So some ignorant, dimbulb white supremacist that killed a bunch of black people had adopted the Confederate flag as one of his icons and suddenly Confederate flags are out of style everywhere. It is, they say, a symbol of racism — an unfortunate byproduct of the fact that History Is Written By The Victors.
The demented shooter had taken the Battle Flag of the Confederate States of America as a symbol of white supremacy. How did he get it wrong? Why do so very many people misunderstand? It is because History Is Written By The Victors.
People who are offended by the Confederate battle flag have been taught to be offended, taught by people who themselves have been misinformed and don’t understand the “Civil War” because History Is Written By The Victors.
Thus, instead of the Confederate flag simply being the symbol of states’ rights, symbol of a short-lived and embattled country called the Confederate States of America, it’s everybody’s whipping boy. Retailers, reacting to the SC shootings are dropping Confederate flag merchandise as a wave of political correctness sweeps the nation. I’m curious to see who doesn’t cave in to the PC notion that Confederate flags and related merchandise should not be made available. I have a feeling that, if I want a Confederate flag, I’d better buy one now.
I urge people who are offended by the Confederate battle flag to stop and, instead of joining the Politically Correct community, like so many howling dogs, who howl because the other dogs are howling, without really knowing why, reflect, think.
History calls it the American “Civil War“, as if the states spontaneously squared off against each other and began fighting. Sometimes called the “War Between The States”, it was anything but. It was a war between two countries: the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, and the USA started it. Or, rather, Mr. Lincoln started it, without benefit of a congressional declaration of war, I might add. Heck, Congress wasn’t even in session. But History Is Written By The Victors and tells us that the Confederacy were the bad guys, though they were acting constitutionally, while Lincoln was not.
History tells us that the South was in rebellion against the USA, though the South had seceded from the USA. Secession hardly constitutes a rebellion. Had the South actually staged a rebellion, they’d have stormed Washington seeking to unseat Lincoln, perhaps installing their own Congress so as to take over the USA as a proper rebellion would. Instead, the southern states simply seceded and asked to be left alone, forming a new country more to their liking. This is not rebellion and not deserving of being warred upon.
Secession is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. The Constitution does not deny the states the power to secede. That makes it a power reserved to the states by the Constitution. In seceding, the South was acting constitutionally. Lincoln, by contrast, acted unconstitutionally numerous times including making war on another country without a congressional declaration or war, suspending habeas corpus, imprisoning more than 13,000 detractors and he used his power to silence critics by denying them newsprint and ink to publish their papers, among other unconstitutional acts. But History Is Written By The Victors so Lincoln was heroically putting down a “rebellion”.
Having seceded from the USA, the new CSA asked that the USA remove its troops from their territory, a reasonable request. The USA refused. Imagine that a country currently hosting American troops asked the USA to withdraw its troops from their country and the USA refused. The former host country, having withdrawn its invitation, would be within its rights to force evacuation. This is all the CSA was doing when, as a last recourse, negotiations having failed, the CSA fired on Fort Sumpter. This too was not “rebellion”. This was a country expelling unwelcome foreign troops.
History tells us too that Lincoln’s war was fought over the issue of slavery when in fact, it was fought to protect Mr. Lincoln from going down in history as the president under whom the U.S. came undone. Lose eleven states? Mr. Lincoln would have none of it. So he made war on the Confederate States of America, conquered it and annexed it to preserve his historical legacy. But History Is Written By The Victors so the “civil war” was fought over slavery.
Well, slavery did actually play a part; Mr. Lincoln instituted the first ever military conscription — slavery for the rest of us — in order to fight his war. Clearly, any concerns he may have had over involuntary servitude paled in comparison to protecting his legacy.
History says the “Civil War” was fought to free the slaves, when in fact the opposite is true. That is, the slaves were freed to fight the “Civil War.” The Emancipation Proclamation was an act of war, a war measure intended to deny the CSA the resource of its slaves. But History Is Written By The Victors.
Now, about that symbol, the battle flag of the Confederate States of America. Why is IT the symbol of slavery? Slavery continued in the north after the “freeing” of southern slaves by the Emancipation Proclamation. Arguably, Lincoln had more control over the slaves of the areas loyal to the union than the South’s, so why did he not free “loyal” slaves (assuming he as president actually had that power, which he didn’t)?
Mr. Lincoln chose not to emancipate slaves in states loyal to the union. They were a valuable resource for the North so he could fight his war. They were not freed until the 13th Amendment was adopted, nearly three years after his death. The 13th Amendment was adopted by constitutional means. Slavery throughout the world was being eliminated by peaceful means as more and more people turned against it or found it to be economically unsound. Slavery was dying off on its own. Most of the northern states had already proscribed slavery and done so voluntarily and mostly peacefully. A war with the CSA was not necessary, and in any case, slavery was legal within the southern states even before they seceded. There was no justification, slavery-wise, for Mr. Lincoln’s war.
Mr. Lincoln could have simply removed his troops from CSA territory and left the CSA to their own devices. Lincoln could have enacted a trade embargo against the CSA, denying it access to the North’s industrial base.
Instead, Lincoln violated the Constitution he’d taken an oath to uphold, resulting in more than 600,000 dead. The Constitution took a drubbing in the process. Because we misunderstand history, Lincoln, the tyrant, Lincoln the Constitution violator is esteemed because History Is Written By The Victors.
In the American “Civil War”, the wrong side won. This opinion is not an indication that I am pro-slavery. Indeed, as someone of a libertarian mindset, I find it abhorrent that anyone should have to involuntarily serve others, even in our we-are-all-slaves-to-each-other type socialism as practiced in the USA today. So, no, not a fan of slavery but, rather, a big fan of the Constitution. Slavery would have ended without Mr. Lincoln’s war but the damage Lincoln did to the Constitution to protect his legacy is irreparable.
And the battle flag of the Confederate States of America, instead of rightly being perceived as a symbol of states’ rights or constitutionally reserved powers and an overreaching federal government, is maligned as a symbol of racism by people who have been misinformed by the history books, because History Is Written By The Victors.