On Jefferson Davis Avenue, in New Orleans, stands a statue of the man, "Profound scholar of the constitution, In judgment sound, in morality firm, in resolve steadfast" or words to that effect, but most of all, "Patriot."
In Cabin John, Maryland, stands the Union Arch Bridge, which, legend has it, was dedicated by Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In 1861, Lincoln sent a detachment of calvary to remove a plaque from this bridge because the plaque listed various officials who had part in the construction of the bridge: Montgomery Meigs, of the Army Corps of Engineers and Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War.
Apparently, Mr. Lincoln disagreed with the idea Mr. Jeff Davis was a patriot.
There must be a difference between traitor and patriot.
Some would say it's all in your point of view.
Others would say it's in where you stand now.
It's not where you stand now but rather if you are the last one standing. Might makes right, always has always will. The winner gets to write the history. However, not to take a stand at all is the worst sin.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteActually, not.
Might does not make right.
Had Pickett's charge succeeded and the Confederacy won the war and slavery persisted in the Confederate States of America until the 21st century--now without chains but with electronic tracking devices, that would not have made slavery, the ownership of one human being by another, right.
Fortunately, the victors of the Civil War wrote some of the history--but in Louisiana, South Carolina and elsewhere in the South the losers are still trying to write history.
Fortunately, race relations in the USA have moved in the direction of tolerance and mutual enrichment. It took another 100 years after the war, but like elections, war sometimes does make a difference.
So far, in New Orleans these past two days I have seen only two statues: One to Jeff Davis and one to Beauregard, another Southern general, traitor, gentleman. Round 'bout here, 'pears the losers have written the history.
Mad Dog