One Man’s Reply
 
From: cliftonpalmermclendon@yahoo.com
 
Dozens protest Confederate flag’s recent removal from East Texas town’s courthouse flagpole
"…fourth-grader William Peeler said Wednesday he doesn’t pledge allegiance to the American flag because — quote — "Under that flag, the Yankees killed southerners."
The Republic
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f004511e1769459084e52e7c6030e4dd/TX–Confederate-Flag-Flap/
 
If people want to oppose a flag of slavery and oppression, they need look no farther than the thirteen-stripe United States Flag.
 
Under that flag, hundreds of thousands of Africans were brought to the New World to be sold into slavery. (No Confederate-flagged ship ever made a slaving-run.)
 
Under that flag, atrocities were committed upon Southern women and children — atrocities that were on a par with German and Japanese atrocities in World War II. The perpetrators were never punished. (No Confederate unit ever attacked noncombatants.)
 
Under that flag, the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now the United States were forcibly displaced, cheated, and hunted down and slaughtered for their ethnicity alone. (No such thing was done under a Confederate flag.)
 
That flag is the principal flag of the Ku Kluxers — undeniably a group promoting hatred. See http://pointsouth.com/csanet/kkk.htm for pictures.
 
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The story of a boy and his infatuation with the Rebel flag 
Charleston City Paper
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/the-story-of-a-boy-and-his-infatuation-with-the-rebel-flag/Content?oid=3245786
 
The flag that we know as the Confederate Battle Flag was used by many (but by no means all) Confederate military units during the War for Southern Independence (1861-1865). It was their flag, and they alone had the right to interpret its meaning.
 
When the War was over, the Confederate soldiers became Confederate veterans. They formed an organization known as the United Confederate Veterans. The Confederate Battle Flag was still their Flag, and they alone had the right to interpret its meaning.
 
In 1896, since many of the Confederate veterans were aged, infirm, and dying off, the Sons of Confederate Veterans was formed as the successor organization to the United Confederate Veterans. The legacy and authority of the United Confederate Veterans was transferred to them over the next ten years. This transfer of power culminated in a speech given 25 April 1906 at New Orleans, Louisiana by Stephen Dill Lee, Confederate lieutenant-general, and commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans:
 
"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Are you also ready to die for your country? Is your life worthy to be remembered along with theirs? Do you choose for yourself this greatness of soul?
 
Not in the clamor of the crowded street,
 
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
 
But in ourselves are triumph and defeat."
 
Since 25 April 1906, therefore, the Confederate Battle Flag has been the flag of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. They alone have the right to interpret its meaning. They have interpreted its meaning, and explained (repeatedly!) that meaning – and it is not hatred, nor is it bigotry.
 
Any interpretation of the Confederate Battle Flag other than that given by the Sons of Confederate Veterans is, at best, spurious.
 
To refute the oft-repeated lie that the War for Southern Independence 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 were escaping an overweening, all-intrusive big government.
 
Clifton Palmer McLendon