BATTLE FOR ATHENS, TENNESSEE

The Battle of Athens

2 AUGUST 1946

I. Introduction

On 2 August 1946, some Americans, brutalized by their county government, used armed force to overturn it. These Americans wanted honest, open elections. For years they had asked for state or Federal election monitors to prevent vote fraud -- forged ballots, secret ballot counts, and intimidation by armed sheriff's deputies -- by the local political boss. They got no help.

These Americans' absolute refusal to knuckle-under had been hardened by service in World War II. Having fought to free other countries from murderous regimes, they rejected vicious abuse by their county government. These Americans had a choice. Their state's Constitution - Article 1, Section 26 - recorded their right to keep and bear arms for the common defense. Few "gun control" laws had been enacted.

II. The Setting

These Americans were Tennesseeans of McMinn County, located between Chattanooga and Knoxville, in Eastern Tennessee. The two main towns were Athens and Etowah.

McMinn Countians had long been independent political thinkers. They also had long:

accepted bribe-taking by politicians and/or the Sheriff to overlook illicit whiskey-making and gambling;
financed the sheriff's department from fines - usually for speeding or public drunkenness - which promoted false arrests;
put up with voting fraud by both Democrats and Republicans.
Tennessee State law barred voting fraud:

ballot boxes had to be shown to be empty before voting;
poll-watchers had to be allowed;
armed law enforcement officers were barred from polling places;
ballots had to be counted where any voter could watch.
III. The Circumstances

The Great Depression had ravaged McMinn County. Drought broke many farmers; workforces shrank. The wealthy Cantrell family, of Etowah, backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election, hoping New Deal programs would revive the local economy and help Democrats to replace Republicans in the county government. So it proved.

Paul Cantrell was elected Sheriff in the 1936, 1938, and 1940 elections, but by slim margins. The Sheriff was the key County official. Cantrell was elected to the State Senate in 1942 and 1944; his chief deputy, Pat Mansfield, was elected sheriff. In 1946, Paul Cantrell again sought the Sheriff's office.

IV. World War II Ends; Paul Cantrell's Troubles Begin

At end-1945, some 3,000 battle-hardened veterans returned to McMinn County. Sheriff Mansfield's deputies had brutalized many in McMinn County; the GIs held Cantrell politically responsible for Mansfield's doings. Early in 1946, some newly-returned ex-GIs decided:

to challenge Cantrell politically;
to offer an all ex-GI, non-partisan ticket;
to promise a fraud-free election.
In ads and speeches the GI candidates promised:

an honest ballot count;
reform of county government.
At a rally, a GI speaker said, "'The principals that we fought for in this past war do not exist in McMinn County. We fought for democracy because we believe in democracy but not the form we live under in this county.'" (Daily Post-Athenian, 17 June 1946, p. 1).

At end-July 1946, 159 McMinn County GIs petitioned the FBI to send election monitors. There was no response. The Department of Justice had not responded to McMinn Countians' complaints of election fraud in 1940, 1942, and 1944.

V. From Ballots to Bullets

The election was held on 1 August. To intimidate voters, Mansfield brought in some 200 armed "deputies". GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At about 3 p.m., Tom Gillespie, an African-American voter, was told by a Sheriff's deputy, "'Nigger, you can't vote here today!!'". Despite being beaten, Gillespie persisted; the enraged deputy shot him. The gunshot drew a crowd. Rumors spread that Gillespie had been "shot in the back"; he later recovered. (C. Stephen Byrum, The Battle of Athens; Paidia Productions, Chattanooga TN, 1987; pp. 155-57).

Other deputies detained ex-GI poll-watchers in a polling place, as that made the ballot count "public". A crowd gathered. Sheriff Mansfield told his deputies to disperse the crowd. When the two ex-GIs smashed a big window and escaped, the crowd surged forward. "The deputies, with guns drawn, formed a tight half-circle around the front of the polling place. One deputy, "his gun raised high ...shouted: 'You sons-of-bitches cross this street and I'll kill you!'" (Byrum, p. 165).

