“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell- 1984
Winchester, Virginia-
Dear Council Members,
So quite a war erupted over on the mayor’s fascist book page telling us what to think, removing our history, and defiling men long dead in their graves – very brave of them (“live asses will kick at dead lions”)! However these are our families they defile with their half truths and false narratives. They are guilty of presentism and being ethnocentric, taking quotes out of history and applying by today’s perspectives. It’s illogical, it was a different world and mindset…but facts don’t matter to the “useful Idiots” (look it up) who are the pawns of the globalist marxist who wish to destroy American culture. Being that many of us here in the valley are Irish and Scottish we are well aware of what that means when the victor erases history and culture. These are the same hypocrites that preach tolerance and inclusiveness. Furthermore, if they want Jubal Early removed then Lincoln is just as guilty because he said the same thing! I hate to even mention that, because they are attacking and removing Lincoln, Grant, Roosevelt, Washington, and Jefferson among others! This is an all out attack to erase American culture and replace it with government slavery in the name of equality, but “some are more equal than others” with these people. These people don’t even care if you point out their anti-america, anti-freedom positions either.
We just wanna be left alone to live as we wish, raise our families as we wish, to honor and understand America as we wish, but there is no live and let live with them! They seek us out to force their views on us and if you disagree they scream racist Nazi or white supremacist, and even bully you until you capitulate… sometime even at people of color! These people are what they scream they hate: Nazis, non-white supremacist, racist (whatever that means, as Trotsky, then Alinsky, created the use of this word as a weapon to divide America). They are in fact Bolshevik pawns screaming about race when it’s not about that at all if they would open their eyes…which they refuse to do. I have posted facts and logic but it is casting pearls before swine.
Nearly 5 years ago I spoke to the city council, in regards to the seal, of the misled attacks on heritage, the false narrative, and the selective outrage to no avail. They said no one is taking down memorials or digging up graves, and that stuff should be in a museum. Well, today we know this was all the lies of the left, because all that has happened, and now even museums are attacked and forced to change history (I’d be glad to give you examples if you haven’t been paying attention)! Why, because it’s never enough! The left is never satisfied. This is Orwell’s animal farm. This is the lesson the rinos (republicans in name only) and appeasers should remember, it wasn’t just about Confederates, it’s about America. What’s that parable…
“First they came for the Communists, And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Communist, Then they came for the Socialists, And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Socialist, Then they came for the trade unionists, And I did not speak out, Because I was not a trade unionist, Then they came for the Jews, And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew, Then they came for me, And there was no one left To speak out for me”. … remember this.
Some of you people may be new to this town but Jubal Early wasn’t named for any supremacy or jim crow nonsense as the cultural marxist would have you think. It was named by the people who built it, and many of the streets, for Confederate and Federal officers. It was named because of the huge impact the CW (Civil War) had on our town, and of note most of our citizens of age were marching under those names. Furthermore, many of those locations are on battlefields; you see battles didn’t only happen in parks. Memorials and location names often come about in remembrance of sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers who never came home to their loved ones. 3 out of 4 southerners fought, of that 1 out of 4 never came home and another 1 out of 4 came home crippled. That is half the male population. The gross share percentage of the GNP (gross national product) in the valley did not reach the pre-war level until the 1960s, 100 years later. So these losses are well remembered because the families saw them and the recovery was slow. It took years to raise funds for any memorials and coincided with 25th, 50th, and 75th anniversaries; it was not political. Tell them it’s enough! We are American veterans also (US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134) ! We don’t see a street name as a racist or supremacist statement but as a historical names and places!
Sincerely, Todd Kern, Winchester, Virginia
P.S.
