Well, That Settles It
Haley Barbour, the whitest man on earth, decided it was high time that he end all this controversy over the Confederate Battle Flag.
“I am not offended at all by our flag or the Confederate flag for that matter but some people are,” Barbour said.
There ya go. It’s over. Go about your business. Haley is not offended.
In all seriousness, I am a white person and it offends the hell outta me.
Here’s what I think. That damn flag became offensive on April 12, 1861 when a group of people decided to commit treason against the United States of America. It is the flag of traitors, slave holders, and bigots.
Texas Governor Sam Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. He fought secession as long and as hard as he could, and when he lost the fight, he resigned as Governor instead of committing treason. You can take down that damn flag and replace it with a picture of a real Texan and a great American, General Sam Houston. That flag is not part of my history. I stand with General Sam.
And here’s my worry. The flag is a symbol. No heart or minds are changed by removing that flag. My greatest fear will be when equality doesn’t happen, when no major conversations and actions happen to help us relieve this great country from the scourge of racism, Haley Barbour and his friends will say, “We took down the flag, dammit. What else do you people want?”
We cannot let this be enough. We cannot.
I want to give you words to relay to people when they tell you that the civil war was about states’ rights. That is a lie.
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
—Texas Secession Convention (February 1861), “A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union”
If that doesn’t break your heart and make you feel ashamed, something is deeply wrong with you.
Do not let it stop with the flag. Do not.
Thanks to Lydia for the heads up.
No, its not gonna stop with the flag. There are still gonna be people out there who just don’t want to let go of their comfort blanket (flag) they wrap they own inadequacies in, but there is an ever growing number of people who outnumber them. Like my elders use to say when I was a pup “Pax vobiscum (peace go with you) and I was taught to respond “Tecum Pax” (peace be with you).
1Here’s all you need to know about Haley Barbour!
http://mediamatters.org/video/2010/11/05/special-report-continues-its-12-in-2012-series/172974
2I disagree with the assertion that leaving a union you freely joined is treason. I agree with you on everything else, though, including the reason for leaving.
What the “it was really all about states’ rights” crowd does not, will not, understand is that even if we agree that states’ rights was the proximate cause, slavery was the ultimate cause.
3Haley, Why should I or anyone else in America care what you decide? In fact, you should decide in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up faster.
4What is the Ultimate Joke about the South: if Savannah and Charleston had been conquered and kept by Great Britain during the Revolutionary War, they would have been subject to the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 and the Civil War would never have happened.
I’m sure that would have been of great relief to those poor folks in the AME Charleston, SC
5Getting rid of the Traitor’s flag isn’t enough, certainly. But it is something. Symbols matter. They matter quite a lot.
I’ve said for years that the South in many ways won the Civil War. Their flag still waves over most every Southern slave state in some form or another. They have kept the black people subjugated. And the Northern states send them untold billions in treasure to prop up their failed economies every year.
Let’s start with the rebel flag and move on. Next up, all those monuments to traitorous generals.
6Listened to Gov. speech last night and she said I’m going to call them back and ask them to bring this up — so that way she can do a “Pontius Pilot” washing her hands of the outcome. She should have sent someone up with bolt cutters and then they could meet in session to discuss if they want to put it back up again. This is all lip service and when nothing changes the RW’s can say boo-hoo, you’re mean, and keep that symbol of treason and hate. What I hadn’t fully realized until last night was the “Stars/Bars” is interchangeable with Nazi flag and these lovers of history aren’t outraged by this so they must be closet Nazi’s right? As for Barbor, it made me want to slap the stupid right off his face (ok I know that’s just not possible but I’d try).
7Yeah they’re working on the statues of confederate generals at the University of Texas attm. Put them in some quiet dusty hall somewhere with all the other historical losers that time has left behind. Hang that ugly pathetic rag on a dark wall somewhere and let the “sons and daughters” of the confederacy go hang their heads and beat their breasts and howl after their “noble” “honorable” and “valorous” lost cause. Stop glorifying and celebrating and perpetuating the mythology the southern U.S. clings to so tightly. Time to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century so we can move forward for Pete’s sake, and start healing some of these wounds! They’re a hundred and fifty years old now, no wonder they are festering! Way past time to be picking at them!
