WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) and Congressman Dwight Evans (PA-3) reintroduced bill H. R. 4179, the “No Funding for Confederate Symbols Act” August 13, 2019. The bill requires “legislation that would prohibit Federal funds from being used to create, maintain, or display, as applicable, any Confederate symbol on Federal public land, including any highway, park, subway, Federal building, military base, street, or other Federal property.”
Espaillat said in the bill that “The Confederate battle flag is one of the most controversial symbols from U.S. history, signifying a representation of racism, slavery, and the oppression of African Americans.”
The leftist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has for many years published a guide to remove monuments to the Southern patriots who fought for their farms, families and State during the war. The SPLC identified 1,503 monuments they targeted for removal. They also identified “nearly 2,600 markers, battlefields, museums, cemeteries and other places.”
The Smithsonian Magazine reported in December 2018 that “over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries and cemeteries.”
“There are at least 1,503 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces, including 109 public schools named after prominent Confederates,” Espaillat says quoting the SPLC. He also parroted the SPLC when he stated that there are “more than 700 Confederate monuments and statues on public property throughout the country.”
Confederate Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery
Espaillat’s bill requires that no Federal funds may be used for the “creation, maintenance, or display” of any Confederate symbols. This restriction would include “any highway, park, subway, Federal building, military installation, street, or other Federal property.”
The Congressmen defined the term “Confederate symbol” as including any Confederate battle flag, any symbol or other signage that honors the Confederacy, any monument or statue that honors a Confederate leader or any soldier or the Confederate States of America.
The crowning cap for the bill is the proposed renaming of all military installations named in honor of Confederate Leaders throughout the South and nation within “1 year after the date of enactment” of the act. This would affect immediately Forts: Rucker in Alabama, Benning and Gordon in Georgia, Camp Beauregard and Fort Polk in Louisiana. It would also affect Forts: Bragg in North Carolina, Hood in Texas, and Forts A.P. Hill, Lee and Pickett in Virginia.
The bill would further include “Any reference in any law, regulation, map, document, paper, or other record of the United States to a military installation referred to in subsection.” The bill would include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public works.
Congressman Espaillat said “The Confederate Battle Flag remains one of the most intractable symbols from the darkest chapter in U.S. history representing racism, slavery, the oppression of African Americans.” He continued that “we must remember that in our recent history we witnessed men and women don white hoods and torches in the light of day to venerate a symbol of the Confederacy.”
Former SC Gov. Nikki Haley led the charge to remove the Confederate flag in 2015 after she had promised Southern Heritage groups she would never take it down in an election promise. Many believe she exploited the tragedy for political reasons. Haley was flanked at a news conference in 2015 by supporters of her decision to remove the flag including Congressmen James Clyburn and Mark Sanford, and US Senators Tim Scott and Lindsay Graham. Reverend’s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were also on hand to support Haley.
Espaillat said that America is witness to various tragedies due to “white-supremacist ideologies” and those who seek to “memorialize” white-nationalism. The “tragedies,” said Espaillat, are a result of the “Confederate symbols that remain present to this day.” He further remarked that “their continued presence will only further inflame our country” with the majority being “in the South.”
The “Confederate flag is strongly associated with hate and violence stoked by racists and white supremacists” said Congressman Evans, after referring to the nine people murdered by a deranged drugged madman in a Charleston church in no way affiliated with Southern Heritage groups. He was also referring to a Marxist infiltrated Charlottesville rally two years ago. Evans said, “It is an insult to all Americans to have our tax dollars maintain or display Confederate symbols.”
In a supporting statement Reverend Al Sharpton, President & Founder, National Action Network, said “The Confederate symbol is a stain of hate, white supremacy, and divisiveness that should not be celebrated in American history.” Sharpton said his organization “is pleased to support the No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act as a beacon of progress against the hate and bigotry.”
Spokesman Heidi Beirich said for the Southern Poverty Law Center says they support the “No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act” because of “white supremacy.” The SPLC claims the monuments “do not belong in public spaces.” Beirich concludes that we need to acknowledge and respect “all of American history.”
Approximately 620,000 Americans died in what’s typically called the Civil War. Around 335,000 of those were Southern men defending their farms, families and State when requested by Southern governors. That was about 2% of the population. Today that would equate to about 6,000,000 men. Many Southern soldiers were buried in mass graves or not at all. The monuments and memorials were a way of remembering that their sacrifice would not be forgotten.
Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper and TheStandardSC YouTube channel. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is too often ignored by the dominant media.
Please “like”, comment, share with a friend, and donate to support The Standard on this page. Become a Patron!
Independent journalism is more critical than ever at this time in our country when it seems the dominant media has taken control of the national and local narrative with a leftist agenda. When you support The Standard, you support independent media and freedom of the press at a time when all our Liberties are under attack! Join us now and support freedom of the press! Would you click the donation button now? You can help get critical information into the hands of your friends and neighbors for as little as $1 a month! A monthly donation of $25, $100, $500 or more, helps alert local churches, businesses, and others in our community of the pending dangers confronting us and are heading our way. Please help us ring the bell of truth and Liberty today and make a donation to The Standard!