Mansfield took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. The deputies seemed to fear immediate attack, by the "people who had just liberated Europe and the South Pacific from two of the most powerful war machines in human history." (Byrum, pp. 168-69).

Short of firearms and ammunition, the GIs scoured the county to find them. By borrowing keys to the National Guard and State Guard Armories, they got three M-1 rifles, five .45 semi-automatic pistols, and 24 British Enfield rifles. The armories were nearly empty after the war's end.

By eight p.m., a group of GIs and "local boys" headed for the jail to get the ballot boxes. They occupied high ground facing the jail but left the back door unguarded to give the jail's defenders an easy way out.

VI. The Battle of Athens

Three GIs - alerting passersby to danger - were fired on from the jail. Two GIs were wounded. Other GIs returned fire. Those inside the jail mainly used pistols; they also had a "tommy gun" (a .45 caliber Thompson sub-machine gun).

Firing subsided after 30 minutes: ammunition ran low and night had fallen. Thick brick walls shielded those inside the jail. Absent radios, the GIs' rifle fire was un-coordinated. "From the hillside, fire rose and fell in disorganized cascades. More than anything else, people were simply 'shooting at the jail'." (Byrum, p. 189).

Several who ventured into "no man's land", the street in front of the jail, were wounded. One man inside the jail was badly hurt; he recovered. Most sheriff's deputies wanted to hunker down and await rescue. Governor McCord mobilized the State Guard, perhaps to scare the GIs into withdrawing. The State Guard never went to Athens. McCord may have feared that Guard units filled with ex-GIs might not fire on other ex-GIs.

At about 2 a.m. on 2 August, the GIs forced the issue. Men from Meigs county threw dynamite sticks and damaged the jail's porch. The panicked deputies surrendered. GIs quickly secured the building. Paul Cantrell faded into the night, almost having been shot by a GI who knew him, but whose .45 pistol had jammed. Mansfield's deputies were kept overnight in jail for their own safety. Calm soon returned: the GIs posted guards. The rifles borrowed from the armory were cleaned and returned before sun-up.

VII. The Aftermath: Restoring Democracy in McMinn County

In five precincts free of vote fraud, the GI candidate for Sheriff, Knox Henry, won 1,168 votes to Cantrell's 789. Other GI candidates won by similar margins.

The GIs did not hate Cantrell. They only wanted honest government. On 2 August, a town meeting set up a three-man governing committee. The regular police having fled, six men were chosen to police Athens; a dozen GIs were sent to police Etowah. In addition, "Individual citizens were called upon to form patrols or guard groups, often led by a GI. ...To their credit, however, there is not a single mention of an abuse of power on their behalf." (Byrum, p. 220).

Once the GI candidates' victory had been certified, they cleaned-up county government:

the jail was fixed;
newly-elected officials accepted a $5,000 pay limit;
Mansfield supporters who resigned, were replaced.
The general election on 5 November passed quietly. McMinn Countians, having restored the Rule of Law, returned to their daily lives. Pat Mansfield moved back to Georgia. Paul Cantrell set up an auto dealership in Etowah. "Almost everyone who knew Cantrell in the years after the 'Battle' agree that he was not bitter about what had happened." (Byrum, pp. 232-33; see also New York Times, 9 August 1946, p. 8).

VIII. The Outsiders' Response

The Battle of Athens made national headlines. Most outsiders' reports had the errors usual in coverage of large-scale, night-time events. A New York Times editorialist on 3 August savaged the GIs, who:

"...quite obviously - though we hope erroneously - felt that there was no city, county, or State agency to whom they could turn for justice.

... "There is a warning for all of us in the occurrence...and above all a warning for the veterans of McMinn County, who also violated a fundamental principle of democracy when they arrogated to themselves the right of law enforcement for which they had no election mandate. Corruption, when and where it exists, demands reform, and even in the most corrupt and boss-ridden communities there are peaceful means by which reform can be achieved. But there is no substitute, in a democracy, for orderly process." (NYT, 3 Aug 1946, p. 14.)

