MESSAGE TO THE ALBANY HERALD
Every now and then, I spend the 50 cents and get a daily paper. Then, just when I'm almost ready to call the subscription department and get a yearly subscription, you run something like this on your editorial page:
"April is Confederate History and Heritage Month and is officially recognized by the state of Georgia and other Southern states. The annual Southwest Georgia Confederate Memorial Service will be held in Albany at the Confederate Memorial Park on Highway 91 (Philema Road) 1/2 mile past Chehaw Park on April 10. The service begins at 9 a.m. with a musical tribute to the Confederate States of America and Confederate heroes, followed by a ceremony at 10 a.m. that includes speakers, re-enactors and a musket salute. The service concludes with the playing of “Taps” at approximately noon.
The event is hosted by the Southwest Georgia camps and chapters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). The keynote speaker will be SCV Commander Russell Ottens of the Sylvester camp. He will speak on “Those Who Gave Their All For States Rights.”
The Confederate States of America and its predecessor, the Old South of the United States of America, was a classical civilization with colleges and universities, art and literature, world-class architecture, a fine military and world-class statesmen. It deserves to be remembered, honored and studied, just as the classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome are.
The public is cordially invited to join SCV and UDC for this memorial service and tribute to Southern and Confederate heroes who fought for Southern independence, limited constitutional federal government, states rights, resistance to government tyranny and Christian values and principles. The Confederate States of America and the Confederate flag represent the values and principles of the original U.S. Betsy Ross flag and America’s founding fathers, who were primarily Southern gentlemen from Virginia.
Free assistance in tracing Southern family trees and documentation of Confederate ancestors is available to anyone wishing to join SCV or UDC.
The primary goals are: 1 — To preserve the memory of officers and enlisted men of the CSA armed forces; 2 — To preserve Confederate graves, monuments, memorials, flags and other mementos, and 3 — See that Southern and Confederate history is presented in a fair and impartial manner. American history books since 1865 and continuing to this day are at best “a biased New England perspective” and at worst “New England propaganda.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bob Logan is a member of Lt. Col. Thomas Nelson Camp 141, Sons of Confederate Veterans."
How about this editor's note instead:
"Bob Logan is someone who is educationally and historically challenged, and who can't abide the truth about American history so he makes it up as he goes along. The Civil War was not fought for any of the causes he listed. It was fought because the Southern States assumed that the institution of slavery would be ended following the election of the first President of a party created for and dedicated to the principle that slavery was an evil to be eradicated. The Republican Party was founded as an anti-slavery party in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin. The election of its Presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, set off the Civil War, which started months prior to Lincoln's inauguration when South Carolina seceded and when its troops fired on Ft. Sumter in Charleston Bay. On December 24, 1860, the South Carolina legislature adopted a "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union." The words "rights of states" were used- but in the context of the "rights" of slave owners in the South to their "property." The "Causes" included a complaint about the Northern States' failure to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and to aid their Southern neighbors in keeping human beings in bondage for life.
The Confederates weren't shy about saying that they fought to preserve the institution of slavery- they had none of the "political correctness" used by modern day bigots and fascists like Mr. Logan who attempt to dress up their racist and violent messages in milder rhetoric.
The Confederacy's president, Jefferson Davis, defended slavery in a speech in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 29, 1861, arguing that Southern slavery “elevated [African slaves] from brutal savages into docile, intelligent, and civilized agricultural laborers.” He justified the Southern States' decision to secede from the Union as being necessary to insure the continuation of “the labor of African slaves... under the supervision of a superior race” which was “indispensable” to the “wants of civilized man.” Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens said that slavery was the "cornerstone" of the Confederacy.
See, now that's the kind of editor's note that would show that your newspaper was dedicated to the principles of knowledge over ignorance, tolerance over bigotry, and truth over hyperbole, gross exaggeration, and outright lies. Instead, your newspaper reinforces people's prejudices, ignorance, and fears. Shame on you.
posted by James Finkelstein (Ga.) at 8:16 AM
2 Comments:
James Finkelstein
If anyone is historically challenged it is you! President Lincoln in his inaugural address stated that he had no intentions to interfere with slavery where it existed and had no legal right to do so.
Abraham Lincoln also proposed an original 13th amendment, stating that if the states that had seceded would rejoin the union he would guarantee that slavery would be untouched.
The Lincoln administration had imposed tariffs on imports that would cripple the south, The Morill Terrif. The profits from these tariffs would be used for northern infrastructure improvements, as well as the expansion of the rail roads.
Wallington was a lawyer he was a railroad lobbyist, and had purchased land where the rare rays were to be built.
Mr. Lincoln also stated
"Any people, anywhere, being inclined in having the power. Have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, and most sacred right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world."
Abraham Lincoln himself stated. That no black man would ever be equal in standings to a white man.
Immediately after the war and shortly before his assassination general Burnssides asked Mr. Lincoln," what are you going to do with all the free slaves?" Mr. Lincoln replied " I think we should deport them all!"
Two lay the blame for slavery on the doorstep of the south is convenient, but it was a national Sin. Northern traders grew rich off the importation of slave's. And continued to smuggle slaves it into the United States after the practice had been outlawed. No ship ever flying a confederate flag imported a slave.
Try reading the 10th amendment of the constitution of the United States. Then read Virginia's proclamation of acceptance into the United States. Both written by Thomas Jefferson.
Before you attack someone else for being educationally and historically challenged I would suggest doing some research.
Dave Tatum
Suffolk Virginia
JAMES FINKELSTEIN RESPONDS:
I've done the research, and while it is true that Lincoln was not the "Great Emancipator" in the fashion that history now portrays him (the Emancipation Proclamation, by its very terms, applied only to States still in open rebellion against the United States on January 1, 1863), it is also indisputable that the Southern states seceded BEFORE his inauguration. They declared war on the United States by firing on the United States flag and on its troops- well, South Carolina, did.
They acted based on the platform of the six year old Republican Party and based on Lincoln's speeches in his campaigns for U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858 (a contest which he lost) and for president.
It is also indisputable that as a direct result of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery in the United States, was proposed and ratified the same year the war ended.
P.S. try using spell/grammar check.
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