Quote:
Originally Posted by zendog3
The fathers of the Confederacy claimed to be fighting for the principle of state's rights, one of those rights being the institution of slavery. But many made it abundantly clear they considered black people inferior. Therefore, they stated clearly that the war was to preserve the institution of slavery.
Lincoln was no saint. While his position of the status of black people changed over his life, he felt that blacks should not be slaves, but it would be generations before they evolved to a position of equality with white European immigrants.
Immediately after the Civil War, blacks had relatively equal status with whites. But after the north removed the occupation of the south. Whites moved quickly to reimpose repression of black people. It was in that period that veneration of Confederate generals took place.
Put simply, do we want glorious statues to men whose main claim to fame was that they were willing to die and put others to death to preserve the right of white people to keep black people in chains? Again, think about what slavery is. If you were a black person, how would you feel walking under a heroic statue to a general who fought to keep your family in slavery?
Although overt racism is out of vogue, there are still people who think Lincoln was right. Black people aren't relatively equal to white people. If you are one of that–shame on you. America will never be the great nation we aspire to be until all Americans have equality. And, we should not have monuments to people who fought against that ideal.
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Ummm...
The 3/5s of a man was a compromise demanded by the NORTH. Not the South...
It was to preserve their population (and therefore voting representation) dominance over the South...