Posted on 04/10/2015 5:03:22 PM PDT by lqcincinnatus
One hundred-fifty years after Appomattox, many Southerners still won’t give up.
One hundred fifty years ago, on April 9th, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House and the Union triumphed in the Civil War. Yet the passage of a century and a half has not dimmed the passion for the Confederacy among many Americans. Just three weeks ago, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) appeared before the Supreme Court arguing for the right to put a Confederate flag on vanity license plates in Texas. Just why would someone in 2015 want a Confederate flag on their license plate? The answer is likely not a desire to overtly display one’s genealogical research skills; nor can it be simplistically understood solely as an exhibition of racism, although the power of the Confederate flag to convey white supremacist beliefs cannot be discounted.
Rather, displaying the Confederate flag in 2015 is an indicator of a complex and reactionary politics that is very much alive in America today. It is a politics that harks back to the South’s proud stand in the Civil War as a way of rallying opinion against the federal government—and against the country’s changing demographic, economic, and moral character, of which Washington is often seen as the malign author. Today’s understanding of the Confederacy by its supporters is thus neither nostalgia, nor mere heritage; rather Confederate sympathy in 2015 is a well-funded and active political movement (which, in turn, supports a lucrative Confederate memorabilia industry).
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
That is an excellent point and goes a long way to explaining the strong feelings that still reside in the heart of the south.
Some northerners might grow up to have a less bigoted view of the south if some of the less pleasant facts of the Union's conduct in and after the war were were taught in school.
But as Winston Churchill observed - “History is written by the victors.”
If people read more great literature - like Faulkner - they’d have a better understanding. But here at FR if you spend your college days reading great works of literature rather than going to engineering class...you’re a dope. But at least I understand my country’s history.
I would ask you to name a single instance where the loosing side of a rebellion suffered less and was incorporated back into the government faster than the southern U.S. states.
Based on recent presidential elections I'd say the Great Plains states are the most conservative part of the country. Oklahoma up through the Dakotas, over to Montana and Idaho and then down through Wyoming and Utah.
Germany and Italy after WWII. All countries suffer after wartime but the south was punished horribly by the radical Republicans - bringing a lot of graft and corruption to the states as well. Hey, I’m from the state that voted not to give RE Lee’s citizenship back to him after his request was found about 30 years ago. Liz Holtzman - I mean you! That kind of sums up the idiotic attitude of some northerners.
I think it would have been better if Lincoln had lived. Johnson was rabid.
I think it would have been better if Lincoln had lived. Johnson was rabid.
Johnson was inept, it was the Republicans in Congress who were rabid. And in some ways who could blame them? Having spent four years fighting a bloody rebellion that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands I can understand why the Republicans objected to those same people wanting to resume their seats in government and conditions as close to slavery as possible as if nothing had happened. Reconstruction was harsh. It went overboard in some instances. But it was still short. All the southern states had had their congressional representation restored within four years. All restrictions were off within 10.
Thanks for confirming my point.
To me, good writing is like good engineering.
Every word or part serves a purpose, each functions as an integral part of the whole, there are none that are superfluous, and they all fit together properly to form the desired end product.
"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law."
-- Louis H. Sullivan, architect known as Father Of Skyscrapers
And mythologies by the losers.
The history of the War Between The States has been chronicled from every perspective, with perhaps more attention to detail than any earlier conflict. Lost Causers have their published tomes sitting alongside more objective treatises.
There has been no short-shrift to the record, no omission of the facts and details, and with southern partisans contributing, no one-sided narrative.
I’m talking about the failure of the North to rebuild the infrastructure of the South which plunged it into poverty, ill health and bitterness. Whether “rebellion” or war, it’s been shown that helping your former enemies is a winning strategy. I understand the bitterness on both sides but pragmatism over all.
And I'm saying, hyperbole aside, the South suffered a great deal less than the losing side of any other rebellion I'm aware of. During the period before and during the Southern rebellion, a rebellion had been going on in China which killed 25 million and left whole sections of the country deserted wastelands. The French Revolution was a bloodbath, as was the English Civil War. What happened to the south was nothing by comparison.
Hi miss marmelstein. You raise a valid point. Things were tough for southerners after the war, and circumstances were exacerbated by the assassination of Lincoln - an act that hardened hearts all around. History is replete with anecdotes of carpetbaggers exploiting southerners - it happened and it was unseemly.
But can you also pause for a moment and recognize the harm that southerners did to themselves through their resistance to reformation post-war? Upstream in this thread we spoke of the necessity for the errant states to ratify the 13th amendment as a condition for readmission, and the refusal of Mississippi to comply. Mississippi was also the first state to impose “black codes” - which later “evolved” into the notorious Jim Crow laws.
My point is that all parties had some culpability and the foot-dragging on the part of southerners didn’t exactly hasten their reconstruction.
Insults from a brainwashed leftist. Not surprising.
Poverty is never a rationalization or reason to kill miss marmelstein. In the end such rationalizations only create more war. The Dawes Plan did extend credit for Germany to rebuild it’s industries and by 1926 Germany was doing well. It’s one of the reasons, besides Hitler abortive putsch that the Nazis never did well in any election until The Crash of 1929 and even then,not until 1933 and only through legal means did they come to power.
Killing who? I didn’t say anything about killing.
I’m sorry miss marmelstein I assumed you meant to explain poverty as a reason for war, which, involves killing.My apologies.
Oh please, you can’t compare the American character to the Chinese, for God’s sake. Not in its entire history. Nowhere did I compare the North’s behavior after the war to any of the examples you just gave. Oliver Cromwell? Robespierre?
But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have done better and been smarter.
That’s ok! How you doing?
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