Progress is Sloooooooow
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War, died at the age of 81 in 1889, still a hateful, mean, and totally incompetent sumbitch.
Once Lee surrendered, plans were made to move Jefferson Davis and his staff to Havana, Cuba. He tried to escape while wearing women’s clothing because that’s just the kind of guy he was. It didn’t work.
Although he was guilty of treason, he fled to Canada for a while after being ensconced in officer’s quarters with the family wasn’t good enough for him. After he returned he was offered the job of the first president of Texas A&M University but he turned it down. Probably because the job didn’t include slaves, or women’s clothes.
I have some mild sympathy for Robert E Lee because he was a decent man who faced up to his wrong doings. He took his punishment without whining and tried to help his beloved South recover.
You wanna know how much sympathy I have for Jefferson Davis?
Diddle squat.
The University of Texas will finally, oh thank you dear Lord, be moving the statue of Jefferson Davis off their campus. It was the best thing that happened in Texas this weekend.
Picture from my friend Tarel on the UT campus today.
Thanks to Steve for the heads up.
Now if only the State of Virginia will follow suite and change all the things named for Jefferson Davis. It is ridiculous.
1And of course the Confederate Veterans group got all excited about it and tried to stop it. There are seriously mixed-up people around here.
2Hurray, finally. Alaska had a finally day also
http://www.adn.com/article/20150830/president-obama-oks-renaming-mount-mckinley-denali
we have been fighting this for 30 years.
3I thought we’d been calling it Denali for some years. Glad to know it’s official.
Anybody know if Jeff Davis still had that goatee while he was disguised as a woman?
And this is not an original source, but Lee is quoted as saying that the Confederate flag should be furled and stowed away in the attic after his surrender, and he didn’t want that flag or anyone in Confederate uniform at his funeral.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clyburn-confederate-flag-robert-e-lee
4I’ll take that statue.
5I can think of a few things to do with it.
#1: Salvation Army Store dresses are only a dollar.
I would hope the museum can incorporate a pigeon coop into the exhibit so that the pigeons can keep crapping on it…
6Rhea, the Park was renamed Denali National Park years ago. The name of the mountain is now also Denali.
7About damn time, UT. Hook ’em.
8What Rick said.
9“A controversy is going on as to whether the rebel flag was raised at Lawrenceburg on the Fourth of July. What if it was raised, as alleged? Is there any law in this free country against a man acting the fool if he wants to do it?” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 27, 1876, quoting the Maysville [Kentucky] Eagle,
10Uh oh. The Confederacy fan club – also known as the Republican Party – is not going to be happy about that. Fortunately, it is just Austin, which is basically commie central anyway.
11Lady Bird would be proud. She always liked beautifying Texas. Taking down that dumb statue is a good step.
12JJ, couldn’t agree more! Among all his many vices, here in Virginia there has been rumor for decades that Old Jeff also hated his wife Varina and made no secret about it. He was a widower of about a year when he married Varina and often compared her to his first wife, Sarah, the daughter of U.S. President Zachary Taylor, who disapproved of Jeff. When Union troops popped up in the Davis house armed to the teeth to arrest him, Varina threw herself in front of him. He thereafter constantly insisted that is she had not done so he had a decent chance of getting away. Actually, there was no chance at all since the house was surrounded by the Union army. This paragon of Old South gentlemen also cheated on her with the wife of a former Confederate official. Yet Varinia stayed with him to the end. After his death she moved North and made sure to do everything that would send Old Jeff in constant perpetual spirals in his grave. Although she refused offers of free housing to return to the south, she is buried in Richmond. Now this is the one who should have had a damn statue!
13I remember seeing and relishing one of the ways history and time has with dealing with old villains when I drove from New Orleans to Pensacola. One of the places I visited was the state park near Biloxi, MS. The park not only had Jefferson Davis’ old Beauvoir mansion, but ample beach front. The day I visited, the beach crowd was totally Afro-American.
I savored the irony with pleasure.
14One of my favorite things about Jefferson Davis is how quickly he was forced to (try to) implement a strong central government in the Confederacy.
He instituted a military draft, for cryin’ out loud.
Having realized that states’ rights would get nothing more during war time than eleven independent losers, he was forced to try to overturn that most sacred doctrine… and he paid for it, oh, Lordy yes.
His biggest problems as a leader (not specifically as a leader of an undermanned and unprepared nation at war, but just in general terms) were that he was unwilling to delegate, and he was completely unable to let disagreements and hurt feelings slide. He was, in other words, not at all suited for the job to which he had been appointed.
I’d like to read a dispassionate comparison between Davis and Lincoln. At a cursory glance, they could not have been more different.
15Would someone with a bit more history acumen than myself (which is literally everyone) please share some insights as to when these statues first sprang forth and why? Given the historically recent, circa 1965, rise of the Confederate battle flag, I have my suspicions.
As lovers of great satire, Jane and I look forward to the arrival of the Texas high school history book we recently ordered. Dubya captured the dumb, while his other brother Neil captured the textbook market. Which leads to my next question: why isn’t old Babs Bush out campaigning for Planned Parenthood?
16If the statues go, can Confederate Hero’s Day (state holiday) be far behind? Personally I’d suggest replacing with Bush birthday. No, not that either deserves the recognition; I’d just prefer the pairing of July 4 with July 6 to make a longer time off. CHD going away would also eliminate the unfortunate irony of having CHD and MLK holidays during the same week. State employees had to give up Columbus Day for MLK so the chance of adding another state holiday are Mr. Slim and Mr. None.
17Ugh, nice grammar there. Not the gold standard of Juanita Jean commentariat, that.
18@Don in Huaco
So is the appropriate celebratory act for a George W birthday holiday to go do a line (or two) of cocaine?
19Time to revise the southern social studies books which teach “The War of Northern Aggression” rather than The Civil War.
20That’s why they’re still fighting it.