RSS - Posts
Hope the bill fails!
This woman and these men think they can just erase part of the history of the United States. Do they think we are just going to FORGET THE PAST? I, for one, am proud of my Confederate blood. I descended from a Confederate Colonel and Surgeon who served in Mississippi. I also have a blood kinship to His EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT JEFF DAVIS. There are those who consider the Stars and Bars hate. A flag can’t hate. Hate comes from the hearts of men. Most of us down South hold no hate for anyone, be they Black or White, but there ARE plenty of haters on that side. For instance the ANTIFA filth who roam our streets. They just locked up one of the hierarchy for a string of crimes. Does that surprise anyone? Filth is filth, no matter what color they are.i have taught my children to be proud of who they are, who they come from and who they will become. TO ALL THE ANTIFA FILTH: MANY OF US WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO WALK UP BEHIND WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND DELIVER UNWARRANTED BLOWS THAT COULD CRIPPLE. I WILL PROTECT ME AND MINE. IF CHALLENGED, I WILL USE ANY WAY I HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT WHOEVER CHALLENGES ME WILL NO LONGER WALK THIS EARTH. Years ago, many cities and states passed anti MASK laws, forbidding the wearing of masks except on SOWEN (you know it as Halloween) or for a party or performance. The laws were meant to make the KKK have to show their faces. Now we are plagued with filth of the same Calibre who are wearing masks for the same reason but for some reason the anti mask laws are NOT being applied to the ANTIFA FILTH. Why,? Ask your congressman and senator. Ask your police chief. Force the issue and make them tell you W-H-Y!
Let me see if I have this straight; the wowsers, whiners, snowflakes and race hustlers want ALL Confederate monuments removed, even from the battlefields and other Civil War historic sites??? Don’t those ignoranuses realize that only honoring one side of the story of the Civil War would destroy the whole historical context of those sites? If all that remains is Union monuments, then future generations will be left wondering just who the Union was fighting to begin with!
This is our history, remove the history of black people then, and remove Martin Luther King’s day, because that’s history to.
Espaillat, needs to read a couple of good books on the subject he trying to erase. A very smart man once said, ” Its better to set in a corner of the room and appear to look stupid than open your mouth and relieve all doubts.” An idiot should be able to realize, recognize and understand that the loud mouths that exploit the Confederate Battle Flag vomiting their hate are no where near the number of those Southerners, like myself that respect and honors the price paid by our ancestors that wore the gray and butternut. We also recognize the terrible sacrifices made by the women and children on the home front. Its like President Jefferson Davis said,” All we want is to be let alone.”
It appears those who cry the loudest and suffer White Guilt and the others with heavy chips on their shoulders.
“Amen”
H. Meads Washington Ga.
I do too!! This crap is BEYOND RIDICULOUS!!
The following statement comes from Confederate Naval officer Raphael Semmes to Captain Hillyar of the British Navy in 1861:
“The North used the machinery of government, in which they had majority power, to enrich the North and despoil the South. They imposed the tariff which reduced the South to a dependent colonial condition like the Roman provinces. The only difference being that the North falsely claimed to be operating under law. Slavery had nothing to do with the war, the hypocritical Yankees care nothing of the Negroes. The slavery issue is only a by-play, a device to cover Northern grasp for empire—power. The North only began the slavery agitation when they began to rob the South by raising the tariff. The slavery issue was only a diversion, it was no more than an implement used by a robber to rob the South. Finally, realizing the North would never treat us fairly, the South withdrew from the Union. We merely want to be independent. We are fighting for our independence because the North does not want to lose their milk cow and has attacked us, to forcibly hold us to pay their bills.”
Written by Dr. Walter E. Williams (African American)
We call the war of 1861 the Civil War. But is that right? A civil war is a struggle between two or more entities trying to take over the central government. Confederate President Jefferson Davis no more sought to take over Washington, D.C., than George Washington sought to take over London in 1776. Both wars, those of 1776 and 1861, were wars of independence. Such a recognition does not require one to sanction the horrors of slavery. We might ask, How much of the war was about slavery?
Was President Abraham Lincoln really for outlawing slavery? Let’s look at his words. In an 1858 letter, Lincoln said, “I have declared a thousand times, and now repeat that, in my opinion neither the General Government, nor any other power outside of the slave states, can constitutionally or rightfully interfere with slaves or slavery where it already exists.” In a Springfield, Illinois, speech, he explained: “My declarations upon this subject of Negro slavery may be misrepresented but cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I do not understand the Declaration (of Independence) to mean that all men were created equal in all respects.” Debating Sen. Stephen Douglas, Lincoln said, “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes nor of qualifying them to hold office nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
What about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation? Here are his words: “I view the matter (of slaves’ emancipation) as a practical war measure, to be decided upon according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion.” He also wrote: “I will also concede that emancipation would help us in Europe, and convince them that we are incited by something more than ambition.” When Lincoln first drafted the proclamation, war was going badly for the Union. London and Paris were considering recognizing the Confederacy and assisting it in its war against the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation was not a universal declaration. It specifically detailed where slaves were to be freed: only in those states “in rebellion against the United States.” Slaves remained slaves in states not in rebellion — such as Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and Missouri. The hypocrisy of the Emancipation Proclamation came in for heavy criticism. Lincoln’s own secretary of state, William Seward, sarcastically said, “We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.”
