Oklahoma Quit Claim Deed: Fill & Download for Free

My sisters are great people and we all shared in taking care of my mother when she was ill and dying. If mom’s will had left everything to me, I would have shared equally with them. (If my mother had decided to leave someone out of her will, it probably would have been me!)However, in many familes the situation is different and the people are different. The parents’ will should be honored. After that the inheritance belongs to the recipient or recipients, who should do what they think is right and fair. They are the ones who will have to live with themselves.I’ll share an anecdote: My grandmother died without a will. She didn’t have much, but she owned her house and lot in Oklahoma. One of my aunts, a widow, had lived with her and taken care of her before her death. (My mother was one of 13 children!) One of my uncles, a minister, circulated a quit claim deed with a letter suggesting all of the living brothers and sisters sign their shares of my grandmother’s house over to the aunt who had lived with her. It made my mother angry with him.I asked her, “How much would your share of the house be worth.” She said it would be worth about a thousand dollars.I told her, “I wouldn’t risk my relationship with my sisters for a thousand dollars.” My mother signed the deed.

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.Osho believed that he had been poisoned or irradiated , or both, whilst incarcerated in the USA.His health began to deteriate after he had been held in six different jails in twelve days.He had good reason to be suspicous.In one of the jails, Oklahoma County Jail, Osho was told to register under a pseudonym, ‘David Washington ‘.When he refused to do this, the U.S. Marshall wrote the name David Washington, and told Osho to sign it. Osho then signed the form with his usual Hindi signature.Sannyas lawyers have since obtained copies of that form and confirmed that Osho`s story about this is true. (See the soon to be updated book, " Bhagwan: Twelve Days that shook the World" (1988) by Juliet Forman (Maneesha James) https://oshosammasati.org/facilitator/maneesha-james/Copy of the jail register from Oklahoma County Jail with Osho’s name written as “David Washington”.The investigative journalist Max Brecher, author of “A Passage to America” discovered that the Oklahoma City Marshal who met the plane, signed Osho in under the false name and gave him the mattress was not part of the normal staff at the jail; and the day after Osho finally left Oklahoma City, he resigned from the Marshal Service, and disappeared.Max Brecher in interview“What I’ve established is that Osho’s arrival in Oklahoma City was anything but accidental. It was deliberately manipulated by people high enough in power to re-route a large federal transport plane to Charlotte, North Carolina, pick up one guy, take him to Oklahoma City and leave him there in jail under a false name. That’s a strong indication that orders were coming from the very top of the Justice Department., All the press reports, all the officials, said it was accidental that Osho was routed through Oklahoma City. No way on earth was it an accident! That’s proven in A Passage to America. His winding up in Oklahoma was definitely planned.And he would have been there much longer if it had not been for an enterprising and resourceful television reporter in Oklahoma City named Curt Autrey who tracked that story for three days. He even slept one night in the parking lot of the El Reno Federal Penitentiary, just outside the city. When Osho’s Charlotte attorney, William Diehl, flew into Oklahoma City, Diehl didn’t know where Osho was. Autrey led him to El Reno and Osho was flown out to Portland six hours later…It is clear that Osho was damaged in that period of time. How it happened, who did it, is a little bit murkier. His memory of that time is uncertain. However, when Osho signed into the Oklahoma County Jail on November 4, 1985, the signature was his usual signature, in his very firm handwriting. When he signed out, less than 24 hours later, the signature was totally different. It was all shaky, wavy. You can see extreme trauma in the signature. So something definitely did happen to him in Oklahoma County Jail, before he was taken to El Reno.” (Osho Times International, 1993:7)Osho left Rajneeshpuram in December 1985 and flew to Dehli, and then on to Kullu Manali after his time in jail .Osho in Manali 1986In Manali, in the Himalayas Osho rested and there were plans for a new commune, but this never materialised.He began to have health problems during his World Tour(1986) , in which he was refused entry or deported from many countries.Maneesha James on Osho’s health“In 1981, while in the ashram in Poona, Bhagwan had suffered a prolapsed intervertebral disc which was so debilitating that he could barely walk. As already mentioned, he was flown to America in case surgery was needed. Happily, in a controlled environment, Bhagwan’s health began to improve and surgery was not required. In the subsequent four years, apart from an episode of “swimmer’s ear,” Bhagwan was in good health.But after his ordeal in jail, on November 8th, 1985 Bhagwan looked extremely drawn and in a state of exhaustion. As the doctor most familiar with Bhagwan’s body, Devaraj says about his findings at this time: “Bhagwan was clearly unwell and felt generally very weak. His old back condition was now obviously aggravated with marked lumbar pains. In addition he had pains in both upper limbs, his appetite was very disturbed and food seemed to be tasteless and uninteresting to him. In addition, he suffered what he described as a ‘churning feeling’ in his stomach, and he had lost ten pounds during his imprisonment. He also complained of nausea and vomiting.