Copy of Letter to Editor
 
From: jkingantiquearms@bellsouth.net
 
Compatriots,
 
Posted below is an article I sent to my local newspaper in response to a negative political cartoon.
 
James W. King
Past Commander
Sons of Confederate Veterans  Camp 141
Lt. Col. Thomas M. Nelson
Albany Georgia
229-436-0397
jkingantiquearms@bellsouth.net
 
The Saturday April 10 edition of the Albany Herald featured a political cartoon that portrayed a historically inaccurate message. It pictured a large Confederate flag and the Governor of Virginia reading a Confederate History and Heritage Proclamation with the words "Pay no attention to the Three-fifths man behind the curtain. Partially exposed at the other side of the flag was a black man with the word slave on his chest.
 
The designer of this political cartoon was either extremely historically ignorant or this was a deliberate attempt to create animosity towards the Confederate flag and Confederate history and heritage by a largely historically ignorant American public. I suspect the latter.
 
The 3/5 Compromise was passed in 1787 (74 Years before the Confederate flag came into existence in 1861) during the Philadelphia Convention during which debates and efforts were being made to develop and ratify a new U.S. Constitution. The South wanted to count slaves as whole persons. It was the Northern states that refused. The political cartoon leads a reader "to assume" just the opposite. A unanimous vote was required by all 13 colonies. North Carolina, a Southern state, originally voted "NO" on the compromise to only count slaves as a 3/5 person but some 2 months later reversed their decision so it was incorporated into the U.S. Constitution that was ratified in 1789. This compromise was not for humanitarian reasons by either the South or North. The purpose was to determine representation in the U.S. House of Representatives in Congress. Counting slaves as a whole person benefited the South but reduced Northern power so the North insisted that Southern slaves be counted as less than a whole person. The Three_Fifths Compromise is found in Article 1 Section 2 Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution. It states "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years (indentured servants),and excluding Indians not taxed, as Three-Fifths Of All Other Persons". Note that Indians were not counted at all.
 
We who defend the Confederate flag and Southern and Confederate history and heritage are accustomed to such misleading attacks. It would be wise for all Americans to understand and accept that the history of the Old South and Confederacy has not and is not being presented in a fair and impartial manner by historians and mainstream news media. Many facts and truths that reflect negatively on the North have been totally omitted from American history books and essentially all American history since 1865 is a highly biased New England perspective. An example- "Uncle Sam’s Terrorist Organization THE UNION LEAGUE (sometimes called LOYAL LEAGUE)has been entirely omitted from post-war reconstruction history. If there had never been a UNION LEAGUE there would have never been a KKK.  Another example-the FATHER of Southern slavery was a BLACK man (Anthony Johnson in 1654-1655-Jamestown Virginia) and the first state to legalize slavery by statute was Massachusetts in 1641. The pilgrims began enslaving Pequot Indians immediately upon arrival in 1620. In the South a 7 year INDENTURED SERVITUDE existed until 1654-55. The list goes on and on and so do the efforts of those who misrepresent the Old South and the Confederacy. All we ask is for the truth. Is that too much to ask? The Old South and The Confederacy was not an egalitarian utopia but neither was or is the United States of America. Millions of American Native Indians were subjected to genocide under the U.S. flag-the STARS and STRIPES. What about the 50 million babies killed by abortion? The U.S. and Confederate flags and nations are not held to the same levels of accountability and standards.