Posted on 11/21/2006 1:14:33 AM PST by BnBlFlag
Speeches:
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Remarks of James Webb at the Confederate Memorial June 3, 1990
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This is by no means my first visit to this spot.
The Confederate Memorial has had a special place in my life for many years. During the bitter turbulence of the early and mid1970's I used to come here quite often. I had recently left the Marine Corps and was struggling to come to grips with my service in Vietnam, and with the misperceptions that seemed rampant about the people with whom I had served and what, exactly we had attempted to accomplish. And there were many, many times that I found myself drawn to this deeply inspiring memorial, to contemplate the sacrifices of others, several of whom were my ancestors, whose enormous suffering and collective gallantry are to this day still misunderstood by most Americans.
I used to walk the perimeter of this monument, itself designed by a man who had fought for the Confederacy and who, despite international fame as a sculptor, decided to be buried beneath it, and I would comprehend that worldwide praise can never substitute for loyalties learned and tested under the tribulations of the battlefield. I would study the inscription: NOT FOR FAME OR REWARD, NOT FOR PLACE OR FOR RANK, NOT LURED BY AMBITION OR GOADED BY NECESSITY, BUT IN SIMPLE OBEDIENCE TO DUTY AS THEY UNDERSTOOD IT, THESE MEN SUFFERED ALL, SACRIFICED ALL, DARED ALL, AND DIED -- words written by a Confederate veteran who had later become a minister, and knew that this simple sentence spoke for all soldiers in all wars, men who must always trust their lives to the judgment of their leaders, and whose bond thus goes to individuals rather than to stark ideology, and who, at the end of the day that is their lives, desire more than anything to sleep with the satisfaction that when all the rhetoric was stripped away, they had fulfilled their duty -- as they understood it. To their community. To their nation. To their individual consciences. To their family. And to their progeny, who in the end must not only judge their acts, but be judged as their inheritors.
And so I am here, with you today, to remember. And to honor an army that rose like a sudden wind out of the little towns and scattered farms of a yet unconquered wilderness. That drew 750,000 soldiers from a population base of only five million-less than the current population of Virginia alone. That fought with squirrel rifles and cold steel against a much larger and more modern force. That saw 60 percent of its soldiers become casualties, some 256,000 of them dead. That gave every ounce of courage and loyalty to a leadership it trusted and respected, and then laid down its arms in an instant when that leadership decided that enough was enough. That returned to a devastated land and a military occupation. That endured the bitter humiliation of Reconstruction and an economic alienation from the rest of this nation which continued for fully a century, affecting white and black alike.
I am not here to apologize f or why they fought, although modern historians might contemplate that there truly were different perceptions in the North and South about those reasons, and that most Southern soldiers viewed the driving issue to be sovereignty rather than slavery. In 1860 fewer than five percent of the people in the South owned slaves, and fewer than twenty percent were involved with slavery in any capacity. Love of the Union was palpably stronger in the South than in the North before the war -- just as overt patriotism is today -- but it was tempered by a strong belief that state sovereignty existed prior to the Constitution, and that it had never been surrendered. Nor had Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in Kentucky and Missouri when those border states did not secede. Perhaps all of us might reread the writings of Alexander Stephens, a brilliant attorney who opposed secession but then became Vice President of the Confederacy, making a convincing legal argument that the constitutional compact was terminable. And who wryly commented at the outset of the war that "the North today presents the spectacle of a free people having gone to war to make freemen of slaves, while all they have as yet attained is to make slaves of themselves."
Four years and six hundred thousand dead men later the twin issues of sovereignty and slavery were resolved. A hundred years after that, the bitterness had vented itself to the point that we can fairly say the emotional scars have healed. We are a stronger, more diverse, and genuinely free nation. We are also a different people. As we gather here to commemorate the most turbulent crisis our country has ever undergone, it's interesting to note that a majority of those now in this country are descended from immigrants who arrived after the war was fought.
And so those of us who carry in our veins the living legacy of those times have also inherited a special burden. These men, like all soldiers, made painful choices and often paid for their loyalty with their lives. It is up to us to ensure that this ever-changing nation remembers the complexity of the issues they faced, and the incredible conditions under which they performed their duty, as they understood it.
I'm pleased that many friends and members of my own family are here with me today, including my wife, whose family was in Eastern Europe during the War between the States but who herself served in Vietnam and whose father fought on Iwo Jima. And I would also like to say a special thanks to my good friend Nelson Jones for sharing this day with us. Nelson is a fellow Marine, a fellow alumnus of both the Naval Academy and the Georgetown Law Center, and like so many others here a child of the South. The last twenty five years in this country have shown again and again that, despite the regrettable and well-publicized turmoil of the Civil Rights years, those Americans of African ancestry are the people with whom our history in this country most closely intertwines, whose struggles in an odd but compelling way most resemble our own, and whose rights as full citizens we above all should celebrate and insist upon.
But more than anything else, I am compelled today to remember a number of ancestors who lie in graves far away from Arlington. Two died fighting for the Confederacy -- one in Virginia and the other in a prisoner camp in Illinois, after having been captured in Tennessee. Another served three years in the Virginia cavalry and survived, naming the next child to spring from his loins Robert E. Lee Webb, a name that my grandfather also held and which has passed along in bits and pieces through many others, such as my cousin, Roger Lee Webb, present today, and my son, James Robert, also present. And another, who fought for the Arkansas infantry and then the Tennessee Cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest. And, to be fully ecumenical, another, who had moved from Tennessee to Kentucky in the 1850's, and who fought well and hard as an infantry Sergeant in the Union army.
We often are inclined to speak in grand terms of the human cost of war, but seldom do we take the time to view it in an understandable microcosm. Today I would like to offer one: The "Davis Rifles" of the 37th Regiment, Virginia infantry, who served under Stonewall Jackson. one of my ancestors, William John Jewell, served in this regiment, which was drawn from Scott, Lee, Russell and Washington counties in the southwest corner of the state. The mountaineers were not slaveholders. Many of them were not even property owners. Few of them had a desire to leave the Union. But when Virginia seceded, the mountaineers followed Robert E. Lee into the Confederate Army.
1,490 men volunteered to join the 37th regiment. By the end of the war, 39 were left. Company D, which was drawn from Scott county, began with 112 men. The records of eight of these cannot be found. 5 others deserted over the years, taking the oath of allegiance to the Union. 2 were transferred to other units. of the 97 remaining men, 29 were killed, 48 were wounded, 11 were discharged due to disease, and 31 were captured by the enemy on the battlefield, becoming prisoners of war. If you add those numbers up they come to more than 97, because many of those taken prisoner were already wounded, and a few were wounded more than once, including William Jewell, who was wounded at Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862, wounded again at Sharpsburg (Antietam) on September 17, 1862, and finally killed in action at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863.
The end result of all this was that, of the 39 men who stood in the ranks of the 37th Regiment when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, none belonged to Company D, which had no soldiers left.
The Davis Rifles were not unique in this fate. Such tragedies were played out across the landscape of the South. To my knowledge, no modern army has exceeded the percentage of losses the Confederate army endured, and only the Scottish regiments in World War One, and the Germans in World War Two, come close. A generation of young men was destroyed. one is reminded of the inscriptions so often present on the graves of that era: "How many dreams died here?"
There are at least two lessons for us to take away from such a day of remembrance. The first is one our leaders should carry next to their breasts, and contemplate every time they f ace a crisis, however small, which puts our military at risk. it should echo in their consciences, from the power of a million graves . It is simply this: You hold our soldiers' lives in sacred trust. When a citizen has sworn to obey you, and follow your judgment, and walk onto a battlefield to defend the interests you define as worthy of his blood, do not abuse that awesome power through careless policy, unclear objectives, or inflexible leadership.
The second lesson regards those who have taken such an oath, and who have honored the judgment of their leaders, often at great cost. Intellectual analyses of national policy are subject to constant re-evaluation by historians as the decades roll by, but duty is a constant, frozen in the context of the moment it was performed. Duty is action, taken after listening to one's leaders, and weighing risk and fear against the powerful draw of obligation to family, community, nation, and the unknown future.
We, the progeny who live in that future, were among the intended beneficiaries of those frightful decisions made so long ago. As such, we are also the caretakers of the memory, and the reputation, of those who performed their duty -- as they understood it -- under circumstances too difficult for us ever to fully comprehend.
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James Webb was an Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration.
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To conclude, the Democrats now have their John McCain.
Regards, Ivan
Andrew Jackson populist?
True, he bacame a politician.
We constantly see reference to RINOs in this forum. We can only hope that Webb becomes the first DINO. Normally the Democrats stick together - unlike the Republicans who when given the Presidency and both Congress couldn't move.
Now the RINO Virginia Senator Warner may run again to keep "experience" in the Senate. What a joke.
He's a genuine Benedict Arnold.
And to the men of North Carolina as well. Amen and I couldn't have said it better.
That Senator-elect Webb gave such a heartfelt speech definitely puts him on the good side of my list. I could care less what letter he has by his name
I seriously doubt Warner will be running again. Now the other Warner has a different sort of problem ~ something about "where's the intern".
I honor all those mentioned above.
The time as come to stand at last...
Let the drums start their long, long roll...
The bridge is burned, the die is cast...
To His grace I commend my soul...
For the glory,
For the Dixie that I love
For the way of live we cherish
Let us die or let us go
For the glory,
For the homes we hold so dear
Let us give the last full measure
Gathered here!
Let them all cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees!!!!
As a Scots-Irish who has had relatives in every war since the Revolution I'd say Webb is a first-class BSer. He'll be one of those liberals who'll vote the party line in Washington and come home to the Virginia mountains and talk smack about those sick people in Washington.
I hope he rots.
A wonderful speech: The truth is beginning to come out:
The Southern States were fighting to defend their land and
freedom from an invading North.
"The British took it in 1813 to little effect."
Mainly because all the Gov people had left.
Just like the Continental Congress in 1777.
