The Surrender and Its Legacy

Today marks the 150th anniversary of Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War, although sporadic fighting would continue for another month.  The war, which had begun 4 years earlier when secessionists shelled Ft. Sumter on April 12, 1861, was fought by southern states to preserve the abomination of human slavery.  Their act of treason in defense of slavery was a stain on American history, and an act whose effects continued beyond the end of the war in southern segregation,  the KKK, Jim Crow laws, today's voter suppression efforts, attempts at nullification of Federal laws, and the growing strength of racist right-wing organizations.  If anything, the postwar period brought defiance and denial from the former Confederates and their descendants.

Brian Beutler has an engaging article that proposes we should remember the defeat of the secessionist south by declaring April 9 a national holiday, and disavowing Confederate monuments and renaming facilities named after secessionist leaders who committed simple treason against the U.S.  The latter would involve renaming such army installations as Ft. Lee, Ft. Hood, Ft. Bragg, Ft. Benning and so on.  There are countless U.S. Army heroes that would merit the honor far more than those who actually took up arms against their country.

The proposal, of course, will go nowhere, because of the rosy, heroic false narrative that has been constructed and embraced over the years about the Confederacy to heal the nation after the war.  Southern states which have incorporated the racist "stars and bars" flag into their state flags are just one example of the refusal to deal with the ignoble and vicious war fought to defend the enslavement of human beings.

BONUS:  Harold Meyerson writes on the same subject today (please take time to read the entire op/ed):

The Southernization of the Republican Party and the increasing domination of Wall Street’s brand of shareholder capitalism over the nation’s economic life have combined to erode both the income and the power of U.S. workers. Unions are anathema to Wall Street and the GOP. Federal regulations empowering consumers and employees are opposed by both.

Fueled by the mega-donations of the mega-rich, today’s Republican Party is not just far from being the party of Lincoln: It’s really the party of Jefferson Davis. It suppresses black voting; it opposes federal efforts to mitigate poverty; it objects to federal investment in infrastructure and education just as the antebellum South opposed internal improvements and rejected public education; it scorns compromise. It is nearly all white. It is the lineal descendant of Lee’s army, and the descendants of Grant’s have yet to subdue it.