8When you have a chance, this is the real nail in the coffin, Alexander Stephens’ Cornerstone Speech. Given just weeks before Ft. Sumter when he was Vice President of the Confederacy. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/
9Bill Kristol worries that this will be the start of “A French Revolution”.
I’m takin’ off my Culottes right now.
10Fine column by one of the Washington Post’s finest columnists (Sally Jenkins generally writes about sports, and I rarely care about sports, but she’s always worth reading anyway):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unraveling-the-threads-of-hatred-sewn-into-a-confederate-icon/2015/06/20/aa6a73f4-1775-11e5-9518-f9e0a8959f32_story.html
And a comment on that column:
When I was a kid in the 1950’s you almost never saw the flag on the backs of cars and trucks. University of Mississippi flew it at football games but primarily you saw it at civil war battlefields and cemeteries. Then the civil rights movement gained momentum and it became the symbol of massive resistance to integration and you would see it not only in the South but nationwide. If there ever was some romance about the myth of the antebellum south originally woven into the flag, it faded fast when it became the symbol of segregation and racial intolerance. It must go.
[And it didn’t fly over the SC capitol until 1962… Now why would it be put up then….?]
11@Rhea, 100th anniversary of Shiloh?
/pokerface
12Annabelle Lee, I look at it differently. Had they just “left the union” as Sam Houston suggested as a compromise prior to resigning, then maybe, just maybe, I could see that. However, when you take up arms against the union, that is, by definition, treason.
13What an unmitigated jackass (sorry mama). Why would YOU be offended? I’ve been commenting here and there about how racism is a national problem. Obviously, most people are better able to hide it than these losers. This brings us back to the important point: let’s keep our eye on the ball.
Taking the flags down and removing statues is great. Symbols absolutely do matter. At the end of the day though, if it’s all you do then it’s the collective equivalent of flipping a homeless guy a quarter and telling yourself, “I’ve done my good deed for the year.”
The conservatives (mostly) are on board now because they have to be. They will do this now because they have to and then pat themselves on the back for their enlightenment and compassion. Then they will call it done. They think we’re that stupid. I’ve seen them do it too many times. I saw the Texas Legislature cut education by six billion (effectively making me unemployed for two years) and then put four billion back in the next session. They rescued public education according to them even though we’re still short. The sad thing is that they got enough people to believe them.
That’s just one example. We have to drag them kicking and screaming every inch of the way. We cannot stop and allow them to pat themselves on the back for doing something they never should have done in the first place.
14I don’t know whether it’s true, but my favorite Sam Houston quote is when his colleague Edward Clark came into Governor Houston’s office to tell Sam that he’d been replaced by Edward Clark for failing to swear allegiance to the Confederacy, Sam Houston turned to him and said “Excuse me, sir, I don’t believe we’ve met.”
Brilliant.
15(Oops. I hit a wrong key and switched pages before posting. Here is where this comment belongs.)
It is not only the flag of traitors, slave holders, and bigots, it is also the flag of losers. Why on earth do some of the most egotistical people on earth want to celebrate the fact that they got their butts kicked?
You lost the war, guys. Get over it.
16Haley Barbour was a self-important fixture in D.C. for absolutely ages before he remanded himself to Mississippi. Not such a big secret: he really is not the sharpest pencil in the box. No wonder he said something dumb!
17Thanks for bringing up the actions that got Sam Houston a chapter in _Profiles in Courage_. Few people are aware that even before confederate forces opened fire on Ft. Sumter, secesh mobs were running off or lynching Unionists in Southern states. Suppressing those insurrections fell within the constitutional powers of the federal government, too. And levying war against the United States, meaning the Federal Republic, is treason. Both Lee and Jefferson expected to be hanged after the surrender.
18@Juanita Jean – the problem is that one side perceived that they should be able to leave, as they had voluntarily joined. The other side asserted that they would prevent that from happening by force of arms.
To be fair, both sides were spoiling for a fight at that point, which clouds the issue; but if you believe yourself to be a separate entity, it is not treason to declare war on a now-foreign nation.
