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The
response to Beardsley's column over the course of the next couple
of weeks
was immediate and overwelming. The following letters were received:
Award Recipient
Offended By Column
Editor:
This is in response to Mark Beardsley's opinion in the Commerce
News titled, "Thank God the Union won the Civil War,"
published April 28th. I am one of the men honored at the Confederate
Memorial Day service. And, as were others, I was deeply offended
by Mr. Beardsley's remarks.
I have been directly associated with the U.S. Army for 49 years,
of which I have proudly served our country for 28 years as an
officer and soldier. I am sworn to support and defend the Constitution
of the United States and to bear true faith and allegiance to
the same. Within that framework, I am bound to accept the privilege
of Mr. Beardsley and others to express their opinions, regardless
of how hurtful.
It is unfortunate your editorial focused on the negative aspects
of the memorial service, rather than on its purpose. I must agree
with Mr. Beardsley's comments that some of the guest speaker's
remarks were inappropriate and inflammatory. However, rather
than recognizing the obvious dissymmetry, Mr. Beardsley chose
to attack and denigrate the event. He likewise rendered a grievous
disservice to those honored, those in attendance, and the dedicated
women of the J.E.B. Stuart Chapter of the UDC who sponsored the
program. I feel that Mr. Beardsley owes all of them an apology.
The Holy Bible teaches, "Train up a child in the way he
should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Similarly, the U.S. Army has a near-acronym for its values -
LDRSHIP: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity,
and Personal Courage. These have always been "Family"
values - values I learned in my home from my mother and father,
taught and instilled by their parents and their grandparents,
many who suffered through the agonizing years of war and its
aftermath.
We gathered one month ago to pay our respects and say "Thank
you" to those men and women gave us the courage to persevere,
who made those values an integral part of our lives, not to revise
or relive the "War Between the States."
Carlton L. Hood
Colonel, United States Army
Peachtree City
When Will The War
Between The States Cease?
Editor
For two years I portrayed a field nurse at re-enactments for
the Michigan 7th Infantry. Every battle brought tears to my eyes.
Now in my adopted state I find you're still at it. Only this
time it's at each other. Will it ever cease?
Gloria House
Colbert
Historians
Much In Disagreement Over Events Around War
Editor:
I would like to make several points clear concerning the mass
of responses you have received about the War Between the States.
Mr. Coleman says that "all historians agree that slavery
would have been abolished by the end of the 19th century. In
fact the Confederate Constitution stopped all importation of
slaves."
Historians are in much disagreement over the profitability of
slaves, and the reason slave importation was ceased was to keep
slave prices high, thereby keeping southern slave owners wealthy.
I also question whether Lincoln abolished the Bill of Rights.
Originally, Lincoln only wanted to prohibit slavery in new territories
-- not established states -- and the South refused.
In response to the letter stating that "the South may have
won and been our own industrial power without waiting 50 years,"
the South itself prohibited industry. Southern politicians kept
industry taxes much higher than those in the North, discouraging
industry. Why did it take so long for the South to rebuild? Probably
because those former slave owners looked to try to return to
anything near slavery (share cropping, share tenants), causing
competition instead of compassion between poor whites and freedmen
for these jobs. To sum it up, this competition led to landowners
seeing they could exploit the workers and keep wages down. (The
South is the poorest region in the nation. If we want to be personal
several years ago Jackson County had a lower average income than
the poorest state in the country-Mississippi.)
Because wages increase through education, landowners also wanted
to keep education down. Industry requires different forms of
skill than farm labor and southern landowners had no incentives
to provide this. The South has itself to blame for its history
and cannot turn and blame anyone else.
Born in Commerce with a dad from Virginia and a mom from Eatonton,
Bill Rhoads
Commerce
Editor's Comments Not Backed By The Facts
Editor:
After reading your editorial of April 28th, I felt that some
type of response was really necessary. I realize that I have
neither your gift of the pen nor probably your intelligence;
I'm not a newspaper editor. I am a southerner and a proud one
at that. From your column you could have written about almost
anything, Kosovo, Columbine H.S., etc., but instead you chose
to do what a lot of other people, politically correct people,
are doing and that is southern bashing. It really doesn't take
much to do that what with all the issues, the Georgia Flag, Confederate
Memorial Day, Lee, Jackson and Davis birthdays, the U.D.C., and
the S.C.V.
