Regarding The Flap Over Confederate Statues

[Mister Agenda]

I don't think any of that justifies maintaining statues of him on public grounds. Wherever his loyalties lay, we may be sure that his loyalty to his home state led him to taking up arms in service to an odious cause ... unlike Jefferson.

Put the statues in a museum.

Davis' cause was not exactly Lee's cause. Though no abolitionist, he did not seem to have any particular investment in the perpetuation of slavery, and even hoped that some day it would be abolished (although he expected that God would take his sweet-ass time on that). He even had his own slaves freed in 1862 (admittedly as part of his father-in-law's will), something even Thomas Jefferson failed to do. In the last days of the war, he even lobbied to allow the Confederate Army to allow black soldiers in combat. The war ended before they saw action. Useful idiot, perhaps, but I think "taking up arms in service of an odious cause" might be over-stretching it a bit, since it implies a sort of unanimity of purpose that simply isn't in the historical record.

I'm pretty sure Jefferson would have freed his slaves had he been legally permitted to do so. He tried to get the law of his state changed to allow it. Lee, on the other hand, seems to have delayed freeing his slaves according to his father-in-law's wishes as long as he was legally able.

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Well, excuse me for pointing out that there are, in fact, shades of grey in the issue.

The issue is whether confederate war heroes ought to continue to be maintained in the public square rather than in museums or on confederate graveyards. Your vote seems to be yes.