The editorialist did not see:

McMinn Countians' many appeals for outside help;
some ruthless people only respect force;
that it was wrong to equate use of force by evil-doers (Cantrell and Mansfield) with the righteous (the GIs).
The New York Times:

never saw that Cantrell and Mansfield's wholesale election fraud, enforced at gun-point, trampled the Rule of Law;
feared citizens' restoring the Rule of Law by armed force.
Other outsiders, e.g., Time and Newsweek, agreed. (See Time, 12 August 1946, p. 20; Newsweek, 12 Aug 1946, p. 31 and 9 September 1946, p. 38).

The 79th Congress adjourned on 2 August 1946, when the Battle of Athens ended. However, Representative John Jennings, Jr., from Tennessee decried:

McMinn County's sorry situation under Cantrell and Mansfield;
the Justice Department's repeated failures to help the McMinn Countians.
Jennings was delighted that "...at long last decency and honesty, liberty and law have returned to the fine county of McMinn...". (Congressional Record, House; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946; Appendix, Volume 92, Part 13, p. A4870.)

IX. The Lessons of Athens

Those who took up arms in Athens, Tennessee:

wanted honest elections, a cornerstone of our Constitutional order;
had repeatedly tried to get Federal or State election monitors;
used armed force so as to minimize harm to the law-breakers;
showed little malice to the defeated law-breakers;
restored lawful government.
The Battle of Athens clearly shows:

how Americans can and should lawfully use armed force;
why the Rule of Law requires unrestricted access to firearms;
how civilians with military-type firearms can beat the forces of "law and order".
Dictators believe that public order is more important than the Rule of Law. However, Americans reject this idea. Criminals can exploit for selfish ends, the use armed force to restore the Rule of Law. But brutal political repression - as practiced by Cantrell and Mansfield - is lethal to many. An individual criminal can harm a handful of people. Governments alone can brutalize thousands, or millions.

Since 1915, officials of seven governments "gone bad" have committed genocide, murdering at least 56 million persons, including millions of children. "Gun control" clears the way for genocide by giving governments "gone bad" far greater freedom to commit mass murder.

Law-abiding McMinn Countians won the Battle of Athens because they were not hamstrung by "gun control". McMinn Countians showed us when citizens can and should use armed force to support the Rule of Law. We are all in their debt.

This is a bare bones summary of a major report in JPFO's Firearms Sentinel (January 1995). To learn how the gutsy people of Athens, Tennessee did the Framers of the Constitution proud, send $3 to JPFO, 2872 South Wentworth Avenue; Milwaukee, WI 53207; and request the January 1995 Firearms Sentinel. This document is from: chiliast@ideasign.com (A.K. Pritchard)

Press reports on the Battle of Athens and Chronology — From contemporary sources.

X. Videos

American Story: The Battle of Athens - 1946 - Athens, Tennessee (Full Movie) (1:39)
American Story: The Battle of Athens - 1946 - Athens, Tennessee (Extract of key events)

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Eric Levy's picture

 
Governor vs Sheriff in Texas
 
by The Common Law Kid
 
April 3 2017
 
Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, seemingly emboldened by President Donald Trump’s recent Executive order concerning so-called “sanctuary cities,” and the withdrawing of federal funds to those cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, has demonstrated great and woeful ignorance by requesting his state’s legislators draw up statutes that would allow him to remove elected officials from office if they don’t comply with state and Federal Immigration policies.
 
But he’s not alone.
 
In Austin, Texas’s most liberal city, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, and the Travis County leaders who back Sheriff Hernandez are also acting in grave ignorance. According to an Associated Press article on the matter Sheriff Hernandez said the city’s jails would no longer honor most federal immigration detainers. Austin’s sheriff announced after President Trump’s inauguration that going forward her jails would only honor immigration holds in murder, aggravated sexual assault and human trafficking cases.
 
