Obviously this flag thing isn't going away soon. Nor do I think that reasoned argument will change the tune of any armchair warrior pining for the good old Confederacy. So...just the facts, ma'am.

Part of the Virginia Plan, while formulating a Constitution for the United States, called for a phased manumission, or buy-out of slavery in the new country. However, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, leading a group from South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia, made it clear that those states would never accept the ending of slavery.

Further, he was able to force the three-fifths compromise, giving ersatz approval to that heinous institution. And so slavery existed under Old Glory, much to the horror of most of the leaders of the Northern States and Virginia.

While defending the proposed constitution in the Federalist Papers, Hamilton received a letter from Madison stating that the Constitution must be adopted by each state “in toto and forever.” The founding fathers never envisioned succession and George Washington was prepared early in the life of the nation to forcibly restrain any attempts by New England to do so.

While the reasons for the eventual rebellion are many and varied, their common thread is always the protection and extension of slavery.

One writer last week spoke of fighting over the right to secede. I'm curious why a state would secede just to fight over the right to do so. Where were all the states' righters when Roger B. Taney ruled that states have no right to protect slaves fleeing their masters (Dred Scott, 1857). The states' rights reason for rebellion is just a chimera dreamed up during and after the war by a people who needed to justify their immense sacrifice.

As for the Confederacy being a nation: A nation-state must have well-defined borders, be able to defend its sovereignty, and be recognized by other nations as such. The C.S.A. never met any of these tests. The states in rebellion were rogue entities, illegally separated from the legally constituted government of the United States, and were forcibly returned.

While the brave men who fought under the Confederate battle flag may have been well-intentioned, they were ill-informed and misled by their slave-owning aristocracy. The Confederate battle flag is the symbol of an effort to hold millions of people in chattel bondage in perpetuity.

The fact that the North never fought to end slavery does not lessen its accomplishment in actually doing so at great sacrifice. If slavery had been abolished at the adoption of the Constitution, there would have been no war.

If you wish to honor the misled souls who died so Jeff Davis could keep his “darkies,” fly the flag over their graves. Don't put it on taxpayers' buildings.

Timothy J. Parker
Peachtree City

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