“Particularly puzzling was a profound insomnia and a sense of uprootedness. At this time he also complained of strange nervous-system problems, especially a tingling all over the body, vertigo and headache… trouble with his eyesight, a blurring of vision that he had never suffered from before. Since that time he has not been able to read even one book…Throughout 1986 Bhagwan was to have a recurrence of the tingling sensation and the bone pain in his upper limbs was more marked. Signs and symptoms related to his spinal column became apparent, making it difficult for him to walk steadily. Insomnia, loss of appetite and weight loss continued.In 1987 Bhagwan was still suffering from all these inexplicable symptoms; in addition, he was now strangely more susceptible to minor infections than usual. In autumn he contracted an ear infection. Devaraj commented: “What should have been a simple, superficial ear infection proved almost untreatable. His resistance seemed non-existent. The infection went deep into the tissues, requiring three episodes of local surgery and only finally healing after six weeks of intensive antibiotic treatment…A simple infection had proved nearly life-threatening, requiring local surgery dangerously close to the facial nerve. “As this desperate situation developed, the whole picture of two years of chronic illness suddenly pointed to something more sinister: Bhagwan’s health had deteriorated only after his incarceration by the US government. ” (‘Bhagwan: Twelve Days That Shook The World’ , Forman 1989, p. 435)The US government put a lot of pressure on some of these countries not to allow Osho to stay, and circulated rumours . For example:Osho travelled to Uruguay on March 19th 1986. He spent three months there in a large house.Uruguay was willing to grant Osho permanent residency, and for him to have his commune there.Osho’s friends had pieced together all the allegations against Osho, and one by one demonstrated their falsity to the Uruguayan Government. The insubstantial rumours that the US had been spreading were met with hard solid facts, and the stories were put into context, and a whole new perspective was drawn. The reports that INTERPOL had certain evidence were pursued. When the Uruguayan Goverment checked , it was admitted that in fact INTERPOL had nothing on Osho or his companions.When the ‘factual’ diplomatic reports and rumours of gun smuggling, drug running and prostitution that the US goverment had been circulating had been discredited, the tactics changed.The US Ambassador told the Uruguayan Goverment, “Bhagwan is a highly intelligent man. He is also a very dangerous man because he can change the minds of other people. He’s an anarchist , and will destroy your whole society.”BELOVED OSHO,AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR REPORTEDLY SAID, IN REFERENCE TO YOU, TO A FOREIGN HEAD OF STATE, "HE IS EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT, AN ANARCHIST, AND VERY DANGEROUS BECAUSE HE CAN CHANGE MEN'S MINDS. HE WILL DESTROY YOUR WHOLE SOCIETY."HOW CAN WE SAFEGUARD AGAINST AMERICA AND ITS ALLIES STOPPING YOUR EFFORTSTO AWAKEN MEN?“The American ambassador is perfectly right, but he is not aware that the danger of intelligence is impossible to prevent. All other dangers are very small. They are visible, they may look big, but the danger that he is talking about is concerned with two things: one, that I am extremely intelligent, and second, that I am an anarchist. Both together are far more dangerous than all their nuclear weapons.You need not be worried about how America should be prevented from destroying my efforts. It is beyond any power to destroy my efforts. The more they try, the more strength they will give to my ideology. This has been so in the whole history of man. No truth has ever been defeated. It may take time, but its victory is absolutely certain. In fact they have already started accepting their defeat when the American ambassador says to the head of a foreign government that I am extremely intelligent, and anarchist, and I can easily change human minds.Unless they are immensely afraid, they would not make such an effort - their fear shows their defeat.Intelligence can be defeated, because it is part of the mind, but the ambassador does not know that what he is calling intelligence is something much more: it is awareness, which includes intelligence, but it is far superior to intelligence, far higher. Intelligence can be argued against, but if awareness is there you cannot argue against intelligence. This is not mere intellect, this is a vision of the truth.It is not a question of me, it is a question of the truth being defeated - which is not in the nature of things.And he is trying to make the head of the foreign government afraid by adding the word "anarchist."Anarchist means "one who does not believe in any government, one who does not believe in any kind of discipline, who believes only in the individual and his freedom to act, to think, to express, to create." For the anarchist the society is a means in the service of the individual - not vice versa.Using the word "anarchist" with me, is simply to create more fear... and then saying that I have the capacity to change the minds of men. In that small statement he has made everything clear about why America is so afraid: my capacity to change the minds of men. It includes that I may change men's minds towards anarchism, and it shows their acceptance that I have a certain intelligence which seems difficult for them to encounter.But as far as I am concerned, I am not interested in changing the mind of man, I am interested in destroying the mind of man. Changing won't help; it will be only a reformation, not a revolution. It will be a touch here and there but the basic quality of the mind