To near universal press applause, John McCain
has confessed to deceiving the South in defending the
Confederate Battle Flag, and he has repudiated the
cause of his forebears: "Those ancestors of mine . . . .
fought on the wrong side of history."
Now, the South was surely on the losing side of
history; and had the issue been slavery, it would
indeed have been the wrong side. But is this true
history, or bogus history written by the winners?
For in his First Inaugural Abraham Lincoln
proposed a 13th amendment to the Constitution to
make slavery permanent in the 15 states, and even
offered a new federal law to help run down fugitive
slaves. Six weeks later, when the Confederates fired
on Fort Sumter, there were eight slave states in the
Union, seven in the Confederacy. Lincoln was
prepared to appease the South — on slavery. How,
then, could the evil of slavery have been the cause of
the war?
To Horace Greeley, Lincoln protested that if he
could restore the Union without freeing a single slave,
he would do so. In his Emancipation Proclamation,
Lincoln denied freedom to the slaves in Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia and
parts of Tennessee. Lord Palmerston noted in
amusement that Lincoln had undertaken to abolish
slavery where he had no power to do so, while
protecting slavery where he had the power to destroy
it.
The cause of the war was, thus, not slavery. The
cause of the war was the iron will of Abraham
Lincoln who, like Andrew Jackson, believed first in the
dictum: "Our Union . . . it must be preserved!" Rather
than see a house divided, Lincoln would reunite it in
blood.
Which brings us to the St. Andrew's Cross, a
banner of bravery and defiance that flew over
battlefields, not slave quarters. If that flag, as the left
insists, is but a symbol of racism and the cause of
Southern independence would simply, in Mr. McCain's
words, have perpetuated the grave injustice of slavery,
we ought not to stop at removing it from the capitol in
Columbia.
All replicas of that flag, as in the Georgia state
flag, should be removed, as should all the statuary to
the rebellion leaders: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee,
Stonewall Jackson and legendary cavalryman Nathan
Bedford Forrest, whose statue stands in Memphis and
whose name graces street signs all across Tennessee.
To defend the battle flag, says Albert Gore, is to
pander to the extreme right wing. Well, then, let Mr.
Gore lead the fight to pull down all statues of Forrest,
the victor of Fort Pillow where black soldiers were
massacred, and grand wizard of the KKK. Let Albert
Gore demand that every Southern street and the town
in Arkansas named for Forrest be renamed for civil
rights leaders —King, Abernathy, Young, or Jackson
(Jesse). Mr. Gore has written off South Carolina; but
he hopes to carry Tennessee. Let us see if he will
pander to the extreme right wing.
As for conservatives, it is past time they declared
what it is, if anything, they will fight to conserve. For
this assault on the battle flag, which they prayerfully
wish would end, is a minor skirmish in a culture war
where the end goal is extirpation of every symbol that
testifies to America's Christian and Western character
and heritage. Where and when will the right stand and
fight?
Decades ago, it milled around like grazing cattle as
a renegade court drove its God, commandments, Bible
and prayers out of the public schools of a nation
whose institutions, even Justice William Douglas
conceded, presuppose the existence of a Supreme
Being.
The de-Christianization of our institutions complete,
our militant secular church has begun the
deconstruction of our country.
Washington's name has been removed from a
New Orleans school, Jefferson's name dragged
through the gutter. On the 500th anniversary of
Columbus' voyage, he was trashed as a genocidal
exploiter of Native Americans.
Custer's name is gone from Little Big Horn
battlefield. Our poems have been bowdlerized for
political correctness; the calendar we grew up with
rewritten. Birthdays of Lincoln and Washington have
disappeared into Presidents Day. Easter and
Christmas are now spring and winter break. In public
schools, Christmas carols are forbidden; in public
places, songs like "Dixie" and "Carry Me Back to Old
Virginny" are hate crimes.
Were these changes brought about by popular
clamor? Or were they imposed by the high priests of
an intolerant church many Americans are terrified to
contradict, lest they receive the heretics brand of
racist, bigot or extremist? The real value of Mr.
McCain's extraordinary remarks "would be if they
shamed all politicians who pander," writes The
Washington Post. Fair point. But what do we do with
those sorry politicians who spend whole careers
pandering to the media elite?
Pat Buchanan is a candidate for the Reform Party
presidential nomination.
