Scolars Ask President to Rethink Sending Wreath to Confederate Monument

[Little John_NC]

President Obama Placed a wreath there anyway and one at the Black soldier  monument.
Its kinda long But worth the read anyway.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7658404&page=1

[kathyp]

interesting article.  thanks for sharing it!

[Bee Happy]

when Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address he didn't specify which men he was honoring - the speech has been analyzed later to be tailored to be (graciously short - lots of politickers could take a lesson from that) geared to honor the men who fought on both sides.
" But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract."

I don't want to paste the whole speech, but there were quite a few people pretty ticked that he didn't give a speech to the effect of "we sure whupped them confederates good" - he wanted the country to remain united and wouldn't speak ill of the confederates for believeing differently.
(As a side note, the southern name "The war of Northern Aggression" was probably more accurate; they were legally permitted by the constitution to secede. and as much as the war has been made to be believed to be about freeing slaves - it was about unfair interstate  trade and the prevention of the south from marketing it's products internationally. Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation after secession - legally the same as us telling Germany  - anything)

[kathyp]

lincoln was pretty much the 1st one to throw the constitution over for the sake of the country and war.  guess those points can be argued over and over.  sometimes when you separate the legal argument from the moral one, you end up with two completely different points of view...

and as much as the war has been made to be believed to be about freeing slaves - it was about unfair interstate  trade and the prevention of the south from marketing it's products internationally. Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation after secession - legally the same as us telling Germany  - anything)

true.  slavery was pretty much on the way out already.  as industry grew in the north and there were the beginnings of mechanized farming practices, keeping slaves was becoming less cost effective.  also, the black slave trade was drying up along with the white slave trade from europe.  it was even harder to come by indentured servants as travel became easier and ships more frequent.