Make the Confederacy's Defeat a National Holiday

[jaysunb]

In a speech one month ago, the first black president of the United States challenged millions of white Americans to resist the convenient allure of overlooking the country’s blemished moral record. It was a dual challenge, actually—first to the classical understanding of American exceptionalism, but also to America’s persistent critics, who abjure the concept of exceptionalism altogether.


“What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this?” President Barack Obama said. “What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?”


This was both a rejection of the fairytale America perpetuated by American conservatives, in which national virtue overwhelms sin, and a statement of faith in the country’s robust capacity for self-improvement. And he delivered it in Selma, Alabama—a Southern city whose folksy name evokes state-sanctioned, state-administered violence against black citizens—on the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Selma would be a perverse venue for celebrating the Jingo’s exceptional America, but it was the perfect backdrop for Obama’s more nuanced rendering: the convening point of the march to Montgomery, on a bridge named after Edmund Pettus—a vicious white supremacist, who committed treason against the United States as a Confederate general, and later terrorized former slaves as an Alabama Klansman and Democratic Senator.


http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121406/civil-war-150th-anniversary-confederacy-defeat-should-be-holiday?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=TNR%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter%20-%204%2F7%2F15

[guillaumeb]

1. But you are attacking southern heritage!!

Certainly it was a heritage of hate, and degradation, and violence, all based on racial hatred. But still!

[paleotn]

8. Yes. (nt)

[bvar22]

2. And lets make the defeat of Sitting Bull a National Holiday too!

That genocide made the West safe for the "settlers".

[jeff47]

3. So, you'd prefer that the South have won?

Or was this a general "don't celebrate war" sentiment?

[bvar22]

6. No. I'm glad the North won (if anybody "wins"),

....and I don't celebrate War.

As someone who has lived in The South for 1/2 my life,
I do find it immensely hypocritical that the ones who ride a high moral horse because their great-great-grandfather fought for a just cause (abolition of slavery),
immediately turned the Army of the North to the West and waged a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing to exterminate the Red Man and make the West safe for the White Man.

Same Army, many of the same Generals.
The South was disarmed, and bears no responsibility for this atrocity in the West.

Most of the Native Americans are still living in their internment camps,
yet, if you go "out west", they claim almost no racism. Most of them are living on land that was stolen from the Native Americans not too many generations ago. They don't even "see" the Native Americans.

[appalachiablue]

14. The Post Civil War expansion of the West & Native American genocide was lead by US

Military policy and conducted by generals Winfield Hancock, William Sherman, George Custer, Phillip Sheridan and other Union soldiers who served in the Civil War. The Indian Wars in the West fought by the US Army began in 1866 and lasted until 1890 brutally eradicating and imprisoning Native Americans on reservations by the thousands. The killing of Indians and stealing of land was justified by the US government which sought to expand railroads, forts, commerce and settlement. This shameful period in US history which began in the Colonial era has never received enough attention like the circumstances of Native People in the West and other regions of the US who exist and are not invisible despite the policies and attitudes of many.

[happyslug]

10. Why that meaningless battle, why not Tippecanoe or the battle of the Thames?

In many ways, those two battles were the defeat the Native Americans never recovered from. After those two defeats, Native Americans never were able to use foreign governments to assist them against the US. After those two battles, the fights between Americans and Native Americans became what was the status the Native Americans would have in the US, not the the Native Americans would be any way independent.

