His treatment of this and

other relevant issues is typical of those wishing to make

a point when overwhelmed by evidence to the contrary.

Maintain your dogma, and look for obtuse facts to divert

the debate, or as the Wizard of Oz said: "Pay no

attention to that man behind the curtain."

Which brings us full circle

to the flag. If the civil war was all about freedom, then

there is no burning moral issue for anyone, even us

guilt-ridden Yankees. If it was fought to preserve and

protect slavery, well, that brings up some questions on

its symbols.

The evidence that it was

fought for the latter is so complete, I have trouble

understanding how anyone could believe contrary. On the

other hand, a famous libel suit is taking place in London

even now concerning another well-documented historical

horror, so who knows the limits to man's self-delusion?

Just for the sake of argument, I've compiled a list of

names and events which gather in momentum and degree as

sectionalism grew in the United States. If you look them

up, notice the common thread.

1817, American Colonization

Society; 1817, "The Philanthropist; 1817,

Underground Railway; 1819, Missouri Enabling Bill amended

Compromise; 1822, Denmark Vesey conspiracy; 1829,

Walker's Appeal; 1831, Nat Turner rebellion; 1831,

William Lloyd Garrison, "Liberator"; 1833,

American Anti-Slavery Society; "We of the South will

not, cannot surrender our institutions" - J.C.

Calhoun; 1837, Elijah Lovejoy; 1840, James G Birney;

1844, Admission of Texas; 1846. Mr. Polk's war; 1846,

Wilmot Proviso; Doughface, Free Soilers; 1849, Calhoun

Address of the Southern Delegates In Congress; 1850, Clay

and Webster, Great Compromise; 1850, Fugitive Slave Law;

1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin; 1853, Kansas Nebraska Act;

Border ruffians, ballot stuffing, Beechers' bibles, Sons

of the South vigilance committee; 1854, Lincoln, "A

house divided against itself cannot stand"; 1856,

Caning of Charles Sumner; 1857, Dred Scott; 1857, John

Brown at Harper's Ferry; 1860, Abraham Lincoln elected

President; Dec 20, South Carolina secedes.

The evidence is there, but

Mr. Gilbert and his ilk will neither examine, nor accept

it. I accept that most Southerners did not go to war to

preserve slavery. They went for all the same reasons men

always go to war, which seldom is the same as the

government that declared it. The Confederacy even went to

the trouble of including slave owners' rights in their

constitution in case anyone forgot what it was all about.

Most of us are pretty

sanguine about slavery. It was wrong, but it has been

gone for 135 years now so what's the big deal? Walk in a

slave's shoes in your mind; picture your having no

control over your life or your children's lives. You are

at the mercy and whim of another every second you live up

to and including forfeiture of your life with little hope

of ever being free. It was a terrible crime and the state

should have no part in glorifying its remembrance.

Timothy J. Parker

Commander A. Lincoln Camp 1

Sons of the Truth in History

[email protected]