It does seem a bit wasteful for pride and hurt feelings to lead to the bloodiest war in our history. I cannot comprehend why the U.S. was created with slavery in place.
19thank you all for your smart and insightful postings. I learn from you but more, you put into words what I feel & want to say
20That rebel battle flag represents an armed insurrection against the United States of America which is a treasonous act. To allow that flag to fly is tantamount to sanctioning treason.
21@ Annabelle Lee, there are a bunch of morons in Texas, where I have lived as a citizen of the USA for 47 years, who think we should secede today, in 2015. If some “majority” of morons decides they want to do this, do I lose my property and my status because I won’t agree? Should I face lynching? This isn’t Cuba or Haiti you know; a group can’t just collectively decide to “withdraw” from the Union and hang the rest of us who are citizens out to dry. Those actions of the 1860s were hardly unanimous decisions of the citizenry after all, and I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea for Texas to secede because Rick Perry and Dan Patrick said so, backed up by the foaming at the mouth crowd. Secession was bound to lead to war, as the Union protected its law abiding citizenry in the rogue states. I would certainly beg the Feds for help today; I’m an American, living in the state of Texas, with all the rights and privileges granted by the U.S. Constitution; I cannot be disenfranchised because the statehouse loses its collective minds!
I don’t know much about Jeff Davis and care less, but Gen Lee felt his first allegiance was to his state of Virginia, and second was to the Union; he was not in agreement with his state and yet went to serve. I am far more in agreement with Gen Houston, myself! After all, my rights of citizenship follow me to every state in the Union! They don’t stop at the Texas border!
22I agree with you absolutely. I admire General Lee as a tactician and as a person; but that decision, when he had been offered the top generalship of the Union Army, was just bone-headed.
I grew up in Tennessee, which had many Union sympathizers particularly in East Tennessee. I believe there was actually talk of East Tennessee breaking away from the rest of the state and remaining with the Union, in fact. And yes, the Union sympathizers were ultimately at risk of losing everything, and some did lose everything (including their lives, in more than a few cases).
No civil war is ever clean. I suggest we avoid having any more.
23I am unconvinced that the leadership of the southern states perceived that they could leave the Union because “they had voluntarily joined.” Especially in the case of S. Carolina, one of the original 13 states, and the second state to sign (in 1778) the “Articles of Conferderation and Perpetual Union.” The terms of the commitment are explicit.
Furthermore, beginning in 1789, every southern state adopted the Constitution, the Preamble of which sets out “to form a more perfect Union.” The Union was made more perfect by establishing a federal government that conferred rights and obligations directly on its citizens, rather than acting indirectly through the states. The states agreed to be “united.” In all the territories except the original 13 colonies (later states), prior to their accession to the United States of America, those territories did not exist as “states.” Statehood was a status conferred on them by joining the Union. There is no provision in the Constitution for any state to voluntarily leave the Union.
The attempted secession was treasonous. The Constitution provided the federal government with the authority to “suppress insurrections.”
I am happy to see the battle flag get its comeuppance. It has been appropriated by hate groups as a symbol of intolerance and divisiveness, and it is past time for state governments to remove it from prominent display.
However, I am troubled by the calls to remove the bronze statuary. It seems precipitous, and I can’t help but feel there is a mob-mentality calling for the toppling of these monuments. Where will it end? With Thomas Jefferson? Washington?
Let’s not forget there have been some ignoble moments in history carried out under the Stars and Stripes. If we are going to be ideologically consistent with regard to the sensibilities of the original inhabitants of this land, we will be required to tear it all down before we board the ship to sail back to the Old World.
With respect to the movement underway to purge the bronze statuary on the University of Texas campus, I am deeply troubled. UT has a long history in this state, and some of it is shameful and nothing to boast about. Much of the statuary on the South Mall is there because of George Washington Littlefield, who knew personally many of the actors in the War of Secession. Littlefield also amassed a sizeable library of southern history that is housed in the Barker Center (Barker was an historian who helped Littlefield with the collection). Littlefield bequeathed a sizeable part of his fortune to UT, including the Littlefield House. Shall we burn all of that down, too?
