To the editor:
Alexander Stephens was vice president of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865. Prior to the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., that launched the Civil War and led to the split of the union, Stephens delivered what became known as the “Cornerstone Speech,” named such because it defined for all of the South, and for history, the belief of those who embraced the cause that led to this split.
Over time, we have dressed up this split as a battle over states’ rights, and that slavery was a by-product of states’ rights. And we have seen this battle of states’ rights against federal tyranny since the Articles of Confederation were abandoned for a more centralized federal government. That just felt good for all of us, I guess. Who wants to really admit this issue of human bondage that was practiced in the South, but whose outcome of labor also benefited the industrial north?
What was this basic belief expressed in the Cornerstone Speech? Who can really remember learning about this in school? Was it taught? Just one person’s speech? And who the heck even talks about vice presidents anyway! It was a whopper. And for those who think that the Confederate flag designed to represent this new country is about heritage and culture, then you are also embracing its true meaning.
Drawing upon the Bible, Stephens argued that slavery of specifically Africans (as opposed to slavery in general) was a divine right. Africans were inferior, and the Confederacy was built upon this ‘cornerstone’ of divine belief. Stephens went on to say that the Confederacy was based upon the “great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man” and that the “moral truth” is that “slavery – insubordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition.”
That is what the South fought for. And that is what the Confederate flag stands for.
We have in Greenfield a person who drives a big pick up truck around town with a Confederate flag flapping at the back end of the truck. We have likely all seen it. And just a mile down the street from me and one scant block off this main street is someone who flies a Confederate in their front yard.
I do not know who you are. I am quite frankly glad you do not live in my neighborhood; yet you are my neighbor. Our community is that small. I guess this is your right, your expression of free speech, your exercise of liberty. But let me ask you. Do you believe what it stands for? That African-Americans are not equal to those with white skin? That they be in human bondage because this is divined by God and is their “natural and normal condition”? Your only answer must be yes. To fly this wretched symbol means exactly that.
You cannot redefine what the vice president of the Confederacy stated the intent of this new nation was to be, and he said this uncontested by anyone is the Confederate South who supported this belief. And if you claim this is heritage and culture in your free speech, then you confirm that this is your belief.
Your neighbors, Greenfield, do not believe this and do not support you. Nor does the divine. Take it down.
Betty Tonsing
Greenfield
