# Confederate Symbolism; Time to Stop Nursing Grievances and Relitigating Past **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 19, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036 "2017-08-19T03:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/41 "2017-08-20T03:27:29Z")
I wonder how Americans would feel if Arabs started putting up statues around the Middle East celebrating the “lost cause” of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/42 "2017-08-20T04:09:31Z")
**JBGUSA** , if you are opposed to nursing grievances, I would assume you are for removing the statues. They are, after all, monuments to an army that marched to defend slavery and that was defeated 152 years ago. The issue is settled and dotting the landscape with monuments to honor them is clearly keeping the wounds from healing. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the statues are present in the parts of the community where racism has been most cruelly institutionalized over the years. So in the interest of not further nursing grievances, they must come down. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/43 "2017-08-20T04:34:46Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > **JBGUSA** , if you are opposed to nursing grievances, I would assume you are for removing the statues. They are, after all, monuments to an army that marched to defend slavery and that was defeated 152 years ago. The issue is settled and dotting the landscape with monuments to honor them is clearly keeping the wounds from healing. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the statues are present in the parts of the community where racism has been most cruelly institutionalized over the years. So in the interest of not further nursing grievances, they must come down. This is the perfect answer to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/44 "2017-08-20T04:51:20Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I wonder how Americans would feel if Arabs started putting up statues around the Middle East celebrating the “lost cause” of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Think they’d care more about statues, we are talking about inert lumps of metal or stone, then about real atrocities that are occurring in the Middle East? I won’t link anything here but you can find videos of some pretty heinous stuff if you want. Furthermore, you can even buy a sex slave from ISIS. The civil war in Syria is quite brutal. What with chemical weapons and mass torture being employed. Sectarian violence in Iraq is bad. I hear Israel has to profile and they may even have a wall along their border. I think Americans won’t be triggered by a statue of Bin Laden. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/45 "2017-08-20T04:58:10Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I wonder how Americans would feel if Arabs started putting up statues around the Middle East celebrating the “lost cause” of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. No graven images, dude, so not an issue. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/46 "2017-08-20T06:45:26Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > This is the perfect answer to the OP. Thanks. It just seems to me that when people are opposed to keeping the statues to “keep the peace” they always mean not to offend white people. Some times in the interest of social cohesion and historical accuracy, it’s your turn to be offended. I’m sure the native Americans won’t mind skipping a turn. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/47 "2017-08-20T14:02:48Z")
I have mixed feelings about these statue removals. Where do we draw the line? — Columbus is often hated these days; should we change the name of “District of Columbia”? _ **But in fact, the Confederate Flag is an on-going symbol of racism and hatred.** _ When I see such a flag I just think “another stupid Trumpist, sigh!” But for some, that flag is an on-going reminder of their 2nd-class status and the racism directed against them. I’m happy to give up the tiny joy of “recreational outrage” I get from seeing racist Southerners demonstrating their despicable ideas if it mitigates the dread that underlies millions of black American lives. > [@JBGUSA](#): > > Do you really think the presence of a few tiles and statues here and there are what’s holding minorities back from full participation in society? George Washington Carver managed to achieve a lot even when forced to use “Jim Crow” entrances and exits to buildings and segregated bathrooms. 😕 :eek: Do you really think the _absence_ of these flags and statues will hold you back from full participation in society? Steve Jobs managed to achieve a lot even though he grew up in a state without all these reminders of his racial “superiority.” I once posted a link to a YouTube of racial sensitivity training. I’ll hunt it down again, if you promise to click, **JBGUSA**. In the session, teenagers were asked to pretend, for an hour, that blue-eyed people were discriminated against. One young blue-eyed lady, who had no problem with the way society treats blacks, left the session in tears and in great anger, bitter at the idea that, _even in pretend_, she was inferior. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/48 "2017-08-20T14:51:57Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [Kinda sorta.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Monument)😉 Which kind of actually makes the point- it very conspicuously does not identify him by name. It’s more of an insult than an honor. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/49 "2017-08-20T15:13:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > But in fact, the Confederate Flag is an on-going symbol of racism and hatred. When I see such a flag I just think “another stupid Trumpist, sigh!” But for some, that flag is an on-going reminder of their 2nd-class status and the racism directed against them. I’m happy to give up the tiny joy of “recreational outrage” I get from seeing racist Southerners demonstrating their despicable ideas if it mitigates the dread that underlies millions of black American lives. As a black person, the Confederate flag doesn’t remind me of my 2nd-class status. Because to be honest, as naive as this may be, I don’t feel like a second class citizen. It does remind me of racism, but also to be honest, the American flag does too. The KKK waves both flags. It has been my experience that people who treat the American flag like it’s a sacred symbol also tend to be people with very “old-fashioned” views about race. The Confederate flag reminds me that in the not-so-distant past, people like my next-door neighbors fought to keep people like me in permanent bondage. When it is waved in my face, it reminds me that a lot of people don’t give a fuck about what permanent bondage means–and this includes a lot of non-racist people. And that makes me question if whether people really are as freedom-loving as they claim they are. This past Friday, a coworker cornered me into a discussion about the removal of the statues. “I just don’t get it” she said. I didn’t want to have the discussion and I told her so, but she dragged my opinions out of me. (When someone says they just don’t get something that is so blatantly obvious, I guess it’s hard for me to not say something.) I told her I am glad they are removing the statues because they represent a really bad time in history–not just for black people, but for all Americans. I mean, I’d like to think that if I were white, I wouldn’t want to see reminders of the Confederacy either. Just like if I were a German, I wouldn’t want to see Nazi statues. So, it kind of bothers me when people make it out to be a black people butthurt thing. IMHO, the wrongness of the symbology should be clear to all freedom-loving, equality-seeking human beings. Even if a person can’t get it on an emotional level, they should still be able to understand why people have a problem. As a side note: when I asked my coworker why we should memoralize people who fought against the USA, she immediately replied: “No, they didn’t!” I asked who they took arms up against and then she nodded her head and said, “I guess you have a point, but they were still Americans.” WTF. If people can’t even agree that Robert E. Lee and them fought against the USA and thus meet the full definition of “traitor”, then we have a serious problem with the educational system. And I can’t help but to blame the Confederate symbols for contributing to this problem. It’s kind of hard to call someone out as being a guy who made horrible choices when there’s a giant monument in his honor smack dab in the middle of the city. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/50 "2017-08-20T15:21:45Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I once posted a link to a YouTube of racial sensitivity training. I’ll hunt it down again, if you promise to click, **JBGUSA**. In the session, teenagers were asked to pretend, for an hour, that blue-eyed people were discriminated against. One young blue-eyed lady, who had no problem with the way society treats blacks, left the session in tears and in great anger, bitter at the idea that, _even in pretend_, she was inferior. That would be an interesting exercise… one thing that makes it different from discrimination against blacks is that eye color is very hard to tell from across the room. (More similar to anti-semitism, possibly?) So you’d be meeting somebody for the first time and then realize–oh, they’re one of _those_ people… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/51 "2017-08-20T15:32:05Z")
> [@abashed](#): > > Just removing symbols of past political injustices does nothing in the long term. It’s impossible to completely expunge records of a country’s history and all this is doing is pandering to the liberal left political correctness brigade. It’s false because it does not change people’s attitudes. It just all goes underground, which can be far worse. The liberal elite have a lot to answer for in a quest to find redemption in superficial actions that just wind other people up and cause even more problems than before. Let sleeping dogs lie while trying to improve things through education, not symbolic virtue signalling. There’s a lot of people in this country who are offended by leaving these statues up. There’s a lot of people in this country who are offended by taking these statues down. Why is it only “pandering” to listen to the people who want the statues removed, and not “pandering” to listen to the people who want them to stay? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/52 "2017-08-20T15:41:38Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > It was meanto to be an emblem of two things: 1) that the tiles were at the geographical center of Manhattan; and 2) That it is in some senses the center of the world. The tiles had nothing to do with the Confederacy. So this part described in the article is just a total coincidence? > [@](#): > > The tiles have been at the 40th Street entrance of the Times Square station since the early 20th Century, when they were created in honor of Adolph Ochs, a former head of the New York Times who was interred with a Confederate flag. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/53 "2017-08-20T16:00:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > There’s a lot of people in this country who are offended by leaving these statues up. There’s a lot of people in this country who are offended by taking these statues down. Why is it only “pandering” to listen to the people who want the statues removed, and not “pandering” to listen to the people who want them to stay? Generally a good rule of thumb is that if one side is celebrating murder, rape, and torture, (which is what slavery entails, and so is what the Confederacy fought for, and what was explicitly celebrated by putting statues in) you don’t want to be on that side. I didn’t really think this is a complicated decision. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/54 "2017-08-20T16:26:21Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Generally a good rule of thumb is that if one side is celebrating murder, rape, and torture, (which is what slavery entails, and so is what the Confederacy fought for, and what was explicitly celebrated by putting statues in) you don’t want to be on that side. I didn’t really think this is a complicated decision. But, what if they are only celebrating the good parts of slavery? /s ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/55 "2017-08-20T17:53:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The tiles have been at the 40th Street entrance of the Times Square station since the early 20th Century, when they were created in honor of Adolph Ochs, a former head of the New York Times who was interred with a Confederate flag. Adolph?!? Now that coincidence is something that writers of fiction would be shot for using it. So yeah, truth is stranger than fiction. Stranger when one takes into account that Ochs fought against anti-semitism but unfortunately he did not see how wrong slavery was. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/56 "2017-08-20T18:00:31Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Generally a good rule of thumb is that if one side is celebrating murder, rape, and torture, (which is what slavery entails, and so is what the Confederacy fought for, and what was explicitly celebrated by putting statues in) you don’t want to be on that side. I didn’t really think this is a complicated decision. Yeah but that’s assuming one’s own conclusion. It’s complicated because Confederate memorials aren’t entirely about the CSA as a political entity. To the extent they were, that simple argument would be convincing. The Confederacy as a political institution _was_ primarily dedicated to protecting the institution of slavery, the secession documents said that clearly. However the CSA as political institution isn’t in every case what’s being venerated in memorials to CSA military leaders or ordinary soldiers. In a strictly military context, Jackson and Lee were among the most capable American generals ever. And we should want the US Army to be an over-performing military organization like say Jackson’s army in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862. Those names in battlefield memorials, military base names, M36 Jackson tank destroyer in WWII, etc in part symbolize what the Army should be basically about: military capability. When and for what cause the Army should be sent to war is a different issue. The Confederate forces were often among the toughest and best led American armies in history. Another very tough American Army was the standing army in 1846 in early battles outnumbered by a Mexican Army many foreign observers viewed as more professional. That war wasn’t on very firm moral ground either necessarily, but in strictly military terms the Army’s performance contrasts to the sometimes embarrassing stumbles of the ‘come as you are’ version of the US Army early in more morally positive (WWII, Korea or Union forces in the ACW) wars.\*\* And in a strictly memorial context, literally honor to people who served and died, similarly acceptable IMO. Here again the question is not whether there were positive aspects to slavery which there were not, but if those men gained any right to say why they individually fought and died (also considering a larger minority of them were outright draftees later on than Union, though the Union draft was more notorious). Where the memorials are more political, clearly when it’s political figures (Jefferson Davis) the simple rationale ‘they were for slavery’ is more convincing IMO. On top there’s the aggravating factor to the extent Confederate symbols were adopted, as political symbols, much later explicitly in opposition to Civil Rights (eg. SC capitol Confederate flag flying from 1962, backers gave that as a reason at the time). I don’t think it’s necessarily pandering that it go either way. Really depends. But there’s definitely opportunism going on now. \*\*if the comeback is to skirt the edges of Godwin’s Law and ask if the US Army should venerate the WWII German Army 1) it’s not conventional tradition building to look to other countries’ armies 2), but that was man for man the most effective army of its time and can thus be learned from, in military terms. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/57 "2017-08-20T18:20:12Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > The Confederate forces were often among the toughest and best led American armies in history. > [@Corry\_El](#): > > And in a strictly memorial context, literally honor to people who served and died, similarly acceptable IMO. > [@Corry\_El](#): > > I don’t think it’s necessarily pandering that it go either way. Really depends. But there’s definitely opportunism going on now. Well, a tough army up to a point. (actually thanks to many points): > **[Desertion (Confederate) during the Civil War - Encyclopedia Virginia](https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/desertion-confederate-during-the-civil-war/)** > > Historians have argued over the proper way to interpret the act of desertion—whether it should be regarded as a protest against the state or a reaction to the specific and immediate problems that soldiers faced (such as inadequate rations,... > [@](#): > > During both of Robert E. Lee’s invasions of the North—the Maryland Campaign during the fall of 1862 and the Gettysburg Campaign the following summer—the Army of Northern Virginia suffered serious attrition from “straggling” and desertion. Lee himself estimated that a third of his force was absent at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. Some of these men were too weak to maintain the year’s punishing schedule of marching, especially after the grueling campaigns from the Seven Days through Second Manassas. Men suffered from a critical lack of shoes, clothing, and food, and, following the campaign, Lee quickly moved to fix problems in the Confederate quartermaster department. Other soldiers deserted not for lack of supplies but because they opposed on principle Lee’s decision to take the war north. Still others probably deserted with no intention of returning, even when the army returned to Virginia. In the last year of the war: [Quote= The Civil War, Ken Burns Episode 8] Lee’s army was shrinking. In nine months 60,000 southern soldiers had deserted. [/quote] IMHO it is to these men that risked execution the ones that we should remember. As they helped shorten the war. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/58 "2017-08-20T19:52:49Z")
[In 2003, Confederate sympathizers objected to a Lincoln statue](https://mobile.nytimes.com/2003/04/06/us/lincoln-statue-is-unveiled-and-protesters-come-out.html). > [@](#): > > ‘‘They have no concept of history and how it might be the wrong place to put the statue,’’ said Mr. Bowling, whose great-grandfather John Stephen Cannon fought for the Confederacy. ‘‘As a Southerner, I’m offended. You wouldn’t put a statue of Winston Churchill in downtown Berlin, would you? What’s next, a statue of Sherman in Atlanta?’’ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/59 "2017-08-24T14:55:43Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > I think it’s way past time to stop relitigating a war that ended 162 years ago. You are, of course, making the same demands of people who fly Confederate flags, right? I mean presumably they should be encouraged to let it go too. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036/60 "2017-08-24T16:19:56Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > Yeah but that’s assuming one’s own conclusion. It’s complicated because Confederate memorials aren’t entirely about the CSA as a political entity. To the extent they were, that simple argument would be convincing. The Confederacy as a political institution _was_ primarily dedicated to protecting the institution of slavery, the secession documents said that clearly. However the CSA as political institution isn’t in every case what’s being venerated in memorials to CSA military leaders or ordinary soldiers. No, that’s just “Lost Cause” nonsense. The confederacy was explicitly about slavery and white supremacy, period. That’s what it’s soldiers fought for, and that’s what it’s military leaders forswore their oaths to the United States for. Trying to say that memorials that hold up the treasonous Confederate Battle flag are about prowess in battle and really have nothing to do with what they were battling for is absurd on it’s own, but is even more absurd when you add in the context that the statues weren’t generally erected in the lifetime of the people they were supposedly honoring, but were instead primarily erected during the worst of Jim Crow and the big fight over Civil Rights for blacks. The timing makes it very obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense what part of the Confederacy is truly being honored. If it was really about honoring southern soldiers and nothing to do with what the Confederacy stood for, they wouldn’t be bedecked with explicitly racist symbols mostly standardized after the war (like the Confederate Battle Flag) but with symbols tied to the common soldiers. And they shouldn’t look like they belong in a victory parade or an action sequence, but should be something quieter. And, most critically, they wouldn’t have dedication speeches like > [@](#): > > It is true that the snows of winter which never melt, crown our temples, and we realize that we are living in the twilight zone; that it requires no unusual strain to hear the sounds of the tides as they roll and break upon the other shore, “The watch-dog’s bark his deep bay mouth welcome as we draw near home”, breaks upon our ears—makes it doubly sweet to know that we have been remembered in the erection of this beautiful memorial. The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding the war, when the facts are, that their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South – When “the bottom rail was on top” all over the Southern states, and to-day, as a consequence the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States – Praise God. > > ``` > I trust I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather personal. One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept with a double-barrel shot gun under my head. > > ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confederate-symbolism-time-to-stop-nursing-grievances-and-relitigating-past/794036.md?page=4)