It seems to me that this is a “teachable moment.” It also seems to me, given that none of this could have happened two weeks ago, there is something suspicious about the politician’s rush to take down the battle flag. Not one peep has been made about keeping lethal weapons out of the hands of immature or mentally ill persons. The President of the United States is the only person who seems interested in talking about race relations in this country, and no one else seems able to get past one word he has said about it.
The flag is a ruse to distract us from addressing the real issues.
24I don’t even think it’s a ruse. I think it’s just easily grasped and makes for good visual graphics.
What is that saying? Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity?
As for the rest, there’s an argument to be made either way on the treason issue, and those arguments were first made in about 1850. We can agree to disagree.
I do agree about the statuary, though; it seems like a good moment to replace the explanatory plaque with something more nuanced, perhaps, rather than throwing out the baby with the proverbial bath water.
25I don’t want the statues to be destroyed, just not so prominently displayed? Those campuses are state property, and to have a bunch of 1860s dissenters presented as heroes doesn’t help our current situation at all. I doubt they have any statues of George Washington in Great Britain after all. Statues of Sam Houston and Wm B Travis are certainly appropriate-how about some of the explorers or armed servicemen from Texas? I take your point about the Native Americans though, and in Texas, the indigenous Mexican population, so how about we just plant a nice shade tree instead?
26The key difference I see is that Ben Franklin articulated the colonists treason against the Crown, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Dixie wanted to secede from Union then fight about it. There’s a tiny chance if they had merely seceded then minded their business, they might have been independent for some time.
There were wholesale executions following WW2, Nazis and Japanese. It’s too damn bad Lincoln and Johnson were not so inclined. Because the traitors were not hung shortly after Appomattox the problem in Dixie goes on.
27I too think that this quick capitulation by southern governors on removal of the Confederate symbols is a way to prevent and deflect discussion of the more important issues–guns and mental health.
28The point I wanted to make earlier, but bungled in wordiness, is that many of these men were more complicated than the simple caricatures that are presented.
Jefferson Davis fought in the Mexican-American War, which resulted after the US annexed the of Republic of Texas. Davis initially argued against secession, and after the War Between the States he counseled Southerners to reconcile and be loyal to the Union. Some of his life work is regrettable, some of it worthy. He had an important role in the history of this state and this country.
I neglected to point out that George Washington Littlefield served in the Confederacy. After the war, he was one of the two most important benefactors of the University Of Texas. The other was George Washington Brackenridge. Brackenridge made a good part of his fortune circumventing the Confederate embargo on the sale of cotton to the North. He was, plain and simple, a war profiteer. Brackenridge also made huge financial contributions to the University of Texas, as well as to women’s colleges and schools for African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. He gave substantial amounts of land to UT and the City of San Antonio. He was an advocate of women’s suffrage. Some of his wealth was acquired by questionable means, but with it he did enormous good for many people.
Before it was the United States of America, this was an outlaw nation. It had broken away from the Crown, and everyone had different ideas about where to go with it. Mistakes were made at almost every turn. We are still striving to form a more perfect Union. Our history enriches our understanding of who we are. We should be able to look to our forebears to teach us where they went wrong, and where they were on the right path. Let us learn from their mistakes, and be thankful that they made them for us, so that we may go forward, making our own mistakes, as we make our own way. Tearing everything down is not the way forward.
29I spent time in North Carolina ww2 courtesy of the USMC. I asked the question then – “you lost the war, why are you bragging about it”? No understandable answer. The same question today prompts the same scratch your head answers.
30Timbo, thank you for sharing your knowledge of Texas history and the people who played large roles in the creation and building of the state. I found it very interesting.
31Down my way we have a slightly different interpretation of Texas history for some odd reason. One of General Santa Anna’s few redeeming qualities is that he absolutely abhorred slavery. Hey, we tried to stop you guys before you made a big mistake, but Sam Houston just … would… not… listen.
32well, perhaps committing treason in defense of slavery once was enough for Houston. twice, in one lifetime, was probably too much.
33