HOW I SEE IT: Ignoring historical facts for popularity

In our postmodern culture, historical revisionism is rampant, which made the governor’s declaration to remember Virginia’s history a breath of fresh air. However, in that spirit of “here today and gone tomorrow,” the pride we could feel turned quickly to embarrassment.

An apparent lack of knowledge or a simple disregard of history ensued. After ignorant attacks upon him and his proclamation to remember our Confederate heritage because it did not condemn slavery, he chose to ignore the facts of history for popularity today.

The issue that brought about the Civil War was not the evils of slavery, but of secession. The moral question had long been acknowledged by all sides, and in fact Virginia was among the first of several states to outlaw the slave trade. The Confederate Constitution addressed it long before the Union one, and ironically it was Lincoln’s invasion that halted the debate on how to rightly abolish it. The issues that precipitated secession in 1861 were much the same as those which brought about a declaration of secession in 1776.

Secession was a result of the federal government overstepping the boundaries set forth in the Constitution. Theses boundaries were established as a safeguard against those issues that led to the first secession.

In tracing the history of the argument, we need to look back at the debates of both the Northwest Ordinance and the Missouri Compromise. We can see that the “extension of slavery” into new states was an issue that highlighted the bigger one. Contrary to popular opinion, this did not mean more slaves in more states. The slave trade was already abolished, and debates were beginning on how best to abolish the institution entirely. The issue was whether slaves could be moved by those settling to the new states.

The earlier debates, traced back to the Constitutional Convention, Northwest Ordinance and the Missouri Compromise, were clearly not that of whether slaves would be permitted, but of who had the authority to decide. Opinions, north and south were heavily in favor that each new state should decide for itself.

Zealots, who wanted to forcibly end slavery at an instant by federal decree, began a movement that became the party of Abraham Lincoln, whose election forced the issue of secession. His election heralded the idea that the federal government would decide, albeit, that this is a power expressly forbidden by the Constitution. Today he would have been impeached.

Let us not attempt to rewrite history, lest we forget it. Let us remember the evil of slavery to prevent its future occurrence. Let us also remember through our Confederate heritage that when the federal government oversteps its given boundaries (as it has with health care), Virginians are wont to remember that the Virginian Thomas Jefferson said, “When any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.” Let us also remember to not confuse the two issues, lest we forget them both.

Governor, read your history through primary documents and records of congressional debates and go with what is right, not popular.