The speaker we heard at the Confederate Memorial Day program
April 25th was invited by the ladies of the U.D.C. who worked
diligently to organize the celebration. I found his speech to
be historically correct. Were you there because you are interested,
or were you looking for something that you could use in your
editorial? Which part of history did he pervert? Was it the part
where Sherman's men did $100,000,000 worth of damage to Georgia,
mostly against civilians, or the part where black southerners
fought for the South because it was their country or the fact
that the South, for over a hundred years, was treated as the
stepchild of the country?
And of course there is the slavery issue. The South will always
be the area of the country persecuted for this, even though in
1776 all the states had slaves. Slavery didn't work up North
because of the climate and the industry so they worked immigrants
in factories. It wasn't slavery but it was pretty close. How
about the fact that most, not all, slave ships were owned by
northerners? I agree that slavery in our eyes is wrong, but to
condemn our ancestors for doing what was legal and in their eyes
morally right is poor. It's really easy to condemn the dead.
(I wonder what our descendants are going to condemn us about?)
You've made a lot of statements but you have no facts to support.
Is this typical of your editorials? Since we would have been
a "know-nothing country" if we had won, does that make
us a "know-nothing state" now? And while you say that
the South perpetuated second-class citizenry upon blacks, you
forgot to mention that the same was happening to blacks up North.
Before the war they couldn't hold office or vote. They were basically
the hired help of the wealthy. This practice continued up North
after the war. Segregation and discrimination was just as prevalent
up there as it was down here.
As to whether or not a Confederate victory would have perpetuated
great evil we will never know. I doubt it though. We do know
what Reconstruction did to the South. Basically, disfranchisement
and Jim Crow Laws were a backlash at Reconstruction, a time period
when the South suffered nearly as much as it did during the war.
You need to pick up a history written by a southerner. The South
Was Right is a good one which truly presents an accurate perspective
of the South and southerners.
In this period of time when there is so much cultural diversity
and tolerance you should remember that southerners have a culture
also.
Tommy Benton
Georgia History teacher
East Jackson Middle School
P.S. - You did get two things right in your editorial. One was
the name of the war, The War Between the States, and the fact
that the U.S. would not be the country that it is today without
the South.
Columnist Was Not
Objective
Editor:
In response to your editorial concerning the "War Between
the States," I certainly agree that everyone has their right
to their own opinion, but in your case I feel that you have let
your personal feelings get in the way of doing fair reporting.
Your article on the Confederate Memorial Day in Commerce was
biased. You let your opinion get in the way of seeing the most
important part of this ceremony. The heart of this program was
to honor three gallant soldiers who had fought for our country.
These men were given crosses of military service, national defense
medals. Do you realize what qualities you need for one of these
medals? They are hard to come by and are not ordered from a mail
order catalog.
Two of the recipients were veterans of World War II, one of them
fighting at the beaches of Normandy and going on to make a 20-year
career of the U.S. Army. The other one was at the Battle of the
Bulge. Both heroic men. The third one was a colonel in the U.S.
Army and is going on 20 years. I feel these men deserved more
coverage than who was arrested for drunk driving and whose mailbox
got bashed this week.
There were approximately 70 more people who thought it was important
enough to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon there.
As for the re-enactors, maybe you should have spent a few minutes
interviewing them. Two soldiers are history majors from the University
of Georgia and the guns they use are original weapons.
Maybe sometimes the speakers get a little carried away. Do not
judge everyone there without talking with them and hearing the
good things the organizations do for nursing homes, schools,
veterans, senior citizens and the hundreds of dollars worth of
books donated to the Commerce Library.
Also, I do recall as a group, we all stood and pledged the American
flag. As we all sang together "America the Beautiful,"
we had a prayer and prayed for the victims in Colorado, but all
you see is something the speaker overstated.
Maybe you should try to learn more about these people before
you judge them too harshly.
J. Barnes
Braselton
Honors Overlooked
Editor:
I wasn't going to respond to your editorial concerning Confederate
Memorial Day; it wasn't worth my time. But I didn't feel that
I was doing a certain group of men justice if I didn't.
Living in this great country, we are all blessed with the freedom
to speak our opinions. And I don't condemn you for not agreeing
with another person's opinion, that is your right. You have a
right to express your opinion however you see fit, just as anyone
else. Of course, being the editor of a small town paper has its
advantages.
Three United States Veterans were honored at that Memorial Day
Service. These men fought for this country and risked their lives
for us, enduring terrible hardship. Do you think that you would
even be a newspaper editor, if not for them? You had the opportunity
to honor these men by paying special attention to them in your
paper. But what did they get? A photo that briefly mentions them
in the caption, and an editorial preaching, because you didn't
agree with one person's perspective on a subject.
I have been to a lot of Confederate Memorial Day Services in
the past six years, and never once have I ever heard anyone condone
the institution of slavery. In fact, never in my life have I
ever heard anyone condone slavery, period. Most people only want
to honor those men who fought and gave their lives, just like
in any other war. That is what the organizers of this event were
attempting to do. But that is not even the issue here. The fact
is that you showed great disrespect for these U.S. veterans who
fought for this country: the country that you are trying to defend.
I for one would like to thank these veterans for their sacrifices.
This country could use some heroes today. We need someone to
admire and look up to. Maybe people would learn to be a little
more tolerant of others and we wouldn't see the carnage that
we have seen in recent weeks. I would like to challenge you as
a newspaper editor. Instead of stirring up anger and intolerance,
how about finding us something to admire and look up to. Go out
there and find those people who are heroes and let us see them
and learn about them in your paper. Give people a reason to feel
pride in this country and in themselves. Make a difference.
Sincerely;
Lisa K. Kennedy
Proud descendant of Revolutionary War veterans, War of 1812 veterans,
Mexican War veterans, World War I & II veterans, and 80+
Confederate veterans.
Missed The Point
Editor:
In response to "The View From the Editor's Desk" by
Mark Beardsley in The Commerce News, April 28, 1999, "Thank
God the Union Won the Civil War," I would like to say I
was in attendance at the ceremony on 4/25/99 in remembrance of
Confederate Memorial Day. From my view, which was just a few
feet from Mr. Beardsley's, I saw three proud and distinguished
veterans recognized by receiving medals for service to their
country, which was exactly what the occasion commemorates.
Everyone who attended came, in part, to honor those who gave
their lives in that "bad war" -- as if there ever was
a "good war." Whichever side one is on in a war, the
story should be told and history preserved. Perhaps one day,
mankind will learn from their mistakes (though one wonders what
we learned from WWII when we hear reports of genocide in Kosovo).
I heard the speaker at the ceremony charge us to tell the story
to our children. I also saw on the news this past week that the
government is requiring "character studies" to be taught
in public schools, and I thought, "How sad." In this
politically correct society we have resorted to placing the responsibility
of teaching our children such "antiquated" concepts
as honor, pride, loyalty, and honesty upon the teachers in our
schools.
I observed all these traits in the three gentlemen honored that
day, who were called to serve their country on foreign soil.
I would venture to guess our ancestors who fought in that "bad
war" held the same values.
Yes, Mr. Beardsley, you can take pleasure in the fact that I,
too, have "waltzed around the subject of slavery."
I'm just trying to "move on," but I really think you're
missing the point. I hope that I have been able to clarify it
somewhat.
Janice Watson
- War Cost South Protections Of Bill Of Rights
Editor:
Yes the Federals won the Second War for Independence, but at
the cost of every citizen's rights guaranteed under the original
constitution. Simply read the tenth amendment in our Bill of
Rights. It states that states retain the powers and that the
federal government only has what powers the states assign.
Now we have a federal government restricting our every move.
Our freedoms have disappeared. Local control of one's existence
was also the purpose of the first War for Independence, which
we won and everything was fine until Lincoln became a dictator
and abolished our Bill of Rights.
The South did own slaves that they bought from the New England
states. Originally the South didn't want the slaves, but the
king of England forced us to have them. All historians agree
that slavery would have been abolished by the end of the nineteenth
century. In fact, the Confederate Constitution stopped all importation
of slaves.
If the war had been about slavery, then why did the South not
accept Lincoln's proposal that slavery would continue if the
South would come back into the union? No, it was unfair tariffs
that prevented this offer from being accepted by the South. You
see, only four Southern states paid over half of ALL the revenue
collected by the national government.
Southerners have never met our equals man for man! These odds
would increase if the Yankee refugee carpetbaggers would leave.
Let's agree on one thing: there would not have been a war if
the North had not invaded the Christian South.
- Elijah S. Coleman
Mableton
Editor Neither A
Southerner Nor A Gentleman
I can see from your editorial that you are neither a Southerner
or a gentleman. As usual, the liberal press gets the last word,
whether it be fact or fiction. It is good however to know your
true colors so that we can evaluate your future editorials appropriately.
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- John S. Reid Jr., Southerner,
descendant of Confederate veterans and the wonderful ladies that
supported them on all sides, Thomaston
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- Editor's Note: I make no claim to being a gentleman, but
I am a native of the South (Thomaston is north of my hometown),
born to natives of the South. Sorry.
- Family Says Run Editor Out Of Town On Rail
Editor:
Yes, we are so lucky that the Union won the war. God forbid that
the South may have won and been our own industrial power without
waiting 50 years just to rebuild our cities and manhood. And,
too bad our form of constitutional government actually worked
and habeas corpus was NOT suspended wholesale as the evil Lincoln
had done. Pity.