1. As for this traitor nonsense: First, the South did not wage war to overthrow the United States Government, their only objective was to remove themselves from it and create their own government. The constitution and the Bill of Rights, specifically the 10th amendment, would support secession. Furthermore, they fail to cite the words of union leader Salmon Chase, chief Justice of the supreme court, or even Lincoln’s own words in regards to treason and secession; “If you bring these [Confederate] leaders to trial it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution secession is not rebellion. Lincoln wanted Davis to escape, and he was right. His capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one.” Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, July 1867 (Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 3, p. 765). “Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right, a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world.” Lincoln on the floor of the house, 1848. Up till 1868 people thought of themselves as being citizens of their sovereign states, who just happened to be part of these United States (plural). To turn against your home state was what would be really considered dishonorable and a betrayal. It was Lincoln’s administration who invaded the South, the South only took up arms to defend itself as shown by Virginia Governor [John] Letcher’s response to Lincoln’s call for Volunteers: “EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. RICHMOND, Va., April 16, 1861. HON. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War:
SIR: I received your telegram of the 15th, the genuineness of which I doubted. Since that time (have received your communication, mailed the same day, in which I am requested to detach from the militia of the State of Virginia “the quota designated in a table,” which you append, “to serve as infantry or riflemen for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged.”
In reply to this communication, I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object — an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 — will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited towards the South. Respectfully,
JOHN LETCHER. [continued] “Whereas, Seven of the States formerly composing a part of the United States have, by authority of their people, solemnly resumed the powers granted by them to the United States, and have framed a Constitution and organized a Government for themselves, to which the people of those States are yielding willing obedience, and have so notified the President of the United States by all the formalities incident to such action, and thereby become to the United States a separate, independent and foreign power; and whereas, the Constitution of the United States has invested Congress with the sole power “to declare war,” and until such declaration is made, the President has no authority to call for an extraordinary force to wage offensive war against any foreign Power: and whereas, on the 15th inst., the President of the United States, in plain violation of the Constitution, issued a proclamation calling for a force of seventy-five thousand men, to cause the laws of the United states to be duly executed over a people who are no longer a part of the Union, and in said proclamation threatens to exert this unusual force to compel obedience to his mandates; and whereas, the General Assembly of Virginia, by a majority approaching to entire unanimity, declared at its last session that the State of Virginia would consider such an exertion of force as a virtual declaration of war, to be resisted by all the power at the command of Virginia; and subsequently the Convention now in session, representing the sovereignty of this State, has reaffirmed in substance the same policy, with almost equal unanimity; and whereas, the State of Virginia deeply sympathizes with the Southern States in the wrongs they have suffered, and in the position they have assumed; and having made earnest efforts peaceably to compose the differences which have severed the Union, and having failed in that attempt, through this unwarranted act on the part of the President; and it is believed that the influences which operate to produce this proclamation against the seceded States will be brought to bear upon this commonwealth, if she should exercise her undoubted right to resume the powers granted by her people, and it is due to the honor of Virginia that an improper exercise of force against her people should be repelled. Therefore I, JOHN LETCHER, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, have thought proper to order all armed volunteer regiments or companies within this State forthwith to hold themselves in readiness for immediate orders, and upon the reception of this proclamation to report to the Adjutant-General of the State their organization and numbers, and prepare themselves for efficient service. Such companies as are not armed and equipped will report that fact, that they may be properly supplied. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Commonwealth to be affixed, this 17th day of April, 1861, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth.
JOHN LETCHER.”
I will add that in 1958 the Congress of the United States saw fit to consider Confederate soldiers as equivalent to U.S. soldiers for service benefits according to U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958. Confederate Iron Cross (US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134), “The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States.” This puts Confederate veterans on the same level as Union veterans, hardly a position of traitors!
2. For those who don’t know, Winchester and the valley did not have a big slave population, in fact the free black population was nearly as large as the slave. The first man killed at Harpers ferry was Heywood Sheppard, a free man of color from Winchester…how come we don’t hear about that. I will also add there is plenty of documentation that blacks fought for the south, free and slave. Teresa Roane, a real historian, is the authority on the subject, look her up.