The sheriff and the governor both seem to have their hearts and minds in the right place. Sheriff Hernandez, quoted in a FoxNews.com article said, “I respect the job of our state leaders, but I will not allow fear and misinformation to be my guiding principles as a leader sworn to protect this community. Our community is safer when people can report crimes without fear of deportation. I trust the court system and our judges to assess the risks and set appropriate bonds and conditions for all who are incarcerated.”
 
Well, for those of us who’ve gone outside of mainstream sources, specifically all mainstream media, all grade schools, middle schools, high schools, every college and every university, to learn our true American heritage and history, we can see several problems with this line of thinking. First off, sanctuary cities are Constitutionally unknown. In other words, they have no right to be. Peering into it just a little, it seems as if these immigrant havens are also very attractive to criminal illegals. During a recent White House Press Briefing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said as much citing a few relevant examples, one where illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez, deported five times already, with seven felony convictions, shot and killed a 32-year-old woman walking with her father along a pier in San Francisco. Local authorities had released Sanchez despite the fact Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents had placed a detainer on him. Regrettably, Sanchez admitted his presence in San Francisco was due solely to the city’s status as a sanctuary city.
 
Next, the idea of trusting the court system and judges to assess risks and set appropriate bonds and conditions for all incarcerated is utterly laughable. This is the same court system and same judges who routinely incarcerate innocent Americans daily for nothing more than code violations. Not to mention, hi-jacking every single person run through their courts into jurisdictions unknown violating, at the minimum, their Fifth and Seventh Amendment rights to Due Process, Trial by Jury and Common Law courts.
 
Now to Gov. Abbott. The governor has the right idea striving for strict enforcement of immigration laws. Please keep in mind, in America we’ve never allowed immigrants into our country willy nilly. Consider that amongst the grievances listed in The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America of 1776 one proclaims ‘He(King George III) has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither.’ Even some thirteen years prior to the ratification of our Constitution immigration law was a staple of American government. Also, it should go without saying, the notion of ignoring just and right law in hopes of helping the downtrodden is clumsy, thoughtless and Pollyanna.  To do so is to sacrifice the safety and security of your own community. From such a compromised position the notion of helping another is folly. Put another way, you must first secure your own oxygen mask before helping others secure theirs. Where Abbott strays from the reservation is his desire to gain statutory power to remove elected officials. Quick note, as this is thoroughly unconstitutional, any such statute, coming from any source under the sun, is null and void from its inception.
 
Refreshingly, Texas Representative Lloyd Doggett said in a statement, “Neither Governor Abbott nor the Legislature have any authority to remove a duly elected sheriff, whose office is established by the Texas Constitution.” Rep. Doggett added, “The governor shows contempt for both the Texas Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution.”
 
In conclusion, having your heart and mind in the right place doesn’t cut it for the road to perdition is paved with good intentions. Both Governor Abbott and Sheriff Hernandez could benefit greatly from a healthy dose of education and understanding of our American Common Law heritage and American Jurisprudence. Neither of these elected officials will find such teachings and instruction through mainstream avenues. If this writer could ever gain audience with either I would direct them to Brent Winters’ Excellence of the Common Law, Lysander Spooner’s Trial by Jury, the Anti-Federalist Papers and nationallibertyalliance.org to become an NLA member and take the free Constitution and Civics Courses. Upon completing such readings and coursework these officials’ discretion would be greatly informed and their constituents would benefit the most.

Eric Levy's picture

 
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
                                                                                                                                            - John Adams
by The Common Law Kid
 
April 22, 2017
 
Out shopping recently, I struck up a conversation with an off-duty police officer moonlighting as a security guard at a local grocery store. I was eager to see if this cop, an older gentleman, had any understanding of common law; our true American heritage; the very law our country was founded upon.  He didn’t.
 
By the way, for those who are unfamiliar, the common law is a set of customs based upon Biblical principles where We the People in the form of a jury – twelve peers – decide what the punishment for any crime will be and whether or not written law will even be applied. We the People also decide how the victim of any crime will be restored, understanding this is the number one goal of any controversy before us.
 
