Erasing the Confederacy -How Far Would you Go?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Only option 1.

People need to experience history in order to not repeat it.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

1 and 5

This, but allow Confederate license plates if the car owner is willing to pay a fee to obtain it from the state. Who are the five voters who want to ban private homeowners from flying a flag? Show yourselves, statists!

One already has:

All of the above.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

There is one thing that we should honor Robert E. Lee for. In April 1865, he could have sent his men to disperse into the hills and turn into raiding bands and fight a Viet Cong style war of attrition with the North. There were people that wanted to do just that. He also could have, when he was surrounded on all sides, just throw his men into battle like some of the epic take no prisoners style battles of antiquity. There were some who wanted him to do just that.


In terms of America's future unity and strength, we should be thankful for Lee's character and reason in deciding that it was all over and agreeing to surrender. And we should be thankful to Grant for his leniency with the surrender terms and intervening to save Lee from a treason trial, which Andrew Johnson was considering moving towards, by threatening to resign.

Its kind of like the Allies decision to not only leave Hirohito in power, but even cover for him and hide his complicity in war crimes. Was the person guilty and did he deserve punishment, yes! But is the consequences, the turmoil, the anarchy and the death worth the noble, idealistic stance outweighing practical necessities? No. How many US soldiers would die pacifying Japan, as opposed to just having a divinely ordained Emperor (in their view, especially for the hard liners) order them to fall in line.

If you have someone who is revered by the other side, and they acknowledge defeat and work to pacify the civil population and encourage peace, and therefore work to your advantage, it is in your interest to keep them alive and use them to your advantage. I think Grant got it right in April 1865 and I think Truman and MacArthur got it right in 1945.

It is perfectly legitimate to have a discussion of the extent to which Lee should be honored and for a long time it has gone too far, but now it risks going too far the other way. One thing I liked about the History Channel documentary April 1865, was it ended with Jay Winik listing the five people who saved America, Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Lee and Johnston. Jefferson Davis is not on that list for a reason, but Lee and Johnston are on that list and there is a great reason for that. (Of course that documentary was made 15 years ago. Damn that makes me feel old! It had real, credible, Civil War Historians contributing. Much different from today's History Channel with conspiracy quacks they interview to pontificate about what ifs and salacious allegations with no proof, dramatic music and all packaged perfectly to market to same audience as Alex Jones caters too.)