will remain there.I am for no-mind. The American ambassador and the American president should understand it - perhaps they have never heard the word "no-mind."My effort is to take people beyond mind.Secondly, I am not "extremely intelligent" the way they see it. I have no concern with intellect.Whatever I am saying and doing is not an intellectual approach, but an existential approach. That is why they are freaking out. It would not have been difficult for them if it was only intelligence. They could have found a thousand and one arguments about it, against it.But it is something they are absolutely unacquainted with. It is meditativeness, of which they don't have even a vague idea what it is. This unknown creates the fear in them. At the most they can think it is extreme intelligence, but it is far away from intelligence. Intelligence itself cannot reach to the world of meditation.They are also not right when they say I am an anarchist, because anarchists like Prince Kropotkin and others are beautiful people but their philosophy is naive. They want there to be no government, no police, no law. They are too naive, too simple, too innocent, too childlike. They don't understand man - that he is full of animality, barbarism, cruelty, violence, murder, rape.If all order and discipline is removed the society will be in a chaos. Right now it is in a chaos, but the chaos is in a certain order. There is a certain system, a certain method, but with Prince Kropotkin and their colleagues the chaos will explode into a state that man has never seen.I am an anarchist in a very different way. I don't say there should be no government. I always work from the roots, I never prune the leaves. I don't say there should be no discipline, I don't say there should be no courts and no law - that would be simply idiotic.What I say is that the individual should drop the personality, be authentic, be honest; that the individual should drop ambitions, desires, and start rejoicing with whatsoever is available. He always goes on hankering for the moon; the earth is available but he cannot dance here, he will dance on the moon.My effort is to make man so immensely blissful, peaceful, silent, meditative, that the need for government disappears, that the need for the politician disappears, that sooner or later the courts have to be closed because nobody comes there or they have to be changed into meditation centers, that jails become useless. I teach man to be expressive. In the jails are the people who were taught to be repressive and could not repress and went against society; and now society is taking revenge.I teach you to be expressive and to accept all your nature with pride - it is your inheritance from nature. Living naturally without inhibition, things like rape will disappear. Living silently and meditatively, violence is not possible. Compassion will be just a natural phenomenon.Governments, politicians, parliaments, assemblies, should become useless. If I meet Prince Kropotkin somewhere I think he will understand what I am saying. Anarchism cannot be imposed from above, it can only be grown through each individual, from below. And as individuality becomes stronger, integrated, all these things are bound to disappear…”(Osho : The Path of the Mystic - Talks In Uruguay)The Uruguayan Government disregarded these remarks of the American Ambassador , and agreed that there was no reason why Osho should not be given permanent residence in their country.Osho travelled to Uruguay on March 19th 1986. On May 14th 1986 , after Osho and his companions had spent three months there, the government had scheduled a press conference to announce that Osho would be granted permanent residence.Uruguay’s President Sanguinetti later admitted that he received a telephone call from Washington, D.C. the night before.He was told that if Osho was allowed to stay, the six billion dollar debt Uruguay owes to the U.S. will be due immediately and no further loans will be granted.Osho was then ordered to leave Uruguay on June 18th.Read Shunyo’s account of her time spent in Uruguay with Osho here:Chapter FourteenIt wasn`t until november 1987 that Osho announced publicly that he believed that he had been poisoned. Samples of his blood, hair and urine were sent to several medical experts in the UK.The tests ruled out the possibility of any known organic disease.Their diagnosis was that Osho had been poisoned , likely with a heavy metal such as Thallium, or flourocarbon. Exposure to radiation,Iradiation was also a real possibility.Osho had a lot of pain in the right side in his jaw and his body , along with his other symptoms.For radiation to be administered effectively, the subject has to be kept very cold.That would explain why Osho had been refused a blanket, in Oklahoma County Jail, even though it was a cold November night.He had just been given a dirty mattress, “full of cockroaches” , according to Osho.The theory was that the mattress could have been the source of the radiation. Max Brecher researched some of the basic facts about murder by radiation.The problem is that if you subject someone to a dose of radioactivity strong enough to prove lethal, then they are going to feel it.The main ways of disguising this are either by administering the radiation in stressful or chaotic circumstances- or by keeping the subject very cold. Also, presuming that the source of radiation was in the mattress, why he was refused a pillow. They wanted his head as close to the mattress as possible.Osho normally slept on his right side, and it was on the right side of his head and body that the damage was most pronounced.While it is true that there was no major hairloss, according to some sources there was some unexplained hairloss along with the other symptoms, which included nausea , tingling and aching in the arms.It is not known whether the cause was thallium poisoning, but the CIA have certainly poisoned political prisoners and other undesirables in the past.And research by the journalist Max Brecher in his book ‘A Passage to America’ ,found that there was actually seventeen different US government agencies working to try to investigate or distabilise the Rajneeshpuram commune.This included undercover CIA operatives on the ground in Rajneeshpuram, as well as the story of ‘Don Stewart’, who alleged he was given the assignment of assassinating Osho. .Brecher interviewed Stewart in southern Oregon in early 1989. At the time Stewart was around 40 and said he’d been an ‘undercover government operative’ for the past twenty years. The Sacramento Bee newspaper had established that Stewart had worked for the FBI and BATF and had even once infiltrated the American Nazi party.In 1984 Stewart was contacted by a certain ‘Wolfgang’, another ex-Vietnam vet and alleged FBI mercenary. Stewart, Wolfgang, and three other guys were supposed to go to Rajneeshpuram and assassinate Osho using military grade ‘C-4 explosive’. The idea was to do it during one of the drive-byes that Osho took daily in one of his Rolls-Royces. They assumed that many disciples would die as ‘acceptable collateral damage’. There was a second, less drastic plan, which was to blow up Sheela’s weapons arsenal to create an excuse for the National Guard to invade. For this, the five mercenaries were to be paid $100,000 each. All of this was, of course, hush hush, and one of the reasons Stewart bailed on the plan was because he believed that once the deed had been done, the government would itself quietly eliminate the five mercenaries to cover up their connection to the assassination of Osho. In the end all would be dead, no money paid out, and the trail to the government non-existent.In Stewart’s talks with Wolfgang the latter claimed that he mainly worked for the FBI, and that the whole effort to eliminate Osho was stemming from local farmers and ranchers who had been accumulating a ‘war chest’ to get rid of the Rajneeshees.Osho`s symptoms that Osho were suffering from were far more severe than Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.He had ongoing bone pain,(not just the muscle aches or myalgia that is common with CFS. ) syncopal attacks(falling over) , problems with his eyes.He also had a series of heart attacks at one stage.Constant pain in the right side of his jaw.Here is a photo of Osho been seen to by Nurse Carter , who is said to have become very fond of Osho whilst he was incarcerated in Mecklenberg County Jail, in nov 1985.In fact by many accounts that I have read, the staff at the jail, including Sheriff Kid , and his deputy who were in charge of the prison were really quite impressed with Osho and his tranquility and peacefull vibe and many of them seemed to warm to him.Ma Prem Shunyo was with Osho when they were arrested and held in jail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Read her account of Osho’s arrest and time in jail here: Chapter EightShunyo chained together with Osho`s caretaker , Nirvano (Vivek) in `85Of course, we do not know whether Osho was ever poisoned or subjected to radiation by the Reagan Adminstration.One can’t dismiss the fact that Sheela’s group, had been experimenting with and using poisons on the Ranch, both slow and fast acting.She had poisoned several sannyasins as well as visiting U.S. Government officials by spiking their food and drinks with different substances.One visiting official , Jefferson County district attorney Mike Sullivan, almost died after having lunch at the Ranch the previous day in February 1983. At first just drowsy and lethargic, later he began to suffer vomiting and diarrhea, which became so intense that he had to be admitted to St. Charles Hospital, Bend (where Devaraj was to be hospitalized two years later). He was told he had only “one percent chance of surviving,” and was tentatively diagnosed as having pneumococcus pneumonia. Apparently Sullivan had been sent food from Sheela’s people.Osho’s personal doctor was poisoned by spiking his food regularly for around twelve months before they attempted to assasinate him with a lethal injection of adrenaline.Sheela also wanted to kill Vivek, Osho’s caretaker and closest companion.She was also given poison in her food, and there was also a failed attempt to break into her bedroom at night(in Osho’s household) , and give her a lethal injection.Ava Avalos, a 20 year old member of Sheela’s group, told the FBI in her testimony in 1985 that:“I participated in poisoning Devaraj numerous times, who was Osho’s physician. I participated in poisoning attempts on Vivek, who was Osho’s assistant, a number of times. I participated in poisoning Judge Hull. I participated in salmonella poisoning of the Dalles.”(From Ava`s testimony to the FBI)Indeed, some of the past members of her group have said that Sheela was researching a slow poison that would leave no trace.Is it possible that someone in Sheela`s group, even if not Sheela herself, could have poisoned Osho?Another book worth a read is “Was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh poisoned by Ronald Reagan’s America?” , by Sue Appleton ( Anando, Osho’s secretary in the last year of his life) .Anando’s research raises some questions“It wasn’t until I began research for this book that I realized that the number did not add up. There were twelve days between the night of Sunday, October 27th when Bhagwan was arrested and the evening of Friday, November 8th when he was finally released. So a night and a day were missing. I asked Bhagwan about it but he said I must have made a mistake and should check again. I did. And found the mistake. There were three nights