WTMA commentary broadcast 5/9/08:
May 10th is Confederate Memorial Day in South Carolina and as usual the holiday will likely pass with less fanfare than some might like. That a holiday to honor the Confederate dead doesn’t get as much attention as their flag says more about today’s politics than it does yesterday’s soldiers.
For us modern folks, it is the flag that first comes to mind upon hearing the word “Confederate” and how one feels about the South’s most famous symbol is the key to how we feel about everything else associated with it. Some insist that the Confederate flag stands for bravery and sacrifice while others believe it stands for slavery. Some contend that it stands for regional pride while others consider it a symbol of racism.
The Confederate flag is not the first symbol in history to have double meaning. There’s little doubt Muslims during the Crusades had as negative a view of the Christian cross as their opponents did a favorable one. Englishman likely had a different feeling about the Union Jack than those in India and elsewhere who watched as foreigners colonized their homeland. And the American Indian, no doubt, has had a love/hate relationship with Old Glory for centuries. Yet no reasonable man would dare suggest that Christians, the English or Americans surrender their most cherished symbols.
Black Southerners are not without reason in their distaste for the Confederate flag. But does their distaste discount white Southerners’ affection? Should the worst aspect attributed to a symbol, however accurate or inaccurate, define that symbol for everyone?
For example, many black Americans have made African heritage a symbol of pride. Should the fact that more enslavement and slave trading occurred in Africa by Africans than it ever did in the entire West, discount African symbolism entirely?
Many have compared the Confederate flag to the Nazi swastika as an irredeemable symbol that stands exclusively for ‘hate’ and hate alone. But to compare Nazism, an imperial philosophy defined exclusively by anti-Semitism and white supremacy, with the War for Southern Independence, a struggle for national sovereignty not unlike the American Revolution, is absurd. That Adolf Hitler targeted a certain ethnic group for annihilation is as certain as the fact that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee did not. And whereas the swastika represented the singular vision of a race-obsessed dictator, Confederate imagery grew out of the Christian and American character of the Southern people, from the St. Andrews Cross that adorns the battle flag to the 13 stars that define the red, white and blue banner.
Mutual respect does not necessarily entail mutual understanding, and just like the cultural divide in hip-hop and country music, a black American doesn’t have to understand Robert E. Lee anymore than a white American needs to understand Malcolm X. What has happened to the Confederate flag is that those who neither like it nor understand it have been allowed to define it exclusively, which would be like reading a history of the Boston Red Sox written by the New York Yankees. Both groups belong to the same game and play on the same field, but naturally have entirely different perspectives.
Whether the Confederate flag stays with us or continues to wither on the vine, it is but one symptom of a much larger problem. Political correctness and multicultural philosophy have rendered too many white Americans defenseless against those who would gladly rob them of their cultural inheritance just out of spite. It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said “a nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.” And with the increasing attacks on traditional American symbols, everything from Christmas to Christopher Columbus in recent years, you can bet the ongoing destruction of the Confederate flag is but the first downpayment.
10 Comments
Thank you so much for this factual and nail on the head article. Below is a new song please link on and listen.
ST. ANDREWS CROSS
IS STILL A FLYIN’
Music T. Warren Lyrics by Clint Lacy
http://shnv.homestead.com/andrewscross.html
I honor and revere the Honored Fallen for Southern independence. Deo Vindice
I defy all these “haters” to use a leftest term. I am niether ashamed nor shy about our history or our ancestors. IF you don’t like it you can put it where the sun don’t shine. Too many southern white people in particular have bought into the brainwashing and constant attack to be embarassed and ashamed about where we and who we come from. Not me I embrace them. The enemies of southern culture and history will never give up without complete repudiation and destruction of all that is southern and confederate. They don’t hate the flag they hate you.
I have no problem with the Confederate flag so long as it is not flown on any public property or public grounds. Flying it at one’s own home is an expression of free speech.
Having said that, I will add that the Confederate flag is offensive to me. It represents a group of people who resorted to treason and needless bloodshed in order to preserve and expand slavery, rather than working within the system which had shielded their institution for so long. Their impulsive and short-sighted actions proved more disastrous to the South than remaining in the Union could ever have been.
The American who was captured in Afghanistan got life in prison for fighting against his country. The Confederates get 21-gun salutes and glowing tributes every May for doing the same thing.
I am a proud Southerner and above all a proud American. I just don’t appreciate attempts by pro-Confederate organizations to hijack MY Southern heritage.
Mr Walker you have a “right” to be offended at anything you choose just make sure you know what you are talking about.
You are the obvious product of GOVERNMENT schools. The civil war set the stage for the behemoth government we have now. Lincoln was a tyrant and our current government is in no small way the result of his “love and concern”. You know. “Mission Accomplished”.
“rather than working within the system which had shielded their institution for so long.”
You mean the same northerners(system as you call it) who were instrumental in buying, transporting and selling slaves?
Lincoln could care less about slavery except it helped him accomplish what he wanted to do.
I think you are confused.
Ernest–
I’m pretty sure I know what I’m talking about and no doubt despise the government schools as much as you do. We both know that these schools teach next to nothing about the Civil War era. I think Woodrow Wilson (a Southerner from Virginia) had much more to do with establishing the behemoth government we have today when he gave his blessing to the wonderful permanent Federal Income Tax we have today. Yes, I realize that Lincoln enacted an income tax too, but it was a temporary one–to pay for the war. The Confederate government enacted an even harsher tax–it confiscated 10% of farmers’ production as a tax in kind, with a 50% penalty for non-payment.
I hardly think Lincoln can be called a tyrant for using military force against the rebellion after U.S. troops at Ft.Sumter had been attacked. He had every legal and historical precedent for doing so. If North Carolina sent her congressmen home from DC and launched an attack on Fort Bragg today, you can bet that President Bush would retaliate.