The battle of Tippecanoe (November 7, 1811) and the destruction of the Indian Confederacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tippecanoe

The Great

Battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813, the death of Tecumseh and the Indian Confederacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Thames

Tecumseh's war, this war lead to the War of 1812. Every Congressmen west of the Appalachians voted for war to "protect American Sailors", most Americans sailors were from New England, which voted AGAINST the war (New England by 1810 was enjoying an economic boom do to demand for New England Wheat by the Duke Of Wellington's Army in Spain, even after war was declared New England shipped Wheat to Spain for Wellington's Army). Thus the War of 1812 was NOT to protect American Sailors but to kill off Tecumseh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecumseh%27s_War

His Confederacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecumseh%27s_Confederacy

The above battle occurred after 16 years of peace between the US and the Native Americans following the Battle of Fallen Timbers of August 20, 1794

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fallen_Timbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Indian_War

We can also pick the Native America's greatest victory over the US. St Clair's defeat of November 4, 1791, it resulted in the near total destruction of the entire US Regular Army (the Regular US Army was down to 600 men, but almost all of them were lost in that battle):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clair%27s_Defeat

Or the greatest PUSH BACK of Americans by Native Americans, Pontiac's rebellion of 1763:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac%27s_War

Ponitac's rebellion saw every British Fort West of Fort Pitt (Present day Pittsburgh) except for Fort Detroit taken by Native American Forces. In Detroit the siege peaked in the battle of Bloody Run of July 31st, 1763:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bloody_Run

Fort Pitt was also besieged but that was lifted only with the defeat of the Native Americans at Bushy Run:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bushy_Run

Even the Iroquois Confederacy join the other Native American when the Seneca join to fight the British on September 14. 1763 (This was outside Fort Niagara, the third fort west of the Appalachians NOT to fall to the Native Americans during Pontiac's Rebellion).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Devil%27s_Hole

Sorry, any of the above dates are more important then the defeat of a cavalry unit whose commander took to many risks. Custer's actions made Fetterman's similar stupidly on December 16, 1866 look actually brilliant. Both ended up dead do to believing they could defeat any number of Native Americans with just a hand full of Soldiers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetterman_Fight

[Fred Sanders]

4. And national Election Day, like in Israel and many other nations.

[appalachiablue]

15. Even an Election Week as still exists in some countries. Recently I wondered if there was ever

an interest in an FDR Day or highlighting him on President's Day like GW and Lincoln since he was born so close, Jan. 30. But then others would want RR, can't handle that!

[Gman]

5. Some of us in the South lost ancestral family members

I see no reason to dance on their graves or anyone else's. The entire affair was a national tragedy. I see no reason to celevrate it as a great victory when the whole country ultimately lost. Brothers often fought brothers and even sons fighting fathers.

[AwareOne]

7. How about you stop fighting the Civil War

the radical Republicans won that one already. And don't blame the south for slavery, this entire country was built on slave labor and something like a dozen presidents owned slaves, including U. S. Grant. You should turn your attention to today's radical Republican, the Tea Party before they start another civil war.

[paleotn]

11. Ummm, the United States of America put down an inserrection.

...that was based on the perpetuation of the diabolically evil institution of slavery in the south.

Ignoring it won't make it go away. Get use to it. It is what it is.

[bvar22]

12. And did the Army of the North "put down"

an "insurrection" (genocide & ethnic cleansing) in The West by Native Americans?
Same Northern Army, many of the same Northern Generals.
The South was disarmed and carries no blame for this atrocity.

It is what it is.

[paleotn]

13. Yes....

You are correct, but that in no way diminishes what I posted. Many of those involved in the Native American genocide where Southerners as well as Northerners, ie. the wars in Texas against the Kiowa and Comanches. The displacement of eastern tribes from the south and southeast to Oklahoma. Hell, the 9th and 10th US Cavalry regiments were made up of African Americans...the Buffalo Soldiers. They were heavily involved in the Indian Wars.

Lots of blame to go around, but the fact remains the Civil War was started by slaveholders who not only wanted to perpetuate their evil institution, but wanted to spread it west as well.

[paleotn]

9. The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitors, up with the stars
While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again
Shouting the battle cry of freedom

[appalachiablue]

16. Be careful what you wish for, that may be the hope of many- another US Civil War AND War with

Iraq and in the Middle East. Heaven help us- (But then climate change might become a non issue). At least two relatives fought for the Union; a pair of brothers were in Libby Prison and survived.

[blkmusclmachine]

17. n/t