Can you identify the likeness of this famous Confederate General whose statue stands in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol Building? Does this statue offend you? If so, why? Please enter your guess and comments in the comments section below. The Standard will identify the general later this week.
On Tuesday, June 29, members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove all Confederate and some other statues from the grounds of the U.S. Capitol that they deemed to have supported slavery or segregation.
The vote was 285 – 120 with all Democrats voting “Yes” to the statues’ removals, to be made within 45 days of the date the bill passes. The bill will now go to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
A similar bill was entered last June following the death of George Floyd and was passed by members of the U.S. House but did not gain enough votes for approval in the Senate.
The statues in question include one of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, and Senator from Mississippi; John Caldwell Calhoun, U.S. Congressman for South Carolina, 7th Vice President, and U.S. Secretary of War under President Monroe; Charles Brantley Aycock, North Carolina Governor; Alexander Hamilton Stevens, Georgia Congressman, Vice President of the Confederacy, and Governor of Georgia; James Paul Clarke, U. S. Senator and Governor of Arkansas.
Statue likeness of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney.
In addition, a bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney who authored the 1857 Dred Scott decision declaring African Americans not to be U. S. citizens is listed for removal. Taney’s likeness will be replaced by a statue of the late Thurgood Marshall, who was the first Black member of the U.S. Supreme Court. All listed statues would be removed involuntarily.
Each state contributes two statues of people of historical importance to be displayed in the Capitol. Those statues can be replaced by state officials, who select who will be depicted and raise money for the statue’s creation.
The Joint Committee on the Library of Congress (JCLoC) can approve or deny state requests to replace their statues, and determines where those statues are displayed in the Capitol. The Committee is the oldest continuing joint committee of the U.S. Congress being created in January 1802.
H.R. 3005 is another move to strike names of Confederate and other specified members from prominence in the nation. A bill to change names of military bases currently named after Confederate leaders has passed Congress.
California Rep. Zoe Lofgren
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-CA19, is vice-Chair of JCLoC, and Democratic Chair of the House Administration Committee, said that the Confederate statues “honor traitors to their country” and that removing them would not be erasing the nation’s history. Her website says she is based in the “Capital of Silicon Valley,” San Jose, and “fighting for racial justice”.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are an affront” (Barbara Sprunt, NPR.org, “House Votes to Remove Confederate Statues in US Capitol, Jun 29, 2021).
5th District SC Congressman (Rock Hill—R) Ralph Norman, introduced a bill as counter-measure on June 29 to prohibit the removal of a statue provided by a state for the purpose of exhibition in National Statuary Hall unless 2/3 of the state’s delegation approve of its removal. Eleven representatives co-sponsored the bill. It was referred to the House Committee on Administration.
SC Congressional Reps. James Clyburn, D-6th District, and Nancy Mace, R-1st District, voted to removed Confederate statues from statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. Most SC Congressmen voted against the House Bill, which would also replace a bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney with that of justice Thurgood Marshall.
Alabama Republican Senator Mo Brooks previewed his vote in the Senate by calling the bill “cancel culture and historical revisionism” and called for states to maintain their rights to choose their own two statues for the Capitol.
At last year’s vote, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (Republican) said that he would continue to support the practice of states replacing statues on their own. The Aycock statue in North Carolina is supposed to be replaced by a statue of Billy Graham, the evangelist, for example. However, President Joe Biden booted that statue’s artistic creator, Charles Fagan, from his post with the U.S. Fine Arts Commission in May in quick, unceremonious manner.
Lisa C. Rudisill is a magna cum laud graduate of NC State University and Liberty University where she earned a Master of Theology. She writes novels about her family history during the Civil War in North and South Carolina. She is a freelance writer, editorialist and a contributor to The Standard newspaper.
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Please stop referring to Biden as “President.” He is not. It’s been obvious for some time now. And also more and more evidence is coming forward that the election was stolen by the Demo-Commies and their supporters via underhanded deceitful means. Therefore that makes Biden and Harris illegitimate and illegal occupants of the White House. Don’t dishonor the Office of President and Vice-President by referring to them as such. Call them what you will, just please, not “President” or Vice-President. I ask this of all writers for The Standard and the readers of The Standard in general. Thank you.