What I don't understand is why Lincoln and his pals couldn't leave instead of holding MD hostage to protect their DC. Guess they didn't have the wherewithall to run the gov without their marble&granite buildings. ;-)
And actually, the Brits took it in 1814. ;-)
James Webb is not one to suffer fools.
And I can't imagine him being subservient to them.
Growing up in the south, I was fed the line that the rebellion was caused by reasons other than slavery. But the more I've read about what the secessionists themselves said, the more I realize that the secession was 100% about slavery. Maybe some guys doing the actual fighting from Lee to privates were acting out of state loyalty, but there would have been no confederacy and conflict in the first place if the Dixie big shots had not desired an unlimited slave empire. The only freedom the secessionists cared about was their own freedom to do what they wanted with their slaves.
Thanks.
I can't believe how many people fail to see just how self-serving this guy is.
I have no doubt, given his background, that he has certain impulses that are more conservative then the average Chuck Shumer liberal, but I also have no doubt, based on his history, that he essentially adopts whatever position seems at the time to advance him the most.
And like I said, if the gay nazi environmentalist yougurt eaters club seemed to be the way the wind was blowing, he'd instantly be the charter member.
The 'Battle Flag' flew over the South Carolina statehouse from 1964 and as long as the Democrats were in charge, very little attention was given.
Draw a time line and you will see that the arguments from the NAACP about the FLAG etc began as the DEMOCRATS began to lose political control of the south.
The attempt to keep re-inventing history to satisfy the uneducated could go on an on. We need to stop it.
Perspective time; please remember history, if we arn't careful we'll have to pull Abraham Lincoln out of our schools or rename Ft. Worth Texas, because Hispancis will discover he fought and killed their ancestors in the Mexican War. Uh, oh; so did Grant(who also owned slaves) - change the money....etc...etc...
Lincoln re-affirmed his strong support for gradual emancipation coupled with resettlement in his second annual message to Congress of December 1, 1862 and this proposal had five basic elements:
1. Because slavery was a "domestic institution," and thus the concern of the states alone, they -- and not the federal government -- were to voluntarily emancipate the slaves.
2. Slave-holders would be fully compensated for their loss.
3. The federal government would assist the states, with bonds as grants in aid, in meeting the financial burden of compensation.
4. Emancipation would be carried out gradually: the states would have until the year 1900 to free their slaves.
5. The freed blacks would be resettled outside the United States.
Bottom line: History is pretty rough on many sides and we're stuck with it.
A few more tidbits:
In early 1863, Lincoln discussed with his Register of the Treasury a plan to "remove the whole colored race of the slave states into Texas."
source: 102. N. Weyl and W. Marina, American Statesmen on Slavery and the Negro (1971), pp. 228-229. Source cited: L. E. Chittenden, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln.; Lincoln apparently also gave consideration to setting aside Florida as a black asylum or reservation. See: Paul J. Scheips, "Lincoln ... , " The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 37, No. 4 (October 1952), p. 419.
Jenerette - www.jenerette.com
Nobody is "all bad", but I don't see much good coming out of his attempt to frame white Southerners, whom he identifies in "Born Fighting" with the Scots-Irish without much if any statistical evidence, as a disenfranchised victim group that's been done wrong by the rest of the country despite it's having done the lion's share of the fighting for it. That's why he thinks they should align in Democratic Party victim-hood with blacks.
Webb is a socialist and a cultural leftist... Look at his policy stances, not whatever ethnic group he identifies with. The guy supports every form of abortion, is against protecting traditional marriage, supports affirmative action, is against education vouchers, against drilling in ANWAR, is against social security reform and believes in the "path to citizenship" i.e. amnesty for illegal aliens. He thinks both the taxes on "the rich" and the minimum wage are too low and worst of all, that the federal government must do something about both/
Is Webb all bad? No, he is a decorated veteran. I understand that many Freepers believe the South had the right of things in the Civil War and that Webb reiterates that belief in this speech while paying his respects to the Confederate war dead, but as important as understanding and remembering the past is, doing so pales next to the importance of the stands someone takes regarding the present.
My ancestors were among the people who helped found many American communities. Some were among the "saints" and some were among the "strangers" on the Mayflower. My later immigrant ancestors brought more than just the trappings of their old cultures. Like my Mayflower ancestors, they helped found communities & those communities had very little English flavoring.
They came to the "land of opportunity" to help build the "American dream". None of them came with their hand out, looking to make demands on those who came before them.
Every single one of my ancestors were in America before the beginning of the twentieth century, before Ellis Island opened its doors, before the first American immigration law was passed. If they had been as protectionist as some I've seen around here, I'd still be here. I wonder how many of the protectionists would be.
Our nation was not built by the best of other nations across the world, though there were some of those among the mix. We took from among the castoffs, the unwanted dregs, people who could only see one direction, up. Multiculturalism tells people to stop looking up, to instead look back, to avoid the "American dream", because it takes a lot of work to realize it.
A tomato soup is too homogeneous, derived from too much nationalization of too many things.
Well said!
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