Southerners indignant at plan to rename Washington state's Jefferson Davis Highway

HeraldNet ^ | 1/31/02 | Susanna Ray

[shuckmaster]

The South has risen to challenge a Snohomish lawmaker.

In hundreds of e-mails and phone calls, Southerners and history buffs across the country reacted to a proposal last week by state Rep. Hans Dunshee to remove a road marker at the Peace Arch border crossing honoring Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

"My resolve has only increased," Dunshee said Wednesday.

The controversy surrounds a monument in Blaine designating old Highway 99, which runs through Snohomish County, as part of the transcontinental Jefferson Davis Highway. The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the marker in 1940 with the support of state and Canadian officials.

Dunshee wants to pass a bill to rename the highway after William Stewart, a black man who fought for the North in the Civil War before moving to Snohomish. He also wants to get rid of the marker honoring Davis, whom he called "a guy who led the insurgency to perpetuate slavery and killed half a million Americans."

That comment is what most infuriated Southerners who heard about or saw The Herald's article about Dunshee's proposal.

"Amazing! Your Mr. Dunshee's ignorance of history is certainly letting itself be known," wrote John Salley of Belton, S.C., before launching into a history lesson.

"While I'm a believer in the traditional Southern view of states' rights, and believe that Mr. Dunshee has a right to move to change the name of the highway in his state," wrote Jeff Adams from Houston, "I don't think he should be so angry, intolerant and bigoted about it."

Some talked of boycotting Washington state if the marker is taken down.

Others said that if state officials change the highway's name, they should also change the state's name, because George Washington was one of the biggest slave owners of his time.

And still others accused Dunshee of trying to revise history, George Orwell-style.

Dunshee's reaction seems "outrageous" to Southerners because Davis is widely revered in the South, said Dave Gass, an art director for a magazine in Atlanta.

"Jefferson Davis' birthday is a legal holiday in seven Southern states," Gass said. "That's why I was so shocked to read this fellow (Dunshee) going on about how horrible he was, when Jefferson Davis was really a great man.

"Mr. Davis had a whole career before the war started and did things that benefited the entire country from coast to coast," Gass added. "He definitely deserves to be memorialized."

Suzanne Silek, president general of the 20,000-member United Daughters of the Confederacy, said there was good reason to erect the marker here. Davis built forts in Washington and helped get roads and railways built to reach them when he served as secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce, Silek said from the group's headquarters in Richmond, Va., where Davis is buried.

"The members who were active then did the historical research and found out that Mr. Davis was instrumental in developing the roads and highways in Washington state," Silek said. "And that's why they felt that Washington needed a highway named after Jefferson Davis."

The organization used to have six Washington chapters, although there's only one left now, with 32 members.

United Daughters of the Confederacy, which originated the highway naming in 1913, placed the markers for the patchwork road, which started in Virginia at the Potomac River and goes all the way to California, then up the coast, Silek said. The Blaine marker is the last one.

The local United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter plans to fight to keep the memorial standing, Silek said. She also said she'll ask Vancouver city officials to put back their marker in a city park marking the other end of the highway in Washington. It was quietly removed four years ago by a city council members who expressed concerns similar to Dunshee's.

The Daughters of the Confederacy can expect help from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, said Ken Richmond of Sequim, leader of the group's state chapter. He said his group would support them in their quest to keep the markers up "because of the heritage issues involved."

A Western Washington University history professor said he isn't opposed to taking down the memorial, as long as it's not done solely over the slavery issue.

"If we take away memorials to people who owned slaves, we'd have to change the name of the state of Washington," said Alan Gallay, who teaches Southern history. Gallay used to teach history in Davis' home state of Mississippi, and his third book about the South is due out next week.

The proposal has stirred debate over the causes of the Civil War.

Dunshee is a history buff who can quote Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and insists that slavery was the real reason the war was fought. Others loudly disagree.

"To say that the war between the states was fought over slavery is like saying the American Revolution was fought over tea," Gass said.

The plan also highlights the deep North-South divide that still separates this country.

"It just seems that more often than not, Southerners are maligned for no particular reason," said William Wells of New Orleans, where Davis died in 1889.

Wells and others threatened -- some in jest -- to boycott Washington if Dunshee's bill gets through the Legislature.

"If Dunshee and his cohorts attempt to remove the marker, another will go up in its place," wrote Steven Moshlak of Longmont, Colo. And if the Legislature changes the name of the highway, "it will be a dark day before I, or others, will ever visit Washington state."

Hero or villain?

Dead for 113 years, Jefferson Davis still inspires Civil War-era feelings of reverence in the South and hatred in the North.

He was the first and only president of the Confederate United States. But he's often wrongly held up as a symbol of a pro-slavery resistance that led to war.

A U.S. senator from Mississippi, Davis tried to keep the Union together. He joined the Confederacy only when his state seceded. He sent a peace commission to Washington, D.C., after his inauguration, but Abraham Lincoln refused it.

Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808, just eight months before Lincoln and 100 miles away.

Davis was captured by federal troops in 1865 and jailed for two years. He was indicted for treason, but his case was dropped.

[shuckmaster]

Aw, Shucks!

[shuckmaster]

"To say that the war between the states was fought over slavery is like saying the American Revolution was fought over tea,"

[TN Republican]

"While I'm a believer in the traditional Southern view of states' rights, and believe that Mr. Dunshee has a right to move to change the name of the highway in his state," wrote Jeff Adams from Houston, "I don't think he should be so angry, intolerant and bigoted about it."

That's about all we can say about it unless a bunch of us moved to Washington.

[Destructor]

Damn right we're indignant! This is another attempt to revise History by blotting out that chapter!! History is not always pleasant, and it is not always something to be proud of either. I think it cuts back to the quote by George Santanya (not sure of the spelling): "Those who forget their History are doomed to repeat it."

As a Southerner, I am proud of my ancestors that fought for the South, but I'm just as proud of my ancestors that fought for the North! Slavery has nothing to do with it. They fought to protect their homeland, and they were heroes in the truest sense of the word!!

[billbears]

Dunshee is a history buff who can quote Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and insists that slavery was the real reason the war was fought.

LOLOLOL!!!!!! I can quote the Tyrant's speech too, but that doesn't mean I can't see through the crap it and his entire crusade against the South was really about!!

What an idiot

[TomServo]

Dixie Ping!!

[Colt .45]

Dunshee is a waste of human flesh. He is trying to curry favor among the black voters of that state. However, if you look at Washington State's populace you will find it is a hotbed of liberalism and PC whores.

I think that the Southern States should, by all means, boycott the State of Washington. Don't buy their damn apples, or travel there. Don't support the Seattle Sonics, Mariners, or Seahawks. Don't buy their logo apparel. Send nasty grams to the State, and blockade their borders .... do like the NAACP is planning to do to SC.

[stainlessbanner]

"If we take away memorials to people who owned slaves, we'd have to change the name of the state of Washington,"

Good Point!

[SpinyNorman]

Dunshee wants to pass a bill to rename the highway after William Stewart, a black man who fought for the North in the Civil War before moving to Snohomish. He also wants to get rid of the marker honoring Davis, whom he called "a guy who led the insurgency to perpetuate slavery and killed half a million Americans."

I would love to have a nickel for every bullet hole that will magically appear in the Stewart sign! Swiss cheese anyone?

[KY Dittohead]

I find it strange that the emancipation proclamation ONLY freed the slaves in the states loyal to the SOUTH..

(1861)....I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, towit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Johns, St. Charles, St. James[,] Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New-Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina, and Virginia, (except the fortyeight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth-City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk & Portsmouth [) ]; and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

Slaves in the North and the mentioned states/counties were still SLAVES, owned by their masters. Slavery was not abolished until 1865.

[Wm Bach]

He sent a peace commission to Washington, D.C., after his inauguration, but Abraham Lincoln refused it.

It was Lincoln who put the "War" in "Civil".

[aomagrat]

This revisionist BS in Washington is nothing new. King County Washington was named after William Rufus Devane King, Vice President under Franklin Pierce. But in 1986 they "discovered" that Vice President King was a slave owner, so they renamed the county after Martin Luther King, Jr. See King County MOTION NO. 6461

How long will it be before they rename the State of Washington? And you can bet it won't be after Booker T. Washington since he wasn't a member of the NAACP.

[StopGlobalWhining]

Is his birthday a legal holiday in TN?

[StopGlobalWhining]

.... do like the NAACP is planning to do to SC.

You mean the NAALCP don't you?

[dead]

I can't figure out what's stupider:

• Naming a highway in Washington after Jefferson Davis
• Changing the name for political correctness
• Southerners giving a crap about it either way

[Lurking Libertarian]

How many highways in the south are named for Abraham Lincoln?

[BlueLancer]

Unless I've forgotten my American history (or gotten something mixed up) was Jefferson the Secretary of War during the time that the US and Britain were engaged in a pi$$ing contest over the exact border between Canada and the United States out in that area? Wasn't Pickett (of later Pickett's Charge fame at Gettysburg) a captain or lieutenant in the US Army at the time facing British regulars along the border, ready (almost eager) to fight the Brits in the event border talks weren't successful? Wasn't this where the old "54'40" Or Fight" motto came from?

Easy enough to see why there might be a Jefferson Davis Highway in Washington State ... some of the state would be missing if it hadn't been for him and George Pickett.

[4CJ]

'It was Lincoln who put the "War" in "Civil".'

Bump, BUMP, BUMP! and BUMP!

[shuckmaster]

If that's a serious question, I would guess the number over 1,000 & certainly in the 100's. Similar numbers of schools & parks.