god i wish every state would do this. even if it is only symbolic.
"Under Federal Legislation, the exports of the South have been the basis of the Federal Revenue. Virginia, the two Carolina's, and Georgia, may be said to defray three fourths of the annual expense of supporting the Federal Government; and of this great sum, annually furnished by them, nothing or next to nothing is returned to them, in the shape of Government expenditures. that expenditure flows in an opposite direction -- it flows north, in one uniform, uninterrupted and perennial stream. This is the reason why wealth disappears from the south and rises up in the north. Federal Legislation does this." - Senator Thomas Hart Benton
"I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it.''
Jefferson Davis
"The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states." Charles Dickens, 1862
"Any reasonable creature may know, if willing, that the North hates the Negro, and that until it was convenient to make a pretense that sympathy with him was the cause of the war, it hated the abolitionists and derided them up hill and down dale
As to Secession being Rebellion, it is distinctly possible by state papers that Washington considered it no such thing that Massachusetts, now loudest against it, has itself asserted its right to secede, again and again."
Charles Dickens
"There are at the present moment, many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants, and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the traitors and rebels."
Frederick Douglas
"Not one time did Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. put down the Confederate Flag. He wanted blacks and whites to sit and eat together. I asked Dr. Young, one of King's closest friends, what his feelings were about that flag. He said, Leave it alone. Let's do something about the things we can do something about, like our children selling drugs on the street. King could never have brought us all together the way he did-- if he had put down the (Confederate) Flag." - H.K Edgerton
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my
often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War Between the States the issue of Secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee's calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation's wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained .
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower
