THERE are some people that just can't accept that the fight is over and they've lost. I've always found creationists who fight teaching evolution instead of accepting that the scientific community has embraced it puzzling. Add to their ranks Virginia Confederate heritage leaders. They insist on a proclamation that honors Confederate soldiers and deny the role slavery played in the South. The worship of the lost cause has ended.
I tend to disagree frequently with Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R), but he was correct to change the Confederate History month proclamation to include Unionists and slaves. The old proclamation glorified the antebellum system and the lost cause. The new proclamation presents a more accurate view of the conflict.
It has become traditional for the governor of Virginia to proclaim the month of April "Confederate History Month" in Virginia. While descendants of Confederate soldiers may see it as an important step toward reviving the memory of their ancestors, this is the minority view.
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But for many blacks in the Commonwealth, the old proclamation is a glorification of slavery that recognizes contributions made by soldiers but not by the black slaves that kept the plantations running. They see the disregarding of slavery as a slap in the face and a denial of the sacrifices black slaves have made in Virginia.
The new proclamation recognizes historic fact: This war was a war to preserve slavery. Professor Gallagher, in his Civil War course, lays out in great detail documents indicating the mainstream view by historians that slavery played a central role in the decision to secede. Despite the overwhelming evidence, it is apparent that there are dissenting students.
People who deny the role of slavery feel the need to vindicate their ancestors' actions. True, Confederate soldiers fought for what they believed in, but it wasn't a lofty ideal: They were fighting for the Southern system that enslaved blacks. These are uncomfortable truths for us to confront as a nation. But pretending they don't exist doesn't make the Confederates look better, and it keeps the Commonwealth divided.
These men weren't evil. It even can be understand logically why they did what they did. Making a choice between state and country would understandably be difficult for anyone. But that doesn't mean they were right. They fought against the side of freedom and they lost. They are not heroes; they are ordinary men.
Having a month to honor those who rebelled against our country really doesn't make any logical sense. What sense is there in honoring those that lost a war, and that lost a war of rebellion, no less? What other countries honor the losers of its wars?
By the Confederate descendants' logic, Russia should honor the ethnic groups that have tried and failed to secede. The Turks should have a month to consider their "Ottoman heritage." Heck, while we're at it, let's have a month to honor all the American colonists (yes, they existed) who sided with Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. At least they were fighting to prevent secession.
The Southern states' worship of Confederate fighters actually has more in common with the martyrdom separatist groups give to their fallen soldiers than the behavior of sovereign states. Celebrating the lost cause implies that the South will rise again against the Northern oppressor when the time is right.
Most of all, support for the old proclamation make the descendants of Confederate soldiers sound like they have a persecution complex. One heritage leader defended the old proclamation by saying, "The men of Virginia were not traitors" ("Va. Group Appeals for Confederate Observance," The Washington Post, August 26, 2000). Changing the proclamation is not about calling the soldiers traitors. Nor is it, as another man alleged, "an attempt to censor history." Rather, it was the old proclamation that censored history by ignoring the slaves entirely and implying that Virginians fighting for the Union didn't sacrifice for their beliefs.
Gov. Gilmore's decision to change the Confederate History Month proclamation brings Virginia into the 21st century. Descendants of the Confederate soldiers should feel free to honor their ancestors as they see fit. But as far as the Commonwealth of Virginia is concerned, the war was over nearly 136 years ago. It's time to let bygones be bygones.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at emanagan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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