3. Many infer all Southerners should be condemned because of some association with slave owners, oppressors, and oath breakers. I think above I’ve already dispelled the oath breakers myth so let’s look at the other claims. Oppressors, hardly, they seem to forget who enforced the federal government’s views by force on sovereign states and who kept them under martial law for years during reconstruction. Which side was it that waged wholesale war against civilians? Shall we even mention the death rates in northern prisons? Hardly any high ground to stand on. As for slavery, they pretty much narrow it down to north good, south bad. Oversimplified to say the least. What they don’t mention is bigger than what they do. If the war was all about slavery how come their were slaves still in the north during and after the war? How come West Virginia was admitted as a slave state? How come Lincoln didn’t free the slaves at the start of the war? Why was Lincoln in favor of the Corwin Amendment that would constitutionally protect slavery, all the South had to do was come back and ratify it ….yet they didn’t. How come the North continued to prosper in their textile mills using southern cotton, they could have easily boycotted that product? Lincoln was hardly an equality thinking fellow (to use a modern term), in a letter to Horace Greeley, he said that free blacks should be recolonized back to Africa. He also said, and I am hesitant to even use this quote as those cultural marxist will point to it why America is bad….but then again it was a different world that should be taken into consideration, “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality”. SO who’s the bad guys? The South hardly had a monopoly on slavery and oppression. Surprising to most, the 1860 United States Census says that of the 27 million white citizens counted, 8million lived in the slave holding South. Of those 8 million only 385,000 owned slaves. Thus, using the math provided by the Census numbers it is obvious that only 4.8% of Southern whites owned slaves. Certainly even those who did not own slaves knew of the institution and its impact on the Southern economy. It is therefore all too easy for those who wish to vilify the South to overlook the statistical analysis and claim that the Southern fighting man was indeed signing up for the armed forces in an effort to maintain the status quo. This tunnel vision does a disservice to the majority of Southern men who fought for ideals they associated with the founding of the nation. It also does a disservice to those Northern troops who were intent on maintaining the strong Union they had grown up with. Not to be overlooked in the mix was the human nature or psychological aspect of having “foreigners” attempting to enforce their will on what many saw as their sovereign nation. Picture the Town Council of Harrisonburg, Virginia telling the folks of Staunton, Virginia that they must accede to Harrisonburg’s demands for economic prosperity and cultural mores. It is not difficult to discern that this sort of demand would not be well received in Staunton. Apply then this same attitude to two vastly different regions, and on a much grander scale. It is sad to think that a war could not be averted by simply having both sides step back and take stock of even the most simple and basic tenants of human nature, but, alas, it was not to be.
Streich, Michael. “The 1860 Census and Slavery in the United States – Interpreting Census Data and Research on Pre-Civil War Slavery.” 12/11/2008. http://us-civil-war.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_1860_census_and_slavery_in_the_united_states (accessed 03/09/2010).
So, are we still to believe that the majority of Southern fighting men went to war to protect some rich plantation owners’ ability to own slaves? Would you?
4. Lets look at Lee who the Bolshevik bullies like to defile. He led our ancestors does this sound like a white supremacist… Lee was the epitome of a gentleman. He was against secession: “…It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established & not a government by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison & the other patriots of the Revolution…. Still a union that can only be maintained by swords & bayonets, & in which strife & civil war are to take the place of brotherly love & kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country, & for the welfare & progress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved & the government disrupted, I shall return to my native State & share the miseries of my people & save in her defense will draw my sword on none.”
He was offered the command of the union army but declined saying, “…how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state?”. Lee freed the slaves he inherited during the war and saw to their well being before Lincoln freed any. Nor was Lee was in favor of slavery, “…In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country….” . When the war ended he was instrumental in encouraging his men and the people of the South to go home, rebuild and become good citizens of the United states. On bringing an end to hostilities, he surrenders the army though the president doesn’t think they should , “…A partisan war may be continued, and hostilities protracted, causing individual suffering and the devastation of the country, but I see no prospect by that means of achieving a separate independence. It is for Your Excellency to decide, should you agree with me in opinion, what is proper to be done. To save useless effusion of blood, I would recommend measures be taken for suspension of hostilities and the restoration of peace.” In regards to his cause, After the war, Anglo historian Lord Acton wrote to Lee expressing grief over the political ramifications of the conflict. Responding to Acton, Lee explained his reasoning in choosing to side with the state governments: “….I can only say that while I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the General Government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic is sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home and will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it. I need not refer one so well acquainted as you are with American history, to the State papers of Washington and Jefferson, the representatives of the federal and democratic parties, denouncing consolidation and centralization of power, as tending to the subversion of State Governments, and to despotism…”.
