By Gary Bullard
After a truly wonderful night of debate with friends over beers last night, I have been reflecting on the discussions and what subjects were and were not brought up during and after my proclamation In front of a mixed crowd that I had a red with a blue “X” Rebel Flag on its way to me in the mail.
A shot was immediately fired across my bow, and the discussion was on!
Being from Springfield, Illinois, “Land of Lincoln” I knew Honest Abe was one of our presidents that was held in this great nation as being really noteworthy and in the top 5 as presidents go, and had done a speech called the “Emancipation Proclamation” making slaves free, but what day and year and never sparked a Civil War play by play study for me. All I knew was that there was no longer a thing called slavery, and that was just fine with me because I had black friends and wouldn’t know how to “place” them other than in my group of friends. I was aware of MLK and a lot of tensions in big cities, but that never happened around my town that I knew of. I had an Uncle Bill that did the civil war re-enactment thing with his buddies, but wasn’t interested in that, either, and to this day have no Idea which uniform he wore during his costume parties. I think he just liked muzzleloaders and flintlocks.
I have also noticed during my busy life that there was a large group of people from all over the US claiming to be “Southerners”’ waving a red flag with a starry blue “X” on it chanting “The South’s gonna do it again” with Charlie Daniels and Lynyrd Skynrd or however you spell it. Do what? Whatever, I have to work in the morning, and no, I had no desire to buy and fly an “X” flag. And, yes, I like “Free Bird” and the CDB because I love my music and my Freedoms!
So, why did I go out and buy a flag? Well, first, they had all been wiped from the internet. Amazon, Ebay, all the biggies, one flag. Period. Nothing else! Buying a rare item is always a good idea. Secondly, NEVER tell me what I cannot do. N-E-V-E-R! I will simply say, “Watch this…”. And third, last I looked, I was a free man, and I can buy anything anybody has for sale and display it as Freedom of Speech no matter what your interpretation of it is! So, that explains that, which then begs the next discussion…
Why, after 61 years of not caring a lick about it did you buy one of those? What does it REALLY represent? Will flying it make my house a target? Why? Well, although I am not a studied historian in this, now I’m compelled to do some research. I had time, as the one or two companies out there that didn’t knuckle under to censorship are extra busy filling orders these days and it took 2 weeks to even get it in the mail and I’m still waiting, so here goes a quick study.
First stop, the Web rumor mill! Perusing article after article on the web, arrows are being shot in all directions, but a consensus seems to lean toward that both the North and the South of both colors owned slaves before, during, and after the Civil War. OOPS. So, what was that darned war all about?
Second stop, WIKIPEDIA. Even though today, WIKI highlights the “Slave Clause” in the Confederate Constitution, if one looks through the entire rewrite of our Nation’s original Constitution, it becomes obvious that the war began over MONEY. Who knew? Basically, the Confederate took the Union Constitution word for word, and only changed or modified it piecemeal.
My first notice was that the Preamble was changed to make it a point that the Confederate states would have “each state acting in its sovereign and independent character”, and the reasons were spelled out in the text. Mostly, the major changes were to the effect to limit the Feds from interstate tariffs in interstate trade, maritime trade between states, and the taxes imposed without accounting for clearing State waterways, as the Confederates wanted States to clear their own rivers, not those of others, and the freedom to enter into agreements between states that had shared waterways to collectively solve problems together without paying to clear northern states’ waterways. They wanted tariffs to not be charged federally on state trade or trade between states, only on oceangoing trade. In other words, “Don’t come to the Southern states to pay to clear your Northern River ways, leave us to take care of our own!”
The Slavery part was not visible until Article 4, sec 3.3, which basically keeps the status quo, and gives permissions to extend slavery into any newly claimed territories as well. However, by the end of the war, Lincoln wanted it over, and saw that if he told the slaves in the south that they were now free, and the slaves saw that the “Massa’s” were all off to war and there was nothing keeping them on the plantation but the womenfolk, they packed up in the night and sought Harriet Tubman, who became an unintended heroin just because of the huge surge of human traffic she handled. Honest Abe saw a way to end the war and keep the country together and took it, and that’s big.
Which brings me back to the flag thing; WTF is this brouhaha about? Um, wow, first, Spellcheck didn’t light up “brouhaha”! I didn’t know it was a word…, but anyway, If the red flag with a blue starry X on it MUST be condemned in the name of “Slavery” or Blackness, let’s all get on board. What a joke! That war on the Confederate side, was fought under four flags, including one that was named the “Stars and Bars”. The problem became apparent as the other 3 flags, much like the slightly modified Constitution, were nothing more than slightly modified Union flags, and really hard to distinguish one from the other on the battlefield, since global positioning was still to be invented, and troops were getting a lot of “friendly fire”. A “different” flag for the Virginia battles was requested and supplied, showing a lot less white and a big “X”. It worked a lot better for the troops, and inspired a positive attitude that the South would “Do it”.
So, If this” ban the flag” thing is all about slavery and racism, where are the other 3 flags the Confederacy fought under? Why not them? Are these flags still OK? I can still buy them on line. Why are they still okay? They still represent the same people, many of whom are our forefathers, who fought and died for the freedom of individual states and free river trade between them. They truly thought they had a better vision of more individual State freedom than the northern “Federalist” states were imposing.