Your head is screwed on wrong. Half my family is from Georgia
and they all say "Run his ass out of Commerce on a rail!"
- S.D. Latham
Belhaven, NC
- Editor's Note: That would be the Norfolk-SOUTHERN Rail,
right?
- Editors Should Leave History To The Historians
Editor:
In regards to your article of April 28th and your search for
truth in Confederate history, I do not take issue that the North
defeated the South. All else in your article is grossly irreverent
to Confederates everywhere and nothing more than farcical opinion
totally lacking in significant historical fact. Editors should
leave history to the historians and make opinion on things one
knows a little more about. It is a favorite habit of mine to
resurrect from the past the words of those old Confederate patriots
in their own defense, and I offer a few of those words to you
now.
By Gen. John Brown Gordon, C.S.A.
The heartstrings of the mother, woven around the grave of her
lost child, will never be severed while she lives; but does that
hinder the continued flow of maternal devotion to those who are
left her? The South's affections are bound, with links that cannot
be broken, around the graves of her sons who fell in her defense
and to the mementos and memories of the great struggle; but does
that fact lessen her loyalty to the proud emblem of a reunited
country? Does her unparalleled defense of the now dead Confederacy
argue less readiness to battle for the ever-living Republic,
in the making and the administering of which she bore so conspicuous
a part?
If those unhappy patriots who find a scarecrow in every faded,
riddled Confederate flag would delve deeper into the philosophy
of human nature, or rise higher, they would be better satisfied
with their Southern countrymen, with Southern sentiment, with
the breadth and strength of the unobtrusive but sincere Southern
patriotism. They would see that man is so constituted, the immutable
laws of our being are such, that to stifle the sentiment and
extinguish the hallowed memories of a people is to destroy their
manhood.
The unseemly things which occurred in the great conflict between
the States should be forgotten, or at least forgiven, and no
longer permitted to disturb complete harmony between North and
South. All American youth in all sections should be taught to
hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and good on
both sides; to comprehend the inherited convictions for which
saintly women suffered and patriotic men died; to recognize the
unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivaled courage; to appreciate
the singular absence of all personal animosity and the frequent
manifestation between those brave antagonists of a good-fellowship
such as had never before been witnessed between hostile armies.
It will be a glorious day for our country when all the children
within its borders shall learn that four years of fratricidal
war between the North and the South was waged by neither with
criminal or unworthy intent, but by both to protect what they
conceived to be threatened rights and imperiled liberty; that
the issues which divided the sections were born when the Republic
was born, and were forever buried in an ocean of fraternal blood.
Tom Hayes
Cleveland
- At Least You Could Have Gotten Name Right
Editor:
This is in reference to Mark Beardsley's opinion in the Commerce
News titled "Thank God the Union won the Civil War."
First of all, the proper term is "War Between the States."
Second: if Mr. Beardsley had bothered to check his facts (i.e.
read the Confederate Constitution) he would realize how misguided
his "opinion" is. This is as much as I'm willing to
dignify this subject.
- Michael R. Dunagan, SCV.
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- Editor's Note: It's very difficult to fit "War Between
The States" in a one-column headline using 24-point type.
- Editor Kin To Carpetbaggers Or Displaced
Yankee
Editor:
Your editorial on the views of why the North was right and just
in the fighting the War of Northern Aggression should be upsetting
to the people of the whole state of Georgia.
I guess that the author of the letter has a direct lineage to
Carpetbaggers, or is a misplaced Yankee who needs some help in
finding his way back across the Mason-Dixon Line. I guess that
he never read books and letters about the EVIL deeds that Sherman
and his troops enacted upon the people of Georgia.
I did not say Army, but the general population. These were not
soldiers, but men, women, and even children. My ancestors were
in the direct line of Sherman's march and lost all crops, livestock,
money, and food. I did not condone slavery, nor do I agree that
it is right, but sir, I take issue with anyone who tries to slant
history by not being knowledgeable and not having all accurate
facts.
- Mitchell Morgan
Savannah
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- Editor's Note: Didn't I read that the proper name for
the war is the War Between The States?
- Editor Shouldn't Advertise His Vast Ignorance
Editor:
Your article about the "Civil War" is the most-uninformed
piece of moronic drivel I have ever read. The writer probably
cannot help being ignorant, but why advertise it?
- Wayne Pricer
Fort Worth, Texas
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- Editor's Note: The 'Civil War' column doesn't even rank
in the top 10 columns for moronic drivel.
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