Seeing that finding common ground with this officer was not likely to happen, I just cut right to it. “The codes, rules and regulations you and your fellow officers consistently enforce are not actually the law; they’re codes, rules and regulations; interpretations of the law; predominantly uninformed and misguided, born from the inherently flawed mind of man. And that legislating our behavior isn’t the government’s job.”
 
The officer came back with the pat cop response, “We’re the thin blue line between chaos and civility.” He went on to say that without cops there would be mayhem in the streets.
 
The Thin Blue Line theory posits that if there were no government protection furnished by the hand of state police then chaos would rule and civility would be nonexistent. This is a silly notion; an untenable argument. 
 
Consider this, how many crimes do cops actually prevent? Without having a single statistic before me isn’t it obvious that in the great majority of instances cops show up after a crime’s been committed? The number of crime scenes where cops show up after the crime’s been committed versus the number of crimes cops actually prevent has to be, bare minimum, ten to one, respectively. Probably greater. Probably much greater. In other words, the chaos prevention heavily trumpeted by the Thin Blue Line theory is pure fantasy. If one takes into consideration that, by and large, cops only prevent crimes when they’re actually physically visible to would-be criminals, and that cops don’t promote civility and most certainly don’t inhibit chaos then the Thin Blue Line theory begins to disintegrate.
 
Also, it’s a cop’s job to enforce codes, rules and regulations above all else. It’s not their job to protect We the People just as it’s not their job to solve any crimes. The standard narrative offered by TV and the government says the opposite but the cops actually know the truth. From an article posted December 11, 2014, at Zerohedge.com entitled The ‘Thin Blue Line’ Serves No Purpose,’ the author writes, “Law enforcement organizations have even argued in the Supreme Court that their job is NOT to prevent crime but to enforce the law after the fact, and they have won using this assertion.”
 
But it’s worse than that.
 
The Thin Blue Line – law enforcement – actually promotes chaos and a degeneracy of civility. From the same Zerohedge article just cited: “What government law enforcement is admitting to in its argument [to the Supreme Court] is that it does not provide security… The only service police provide is to clean up the mess left over when the carnage of a crime has subsided.” Then the author sums it quite well by adding, “If law enforcement has any purpose at all, it is to keep the public in check and in line – to promote the farce that without government protection, chaos will rule.”
 
Here’s where the chaos comes from and where the civility degenerates. When you ask someone or some organization for protection, in time, they become your master. Also, when you don’t do for yourself the things you should, you begin to degenerate individually and collectively as a community.
 
For example, back during the lifetimes of our founding fathers, if they experienced an uprising, what might equate to a spate of gang violence today, regular folk like you and me, under the auspice of the county sheriff, would pick up their guns and quash the uprising. Can you imagine a county sheriff doing that today? First off, I imagine the sheriff would have a hard time finding enough people trained and armed in his community to handle such a thing. Secondly, I suspect most people, win asked to assist the sheriff, would decline, unwilling to leave the comfort of their living rooms and televised sporting events.
 
Now, the fact that our government, as well as We the People, have utterly neglected the four militia clauses in our Constitution plays a large role in this despicable disposition. We are no longer in position, no longer capable of getting off our rear ends to do what needs to be consistently done in our own communities. Remember what I said about those you ask to protect you and how they inevitably become your master? Seriously, go to YouTube and type in the search bar ‘Police Brutality’ and see how many videos come up. Oh, and be prepared, if you’re a right-minded individual, to be disgusted and outraged. Also, set aside a good block of time because, damn, there’s a lot of them.
 
I call on another founding father, Benjamin Franklin, to drive my point home: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
 
To review, when We the People don’t do for ourselves the things we should do for ourselves – like providing our own protection – we effortlessly slide into immorality and degeneracy. Not only do cops not provide protection they encourage us to become shiftless and lazy, forsaking our duties to ourselves and to one another. If we wish to keep our quality of life and our country we had better start doing for ourselves, and soon. Reviving local militias all across the country would go a long way toward saving ourselves, our communities and our nation because the Thin Blue Line Theory is just a myth.