This is what the north thought of Lee: “On a quiet autumn morning, in the land which he loved so well and served so faithfully, the spirit of Robert Edward Lee left the clay which it had so much ennobled and traveled out of this world into the great and mysterious land. Here in the North, forgetting that the time was when the sword of Robert Edward Lee was drawn against us—forgetting and forgiving all the years of bloodshed and agony—we have long since ceased to look upon him as the Confederate leader, but have claimed him as one of ourselves; have cherished and felt proud of his military genius; have recounted and recorded his triumphs as our own; have extolled his virtue as reflecting upon us—for Robert Edward Lee was an American, and the great nation which gave him birth would be today unworthy of such a son if she regarded him lightly.”
“Never had mother a nobler son. In him the military genius of America was developed to a greater extent than ever before. In him all that was pure and lofty in mind and purpose found lodgment. Dignified without presumption, affable without familiarity, he united all those charms of manners which made him the idol of his friends and of his soldiers and won for him the respect and admiration of the world. Even as in the days of triumph, glory did not intoxicate, so, when the dark clouds swept over him, adversity did not depress.” New York Herald, in the death of Gen Robert E Lee, October 12, 1870
Here is what Lee thought of the people he freed, hardly the words of a racist white supremacist (your words). Letter written on March 9, 1866 to Amanda Parks, one of the former slaves who came to visit Lee a year after the war. She, along with the rest Lee had inherited, were freed by Lee during the war. Oh what a horrible person…philistines. Democrats Lie.
“…I heard, on returning to my room Sunday night, that you had come to see me, and I was very sorry to have missed you, for I wished to learn how you were, and how all the people from Arlington were getting along in the world. My interest in them is as great now as it ever was, and I sincerely wish for their happiness and prosperity.
… Wishing you health, happiness, and success in life.
I am, very truly
R. E. Lee”
5. The Virginia Legislature had rejected secession as recently as April 4 by a two-to-one margin. Likewise, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas each had rejected secession that winter. They only joined the CSA after Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to invade the seven “Deep South” states. They believed that states’ rights, state sovereignty and “consent of the governed” preempted central federal government authority. In Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee lived 52.4% of Southerners, according to the 1860 census. Which means a majority of Southerners in power in 1861 seceded over the central federal government’s stated objective to invade the “Deep South”; and, thereby violate the U.S. Constitution as a voluntary union compact. Only 4 out of 11 states mention slavery as one of the causes. The number of memoirs and letters written before, during, and after the war to show what those men believed are vast. These men were Americans, regardless of what side they fought for. For some Yankee to oversimplify the causes of the war, dishonor men no longer here to defend themselves, and then vilify a whole region of the country is simply wrong. Thank you very much but we are in charge of our own heritage and are fully aware what it is, nor do we need you to tell us what to think, though that does seem to be a trend of your people. The symbols of the South have long been universally seen as resistance to tyranny, regional pride, and family heritage. Sure, it has some negative connotations but that can be said about the US flag or British or some others as well. It’s articles like this one that continue to push that singular negative narrative on our symbols while discrediting our own beliefs and indoctrinating our children to condemn their own family! Goebbels, Trotsky and Alinsky would be proud of the redefining of an entire cultures’ symbols and beliefs. As I said in my first response to you, this is all part of an agenda to tear down American exceptionalism.
6. …from a native of Ireland, I do believe the Irish are well familiar with a victor erasing their culture and enslaving their people…” Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it’s too late. It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors , and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision.” Gen. Patrick Cleburne, KIA Nov. 30, 1864, Franklin, Tenn.
7. ” The fact that one army is fighting for union and the other for disunion is a political expression; the actual fact on the battlefield…was that federal troops came as invaders, and Southern troops stood as defenders of their homes,and further than this we need not go.” P.GT. Beauregard
8. “When the State of Virginia seceded from the Union we believed that we had a perfect right to withdraw, and had no intention in the world of disturbing the Union forces, or interfering with the United States Government in any way; and if they had remained on the north side of the Potomac, we would have kept our place on the south side, and there would have been no shedding of blood. All that Virginia asked was to be let alone, to pursue her course under the new order of things brought about by secession. When the Federal Government invaded the State of Virginia without provocation, and undertook to drive our people away by violence and force, and opened their guns upon us, to slaughter them by wholesale, there is no wonder that our people fought them with desperation.” — Brigadier-General Eppa Hutton
9. David Emmons Johnston wrote –“About 3 P. M. on the next day, Wednesday, July 5, 1865, four years, one month and twelve days from the day on which I had left for the war, I reached home—satisfied with my experience, with no more desire for war, yet proud of my record as a Confederate soldier, as I am to this day; with no apologies to make to anyone, as I, in common with my fellow soldiers, repudiate as unsound and baseless any charge of rebellion or treason in the war. We had… resorted to the revolutionary right to establish separate government vouchsafed to us in the Declaration of Independence. I did not fight to destroy the government of the United States, nor for the perpetuation of the institution of slavery, for which I cared nothing, but did fight for four years of my young manhood for a principle I knew to be right. Had such not been true, I would not have risked my life, my all, therefor, nor have been a Virginia Confederate soldier.”
