Your article "Confederate plate vs. Buffalo Soldiers plate"

From: cliftonpalmermclendon@yahoo.com
To: rmjones@dallasnews.com

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/10/confederate-pla.html

Your article shows either a lack of knowledge or a reckless disregard of the facts.

SLAVERY AS THE CAUSE OF THE WAR OF 1861-1865:

To refute the oft-repeated canard that the War for Southern Independence(commonly but erroneously called "The Civil War") was fought over slavery, I need only mention the Corwin Amendment — proposed by Congressman Thomas Corwin of Ohio, passed by Congress 2 March 1861, and endorsed by Abraham Lincoln. That amendment read: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State."

If the seceded States had wished to perpetuate slavery, they had only to re-join the Union and ratify that amendment.

They did not because they seceded to escape an overweening, all-intrusive big government – the same reason that thirteen States seceded from Britain in 1776, Mexico from Spain in 1818, and Texas from Mexico in 1836.

A FLAG OF SLAVERY:

If you seek a flag of slavery, look no farther than the thirteen-stripe United States flag.

Under that flag, hundreds of thousands of Africans were transported to slavery in the New World in the 1700s and 1800s.

No Confederate-flagged ship ever made a slaving-run.

Under that flag, the African slave trade (importation of Africans to be sold into bondage) was authorized for 32 years (1776-1808).

The Confederate constitution prohibited the African slave trade.

Under that flag, slavery was authorized for 89 years (1776-1865).

Under Confederate flags, it was authorized for four years.

So, if you seek a flag of slavery, go for Old Glory.

CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS CONTRASTED WITH THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS:

The Buffalo Soldiers, together with other soldiers serving under the thirteen-stripe United States flag, systematically hunted down and killed thousands of men, women, and children, and forcibly removed other thousands from their homelands and relocated them to less-hospitable environs in the late 1800s for the shocking offense of being Native Americans/Indians.

No such actions ever occurred under a Confederate flag. To the contrary:  Many Native Americans/Indians served in Confederate forces, and the last Confederate general to cease fighting was Stand Watie, a Cherokee.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:

Definitions taken from Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.; 1981)

BIGOTRY: Obstinate and unreasoning attachment to one’s own belief and opinions with intolerance of beliefs opposed to them.

IGNORANCE: A lack of knowledge, either in general or of a particular point.

PREJUDICE: Unreasonable predilection for or objection against something; or an opinion or leaning adverse to anything without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge; or an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics; or an opinion or judgment formed beforehand or without due examination.

Your remarks tend to show that you have an obstinate and unreasoning attachment to your beliefs about matters Confederate, with intolerance of beliefs opposed to them.

Your remarks tend to show that you have an unreasonable objection to matters Confederate. That adverse opinion was obviously formed without just grounds or due examination (or, giving you the benefit of the doubt, before sufficient knowledge). Your remarks also tend to show an irrational attitude of hostility directed against the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their supporters.

I am reasoning from the premise that you wrote your article out of simple ignorance (lack of knowledge about history). I have taken the time to give you information so that you can reason from knowledge rather than lack thereof.

So that I may know that you are not a prejudiced bigot, I look for you to print a retraction.

Clifton Palmer McLendon