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Are We Rethinking Our Civil War Reconciliation?
My family was in Iowa at the outbreak of the Civil War and I have one ancestor that fought for the Union. I grew up in the South but I was always grateful that the North won the Civil War. Slavery was noxious and a great evil in the American experiment. We could have had a peaceful resolution to slavery but the South broke the rules of the game and as they started to lose politically they tried their very, very best to destroy the United States. It was a very good thing that the Confederacy lost the Civil War — and in the long term — it was very good for all the states in the Confederacy that they lost the Civil War.
Having said that, I have always thought that America’s reconciliation after the Civil War is an under-appreciated miracle. The speed at which the country could unite against a common foe during the Spanish-American War — when many Civil War veterans were still alive — is remarkable. Not only that, but the career of Varina Howell Davis is equally amazing, going from being the First Lady of the Confederacy to becoming a celebrated writer in New York City.
Many have talked about the courage of Lee in making sure the Confederate Army did not break up and start guerrilla war against the Union, and rightly so. But equally important was the fact the the South could have just sat out of the American life as well. That would have been disastrous.
There was a brutal and evil price to pay for the quick reconciliation — the Jim Crow regime — and I can’t emphasize enough how much better American would be today if Jim Crow had never existed. Fortunately, we dealt with Jim Crow fifty years ago and, today, the only people that think Jim Crow was or is a good idea are a tiny lunatic fringe.
The best thing about the reconciliation has been the ability of all Americans to celebrate the martial valor of both sides of the Civil War. This has led military tradition of valor that greatly benefits our current military and contributed greatly to our military success as a nation.
When I watch a movie like Gettysburg, I want the Union to win and I would have been proud to make a stand with Chamberlain on Little Round Top. But how could I fail to be moved by the tragedy of Longstreet, or awed by the bravery and sacrifice of Pickett’s division, or not appreciate Lee’s leadership and audacity? I think it is to the nation’s benefit to that I am able to feel and emphasize with the soldiers and military tradition on both sides.
Now, however we have a strong attempt to disqualify that reconciliation to see the all the men of the Confederacy as unremitting evil. To my great disappointment Jason Lee Sterots argues this view at National Review. He thinks we should see all the Confederacy as racist cowards that deserve no respect for their military exploits. I think he writes this, as he writes much else, with little thought to the cultural consequences of his attitude.
I am more on the side of David French who debates Bakiri Sellers here. French takes the view that the reconciliation process after the Civil War is important and the South’s military history is important and distinct enough from the racist cause of the war to be worth keeping. Mr. Sellers who, at one point, uses the word “Sheroes” does not even seem to understand what Mr. French is saying. I pray that “Sheroes” has not become a thing in the United States.
That disturbs me because every great nation has to stand up and fight for its survival at times and its martial culture and courage is a very important ingredient to a nation’s survival. It bears noting that the French had everything they needed to resist the German invasion in 1940 except the will to fight. While many French soldiers fought bravely — as well as a very few French Government officials — it was not sufficient to the task of stopping the German army, whose military élan and determination was in much greater supply.
Whether the Confederate Battle Flag continues to fly anywhere or not, must we jettison the important reconciliation we have achieved after the Civil War? Am I — are we — not allowed to acknowledge that even the best and bravest of men can sometimes fight for the wrong cause? Is that lesson not important for us all to learn? If you throw away an entire tradition of marital valor and courage you do not easily replace it. Do people even bother to pause and contemplate that? I fear they do not, and we could easily lose an important part of American culture as a causality of a lone man’s racist attack.
Published in Culture, Politics
Douglas, when can we get together? We could take ’em all on by our lonesomes.
I think Grant and Lee would both be great men to meet. Grant however is the better man who fought for the right cause so if I am picking one I am taking Grant. Also all told Grant was the better general.
If were speaking of the men based simply on their private life than Lee would be the better and more honorable choice but we don’t look at public figures that way.
“Well, my reasons for saying what I say are very different than the reasons of those individuals. All I’m saying is that there was slavery under the Stars and Stripes for more than twenty times as long as under Confederate flags.”
The country that issued the Emancipation Proclamation, won the Civil War and passed the Fifteenth amendment is represented by the Stars and Stripes.
That timeline doesn’t work for me either, as you would need to add the time the Southern states were under the Stars and Stripes to their time as Confederate states.
But isn’t Lincoln the consummate Midwesterner then? All the virtue of the South with all the industry of the North East?
So is the government that sics the IRS on political undesirables, forces people to buy expensive, useless health insurance, and molests law-abiding citizens at airports. Just saying.
So I see we are bringing recent grievances into this too. I believe the USA, despite recent failings by the Executive branch, is an amazing country, and I am proud of our Stars and Stripes.
But it is not what we, the Southrons, are doing that endangers the reconciliation. It is what the Progressives are doing and the weak sob-sisters among the so-called Conservative movement are doing that is endangering it. It is also the arrogance of Yankees who think they were so morally pure as their ships brought slaves from Africa and other places.
For us, this is about a heritage of fighting tyranny. You can either suck up to the tyrants, or you can defend against them. This has not changed. Choose this day whom you will serve.