between Monday, November 4th, when Bhagwan left Charlotte, and Thursday, November 7th, when he arrived in Portland. Bhagwan remembers only two – one at the county jail (Monday 4th), and one at El Reno where he slept exceptionally well. I checked with El Reno – Bhagwan had spent two nights there, November 5th and 6th. But one of those nights was wiped from his consciousness – possibly by sleeping drugs.It is a documented fact that right from his release, when he first started recounting his jail experiences and long before any suggestion of poisoning or foul play had arisen, Bhagwan consistently maintained that he had only spent one night in the El Reno penitentiary.Why did Bhagwan ‘lose track’ of a whole day in Oklahoma? What happened there?Why did the government smuggle Bhagwan into Oklahoma County Jail when federal transit prisoners are always taken to the federal El Reno facility?Why was Bhagwan admitted to Oklahoma County Jail under the pseudonym of ‘David Washington’, and why is there no record of his stay on the jail computer?Why was Bhagwan checked out of the county jail at 3:15 p.m. but not checked in to El Reno until 7 p.m.? El Reno was only a half hours drive away – Where was Bhagwan taken, and what happened to him, during those four hours on the afternoon of November 5th?Why, when Bhagwan banged on the door of his cell in El Reno, did the warder take time to fetch the prison doctor before responding? Why should he think Bhagwan might need a doctor? No such concern for Bhagwan’s health had been shown previously – had the guards been alerted that Bhagwan might suddenly be seriously ill? What were they expecting to find?” (Appleton 1988, p. 36Was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Poisoned By Ronald Reagan's America?: Sue Appleton: 9783893380411: Amazon.com: Books“Bhagwan: Twelve Days that Shook the World” , is a book by another member of Osho’s household , Maneesha James, and chronicles in detail Osho’s incarceration in the U.S. , this is a book apparently currently being updated and soon to be re-released as an ebook.The problem with the book “Who Killed Osho” by Abhay Vaidya is that the journalist who put it together has taken some of his material from unrealiable sources off the internet.He qoutes parts of an article by Swami Anand Parmartha, a late London sannyasin who used to organise dynamic meditations and run a small website- that has been taken off another site actually a site run by an American Roman Catholic who is writing many things , most with no basis in truth , in an attempt to discredit Osho- - not Parmarthas old site , Sannyasnews, ,but he states that Parmartha was a member of Osho’s household- which is incorrect, and not something that Parmartha himself has ever claimed. He did live at the Ranch for the last twelve months of its existence, but never lived in Osho’s household.This is the problem with some of the unrealiable stuff on Osho on the internet.

January 6, 1911To my dear children—I have watched over you from your birth with a father’s loving care, and ever sought after your good. But the drums of war are beating now, as they once did when I was but a callow youth, and the terrible sound of trumpets calls to you as it once did to me. While I still serve my dear home city of Columbus, Mississippi as constable, my vigor fades. Man that is born of woman liveth but a little while, and all flesh is as grass; I do not know how much time I still have on this Earth. I write this account while my eyes are as yet not too dim to read, nor my hands too quivering to write it. I pray that you will take counsel from it, as in your younger days you took counsel from me not to steal apples from the tree in Mr. Cornell Franklin’s yard. (I trust I shall not have to use a peach switch to apply this counsel now.)Well do I recall the heady days of the spring of 1861, when news of secession set the state ablaze. So many of us young men—ah, so young we were! such dreams we had!—so many of us young men were all afire to enlist. It seemed that every stripling in Noxubee County flocked to the banner of the 19th Mississippi Infantry, and soon we had to turn recruits away. As if it were yesterday, I call to mind Colonel Mott’s voice barking present arms! order arms! ground arms! raise arms! fix bayonets! I grew heartily tired of forming line of battle, then right wheel or left wheel, into columns. Yet we grew into soldiers, and the day came for us to march forward to take the field. We did not march, at first; we traveled by rail to Richmond before we had to march. But we arrived too late for the Battle of Manassas, when our Southern brethren sent the Yankees running for home with their tails between their legs. We were rather put out at having missed the circus, and hoped awfully that we would ‘see the elephant’ soon, as the saying was in those days. Yet like good soldiers, we encamped and awaited the day of our baptism of fire.And then—such news! A lone assassin sympathetic to our cause had struck down both Lincoln and Hamlin at a ball! With one stroke the hated Yankees were decapitated; like a snake, they still writhed, but the mind that directed the slithering, and the fangs that dripped with venom—those were gone! Rumors flew through the camp—we would march on Washington—the Yankees were begging Jeff Davis for mercy—the old Union would be restored on our terms—the Yankees were at each other’s throats deciding who would be President—for the Constitution made no provision for what to do in the event that both the President and Vice-President were to die at once. Our mortal foes were crushed with scarcely a shot fired! Victory was ours!—and yet disappointment as well, for we’d had no chance to unsheath our own steel. All that we could do was await orders.As we later found out, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Solomon Ford, with the blessing of the Supreme Court, summoned the Electoral College back into session and bade them choose a new President. President Stephen A. Douglas was duly sworn in, and perhaps he would have carried on the fight, but our armies by this time were surrounding Washington, and the enemy generals were bitterly divided over the legitimacy of the new President, their Commander in Chief. Given the precarious nature of his position, Douglas could do little else: he agreed to an armistice, with peace talks to follow. The Treaty of Hagerstown was signed in the spring of 1862, and we young soldiers marched away to the rail depots for the long journey home to Mississippi. We were mustered out of service exactly one year after entering it.In August of 1862, we were abruptly called into service again. The Treaty had fixed the boundaries of the Confederacy along the northern borders of Arkansas and Tennessee. The USA had claimed Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas as their soil, and the hated Republican Party had lost no time abolishing slavery there. The rich bottomlands of the Mississippi River were aflame, as men protecting their property clashed with bands of ruffians, while ‘Bleeding Kansas’ continued to bleed. Furthermore, while the Treaty had mandated that slaves captured on Union soil were to be returned to Confederate hands, in many areas this provision was not being enforced by corrupt Union sheriffs and local magistrates. Indeed, there were several parts of our own territory where the populace lacked enthusiasm for enforcing the laws concerning runaway slaves. The mountainous parts of our country—the Ozarks of Arkansas, the Piedmont of north Alabama and Tennessee, and the Appalachian Mountains from the Carolinas to western Virginia and onward into Union territory—were rife with persons who felt no pressing desire to support our peculiar institution, and the mountain valleys formed a conduit for slaves escaping to the North—in many cases onward to Canada. While we were a part of the Union, at least we could demand support for our property rights in Congress; once separated, we found no recourse.Our regiment was ordered to march to Arkansas and aid the State Guard there in capturing runaway slaves, as well as ensuring that the war in Missouri did not spill over into Arkansas. I believe there was hope that we might add Missouri to our dear Confederacy, for the flame of secession still burned in southern Missouri, and there were many that would have welcomed our fraternal aid. But Union troops savagely put down any hope of rebellion at the Battle of Rolla and the Battle of New Madrid. The parallel of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes—that was to be our ne plus ultra. There is not much to tell of our service. We marched long and weary paths through the Ozark Mountains and bivouacked at the town of Calico Rock; we patrolled searching for Unionist sympathizers and runaway slaves, but found few enough of either one, as most people simply wished, as one old farmer I recall informed us, “t’be let ‘lone t’starve t’death in peace an’ quiet.” After six months, our terms were ended, and we were mustered out yet again. I returned to my beloved Noxubee County and soon married my beloved wife, your loving mother. Upon my father’s death, my elder brother inherited our land, and I moved my family to the city of Columbus, where I joined the constabulary.All seemed at peace for a while. Yankee farmers grumbled about the tolls we charged them on our rivers, but there was little they could do. The scuffles along the border slowly subsided, albeit not without bloodshed. Our proud new nation settled itself, and accepted the diplomatic recognition of the European powers, who remained eager to make acquaintance with our mighty ‘King Cotton.’Yet there was an unseen canker at our heart. Cotton requires fertile soil—and where cotton is grown continuously, the soil loses its fertility, little by little. We knew this, and we knew the remedies for it—of leaving fields fallow, or planting them periodically with clover or alfalfa, which wonderfully restore the soil and prepare it for the coming of ‘King Cotton’ again. We knew the need to dung and marl our fields, and to make a compost for our gardens. Yet many of our planters, though they knew of these remedies, were unable to enact them; they needed money, and growing cotton was the way to get it. Much of Virginia and the Carolinas were no longer suited for cultivating cotton or tobacco, or much of anything else. The planters of Virginia realized that their greatest profit lay in cultivating slaves, and selling them to those who were seeking fertile lands elsewhere. But by 1870, the Confederacy was beginning to run out of fertile lands.The proffered solution was to ‘Go west, young man!’, and indeed many hopeful planters set out to homestead lands in the Confederate West, in western Texas and the Territory of New Mexico. Unfortunately, the dryness of the climate proved poor for cotton cultivation. Yet the climate was not the worst of their problems. The Comanche nation ruled the western plains with fire and blood. Even before the formation of the Confederacy, they had driven settlement from western Texas. The state of Texas had complained that the United States was not sending enough assistance; well, now the United States was not disposed to send any assistance at all. Indeed, it was darkly whispered that the Yankees were arming the Comanche. Certainly the savages seemed to become increasingly proficient in the use of Springfield rifles over bows and arrows.At first, the Comanche would torture, kill, or enslave all persons on a farm or plantation that they raided—but they soon found out that