Rev. Hatcher seems

surprised that the Southern plantation owners did not

think it was right for the North, which had grown rich by

the trade, to suddenly decide that slavery was wrong and

that they would free all the slaves without repaying one

cent of the purchase money. And as for prejudice, I

challenge you to guess who made the following statements:

"You and we are

different races. We have between us a broader difference

than exists between almost any other two races. Whether

it is right or wrong, I need not discuss; but this

physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both,

as I think. Your race suffers very greatly, many of them,

presence. In a word, we suffer on each side."

"But, even when you

cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being

placed on an equality with the white race. The aspiration

of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but

on this broad continent not a single man of your race is

made the equal of a single man of ours."

These quotes came from a

speech made by President Abraham Lincoln to a group of

free blacks who had been invited to the White House in

1862. These sentiments make it easier to understand why

Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation only freed the

slaves in the "any state, or designated part of a

state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion

against the United States."

The slaves outside of the

Confederacy, or in places occupied by Federal troops were

"left precisely as if the proclamation were not

issued." Palmerston, Premier of England, tauntingly

remarked that Lincoln undertook to abolish slavery where

he was without power to do so, while protecting it where

he had the power to destroy it.

Secondly, the South did not

rally behind the "stars and bars" to preserve

slavery, but to defend their land, homes, and families

from a Federal government that was usurping their

Constitutional rights. They were tired of unfair taxation

(if you do not believe me consider Mr. Lincoln's response

when asked why he did not simply let the South go:

"Let the South go? Let the South go! Where then

shall we get our revenues!") and Federal intrusion

into matters specifically delegated to the individual

states.

They did not rebel, they

simply withdrew from a government that had turned a deaf

ear to their pleas for a peaceful end to slavery (among

other issues) and formed a new government that held fast

to the principles of free government handed down to them

a Confederate soldier:

"I was a soldier in

Virginia in the campaigns of Lee and Jackson, and I

declare I never met a Southern soldier who had drawn his

sword to perpetuate slavery ... What he had chiefly at

heart was the preservation of the supreme and sacred

right of self government."

Therefore, I simply cannot

understand how Rev. Hatcher arrives at the conclusion

that a Confederate battle flag is a reminder of

humiliation and segregation.

I cannot deny that some

Southern slaves were cruelly treated, but what about the

horrible conditions aboard the slave ships flying the

United States flag? There are cases of racial prejudice

in the South, but these incidents are not isolated to one

region of the country.

I do not think it would be

a good thing to remove this symbol of our heritage from

our state flag because of the false presuppositions of

misinformed individuals. The flag should be a reminder

that in every generation there must be those who are

willing to stand for freedom, for all people, not just a

select few.

I am proud of our Southern

legacy of liberty and independence and I believe that if

Rev. Hatcher sincerely wishes to "undo the pain and

suffering" of the past, he could do far more by

promoting the following views of Confederate General Lee,

than by promoting a false view of history:

"I have fought against

the people of the North because I believed they were

seeking to wrest from the South its dearest right. But I

have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive

feelings, and I have never seen the day when I did not

pray for them."

Heather Harbin

Tyrone

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