HERITAGE ISSUE

I recently had the opportunity to read on-line Richard L. Howell's "Letter To The Editor" captioned above, and I am certainly amazed at the numerous historical inaccuracies he used in stating his premise that, "What he refers to as Confederates were nothing more than rebels, rebelling against the United States, and they were not authorized to grant the Seminoles a treaty."

If Mr. Howell will take the time to read the Declaration of Independence, he will find that the document proclaims the thirteen American colonies to be “Free and Independent States”, adding “that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”

When the U.S. Constitution was presented for ratification, the Union was briefly dissolved, but was reunited as the states each ratified the Constitution. Any state that declined to ratify it would have remained outside the Union, but in the end all rejoined. Even so, three states ratified on the express condition that they reserved the right to “resume” or “reassume” the powers they had delegated to the Union, that is, to withdraw from the Union. The right to secede, or “separate,” was taken for granted, and the first states to threaten secession were the New England states during the War of 1812.

In the Kentucky Resolutions, which were written in protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts which Thomas Jefferson saw as unconstitutional, Jefferson reminded his countrymen that the nature of the Union was that of a voluntary confederation of those free and independent states. It was not a capitulation to a new sovereign power. The powers of the Federal Government were limited, specific, and delegated; and if it exceeded them the states must have some recourse. This was clearly the intent for the inclusion of Amendments IX and X to the Bill of Rights. It is now generally agreed that Jefferson was right. He stressed that if the Federal Government were to be the final and exclusive authority on what the Constitution meant, it would be free to define the extent of its own powers, which would defeat the whole purpose of a written constitution.

On this occasion Jefferson did not call for secession. He treasured the Union, but he abhorred the idea that the states could or should be kept in the Union by force. They were still, in principle, “Free and Independent States.” They could remain free and independent only if they remained sovereign.

In 1816 Jefferson wrote that “if any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation ... to a continuance in union ... I have no hesitation in saying, ‘Let us separate.’” He hoped it would never come to that, but he saw that the ultimate right to withdraw from the Union was essential to the Union’s free and voluntary character.

It his clear from his many writings that Jefferson would certainly have agreed that the Southern states had the right to secede in 1860 and 1861. His grandson, George Wythe Randolph, served the Confederacy as a general in the army and as Confederate Secretary of War.

Evidently Mr. Howell is privy to some sort of historical information which would demonstrate the accuracy of his statements, and the inaccuracy of the statements of Thomas Jefferson and many of the other founders of our nation. If so, I would certainly welcome his sharing that information for us readers to digest.

1. Resolution abhorring the Confederate Battle Flag on State Flags Approved WHEREAS, the tyrannical evil symbolized in the Confederate Battle Flag is an abhorrence to all Americans and decent people of this country, and indeed the world and is an odious blight upon the universe; and, WHEREAS, African-Americans, had no voice, no consultation, no concurrence, no commonality, not in fact nor in philosophy, in the vile conception of the Confederate Battle Flag or State Flags containing the ugly symbol of idiotic white supremacy, racism and denigration; and, WHEREAS, we adamantly reject the notion that African-Americans should accept this flag for any stretch of the imagination or approve its presence on State Flags; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the national office of the NAACP and all units commit their legal resources to the removal of the Confederate Flag from all public properties."

For a "civil rights" organization that claims to espouse "tolerance" and "diversity", its national resolution sounds very intolerant. Whereas it demands that the heritage and history of some Americans must be celebrated, it seems to believe the heritage of other Americans is of no importance whatsoever.

It is clear that the 1991 resolution is the cause of much of the racial friction we have had since the 1990's. If every Confederate flag throughout the U.S. were suddenly removed, there would be no positive impact whatsoever on the lives of black Americans.

It is also clear that the NAACP is much more interested in maintaining racial frictions in order to fill its depleted coffers than it is in finding solutions to the problems facing those black Americans it claims to champion. It is unfortunate that Mr. Burnett, an elected official who also happens to be the president of the local NAACP chapter, is attempting to use the taxpayers' money to further the cause of the NAACP.

Perhaps Mr. Howell is unaware that President Lincoln said, on many different occasions, that the reason the war was being fought was to preserve the Union, and had nothing to do with the institution of slavery. Perhaps he is also unaware of the fact that at the time hostilities commenced in April of 1861, there were more "Slave States" still in the Union than there were in the Confederacy. Perhaps he is also unaware that during the entire war--1861 to 1865--the Federal forces included the "Slave States" of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia, and that the institution of slavery remained legal in every one of those states, including the District of Columbia, until after the war ended in 1865. Perhaps he is also unaware of the fact that slavery existed in North America from approximately 1650 until 1865, but the Confederacy was only in existence for 4 of those 200 plus years. Yet, he would have your readers believe that the Confederacy was totally responsible for the existence of slavery in North America.

It might interest Mr. Howell to know that one of the main reasons for the war was the right of the states to retain independence and sovereignty without being dictated to by an overbearing Federal government--the old idea of "States Rights". The Southern states left the Union, which, as "free and independent states", they had helped form and into which they voluntarily entered, after it became clear to the citizens of those states that remaining in the Union was no longer in their best interests. The Southern States were responsible for 82% of the entire economy of the United States, but received only approximately 25% of the benefit of the taxes and tariffs collected, with the balance going to the Northern States.

Evidently Mr. Howell has not considered the fact that by some estimates somewhere between 50,000 to 65,000 black Americans, slave and free, served the Confederate armies and navies is such capacities as infantrymen, cavalrymen, sailors, teamsters, construction workers, cooks, and hospital stewards.

Approximately one year ago, I was privileged to attend a memorial service in Tarpon Springs for a black citizen who was very proud of his service in the Confederate army. I seriously doubt that any of these many black Confederates would feel excluded or pained by public displays of the Confederate flag. I think it is more likely that they would feel excluded and pained by having their contributions to the Confederacy denied and ignored.

Mr. Howell has attempted to support a position in his letter that is unsupportable by historical truths. We need to be teaching the truth of our American history, rather than attempting to whitewash it for the sake of political correctness.