Why Not the Truth - What Does the Confederate Battle Flag Represent?
The Northern states and historians have consistently cast shame on the South
for the War of 1861 for a host of reasons. Slavery is one such reason.
This paper is not in any way rationalizing the institution of slavery.
However, the War of 1861 was not fought over slavery. It was a war to
control the Southern people.
Not one Confederate flag ever flew over a slave ship. The only American
flag that flew over a slave ship was the the United States flag. The Saint
Andrews Cross used in the Confederate battle flag is not about race.
The American slave trade was owned and financed by the New England states.
Early in the 1800's, the New England states' demand for protection for their
slave ships from Great Britain was a major cause of the War of 1812. Even
after the war in 1865, the New England states simply moved their slave trade to
the Caribbean and South America.
In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said, "I have no purpose directly or
indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it
exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so." During the war
in 1862, Lincoln said that his primary objective was not to save or destroy
slavery.
Another such reason given by the Northern states for the War of 1861 was the
preservation of the "Union".
Lincoln was asked why he did not let the Southern states have their
independence. Lincoln stated, "Who is going to pay for the government?"
(The ports of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia provided 75%
of the income for the United States government. This income was from
tariffs for the Southern imports and exports).
The Confederate flag represents a people's struggle for freedom. To say
the South was destroying the Union is to say that secession of the American
Colonies in the 1770's was an attempt to destroy the British Empire.
Many large, intractable facts can be stated about the cause of the War of
1861. For example, the war consisted of the conquest and subjugation of
the South by Northern armies. Mr. Lincoln and northern businessmen wanted
war to make money. Northern politicians stole Southern land, product, and
political control.
Another fact is northern manufacturers feared the
loss of the American market to a flood of cheap British goods pouring through a
free-trade Confederacy. Northern shippers feared the loss of their
monopoly of the coastal trade and their share of the Trans-Atlantic trade.
Northern merchants feared the loss of profit gained as the middleman between the
United States and Europe. Northern creditors feared the loss of Southern
debts. The Northwest feared the loss or curtailment of the Mississippi
trade. The list can continue.
Also, a fact that tells something of what the war
was about is the Northern policies on tariffs that began a new financial system
that made Northeastern banks the financial overlords of the rest of the country
for years. After the war, Northeastern bankers and politicians set the
prices for Southern cotton and other products. While black and white
Southerners scratched out a minimum living, the Northeast set policies to buy or
confiscate Southern goods and resell them - making huge profits. After
all, the South was to be punished. And punished we have been.
Take the act of June 7, 1862, for the collection of
direct taxes in the insurrected states. Even a northern Connecticut
soldier wrote home complaining of the activities of what he called these
"Northern Sharpers." Millions of dollars of Southern property was stolen
and alienated this way.
Far more sweeping was the Abandoned Property Act of
March 1863, under which millions of dollars worth of cotton and other products
were sequestered and farms seized and operated by Northern speculators using
ex-slaves who were forced to work by the Union Army.
Oh yes, the Northern businessman needed the South
and wanted war. Under an act of Congress executed by the Lincoln
administration, a huge trade sprang up in food, ammunition, weapons, shoes,
blankets, and other things needed by the Confederate Army. Men of the
first rank engaged in this traffic: congressmen, governors, generals, diplomatic
officials, and others. In fact, their trade began, even before the war,
with the anticipation of hostilities. After the organization of the
Confederate government, Jefferson Davis sent Raphael Semmes to New York,
Massachusetts, and Connecticut to buy munitions. Many a Southern and
Northern boy lost his life for the profit of the Northern businessman.
In fact, the Confederate State Department received
numerous requests from ship owners in Boston and other New England ports asking
for letters of Marque so they might send out privateers to prey upon Northern
shipping when the war began.
The Confederate battle flag represents a people's
struggle for freedom. True, many hate groups have desecrated and misused
the Confederate flag. However, these same hate groups fly the Stars and
Stripes.
Alabama's State Motto is as follows: We Dare Defend
our Rights. This motto is embodied in the Saint Andrews Cross. The
Confederate flag is not about race. Many a proud black man and white man
fought and died for this flag.
Don't let Northern lies steal our Southern
heritage.
Proudly fly the Alabama flag.
Proudly fly the Stars and Bars.
Proudly fly the Saint Andrews Cross of the Confederacy.
(excerpts taken from So Good a Cause
A Decade of Southern Partisan)
Gary Carlyle
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