For quite some time now, many Leftist do-gooders have been on a crusade to take down Confederate monuments throughout the Southern United States. The conflict in Charlottesville definitely brings this issue to a head. President Trump made several good points at the press conference on Tuesday in regards to this issue. Among them was his questioning the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, and the door it may open in regards to the potential removal of other American monuments. Overall, this mission to remove Confederate monuments is pretty ridiculous. Unfortunately, we are likely to see further violence over the issue so I think it is important to address.
Let me start by saying the Confederacy absolutely deserved to have it’s keister handed to itself in the Civil War. As a Civil War buff, and firm believer in fighting war as it should be fought, I passionately believe pre-Civil War Southern culture needed to be put solidly in check and it most certainly was. Having said this, it is a terrible disservice to our history and to those who suffered from the Civil War to reduce a person such as General Robert E. Lee to some sort of racist figurehead.
Of all people, Robert E. Lee was not adamantly supportive of secession from the Union; nor was he all that fond of the institution of slavery. Like many Southerners, he was unfortunate enough to live in a time, place, and culture where he had to choose between his nation and his family/home. Nevertheless, whatever his motives, General Lee was a traitor, technically speaking. He made a conscious decision to choose the side of a secessionist movement over the nation which he was born into. If the primary reason for removing his statue was purely motivated by the concept of him as a traitor, I might see a little more basis for this crusade. This is not the case though.
The primary motive for removing this statue is the based in the mistaken belief that General Lee and other Confederate monuments are purely symbols of racism. The equation put together by those who are leading this crusade goes something like this:
Confederacy stood for slavery + General X fought for the Confederacy = General X was a racist.
I’m not here to argue that slavery as it existed in the U.S.A. and C.S.A. was not a racist institution; clearly it was. I also won’t deny that racist beliefs were held by various Confederate generals. Nevertheless, to reduce any one Confederate soldier or general to a worthless racist is to judge that person solely based on a single flaw. It may be an important flaw, but it does not define these men on the whole. Robert E. Lee is not the shining star of White Supremacy he has been equated to by many on both the Far-Right and Far-Left. General Lee and other Confederates would probably rather have found a peaceful solution to the slavery question if they could have. However, it was simply not within their scope or power to change this cultural dynamic within the South. Most Confederates cared more about fighting on the side of their home and family than they cared about fighting for slaveholders; even if that’s what their choice incidentally resulted in.
None of that addresses what I find most disturbing about the crusade against Confederate statues. What is most worrisome about this crusade is the open-endedness of it. President Trump brought up a great point about where it could lead to; the removal of statues and icons of our founding fathers. If racism and slavery are the only gauge we use to judge these men, it is an awfully flawed meter.
It’s easy to judge these men centuries after their deaths in a culture which has evolved considerably in terms of acceptance and tolerance. To stand in their shoes when they lived and judge them would be much more complex. It is simply unrealistic and unfair to hold them to the moral and cultural standard of today. Today we know slavery is something to abhor but it was simply a part of life in their time.
To diminish men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison to slave holding racists is to ignore the many great things they provided to our nation. Let us not forget what a tolerant and culturally diverse nation the United States is; nor forget the men that laid the foundation for us to get where we are. Surely, the system they helped to create has been aided and complimented by others along the way (Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King to name but a few). Our founding fathers may have written a “bad check,” as Martin Luther King put it, but they still wrote the “check.” In doing so, they paved the way for others to build on the foundation which they established for the United States to eventually become the most free, culturally diverse, artistically rich, technologically advanced, and all-around most tolerant nation this world has ever seen.
In addition, Confederate monuments are important historical symbols. They are reminders of the price so many Americans paid to get where we are now. Confederate soldiers may have been wrong in what they fought for but they were still Americans whose descendants walk among us today. We should not denounce these ancestors but rather learn from their mistakes.
Interestingly enough, I think it speaks to the unique tolerant and progressive nature of United States history that a statue of a man who fought against our Union still stands almost 150 years after his death. Remember, part of the healing process after fighting a Civil War includes the reintegration of the losing faction into society. It can be argued that Confederate monuments played an integral part in that. You can’t force that reintegration overnight.
Ironically, progressives are actually regressing by making a big deal out of something that is otherwise a non-issue as far as race relations go. The majority of Americans view Confederate monuments as historical icons of a very different time in our history. Very few view Confederate monuments as symbols of White Supremacy and those few certainly should not dictate how we treat items that are otherwise of important historical significance. Besides, most of these monuments were built to honor the men they portray; not specifically what they fought for.
When considering this issue remember the following important points:
- If you look back at history’s greatest leaders and expect moral perfection, you will be disappointed every time. Likewise will you be disappointed when applying this standard to our future leaders.
- If you want to stamp out all symbols of America’s history with slavery, you will have to go beyond America’s borders. Remember: for every European who traded in African flesh, there was an African counterpart who provided the product. You had better start doing your research on which African tribal symbols and leaders to erase from history.
- One would be hard pressed to find a culture that did not have the institution of slavery at some point in its history.
- The United States was a very young nation when it fought its Civil War. The seeds of future conflict between North and South were sewn not long after our establishment as a nation. Our forefathers went to a lot of trouble to create a United States that would survive its early nationhood intact, but that survival was certainly not a given. To expect them to have tackled the issue of slavery, on top of everything else they faced, and still have created a strong/intact nation is preposterous.
- Tearing down Confederate monuments does not change anything about the history of the United States. It does nothing to improve the lives of Black Americans in the past or present. If you are relying on the removal of a statue to feel good about your country, you’re in for disappointment because the statue is not the problem.
- The United States is a comparatively young nation and has progressed very far and relatively fast. We have an extensive history of overcoming conflicts and mistakes, and learning from them. We are a great nation because of this history; not in spite of it.