The Slavery issue, and the Confederate Article 4 was meant to fail, and voided itself by default ending the war, but was never the cause of the war, is all I’m saying.
And, tell me I can’t fly a flag that is part of the history of my Country?
Watch this!
Disclaimer: I am no Civil War Historian, and I’m sure there are a thousand more happenings and nuances that could be added or argue my position, and I welcome all. I’m just sayin’.
10 comments:
Like the author says, "Tell me I can't" and you can just watch me! Membership in the Klan has risen, confederate flags are flying everywhere now, stickers on mail, cars, and even rubber stamping it on money! It is more prolific today then a month ago, yes, never tell someone the can't, do something, you light the fuse of exercising their individual liberty, and rights!
As someone who is an historian, particularly of 19th-Century America, there are a couple of issues. Obviously, you are entitled to your views and are welcome to fly the flag if you want, but I just want to point these out so that you can understand and use better rhetoric next time.
First, there is a tired trope in the first couple paragraphs of your discussion here. This is no "Freedom of Speech" issue. As any legal scholar or constitutional historian will tell you, freedom of speech applies to state and federal governmental actions. Private citizens (or even public ones that are not acting in their government capacity) who criticize those who fly flags on their private property are in no way implicating freedom of speech, it's simply a cultural argument. Conservatives especially need to understand this issue. In my opinion, it's one of the biggest things kneecapping their arguments and hurting their ability to be taken seriously. People simply will not engage with you if you do not understand what is and what is not an issue to your freedom of speech.
Second, I don't know where you got the idea that slavery existed after the Civil War, but the Thirteenth Amendment - commonly known as one of the three "Civil War Amendments" - was ratified in 1866, explicitly outlawing slavery. True, it leaves a year-long gap in which, I suppose, amateur historians could claim that there was slavery. However, it was truly just a mopping up sort of period involved with the ratification.
Finally, your argument seems to be that the war was mainly fought about money. Honestly, this is simply a euphemism for slavery. The North, while it had had slavery before the war, was in the midst of a vast transitional period inspired by the Industrial Revolution. The only "Northern" states that had any appreciable numbers of slaves were border ones such as Maryland, Kentucky, Kansas, and maybe to some extent West Virginia and Delaware. The rest of the North (and these states, to some extent) was moving away from slavery as abolitionists grew and the belief in industrialism and capitalism emerged. The South's financial interests were obviously harmed by this, as the North sought to limit slavery and expand their more efficient economic model, but the South wanted to expand the areas in which to preserve the economic model - slavery - that it relied on. Therefore, any argument that the war was about "money" is simply another way of saying it was over the South believing, perhaps rightfully so, that its slavery was under attack as an economic model.
Again, because this isn't an issue concerning freedom of speech, you're free to buy and wave the flag as proudly as you want. Just thought I would add some historical facts to your argument.
Well said. I too, have been considering buying the Virginia Battle Flag. This despite being originally from Duluth, where it was too bloody cold to participate in the civil war.
I look around and see and hear the knee jerk reaction of a country in which it is obvious to me, certain people are using this flag while attempting to ferment a race war. This, since all the riots and blustery rhetoric over the last two years didnt do squat to advance their agenda.
I think the Confederate Battle flag of Virginia is distinctly needed at this time. To signify that we as a people are fed up with too much government intrusion. To stand proud against the people who would declare themselves to the the deciders of what is right and good and proper in this country. While on the one hand, they preach tolerance, diversity and income redistribution; on the other hand they militarize our police and train them to treat citizens as the enemy.
It is well past time, we the people (of all colors, faiths and persuasions) said, "Enough is enough," and put a stop to this nonsense. We are the people. It is the government that is the enemy of peace among us.
Great article, and I just bought a flag too
Spot on 10:41.
10:41 said: Second, I don't know where you got the idea that slavery existed after the Civil War, but the Thirteenth Amendment - commonly known as one of the three "Civil War Amendments" - was ratified in 1866, explicitly outlawing slavery.
You try to make an intelligent and coherent argument but fail. I hate to tell you this but just because something is outlawed it doesn't keep it from happening. I have read several articles over the years where people were still keeping other people in some form of slavery here in the U.S.A. As far as freedom of speech, when private citizens try to get the government to infringe on it then it does become a freedom of speech issue.
Lincoln a great president? So the only way to stop slavery was killing 600,000 Americans? War was the only way, right America? Right?
Hey, history guy/gal do some real research on your deity, Abe Lincoln. He was not angelic, by any means. He turned his generals lose on the South with instructions to destroy everything. Buildings, livestock, crops, homes, lives, everything to devastate his enemy. He ranks right up there with Himmler & Obama.
If you recall or read your history the North did not want war and it was the South which started it by bombing Fort Sumnter!
Wrong, 12:54.
In Lincoln's famous letter to his friend, Horace Greeley, he adamantly made it quite clear that his goal was to "re-unite" the union, not to end slavery. He said that if there was any way to end the war and re-unite the union without freeing a single slave, he would do so. Look it up.
600,000 people did not die to free some slaves. I doubt there were 600,000 people total in the whole COUNTRY who gave a shlt one way or another about "the darkies".
Lincoln felt the only way to stop the killing, was by freeing the South's slaves.
The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in "the states in rebellion". Not the slaves in the north!
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