any slaves that they captured were quite willing to show them where the farm’s foodstuffs and hidden valuables were kept, and willing to guide their bands of braves to nearby farms where the ‘pickings’ were rich. The Comanche soon grew willing to ally with the Negroes, and I was told that Negroes of uncommon strength and wits became accepted as warriors and chieftains within the tribe, learning their language and ways. With their strength swelling daily, and with looted money serving to purchase weapons through secret intermediaries, the Comanchería grew increasingly bold. Equally fierce tribes, notably the Apache and the Cheyenne, were impressed by the Comanche’s successes and formed alliances with them, perhaps sensing that here was the chance to end the white man’s threat to their lands. In June of 1874, a mixed band of Comanche, Cheyenne, and escaped Negroes smashed our fortifications in western Texas, wiping out the detachment at Adobe Walls with a savagery unprecedented in our history, frightening many Texans into fleeing eastward. This victory also allowed the Comanche communication with the Indians living in Oklahoma. The more civilized tribes had been allied with our nation since 1861—but even amongst them, large factions felt no particular love for the Confederacy and were willing to win a homeland by bloodshed and fire. Amongst the Cherokee and Choctaw there was wild talk of reclaiming their ancestral lands, or at least avenging their loss, as some of their elders still remembered with great bitterness. In May of 1875, allied Indian and Negro forces destroyed our line of fortifications from Fort Sill to Fort Stockton in coordinated attacks. With captured cannons, and—as we suspect—instruction in their use from the hated Yankees, or from Mexicans eager to humble the power that had seized their northern lands in 1847, the Indians swept eastward. The siege and the massacre of San Antonio de Bexar will long live in infamy. All those who heard the gore-drenched tale of what was done to the inhabitants could not bear the thought that they might suffer the same fate, and departed for the east as fast as they could. Raiding parties were seen doing deeds of blood as far east as Shreveport. The Texas militia fought bravely, but too often found themselves outnumbered and outgunned by foes who knew the land intimately, and who never engaged in a pitched battle unless victory was sure; they always seemed to strike exactly where our brave Texans were not.You may well be wondering why all our confederated states did not rise up as one, as we had done before, and sally forth to the aid of our Texas comrades. But recall how, even in the heady days of 1861 when all our zeal was for secession, the governor of Georgia refused at first to send his state’s militia outside of his own boundaries. Indeed, he denounced conscription as tyranny, subversive of the very rights of the states that the Confederacy had sworn to defend. His ideas had found favor in other state houses. Several governors pleaded that they could not send their ablest men to Texas without leaving the Negroes free of supervision and ripe for revolt or escape; others refused to contribute men without favorable concessions in other areas. Arkansas refused to send its men because of fear that the unrest in Oklahoma would spill across its own borders; Virginia feared that moving troops west would invite a Yankee thrust, especially in the western part of the state, which required a sizable military presence to stay pacified. In the end, a few states sent small forces. The brave defense of Seguin by the Louisiana Greys under the able command of elderly but undaunted Col. Kirby Smith will not soon be forgotten. Yet all was too little, too late. By 1877 the Confederacy was forced to negotiate with the surging Indian Confederation, and found to its surprise that the military might of the ‘savages’ was matched by the wisdom and skill of its negotiators; the administrative skills of the Civilized Tribes had merged with the ferocity of the Comanchería. The Confederacy was forced to recognize an independent state extending from the distant Colorado River all the way to the Brazos River, led by President William P. Ross, ably assisted by Generals Goyathlay, Henry Flipper, and Tuhuya Quahipu. The Indian Confederation has proved fractious, and the skills of several able governors and chiefs have not always kept the nation at peace with itself, but as yet it has managed to hold firm. It is believed that the Negroes and various Indian tribes are growing conscious of a new national unity. Treaties signed with the United States have generally kept their northern flank peaceful; the Confederation has relinquished its claim to Kansas in exchange for trade and, as we think, military support.So there we have the situation, and the Confederacy must seem in a right fix indeed. Westward expansion is blocked by the Comanche; thrusts northward are blocked by a strong Union military presence; slaves are escaping despite increased patrols to hunt them down; and the soil is growing increasingly impoverished, as bale after bale of our precious fertility is shipped to the mills of Manchester and Liverpool. Still, we continued on, and perhaps we might have continued on for some time—but we were brought low—though not by the savagery of the Comanches nor the oppression of Union arms. No, what brought us down—and this makes my blood boil to think of it—was a g—d— bug. They say it crossed the Rio Grande around 1892. It is, of course, the boll weevil, or as scientific men call it, Anthonomus grandis. The names that planters call it I must forbear to set down in writing. By 1902 it was ravaging the fields of Alabama and Mississippi. The one lifeline that had been holding up our entire Confederacy