Posted on 03/23/2004 6:46:41 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
AUSTIN - A state district judge said Monday he does not have the authority to order plaques commemorating Confederate soldiers be reinstalled in the Texas Supreme Court building.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization had sued to restore the plaques, which were removed in June 2000 under then-Gov. George W. Bush in response to objections by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
District Judge Paul Davis agreed with the Texas Attorney General's Office that state law does not give the courts jurisdiction over the plaques.
Texas representatives of the NAACP could not be immediately reached for comment. They had argued that Confederate memorials were particularly inappropriate for a state court building.
The case hinged partly on a Texas law passed in 2001 that gave authority over removing and installing historical plaques to the Legislature, the Texas Historical Commission or the State Preservation Board.
Assistant Attorney General John Morehead argued that public attention generated by media reports and protests by Confederate groups ensured that legislators were well aware of the plaques' controversial removal when they wrote the 2001 law.
"If the Legislature had wanted to order public officials to take down the new plaques and put up the old plaques, it could have done so in the spring of 2001," Morehead said. "But that's not what it did."
Representatives of the Confederate descendants' group, which failed last year in a similar suit in State District Court, said they would likely appeal the case. The group also sought reimbursement of attorneys' fees.
Bill Kuhn, a lawyer representing the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the 2001 law should not apply to the Confederate plaques because they were illegally removed. Because they were first installed in 1965, he said, they should be considered old plaques and not subject to the same review as new plaques.
The commemorative plaques were placed on the Texas Supreme Court building because it was one of several state buildings near the Texas Capitol that were built with money from a pension fund for Confederate widows and veterans.
The transfer of funds required an amendment to the Texas Constitution in 1957.
Marshall B. Davis, spokesman for the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the removal of the plaques slights the honor of Confederate soldiers.
"The Confederate soldier fought and died for a cause he believed in and fought for Texas," he said. "Removing these plaques in a way desecrating their graves."
The plaques were replaced by new ones that say equal justice is available to all Texans "regardless of race, creed or color." They note that the building was constructed with money taken from a Confederate pension fund and dedicated to Texans who served in the Confederacy.
This is by no means over though - we just launched an effort to call for the plaque's restoration in the Republican Platform. Any Texas Republicans who are going to their county and senatorial conventions this weekend can help. If you are a delegate and are willing to propose the resolution to your county or senate district platform this weekend please freepmail me ASAP with your county name and SD. There are 31 SD's and another hundred counties so chances are if you are attending you will be able to propose this resolution. Thanks again to all those who have helped so far!
Also - if the Wlat Brigade shows up on this thread I ask that you consider ignoring them. I prefer to keep this discussion of what we can do to get the plaques back where the constitution says they are supposed to be. Thanks again!
Our pre-civil war status was an independent republic and the last time I checked Uncle Sam up in Washington was still sending me tax bills.
But President Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, gained the support of Texas Republicans and several prominent state leaders, like Sam Houston, Texas’ first Governor.
WRONG! Sam Houston despised Abe Lincoln and publicly denounced him as an agitator. It is true that he opposed Texas' secession, but not for the reasons Lincoln did. Houston was loyal to his state and believed that war would bring ruin to it. After secession became inevitable and the war was under way though, Houston threw his support behind the course his state had taken. In his last years he was a supporter of leaving the union (although he also wanted to restore Texas' independence from the confederacy as well). He had also been planning a political comeback to run for Governor of confederate Texas in the 1864 elections before his death.
Some excerpts from Sam Houston's letter to the people of Texas, Dec 2, 1860:
"Mr. Lincoln has been constitutionally elected, and much as I deprecate his success, no alternative is left me but to yield to the constitution."Should he [Lincoln] falter or fail, and by allowing the laws to be subverted, aid in oppressing the people of the South, he must be hurled from power.
Whenever one section of this country presumes upon its strength for the oppression of the other, then will our constitution be a mockery, and it would matter not how soon it was severed into a thousand atoms and scattered to the four winds. If the principles are disregarded upon which the annexation of Texas was consummated, there will be for her neither honor nor interest in the Union.
As always, a FReep mail will get you on or off this Houston and Texas topics ping list.
thanks
Bump for the restoration of the plaques.
Whereas the State of Texas, by amendment to the Texas Constitution passed by Texas voters in 1954, established the building of the current Texas Supreme Court Building with funds transferred from the Confederate Veterans Pension Fund with the intent of designating the said building as a perpetual memorial to the said veterans as required by the amendment;
Whereas from 1962 to 2000 memorial plaques on the Texas Supreme Court Building featuring the language of Robert E. Lee fulfilled this statutory and constitutional purpose, viz.: Lee's quote “I rely upon Texas regiments in all tight places, and fear I have to call upon them too often. They have fought grandly, nobly."
Whereas the same Robert E. Lee wrote in 1856 that “slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil” and, as commanding general of the Confederate forces, called for the adoption of legislation to bring about emancipation in the southern states;
Whereas in the year 2000 the State of Texas, acting in response to pressures from the political left and its adherents to the “political correctness” movement, quietly removed the said Robert E. Lee memorial plaque from the Texas Supreme Court Building;
Whereas removal of this plaque constitutes a breach in both the language and spirit of the enacting constitutional amendment as approved by the voters of Texas;
Whereas the capitulation of the State of Texas to radical forces of “political correctness” is an insult to the memory of the sons and daughters of Texas who laid down their lives in defense of their homes and state; and
Whereas the Robert E. Lee Plaque and Texas' many other historical monuments, memorials, plaques, and markers of significance belong as property to all Texans and, as such, should be free from manipulation, removal, or change from their original historical locations in an attempt to subvert Texas history and the significance thereof;
BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED that the Republican Party formally calls upon Governor Perry and the government of the State of Texas to immediately restore the said Robert E. Lee memorial plaque to the Texas Supreme Court Building as required by the spirit and letter of the enacting amendment to the Texas Constitution.
I can see where some might argue that this satisfies the requirement that the building be known as a memorial to the Texans who served the Confederacy. The old plaque that it replaced had the Confederate seal and the words, "Dedicated to Texans who Served the Confederacy."
Did the old constitutional amendment that funded the Supreme Court building with Confederate Pension funds designate the wording of the plaques or require that words of General Lee or the Battle Flag be posted? (The old constitutional amendment was later repealed by the way.)
I'm sorry that the seal and the battle flag have disappeared in the name of political correctness. Lee's words were a good reminder of the valor of the Texas troops -- I'm sorry that they were taken down.
Other government buildings in Austin were built with monies from the Confederate Pension Fund but are not so marked with plaques including the Texas State Library & Archives, the State Insurance Building, and the John H. Reagan Building. I've used the State Library building some, but I had no idea that it was built from pension money.
I remember the old Confederate Veterans home in Austin in the 1940s. I think I remember seeing some veterans sitting on the porch, but my memory may be off because I was quite young. Later I think they allowed Confederate widows to live there.
it was ALL his fault!
free dixie,sw
That way you can force them to acknowledge where the true power base is. Is it the "People" or the Government?
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