10. “Surely it was not for slavery they fought. The great majority of them had never owned a slave and had little or no interest in the institution. My own father, for example, had freed his slaves long years before; that is, all save one who, would not be ‘emancipated’ our dear ‘Mammy’ clung to us when we moved to the north and never recognized any change in her
condition or her relations to us. The great war will never be properly comprehended by the man who looks upon it as a war for the preservation of slavery.” Robert Stiles, 1903
11. “It is incorrect to state, the South went to war over slavery. The South went to war because of her love for liberty, because of jealousy of her rights, her liberties and her independence…Southern people who owned no slaves offered their husbands, sons, fathers, brothers upon the altar of their country, a willing sacrifice for independence…not slavery.” General Matt W. Ransom
12. “Mr. Speaker! I have risen here in my place to offer a few words on the bill. I have come from a sick bed . . . perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But, sir, I could not rest quietly in my room without . . . contributing . . . a few remarks of my own. I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentleman from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier should go on record as opposed to the erection of a monument in honor of the brave dead. And, sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines and in the Seven Days’ fighting around Richmond, the battlefield covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their country and for their country’s honor, he would not have made that speech. . . . When the news came that the South had been invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests for monuments . . . But they died, and their virtues should be remembered. Sir, I went with them. I too wore the gray, the same color my master wore. We stayed four long years, and if that war had gone on till now I would have been there yet . . . I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions. When my mother died I was a boy. Who, Sir, then acted the part of a mother to an orphaned slave boy, but my old missus? Were she living now, or could speak to me from those high realms where are gathered the sainted dead, she would tell me to vote for this bill. And, Sir, I shall vote for it. I want it known to all the world that my voice is given in favor of the bill to erect a monument in honor of the Confederate dead.” Former slave by the name of John F. Harris. In 1890, twenty-five years after the war, Mr. Harris was serving as a Mississippi representative in the House of Representatives.
13. “I am chiefly concerned to show that my comrades and brothers, of whom I write in these pages, did not draw their swords in defense of the institution of slavery. They were not thinking of their slaves when they cast all in the balance- their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor- and went forth to endure the hardships of the camp and the march and the perils of the battlefield. They did not suffer, they did not fight, they did not die, for the privilege of holding their fellow men in bondage! NO, it was for the sacred right of self-government that they fought. It was in defense of their homes and their firesides. It was in vindication of the principle enunciated in the declaration of Independence that “governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Only a very small minority of the men who fought in the Southern armies-not one in ten- were financially interested in the institution of slavery. We cared little or nothing about it. To establish our independence, we would at any time have gladly surrendered it.” Randolph H. McKim, 1910.
P.S. I just want peace in the world but there is no live and let live with these leftists. We honor and understand our ancestors and why they resisted an invader. Yet all they do is attack dead men in their graves; very brave of you. “Live asses will kick at dead lions”
R. Semmes… how about to each his own, let each man believe what they want rather than trying to impose your will on others, isn’t this is what the war was really about not slavery. But no, they’re a bunch of authoritarians and totalitarians. You defile, unjustly, other people’s families and even your own because unless you are a first or second generation immigrant you probably have a Confederate ancestor, yes even you carpetbaggers, a family tree branches widely. You are on the wrong side of freedom. Is this not bigotry in his own right, just in an approved manner? There is no use “casting pearls before swine” to those who are already indoctrinated and refuse to not judge people through ethnocentric eyes. A sad case of presentism, a failure to recognize yesterday was a different world and mindset. Nor is the narrative correct and facts are overlooked by those pushing an agenda. Please feel free to ask for the primary documentation besides the ones listed above, I would welcome a debate with any so-called educator, Evan.