Horror: Jefferson Davis Highway in Washington State

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 25 January 2002

[r9etb]

And yes, I did misspell his name on purpose.

Boy, howdy! That'll show 'em!!!

Seriously, pal -- a guy who names himself after charter members of the "Ugly, Loud, and Obnoxious Hall of Fame"

would be well advised to keep a lower profile on his first day here.

[wysiwyg]

Do you actually know anything about the man, or are you simply repeating the same old PC nonsense? HE ASKS KNOWINGLY...

[Dakmar]

He'll probably want to change the name of the entire state next, since Washington owned slaves.

[WaterDragon]

Actually, it is a little silly to name anything after Davis. Now, if they'd named the road after Robert E. Lee, that would have been different. Davis? Nah.

[Publius]

A bit over two years ago I posted an article about the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library in Mississippi after seeing a show about it on C-SPAN. (It's lost somewhere in the FR archives.) I pointed out the political incorrectness of referring to Davis as "president" and lauded the Mississippians for sticking a finger in the eye of the PC crowd.

Can anybody locate that article?

[texson66]

Before you judge him, read his last speech as a U.S. Senator at Jefferson Davis

[NovemberCharlie]

"In this state, we cannot have a monument to a guy who led the insurgency to perpetuate slavery and killed half a million Americans," told The Herald of Everett.

...

If the bill passes, Dunshee said, the state Parks Department would remove the northern monument. If it fails, he says, he's willing to drive to Blaine and rip it out himself, even if he winds up going to jail.

I have to admit, it's a little loopy to have a Jefferson Davis highway in Washington, since the state has no connection to the Civil War.

That said, I'm amused to see that Dunshee is willing to defy the government to prevent honoring a man who defied his government.

[billbears]

Welcome and may I suggest a little reading? Perhaps Official Records of the Civil War published by the federal government in the early 20th century. Or maybe Black Confederates? Maybe if you take your eyes off that federally subsidized history book and come down South to see the multiple monuments to blacks who fought and died for the Confederacy, you'd see it's not as clearcut as the Empire would have you believe. To compare Davis to men such as Hitler shows not only ignorance but is an insult to my ancestors as well

[Christian B]

"In this state, we cannot have a monument to a guy who led the insurgency to perpetuate slavery and killed half a million Americans," told The Herald of Everett.

This jerk should read up about Jefferson Davis. He was a good man.

[texson66]

See #27

[warchild9]

Who cares? Washington--State or DC--is not part of our country. Deo Vindice. The Kid.

[HaveGunWillTravel]

Jefferson may have well been a common criminal. He was a traitor, nothing more.

Davis represented the entire southern half of the country. They wanted to voluntarily secede from a union that they joined voluntarily. They were, and are supposed to be sovereign states. If this is wrong, then Davis is less of a criminal than George Washington. Read the Declaration of Independence. Learn history. Stop being ignorant. The standards you are applying to Davis would cut a lot deeper against those who I assume you view as heroes. Take Lincoln, for instance. How would you characterize his transgressions against the constitution? Does the end justify the means? If so, how do you reconcile tyranny over the entire south in the name of liberty for the slaves? Are men free or aren't they?

[lilylangtree]

Good God, Hans Dunshee doesn't have other problems in Washington that he has to take offense of a road named after a southern statesman who followed his heart. For his information, the Civil War was more than just slavery. The North was economically shutting down the South. Presently, the state of Washington has an 8.1% sales tax, transportation problems, high unemployment due to the many dot.com companies failure and Boeing layoffs, and various other problems, and most importantly, beginning January 1, 2002, Washington has a democratic administration and legislature. This little man, Dunshee, is worried about a name? Give me a break! Apparently, Snohomish doesn't give this little man enough to do in the legislature. What a turkey!

[sphinx]

My no-cost solution wouold be to announce that the Jefferson Davis highway now honors the federal general of the same name. Wouldn't even have to change the signs ...

[Taft in '52]

This news doesn't surprise me. I read recently that Washington's King County, which was originally named for Vice President William R. King (1853-1857), has been renamed for Martin Luther King.

[Christian B]

I read a biography of Jeff Davis that portrayed him as an honorable, brooding man who felt very-much representative of Mississippi. The fact that he was the natural choice for leader of the Confederacy does no more to condemn him than a president who finds him caught in the whirlwind of public enthusiasm. Anyone who can boil Davis down to a few pejoratives simply hasn't read up on their history.

[HaveGunWillTravel]

That said, I'm amused to see that Dunshee is willing to defy the government to prevent honoring a man who defied his government.

Good one.

[Christian B]

Yes, Lincoln did far more to violate the essence of the Constitution than Davis did.