Holiday remembers soldiers, not war
To the editor:
A recent letter to the editor in The Neighbor newspaper slandering the Florida Confederate Memorial Day demonstrates delusional thinking from most northern states regarding a divisive war. Confederate Memorial Days were first established in 1866 prior to the federally approved Union Memorial day in 1868. In the 1860s the northern states refused to allow for any confederate soldiers to be buried in the northern states. The clamoring of northern states asserts credit for freeing the slaves and somehow a celebration for the confederate soldier in memory of their service to protect their families is not appropriate. Blaming the South for the 2nd War for Independence alleging slavery as the main cause for war has been bantered for decades. The real cause was an overreaching federal government which violated the U.S. Constitution by forcing individuals to conform to federal rule instead of by consent per the U.S. Constitution. It was a war over individual rights, unpaid taxes and the U.S. Constitutional right to be governed by consent.
If the slavery claim is not flawed, why does slavery still legally exist today? Many northerners clamor the 13th Amendment legally prohibited slavery and I say wrong. There is an exception clause “Except for convicts.” If preserving slavery was the southern cause, it seems unlikely the federal government invaded the Confederacy for this one reason and more likely it was money since the south stopped paying taxes. I contend all people of the U.S.A. and its governments are responsible. Claiming slavery is legally prohibited is a spin and a lie. There are large portions of the black population in jail today compared to other races. Slavery still existed after the 1860s war or what some called the “Civil War.” This war was far from civil and the invasion from the aggressive federal government decimated the confederate soldiers, their families, and their culture and was nothing less than a war crime on their own country. And, the confederate cause was protecting their families from the raping, killing, burning, and savageness of the out-of-control, federal army usurping the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln was so murderous he hung 38 Native Americans and holds the record for the largest mass execution in our history and then hanged eight more Native Americans by executive order without a trial. Is your contention the Native Americans cannot have their Memorial Day too?
Confederate Memorial Day has little to do with preserving slavery or remembering slavery. It has a lot to do with remembering the southern soldiers who fought for their independence from a tyrant federal government who failed to follow the U.S. Constitution and forced the southern states to be ruled with vicious murderous actions from the federal government. Confederate Memorial Day is celebrated in many states and also countries. In Americana, Brazil, where the largest confederate graveyard exits and President Carter’s great grandfather is buried; there is a memorial celebration annually. Confederate Memorial Day is to honor fallen soldiers who fought to protect their families and this is the reason all soldiers fight. The remarks from a transplanted northerner are insensitive and lack any knowledge of what happened in 1860 or why this Memorial Day is important to the southern states. I am privileged and honored to live in this paradise, General Robert E. Lee County, Florida and will continue to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day with all races. And, I am grateful for General Robert E. Lee’s farm that was taken from him and buried with Union soldiers as an insult to him and which is now Arlington Cemetery.
Jack Mattachione, MRC
Cape Coral