Posted on 04/24/2005 6:08:20 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Southern heritage buffs vow to use the Virginia gubernatorial election as a platform for designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month.
The four candidates have differing views on the Confederacy, an issue that has been debated for years in the commonwealth.
"We're not just a few people making a lot of noise," said Brag Bowling, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the oldest hereditary organization for male descendents of Confederate soldiers. "This is not a racial thing; it is good for Virginia. We're going to keep pushing this until we get it."
Each candidate recently shared his thoughts on what Mr. Bowling called a "litmus test for all politicians." Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine would not support a Confederate History and Heritage Month. Former state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore would support something that recognizes everyone who lived during the Civil War.
Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. and Warrenton Mayor George B. Fitch would support a Confederate History and Heritage Month. Many past Virginia governors honored the Civil War or the Confederacy.
In 1990, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first black governor, a Democrat and a grandson of slaves, issued a proclamation praising both sides of the war and remembering "those who sacrificed in this great struggle."
Former Govs. George Allen and James S. Gilmore III, both Republicans, issued Confederate History Month proclamations. In 2000, Mr. Gilmore replaced that proclamation with one commemorating both sides of the Civil War -- a move that enraged the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat, has refused to issue a gubernatorial decree on either side of the Civil War.
Mr. Kaine, another Democrat, would decline to issue a Confederate History and Heritage Month proclamation if he is elected governor, said his campaign spokeswoman, Delacey Skinner.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.washingtontimes.com ...
Well, at least you are back in form, ranting and raving.
You mean "provoked" and "baited"
I am going to make this point here and now:
I understand I have reacted unkindly and in a manner ill-befitting a Southern Gentleman.
I humbly appologize for my comments that were out of hand, and ask that their valid points be the only ones submitted for consideration to the mind.
In recognition of such, I will retain my former composure as a gentleman, and desist from further out bursts.
-Mac
Ok...by your reasoning the Union soldiers were fighting for slavery as well. Slavery wasn't outlawed until passage of the 13th Amendment.
Your view is too narrow-minded. Slavery wasn't morally wrong to a lot of people North & South at the time. Just because some people didn't oppose it, didn't mean they were for it. In the diary of my Texas ancestor, he speaks of defending his home from invaders, and of a new government that will help defend Texas against the Comanches. Not once is slavery mentioned.
I have already explained to him that as a "Christian" which he claims to be, he is erring. I don't think that bothers him very much.
You'll be happy to know, it bothered me.
I hope upon hope he regains his soul in this debate, before he goes to far.
I LIKE honest debates. The "baiting" bit is what needs to stop.
I don't want him kicked off FR for being a jerk, I want him to explain his side rationaly.
free dixie,sw
rotflmRao!
free dixie,sw
about HALF of those NEEDLESS DEATHS were INNOCENT, UNarmed civilians & helpless CSA POWs.
that makes him anything BUT a hero.
lincoln = klintoon!
free dixie,sw
about HALF of what is posted on the "WORLDWIDEWIERD" is FALSE, simplistic and/or just plain WRONG.
free dixie,sw
Yes, I can.
Your uninvited troll-like post #809 was intended as a personal attack in direct response to my attempt in #808 to shed some objective light on the whole Tonto is a racist term slander that your fellow neo-confederate cultists were peddling to anyone who would listen.
My reasonably mild response to your attack in post #814, restated the basic facts and asked you the following question
How can Tonto be a racist term toward Indians when there's a tribe of Indians in Arizona who use the name?
Your "answer" to that question was removed by the moderators before I could read it, which speaks volumes about who is being rude and insulting to whom.
Now, if YOU were sincere about improving the tone around here, you never would have attacked my original post #808, and you certainly wouldn't have posted whatever drivel you did in #819.
So forgive me for laughing out loud that YOU are now attempting to act as an honest broker on improving the tone of these debates. If YOU simply stopped posting here, the tone would improve. Think about it, and please don't get back to me.
in point of fact, BOTH the US & CS Constitution have slavery written into them.
BOTH the CSA & the USA had slave-OWNERS. BOTH nation's slave-OWNERS struggled to keep THEIR slaves until the 13th & 14th Amendments went into effect.
BOTH countries "traded in human flesh".
the TRUTH is that ABOUT the SAME percentage of northerners AND southerners OWNED slaves.
BOTH nations were AFFLICTED by chattel slavery & NEITHER nation's hands were clean.
fwiw, i am NO FAN of the slave-OWNERS on either side, though i particularly am no admirer of the southern slave-OWNERS because they FREQUENTLY COLLOBOATED with the damnyanklee invaders to keep their slaves. OBVIOUSLY slavery was MORE important to them than our dixie LIBERTY.
free dixie,sw
IF you put "in my humble/ignorant opinion," in front of every one of those SILLY pronouncements, nobody here would disagree.
free dixie,sw
NOBODY's hands in the 19th century,were CLEAN on "trading in human flesh".
fyi, your argument, such as it is, makes you look SILLY and/or UNeducated.
free dixie,sw
chattel slavery, absent the WBTS, would have POSSIBLY lasted another 20 years. 5-10 years is a more likely estimate of the time when slavery would have died an UNlamented natural death due to UNprofitabliity.
mechanical innovations in agriculture (like the TRACTOR & the 8-row, muledrawn, cottonpicker), rather than damnyankee bayonets, DOOMED slavery.
free dixie,sw
"in my UNeducated opinion,".
free dixie,sw
as only 5-6% of southerners EVER owned even ONE slave, it was a WAR FOR LIBERTY against/from the northern ELITES. the TRUTH, in this case, is nothing more complicated than that.
suggesting that chattel slavery was even a MAJOR reason for the WBTS is SILLY and makes the northeastern REVISIONISTS, who claim that it was the MAJOR/ONLY cause of the WBTS, look STUPID.
free dixie,sw
If you want to go through the point by point refutation of this again, we can. I'll just give the highlights, though: Steam tractors were ineffficient and used mostly in stationary roles running belt-driven machines. They required more horses (for bringing water and fuel) than they replaced. Real mechanization of traction didn't come until the 1910s, with the advent of the internal combustion tractor.
Cotton farming didn't mechanize until the 1940s, with the advent of both the cotton harvester developed by the Rust brothers and modern chemicals. At that point, the industry mechanized rapidly, starting in California (where Mexicans provided the stoop labor), and moving within a few years to the south (killing your argument that the only reason the south didn't mechanize sooner was that the yankees looted the massa's house). It's also not a coincidence that sharecropping/peonage, the labor system that replaced slavery, died at the same time.
If you'd like, I can post the lengthy e-mail sent by Dr. Pete Daniel, who IS the agricultural collection curator at the Smithsonian as well as the author of a book specifically about the mechanization of southern agriculture, in which he makes these same points in a more scholarly fashion.
Ok..I tried. You are a LIAR. I think I can produce plenty of Freepers on both sides that will back me up.
Act like a jerk if you like.
I AM trying to improve the tone. Wether you like it or not.
I agree, but mac_truck seems to enjoy being the unforgiving type. This problem seems to be a "Northern" thing. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.