The “system” I speak of is the Federal government. The same one which made compromise after compromise to keep the Southern aristocracy happy. There is no evidence at all to suggest that the Federal government transported, bought, or sold slaves. Slave traders were private operations. Did Northern operations profit from this? Absolutely. Would these sky-high profits from slave trading have been possible without the Southern plantation system? I don’t think so.
If Lincoln couldn’t have cared less about slavery, why did he oppose its spread to the territories? This was why the Southern aristocracy feared his election.
I actually attended the Beaufort Confederate Memorial Day celebration at the federal cemetery on Boundary St. yesterday. There were about 50-60 people there I reckon, mostly middle-aged, and the ex-President of Middlebury College in VT spoke (he has a Confederate ancestor).
Here’s just one more reason why the Civil War remains important: Some 600,000 soldiers alone (not incl. civilians) died during the war, more than all our previous wars and current war COMBINED. The total lost would roughly equal the male population in GA today alone.
Now, I am an independent and socially liberal in most regards so I am always an oddity in these circles, but the wonderful old family stories I hear keep bringing back to this event and to the local UDC meetings.
For example, one re-enactor there, a man named Bruce, a sweet “Yankee”, told me about his Union ancestor fighting at Manassas, how the locals nursed him back to health after he had been shot. He returned a few years later and paid off the local church’s mortgage as thanks.
See why I joined the local UDC, see why I go to these events. It’s also REALLY fun to sing “Dixie”!
I also am fortunate enough (thanks to my Mom’s extensive genealogical research) to have a number of wonderful family stories as well to pass onto my grandchildren.
My ancestors may have been misguided in their cause, but no one - to this day- had more loyalty, more courage, more stamina than them. And the fact that 4 of the 6 I know about survived the war astounds me.
The only men who resemble them at present are our troops in Iraq and Afganistan, a war I object to btw. You see, war is hell but it makes heroes out of ordinary men, pushes us to new levels spiritually.
After re-reading my original post, I’ve realized that while my views on the Confederate cause haven’t changed, my comment comparing the Confederates to the “American Taliban” is inappropriate. It’s not a good or fair comparison, and if it’s all the same to everyone here, I’d like to take it back and offer my apology.
Ellen–I’ve been to the Federal cemetery at Beaufort before and participated in a memorial ceremony there back in 1992, during which we honored the soldiers of both sides who are buried there.
It was a costly war indeed–we’ll probably never know the total loss of life, especially among civilians, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Civil War certainly is important; it allowed America to become what it is today–both the good and the bad things.
I’m an independent too. I’m probably best described as a social and political moderate, which is unfortunate for me, because there are no longer any moderate candidates to vote for!
I’ve heard stories about the war from my grandparents on both sides of the family (Northern and Southern) which were passed down from their elders. Among my ancestors, I have a Southern family in Georgia who had their fence ripped up for campfires by Union soldiers who spent the night in their yard, along with a Union veteran of the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman’s March who may well have been there that same night! (The family and their home were unmolested, but were minus a fence in the morning.)
Your comment about Bruce’s ancestor reminds me of a book called “His Brother’s Keeper”, which tells of the many acts of compassion from Civil War soldiers of both armies toward their foes. It’s amazing how many there were– I think this confirms what you said about war pushing us to new levels spiritually. Anyone who can “walk the walk” of Christianity by loving his enemy is indeed a hero.
I’m sure that your ancestors had more than the usual helping of loyalty, courage, and stamina–for the soldiers in gray, the war was a gradual process of doing without. The Confederate tax on farm produce I mentioned earlier was largely intended by the Southern government to keep its armies from starving.
One of my cousins in the Army has just come back from the Middle East (I oppose that war myself, but that’s another story for another time.)
To Stephen -
The confederates by no means committed treason. If you believe that, you don’t know your history. To the founding fathers, the right of secession was the most fundamental principle of political philosophy. The Declaration of Independence itself was a declaration of secession by the American states. It is the cornerstone of the states’ rights doctrine which is, in turn, the most important defense against the tyranny of a centralized government. Secession is not expressly prohibited by the Constitution. In fact, there was a proposal made at the constitutional convention to allow the federal government to suppress a seceding state, and it was rejected.
Every civilized nation managed to end slavery in a peaceful manner - with the exception of the US. No doubt the Confederacy would have ended slavery peacefully as well; we have Lincoln, not the South, to thank for the “needless bloodshed.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” - Declaration of Independence
A case can be made that the secession of the Southern states was legal. What you said about the Declaration of Independence is true, as well as the rejected proposal to allow the suppression of a seceding state. But the bottom line is, the Constitution neither expressly allows or prohibits secession. This renders pointless any debate on secession’s Constitutional legality.
Even if secession had been unquestionably legal, was it a good idea for the integrity and security of our country for future generations? Absolutely not. A nation based upon the right to secede is not going to last long, compared to a strong union. The Civil War proved that beyond all doubt. So did our experience with the Articles of Confederation. There is a very good reason why confederations based upon supreme states’ rights are the least common form of government in the world.
Secession was favored by only 5 million Americans in 1861–at most. That’s only 16% of the American population at that time. The overwhelming majority of Americans were opposed to allowing the South to compromise the future of the nation for the purpose of extending slavery for a few more generations. If secession had succeeded, we’d be a poor collection of quarreling republics today, just like Central America. What would have happened to the world when Hitler and Tojo came along?
If the Confederates didn’t commit treason by the strict Constitutional definition, they came pretty close. While the Federal Union was preserved with an over-emphasis on centralized power, it sure beats the alternative. Looking at Central America and Europe confirms this.