget there was merit in the Southern cause. By way of explanation let me say we believe that if slavery was the only issue there would not have been a Civil War. Slavery was condemned by all except the mercenary. We think the real issue involved states rights.

 

In their war against the establishment of an autocratic Federal bureaucracy those Gubber Grabbers you refer to in your letter suffered in defense of a principle of government espoused by Thomas Jefferson. He said, "The least governed are the best governed."

 

At the time the Union was formed it was agreed each state would govern the affairs of its own citizens and the Federal government would attend to interstate and international matters.

 

The South lost. The voice of the state was muffled. Federal Bureaucracy won. It is now supreme. Each day it extends its control over the everyday activities of our citizens.

It has access to the pocketbook of every taxpayer. It indulges in deficit spending. The politicians enjoy a political paradise in which they spend more and more without having to raise money by taxation. Of course the national debt grows and grows while the bureaucrats are doing their spending.

 

And, too, since the states are not consulted in such matters, the Federal politicians are undeterred in giving our tax money away. People of other lands, friend and foe alike, enjoy the benefits of taxes taken from our people, along with gifts of the products of our fields, forests, mines, and factories. And as we give and give our national debt grows and grows.

 

It is said that the latest suggestion from Mr. Kennedy is that the United States buy 100 million dollars worth of United Nations "Bonds". The value of all the "bonds" that could be issued by any organization that has neither assets nor earning ability could be measured by the value of a cubic inch of candy fluff. Such preposterous propositions would never be approved if the states could be heard in the disposition of tax money contributed by their citizens.

 

Washington now regulates every facet of business and controls the life of the individual from the cradle to the grave. With all the power now centered there the existence of the States as sovereign powers is rapidly becoming fiction. Absolute control of all of us by a politician with dictatorial ambitions and a pretext is an impending possibility.

 

Someday, when the people realize that bureaucracy is a detriment to their welfare, the Jeffersonian theory of government, which was supported by the South during the Civil War, will rise again. We will then have a minimum of governmental cost and control. Providing our bureaucrats don't, in the meanwhile, deliver us into the hands of the Communists by way of national bankruptcy.

 

You can be certain we were happy to hear from you. We hope to hear from you again real soon. With best wishes, I am,

Sincerely

George W. Curran