Re: It’s time to just let the Confederacy go
From: wildbill4dixie@yahoo.com
To: jmoon@gannett.com
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20110214/COLUMNISTS26/110214019/It-s-time-to-just-let-the-Confederacy-go
Yours is yet another nauseating display of cowardice on the part of a “reconstructed” southerner. You sit at your desk, cowering in fear, wondering what New York and California are going to think of you. If you are Southern born, and if your ancestors fought in that war, I have no doubt that were they to come back to life they would bludgeon you with the flats of their swords. I wonder if columnists in New York or California give any thought at all to what others think of their regions? I live in New York and I can tell you with great certainty that they do not!
A few pointers:
**Jefferson Davis was more familiar with the contents of the Bible than you are. When he said that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible, he was absolutely correct. There are several passages in several parts of the book which reference slavery in this regard. There is no good in it, no bad in it, it simply is.
**When Alexander Stephens said that the Negro was not the equal of the white man, he was simply echoing what all of white America believed at that time. Abraham Lincoln essentially said the same thing. Why engage in selective condemnation? Better yet, why engage in condemnation at all? Judging past peoples by contemporary standards serves no useful purpose and teaches us nothing about history. This type of thing is the province of fools.
**There is no stain on America’s soul for having had the institution of slavery. You would be hard pressed to find any country or any people who, at one time or another, did not practice the institution. As such, I see no need for expressions of regret or recrimination. The demands for such expressions usually emanate from those people who have something to gain by coercing others into such expressions. Those who cave in to such demands are the cowards like you who are fearful that others might not think highly of them.
Finally, slavery was not the cause of the war. The South sought to go its own way and the North refused to allow it to do so. That’s what all the shooting was about. But don’t take my word for it. Listen instead to the words of the people of that time. They will tell you exactly what they were fighting for. “All we ask is to be left alone.” Those were the words of Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Judah P. Benjamin, Mary Chestnut, Patrick Cleburne and countless others. Had the North left the South alone, there would have been no shooting, no war, no 620,000 killed. The war, you see, was caused by people who simply could not leave others alone. (people like you I suspect).
You did get one thing right. The North’s motives were not pure. On that note, I will leave you with the words of he who you love to quote, Alexander Stephens. Often quoted in regards to his “Cornerstone Speech,” he is seldom quoted in his assessment of the factors motivating the North’s belligerence. – “Their ( the Yankees) philanthropy yields to their interests. Notwithstanding their professions of humanity, they are disinclined to give up the benefits they derive from slave labor…The idea of enforcing the laws, has but one object, and that is collection of the taxes, raised by slave labor to swell the fund necessary to meet their heavy appropriations. The spoils is what they are after – though they come from the labor of the slave.”
Bill Vallante
Commack New York
Sons of Confederate Veterans (Associate Member) Camps 3000, 1506, 1961, 2086
