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Confederate Flag Controversy
"Take Down This Rebel Flag!"
Confederate Flag Debate
A Little History Lesson
Blacks were not people according to the U.S. Constitution
While it is true that some individuals have perpetrated crimes under
the banner of the short-lived four year Confederacy (1861-1865), the vast majority of all criminal acts have been
committed under the Star-Spangled Banner, the flag of the United States of America (1776-present).
When the 13 Colonies rebelled and declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, chattel
slavery had already been abolished in England, but the wicked institution would now thrive under the newly formed United States. Slavery, now officially adopted by the fledgling nation, would continue
to expand rapidly for nearly another century before being abolished by an amendment to the U.S. Constitution during
the last month of 1865.
Although slavery had been sanctioned and formally espoused by
the United States government since 1776 (not Confederate government), the institution was even given special protection
by the Federal Constitution. All fugitive slave laws were also Federal laws (not Confederate or Southern laws) and the
nation's Constitution made "the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding
Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons." Black persons, in other words, were counted only as part human according
to the Constitution. The three-fifths clause, as it was also known, would be repealed by the 13th Amendment in December
of 1865 and eight months after the Civil War had ended. Why did politicians wait so long to repeal the clause? Couldn't
Washington have amended the Constitution fifty or seventy-five years earlier?
Slavery existed because of the Federal
government
Myth: The South promoted and protected slavery and
the slave trade.
Fact: The U.S. Constitution promoted and protected slavery and the
slave trade.
Myth: State laws promoted and protected slavery and the slave trade. Fact: Federal laws promoted and protected slavery and the slave trade.
Many Northern and Southern politicians serving in the nation's Capitol were made very wealthy
by selling and buying goods that had been produced by slaves. No matter
how it was perceived and argued, chattel slavery was condoned and protected by members of both houses of Congress,
and they, the Federal politicians, and not the States, had the final say on all things concerning the institution.
Follow the money. Chattel
slavery existed exclusively in the nation because of supply and demand. For every seller there must be a buyer. The sole fact
that it benefited few can be seen by the elite class in the agrarian South and the wealthy buyers in the North.
Remove the demand, remove the buyer, and the goods that had been manufactured on the bloody backs of slaves and
the institution itself would have collapsed. Slavery could therefore only exist and thrive because of the consent of
Washington. So why did it take politicians nearly 100 years before abolishing slavery? The answer is rather obvious—money.
Concerning the removal of the Confederate flag from state capitals and other state offices, because
some say it is a symbol of slavery, there is also a cry to remove the namesakes of former Confederates from all Federal
military installations. Names such as Bragg, Hood, and Lee are some that resonate with
the writer. Time will also show that the removal of the Rebel flag is merely the introduction of political correctness,
and that all Confederate symbols will soon come under fire. But
other groups have voiced their concerns about American symbolism, particularly Native Americans.
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| Confederate Cherokee veterans embrace the Rebel flag during the 1903 Confederate Reunion |
(About) Cherokee of the famed Thomas Legion pose for the last Confederate
Reunion at New Orleans in 1903. The Cherokee Indians had been victims of many broken promises made by Washington and
were even evicted from their ancestral lands in 1838 during what was known as the Trail of Tears. Only desiring a better life
for their families and motivated by dreams of a brighter future, the Eastern Cherokee had cast its lot with the Confederacy.
Absent ownership of a single slave, the tribe would rally behind the Rebel flag, the symbol that represented hope
and opportunity for a people that had known only oppression.
Native Americans
So will the U.S. Flag be targeted for removal next, because it was under the Stars and Stripes
that the slave trade had existed in the first place. The short-lived
Confederate States of America (1861-1865) lasted for 4 years, but the Federal institution of slavery remained lawful
in the land from 1776 and until after the war ended in 1865. And while
Native Americans were dealt busted treaties by Washington, they were on the receiving end of the Federal government's
wrath and genocidal exploits that lasted well beyond the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890.
The majority of Native Americans, not being protected by the 14th Amendment
in 1868, would not taste citizenship until 1924 (year Indian Citizenship Act passed) and nearly 60 years after African-Americans
became citizens.
Will Andrew Jackson, Trail of Tears infamy, be replaced on the twenty-dollar
bill? Will the U.S. military also cease and desist with its nom de guerres of Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, and Lakota? And
then there is the Black Hawk, which is named for a leader of the Sauk tribe. The Tomahawk
is a low-altitude missile and the drone Gray Eagle was named in honor of an Indian
chief. While Operation Geronimo saw the death of Osama bin Laden, Cherokee remains rather synonymous with a jeep.
A fighter jet named Jew
Are they merely namesakes and badges of honor and of the warrior creed or
are they racist overtures that have been used to disguise some deep seated reminder of who is the victor and who is the
loser in both past and present America? How would we react if the now unified Germany referred to one of its air force fighter
jets as Jew and to its main battle tank as Gypsy?
According to logic, the United States Flag should be subjected
to debate and then lowered one last time in the coming years. But what banner would replace Old Glory,
would it be all white in color and lacking the stars and bars? Whereas all white may give the blatant impression of racism, on
any flag the color denotes surrender, a term that best describes the present atmosphere in our political correct
society that just can't seem to find any middle ground.
For nearly a century prior to the Civil War and the existence
of the Bonnie Blue Flag of the short-lived Confederate States of America, the American flag had been
hoisted daily from sea to shining sea while the U.S. Constitution and Federal laws continued to aid and abet chattel slavery.
So which national flag really symbolizes slavery, hatred and wrongdoings of many peoples and races?
See also
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