Master Index of Archived Threads


Why restore artifacts of the Confederacy?

Yancy Street Gang Dec 19 2005 01:42 PM

This letter appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer today. Discuss. Why restore artifacts of the Confederacy? On Dec. 14, I opened The Inquirer to find a story "Painstaking rescue: Winterthur to help restore storm-battered treasures," about an effort by the Winterthur Museum to rescue so-called artwork from the Beauvoir, which was the final home of the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Hello! At the same time as thousands of African American residents of New Orleans lost all their earthly possessions and are struggling to survive, the Winterthur Museum is engaged in a "painstaking rescue" of artifacts of the president of the Confederacy, who brutalized and enslaved their ancestors. Not only did Davis promote and defend the system of chattel slavery, he ran a government that ordered Confederate soldiers to murder about 350,000 soldiers in the U.S. Army. Why did Davis choose to promote the Civil War? He wanted the Confederate states to have the right to own slaves. I happen to be Jewish and would find it personally offensive if a museum in this country did a "painstaking rescue" of the artifacts of Adolf Hitler's family. Hitler ran a system of slave labor camps just as Jefferson Davis was willing to fight a war to defend slavery. The question is: Why are there a different attitudes toward Jefferson Davis and Adolf Hitler? Could it be that all of the presidents of the United Sates before Abraham Lincoln supported slavery in one way or another? A few years ago, there was a successful national movement to lower the Confederate flag from the Capitol of South Carolina. Why are they lowering the Confederate flag in South Carolina and doing a "painstaking rescue" of the artifacts of the president of the Confederacy's in the Delaware Valley? My personal opinion is that painstaking work needs to be done. This work will be to ensure that the descendents of the slaves that Jefferson Davis' Confederacy routinely brutalized, receive compensation for the damage done from slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Steven Halpern Philadelphia

Edgy DC Dec 19 2005 01:54 PM

When is ordering an army to fight against another army tantamount to murder? Or is he speaking of killing soldiers who were disarmed? But 350,000 is around the total for all northern casualties, and only about 30% of those were combat deaths.

metirish Dec 19 2005 01:59 PM

It's part of American history and I have no problem with them restoring it, the reference to Hitler makes hardly any sence.

Johnny Dickshot Dec 19 2005 02:01 PM

Steven Halpern needs to chill.

Edgy DC Dec 19 2005 02:01 PM

The question is: Why are there a different attitudes toward Jefferson Davis and Adolf Hitler? Could it be that all of the presidents of the United Sates before Abraham Lincoln supported slavery in one way or another? Yeah, that must be it.

RealityChuck Dec 19 2005 02:02 PM

It's a silly argument. History is important, even history of evil. If we didn't preserve the artifacts, it's just 1984 doublethink all over again. Besides, if the artifacts are lost, then it gives people an opportunity to distort the truth.

Willets Point Dec 19 2005 02:02 PM

"Why restore artifacts from the Confederacy" is a good questions which could provoke interesting pro & con responses, but Halpern godwinned himself.

Yancy Street Gang Dec 19 2005 02:05 PM

I'm no fan of Jefferson Davis either, but to say that he was another Hitler doesn't sound right to me. The artifacts of Davis and the Confederacy are a part of American history. Not a part to be proud of, though many are, but a crucial part nonetheless. I don't think that we should only preserve the good. If Davis' house is damanged, it ought to be repaired. To get back to Hitler, though, I don't know what kind of Hitler artifacts remain in Germany or Austria. But if his house is still standing, and it was struck and damaged by lightning would it be fixed? I think it probably should, but I can understand the argument against it. But Jefferson Davis isn't the same story at all.

cooby Dec 19 2005 02:19 PM

I like reading about the Civil War, though I don't pretend to be an expert or anything, from all accounts I've read, Jefferson Davis was a pretty decent man in general. Unlike Hitler.

MFS62 Dec 19 2005 02:26 PM

Why? For the same reason concentration camps have been rebuilt as museums in Germany. So that future generations can learn from what happened and hopefully not repeat it. Later

metsmarathon Dec 19 2005 02:28 PM

seeing as we restore and maintain frontier forts which were used to, essentially, take our nation from the hands of the indians (greatly simplifying here), i see no issue with restoring the home of jefferson davis. i also see nothing wrong with restoring hitlers house. if hitlers house were struck by lightning, rebuilding it would not be tantamount to praising or promoting him. rather, it would be preventing a peice of history from being lost to the ages. an opportunity to learn about the man, what made him tick, what made him such a wacko, and what made germany fall under his spell. and, obvioulsy, in learning this, we learn how to prevent it in the future, or at least that is the hope. hiding knowledge of bad things is not a particularly effective way of preventing new bad things

Johnny Dickshot Dec 19 2005 02:38 PM

This belongs probably in the Member's Friend and Acquaintences Promotion Forum but if ya like reading about the Civil War, get yourself my former roomie's new novel, REBEL TRAIN: In a plan so daring as to seem impossible, a group of confederate cavalrymen set out to seize the train carrying Lincoln to Gettysburg and kidnap – or kill – the President. The outcome of this mile-a-minute stream-driven race will decide not only the fate of Lincoln and the raiders, but also of the Union and Confederacy. He's written two other historical CW novels.

Vic Sage Dec 19 2005 02:41 PM

in addition, the efforts of a museum to preserve a historic collection has nothing whatsoever to do with the lives of people in New Orleans. It's not as if this museum said: "well, we can fulfill our mandate as a private, non-profit museum, or we can send our money to charities for the folks in New Orleans!" nor does the efforts of this institution have anything to do with what private, State and Federal monies go to New Orleans, either. Like referencing Hitler, the writer references the tragedy of N.O. simply to up the voltage in his attack of a private cultural institution's decision to preserve a piece of our country's history... which is what they're supposed to do. I would hope that a Hitler Museum be built right in the middle of Munich, and that a trip there be required for all German school children.

Willets Point Dec 19 2005 02:47 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Dec 19 2005 05:16 PM

When I went to Germany a couple of years back I read in my guidebook that Hitler's mountain retreat home is open as a museum and it said many of the visitors were American curiousity seekers. You can visit too: http://www.obersalzberg.de/cms_e/content/home/ ! There was nothing to be found regarding Hitler in Munich (too my knowledge), although one can see the outlines of swastikas that have been painted over on the ceiling of the Hofbrauhaus (or so I've been told, I was looking in my stein not at the ceiling).

Bret Sabermetric Dec 19 2005 05:10 PM

Vic Sage wrote: I would hope that a Hitler Museum be built right in the middle of Munich, and that a trip there be required for all German school children. Hey, that was my idea, only with Pete Rose and Cooperstown.