In the one hundred and fifty-one years since the South was invaded by a tyrannical Federal government, she has been anathemized and her symbols vilified. Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne is said to have remarked: "Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War; will be impressed by all the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision." These words were prophetic.
Since the defeat of the South during the War Between the States, Americans have been steadily indoctrinated against state sovereignty, nullification, and secession while lovers of tyranny, historical revisionists, demagogues, and the ignorant have seized upon slavery to establish an ethical foundation to excuse a brutal and unjust war levied against the South and her civilian population. Yet, as ably noted by Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, "...the struggle made by the people of the South was not for the institution of slavery, but for the inestimable right of self-government, against the domination of a fanatical faction at the North; and slavery was the mere occasion of the development of the antagonism between the two sections. That right of self-government has been lost, and slavery violently abolished." (AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH AND NARRATIVE OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, Jubal Anderson Early with Notes by R.H. Early, 1912, p. x)
During the War, both Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, made statements that corroborate Early's. According to Davis, "We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence, and that, or extermination." (The Rebellion record: a diary of American events, with documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, Etc. Edited by Frank Moore, Volume 8,Doc. 15. "The Trip to Richmond. Visit of Gilmore and Jaquess" New York, 1868, p.83.) According to Lincoln, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery." (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley", August 22, 1862, p. 388.)
Just as the colonies threw off the yoke of British dominion, the South seceded from the Union, exercising the foremost principle of the Declaration of Independence: "That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness], 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." Peaceful dissolution of the Union via the very principles in which it was founded, resulted in invasion, pillage, destruction of private property, and the death of nearly 300,000 Southrons at the hand of a Federal government that did not wish to lose the revenue provided by numerous, disproportionate tariffs. The famous author, Charles Dickens accurately described it as a fiscal war. (All The Year Round, December 28, 1861)
The Confederacy defended itself against a better supplied opponent with superior manpower for four years before her resources gave out. Defeated and occupied, she became ruled by military governors. In 1865, in a speech delivered at Lancaster, Thaddeus Stevens stated: "The whole fabric of southern society must be changed, and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost." Soon after, citizens lost the franchise, lawfully elected representatives were rejected by Congress, constitutional government was denied, and an era rife with corruption, violence, and poverty ensued. Over time, as Cleburne prophesied, the Northern view of the war predominated and as Stevens demanded, the fabric of southern society was changed, sometimes at the point of a bayonet.
Consequently, Southron symbols and heroes have been vilified to the point that many southerners blindly accept Yankee propaganda, disavow their heritage, and patriotically, yet thoughtlessly, uphold emblems and traditions of tyranny, deprivation, and destruction. Of all Confederate symbols, the battle flag, which has become erroneously regarded as "the Confederate flag" is most often derided, attacked, and dishonored. Yet, it is, as are all Confederate flags, a noble flag of an honorable cause for which men were wounded, crippled, and killed. Most of the rank and file in the Confederate army did not own slaves and there were some who had undoubtedly never seen one prior to the War. They, like their Revolutionary forefathers, were fighting for liberty, self-determination, and independence.
This is precisely why the Confederate flag is reviled today. It is a symbol that stood for the founding principles of the nation and strict adherence to the Constitution; it defiantly stood against unlimited, overreaching, self defining government, commonly defined as tyranny, and represented the right of states to defend against Federal encroachments and abuse. For lovers of tyranny who wish to micromanage all aspects of human life and for those who prefer legislated status to the rights provided by Almighty God, the Confederate flag represents a unifying symbol of freedom that must be slandered and destroyed, lest it should once again become a rallying point for freedom.
The Confederacy defended itself against a better supplied opponent with superior manpower for four years before her resources gave out. Defeated and occupied, she became ruled by military governors. In 1865, in a speech delivered at Lancaster, Thaddeus Stevens stated: "The whole fabric of southern society must be changed, and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost." Soon after, citizens lost the franchise, lawfully elected representatives were rejected by Congress, constitutional government was denied, and an era rife with corruption, violence, and poverty ensued. Over time, as Cleburne prophesied, the Northern view of the war predominated and as Stevens demanded, the fabric of southern society was changed, sometimes at the point of a bayonet.
Consequently, Southron symbols and heroes have been vilified to the point that many southerners blindly accept Yankee propaganda, disavow their heritage, and patriotically, yet thoughtlessly, uphold emblems and traditions of tyranny, deprivation, and destruction. Of all Confederate symbols, the battle flag, which has become erroneously regarded as "the Confederate flag" is most often derided, attacked, and dishonored. Yet, it is, as are all Confederate flags, a noble flag of an honorable cause for which men were wounded, crippled, and killed. Most of the rank and file in the Confederate army did not own slaves and there were some who had undoubtedly never seen one prior to the War. They, like their Revolutionary forefathers, were fighting for liberty, self-determination, and independence.
This is precisely why the Confederate flag is reviled today. It is a symbol that stood for the founding principles of the nation and strict adherence to the Constitution; it defiantly stood against unlimited, overreaching, self defining government, commonly defined as tyranny, and represented the right of states to defend against Federal encroachments and abuse. For lovers of tyranny who wish to micromanage all aspects of human life and for those who prefer legislated status to the rights provided by Almighty God, the Confederate flag represents a unifying symbol of freedom that must be slandered and destroyed, lest it should once again become a rallying point for freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment