Flag

debate: Confederate soldiers misled by slave-owning

aristocracy

Obviously this flag thing isn't

going away soon. Nor do I think that reasoned argument

will change the tune of any armchair warrior pining for

the good old Confederacy. So...just the facts, ma'am.

Part of the Virginia Plan,

while formulating a Constitution for the United States,

called for a phased manumission, or buy-out of slavery in

the new country. However, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,

leading a group from South Carolina, North Carolina and

Georgia, made it clear that those states would never

accept the ending of slavery.

Further, he was able to

force the three-fifths compromise, giving ersatz approval

to that heinous institution. And so slavery existed under

Old Glory, much to the horror of most of the leaders of

the Northern States and Virginia.

While defending the

proposed constitution in the Federalist Papers, Hamilton

received a letter from Madison stating that the

Constitution must be adopted by each state "in toto

and forever." The founding fathers never envisioned

succession and George Washington was prepared early in

the life of the nation to forcibly restrain any attempts

While the reasons for the

eventual rebellion are many and varied, their common

thread is always the protection and extension of slavery.

One writer last week spoke

of fighting over the right to secede. I'm curious why a

state would secede just to fight over the right to do so.

Where were all the states' righters when Roger B. Taney

ruled that states have no right to protect slaves fleeing

their masters (Dred Scott, 1857). The states' rights

reason for rebellion is just a chimera dreamed up during

and after the war by a people who needed to justify their

immense sacrifice.

As for the Confederacy

being a nation: A nation-state must have well-defined

borders, be able to defend its sovereignty, and be

recognized by other nations as such. The C.S.A. never met

any of these tests. The states in rebellion were rogue

entities, illegally separated from the legally

constituted government of the United States, and were

forcibly returned.

While the brave men who

fought under the Confederate battle flag may have been

well-intentioned, they were ill-informed and misled by

their slave-owning aristocracy. The Confederate battle

flag is the symbol of an effort to hold millions of

people in chattel bondage in perpetuity.

The fact that the North

never fought to end slavery does not lessen its

accomplishment in actually doing so at great sacrifice.

If slavery had been abolished at the adoption of the

Constitution, there would have been no war.

If you wish to honor the

misled souls who died so Jeff Davis could keep his

"darkies," fly the flag over their graves.

Don't put it on taxpayers' buildings.

Timothy J. Parker

Peachtree City