My Response to the O’Hehir article
 
From: gpthelastrebel@att.net
 
In Response to:
 
Welcome to the new Civil War
Lincoln’s unfinished war rages on, as the neo-Confederacy tries to turn back the clock on women, gays, God and guns
Salon
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/05/welcome_to_the_new_civil_war/singleton/
 
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Education from Hollywood
 
Reading Andrew O’Hehir’s article "Welcome To The new Civil War” found at http://www.salon.com/2013/01/05/welcome_to_the_new_civil_war/singleton/ I just could not believe that an adult with reasonable education would imply that he or she thinks the movie “Lincoln” is a historically factual documentary.
 
I had tried to reply to this article in the comment section below the article but was unable to do so because I am not a premium member. That being the case I will respond on SHAPE’s forum
 
The first “fact” O’Hehir presents is in this scene at what I can only guess, would be the Hampton Roads Peace conference. This statement by Alexander Stephens Vice President of the Confederate States is supposed to jump out and grasp O’Hehir–
 
[b]Confederate vice-president Alexander Stephens (played with reptilian gentility by Jackie Earle Haley), in a secret meeting aboard a steamboat with Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward, faces up to the reality that the era of slavery has come to an end. Ratification of the 13th Amendment, Stephens muses, will destroy the basis of the Southern economy and the South’s traditional way of life. “We won’t know ourselves anymore,” he says.
 
OK fair enough now please provide the exact source where Spielberg found the quote. I have did a Google search of the web and the only place I can find the quote is in O’Hehir’s article and this article found at http://1001bookstoreadbeforeyoudie.tumblr.com/page/2. This article also uses the statement from the movie. It is not in Stephen’s memiors, I did a text search of that book and it doesn’t show up. I even went to the “Journal of the Abraham Lincoln” website. Surely if Stephen’s make this statement at the Hampton Roads Conference it would show up here? Nope — the statement is not mentioned. So now we have researched the two major players in the conference and neither shed any light on the statement. So I ask Mr. O’Hehir and Mr. Spielberg to provide me with some historical accurate source of the statement
 
Glancing, not reading, over the rest of the article, it is apparent that O’Hehir political leaning are toward Obama and the Democrats. That is fine I do not object to whatever political party wants to support, that s his business. I do think it is a crying shame that O’Hehir knows so little about the history of our country and the War for Southern indepnedence that he honestly does not know that slavery had nothing to do with the war, that Lincoln does not free any slaves, has no intention of freeing any slaves and in fact wants them removed from the country.
 
In fact O’Hehir, do realize that Lincoln was a REPUBLICAN???
 
The subtitle of O’Hehir article is “Lincoln’s Unfinished war rages on, as neo-Confederacy tries to turn back the clock on women, gays, God and guns.
 
All I will say about this is O’Hehir should read some of the information posted on SHAPE, especially “Yankee Atrocities” maybe he will then have a better understanding of history, guns and a true war on women.
 
George Purvis
Southern heritage Advancement Preservation and Education