was fraying beyond its endurance. ‘King Cotton’ was revealed to be wearing nothing at all, though he marched as proudly as ever. We hoped for aid from Britain, but now that we had no cotton to sell, they proved uninterested in our plight; by this time they had developed enough cotton production in India that they really had no further need of us—a fact that they conveyed, with impeccable politeness as always, to our diplomatic envoys. Revenues plummeted; our richest planters defaulted on their loans and were forced to surrender their estates to the banks, who soon found out that the land was worthless thanks to years of unceasing cultivation. You remember the unrest that convulsed our land; the hunger that stalked Virginia; the riots in Charleston and Norfolk; the burning of Tupelo and Murfreesboro. Someone has said that men are always only three meals away from barbarism, and after playing my part in efforts to defend my beloved Columbus from mobs, I must agree. I finally received my ‘baptism of fire’—I finally ‘saw the elephant’—and found that I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would in the heady days of 1861. In fact, it left me feeling utterly wretched. It is a fearful thing to shoot at one’s fellow men.Only one power was willing to extend aid. The United States government sent secret envoys to speak with our President about reunification. The Confederacy was to be ruled directly from Washington, until such time as new state governments could be formed; we would become a sort of colony. We were to formally abandon slavery and provide our slaves with the full rights of citizenship and grants of land to farm. This rather stuck in our craw, but—with so many of our slaves chancing it in the Indian Confederation or in the Union, and with our agricultural output so low, we had little choice. In exchange, we would receive food aid, as well as construction of new railways and factories. A Negro from Missouri who has somehow managed to receive an education in the sciences will be leading the effort to instruct his brethren in methods of farming that will replenish the exhausted soil. I never thought I would see the day that a Negro would have anything to teach our race, but having inspected my brother’s plantation, and seen the deeply eroded gullies cutting into the barren red clay dirt where once the fields were green and verdant, I must admit that if anyone can restore that land to producing anything of value, I would welcome his knowledge, be his skin never so dusky.I had often wondered why the United States had made no move to invade us. For fifty years they had guarded their border with us, constructing forts from Pennsylvania to Colorado—yet they had never attempted to invade. Now I suspect that they knew our fall was inevitable. The boll weevil only expedited what I fear was our unavoidable demise. Two weeks ago, President George Mason Lee concluded the Treaty of Union, by which the Confederacy shall dissolve. The cause that thrilled us so in 1861 has died from the world, and my heart is heavy for it. Yet I trust—as I must—that despite our sundering fifty years ago, we may once again remember our brotherhood and find a way to live together. I cannot see that we have any other choice.Yet even now, men who were babes in arms in 1861 are rallying the young to their cause. They mean to ride forth and repel the invaders, maintain their ancient liberties with the same might that they showed the entire world in 1861, glittering sabers unsheathed and bugles singing true. Indeed, men shouting the battle cry of “Avaunt Southrons!” and giving the old rebel yell have been conversing long with my son Charles (as I know from speaking with his dear wife May, who I believe has always had rather more sense than he has) and with his brethren. There is talk of raising the 19th Mississippi Infantry again and marching away beneath its old banner; talk of once again taking the fight to the Yankees and sending them running with their tails between their legs.My sons, you are the most precious things in my life, and if I had to lose all my worldly goods to ensure your safety and happiness, I would count it scarcely a loss at all. Do not listen to the d—d fools who speak of past glories that they themselves have never tasted. There are none so blind as those who will not see, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Indeed, we are all of us already in the ditch. Listen not to those who believe that we can get ourselves out of it with more digging. The path ahead may require humility on our part; yet that is a Christian virtue, and though my heart is weighted down with grief, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. And I humbly pray His blessing upon us as we struggle to earn again the place that we were so quick to abandon in our pride and vainglory, half a century ago. Pray God that pride does not overtake us this time.May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, and give you peace, is ever my prayer for you.Your dear father,George Nathaniel SmithI wrote this in a sort of wave of inspiration over three hours, without going back and revising. I’m sure that the historians among us will find things to quibble with, and that’s fine; I had fun and thought the scenario wasn’t utterly impossible, but those more learned than I are free to suggest revisions. I hope someone likes this. We shall see.In the real world, George Nathaniel Smith was my great-great-grandfather, he did serve in the 19th Mississippi (and he fought in the eastern campaign, which he never got to do in the story), and he really did return home and serve as a policeman for his town of Columbus, Mississippi. His son Charles would have had a daughter about one and a half years old in early 1911; that was my grandmother.