“For us, this is about a heritage of fighting tyranny. You can either suck up to the tyrants, or you can defend against them. This has not changed. Choose this day whom you will serve.”
But couldn’t you say that by standing up against the “tyranny” of the North, the South was perpetuating the tyranny of slavery?
Also I have never understood the “tyranny” they were fighting. They lost an election. They saw the culture moving away from them instead of adapting to it they tried to leave illegally and steal property while doing it. What kind of tyranny was that?
What I was responding to, was someone said the Confederate Flag represented slavery. Well, so does the US flag. So does the British flag. Yes, the British led the way in stamping out slavery. Yes, the United States ended slavery here. But we don’t know how long it would have been preserved in the Confederacy, because that nation was conquered by Yankee tyrants and their military minions. Had Lincoln not gone to war to forcibly re-forge the political bands that had been severed, the Confederacy might have wound up ending slavery due to economic reasons before the remaining slave states in the US ended it. We don’t know. We can’t know. Because that nation was not given the chance to live and develop. To exclusively tie the Confederate flags to slavery is foolish hypocrisy.
I don’t think we shouldn’t have had reconciliation, and I have far too often lamented the counter factual nature of saying how things would be better had someone in the past done X instead of Y to say to say we should or could have done things better. What I would like to say though is that in many ways reconciliation was never complete. The South needed to reconcile with its former slaves an opportunity that of course in now lost. No one is left alive from either side now. Had that happened I think things would over all be better, at least I like to imagine it so, but I doubt if that was truly possible.
The current scuffles I think are a sign of this incomplete reconciliation.
There is nothing illegal about secession, as the Constitution says nothing of it. Secession is an implied right that all fifty states have. They voluntarily chose to join the union, they can voluntarily choose to leave. I refuse to subscribe to what I call the Roach Motel Theory of Unionism: states check in, but they can’t check out.
The United States did not end slavery in the United States until after the war. There were at least three slave states that never left the US and joined the Confederacy. So, how was the Confederacy perpetuating the tyranny of slavery compared to the United States? Looks about equal to me.
Amen, Brother!
If a President is legally elected and you ignore that authority you are doing something illegal. Faced with actual Tyranny the right to resist it even to the point of secession is implied by the 2nd Amendment and others. However there was no tyranny to resist you don’t get to resist duly elected authorities simply because you dislike them. If you can nullify elections at your whim there was never a Union to leave.
Wisconsin threatened to secede before the south did secede. I seem to remember there was at one time a coalition of New England states that threatened secession, too.
Getting rid of Wisconsin might not have been such a bad thing, if you ask me. ;^D
And if the New Englanders had gone through with secession we would now be talking about the War of Southern Aggression and wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Yes, Northern culture shows us that superiority everyday, just read the NY Post. Midwestern culture is also on display with those cultural centerpieces of racial and fiscal harmony displayed by Chicago, Gary, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Very impressive. The more you post the more arrogant and foolish you look.
The Union would have had to win the war in order to free all the slaves, and win they did. The Emancipation Proclamation was the death knell for the continuation of slavery. While it did not apply to the border states, it was clear that slavery was not going to last. The proclamation also allowed black Americans to fight. Also, it was the US Congress that passed the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery. Union victory was the fastest way to end slavery.
Read the Cornerstone Speech found here if you want to know the unvarnished truth on how the Confederate political leadership viewed slavery.
I know it very well, and I don’t endorse it. I don’t endorse slavery, neither do I endorse any other tyranny, like greenback dollars.
But the culture of today was not the culture of 1860. Are you denying the great achievements of the North? Technology, Science, Industry… But I will concede to being overly provocative so I apologize.
Please. Yankees have no pride at all in their states or their regions. That is a Southern thing.
“Please. Yankees have no pride at all in their states or their regions. That is a Southern thing.”
Does Yankee apply to anyone not from the South? Just curious.
This gets to your very point. Now the North wants to rewrite history to make them traitors. Since they are all dead, they can at least dance on their graves.
To me, the is the PC attack on conservatives. It is just another way to get at us, since so many are white and southern.
Pretty much. It started, of course, in the New England States mostly. Of course, were you to ask an Australian or Canadian, we’re all Yanks to them.
Hey now!
Well, we might consider keeping you and the other Wisconsin Conservative. Might. But you’ll need to leave your cheeseheads behind at the border. ;^D
No. Yankees are from the North East. It is a specific batch. I have yet to meet one that has pride in his or her state the way I see people have pride in their Southern States. I have even had puzzled responses to my state patriotism.
Not, that I put Georgia* over the United States of America. America is my county, and I think the North was right to force the South back. Grant was a better General than Bobby Lee, not because of his cause, but because he was a better General. But, after the war, Bobby Lee made a point of not moving to terror, and surrendering his army. He sent the boys home. That was greatness.
Reconcilliation was a great thing. Find me another Civil War that ended without the ongoing horror. The CSA surrendered, and America was reborn anew. God Bless her.
*However, I get tears in my eyes from both songs:
Georgia on my Mind
Star Spangled Banner
Plenty of Northerners thought they were traitors at the time too.
Yep. And as we know, grinding people into the dirt when you have won, has such great outcomes.
Calling to remove monuments to the dead is the sort of things ISIS or the Communists would do.