Lincoln did articulate a view of secession that would have been heartily endorsed by the Confederacy: “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better…. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit.” Lincoln expressed that view in an 1848 speech in the U.S. House of Representatives, supporting the war with Mexico and the secession of Texas.
Why didn’t Lincoln share the same feelings about Southern secession? Following the money might help with an answer. Throughout most of our nation’s history, the only sources of federal revenue were excise taxes and tariffs. During the 1850s, tariffs amounted to 90 percent of federal revenue. Southern ports paid 75 percent of tariffs in 1859. What “responsible” politician would let that much revenue go”?
Dr. Walter E. Williams, PhD is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
27 September 1860, Republican Leader Thaddeus Stevens, sponsor of the Morrill Tariff, told a New York City audience that “the Tariff would impoverish the southern and western states, but that was essential for advancing national greatness and the prosperity of industrial workers.” Northern Republicans and Whigs cheered, Southern leaders were indignant and called for nullification and/or Secession. (Unconstitutional federal redistribution of wealth) https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/morrill.html
November 4, 1860 An editorial in the edition of the Charleston Mercury said of the tariff crisis: “The real causes of dissatisfaction in the South with the North, are in the unjust taxation and expenditure of the taxes by the Government of the United States, and in the revolution the North has effected in this government, from a confederated republic, to a national sectional despotism.” Some Northern newspapers even condoned secession should the Southern States adopt that course of action. In the November 21, 1860 edition of the Cincinnati Daily Press, an editorial said of secession: “We believe that the right of any member of this Confederacy to dissolve its political relations with the others and assume an independent position is absolute.” https://www.nytimes.com/1861/02/14/archives/the-morrill-tariff.html
Lincoln’s own words:
“Negro equality. Fudge! How long in the Government of a God great enough to make and maintain this universe, shall there continue knaves to vend and fools to gulp, so low a piece of demagoguism as this?” Abraham Lincoln, 1859.
“I have said that I do not understand the Declaration of Independence to mean that all men were created equal in all respects. I will say that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe, will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality. And I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” Abraham Lincoln, Fourth Lincoln/Douglas Debate 1858.
“Negroes have Natural Rights, although they cannot enjoy them here, and even Taney once said that ‘though it does not declare that all men are equal in their attainments and social position, yet no sane man will attempt to deny that the African upon his own soil has all the rights that instrument vouchsafes to all mankind.’” (Lincoln asserting that positive law usurps natural law and that if blacks are to enjoy natural rights they must be returned to Africa.)
“What then free them all and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? What next, free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this, and even if mine would we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not. We cannot then make them equals… If all earthly power were given to me, I should not know what to do to the existing institution.” Abraham Lincoln, 1st Lincoln/Douglas debate, 1858.
“What I would most desire is a separation of the white and black races.” Abraham Lincoln, 1858.
Witness: “There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of
indiscriminate amalgamation (mixing) of the white and black races. A Separation of the
races is the only perfect preventative of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together.” Abraham Lincoln, on why no slavery in the Territories, 1858.
Defenders of the popular narrative used to attempt to redeem Lincoln from these statements by claiming he matured in his views of black equality. This claim was crumbled by revelations in the recent book Colonization After Emancipation, by Dr’s Phillip Magness and Sebastion Page. Their research revealed Lincoln was seeking to colonize blacks out of the US right up until the week he died.
Maybe the “Lincoln Memorial” should be defunded and removed?
That is all.
John Wick, This post has been edited to reflect proper decorum and family values. Profanity is not allowed and will not be printed. You may agree or disagree with news or published articles, opinions are respected but ill language is not.
And Southerners will remain quiet and sit with hands folded as they dismantle the South! Does not our history matter? Does not those, who fought honorably, deserve us to defend their good names? It is ridiculous to judge people of the past with standards of today. The proper term to call this ideology is presentism. The Blue and Gray held joint reunions, many times a Confederate monument was erected with the help and support of Union veterans. I am absolutely sick that some people are so self righteous and judging people who have been gone for so many years! Solve your own problems first! It appears that your way is not working since crime rates, suicide rates and drug usage are sky rocketing! Why? Because people have no home, no family or church. All of those are basic foundations for a mentally healthy person!
DISGRACEFUL. ACT OF IGNORANCE BY THESE ELECTED OFFICIALS❗
Erasing history and the 450,000 Southern Americans and 650,000 Northern troops, and uncounted elderly, women and children that died all so a few Rich people could own a slave, is ludicrous, brought to America by the Vermont Trading Co and the politicians that allowed it to happen, and we should never talk about how those people came about being sold into slavery by other tribes or in some cases their own people.
No one alive today in America is or has been a slave, No one alive today in America has owned or wanted a slave, with the exception of tax stealing politicians. Those who constantly use slavery for attention should be slaves. Slavery still exists in the world. Ending that is not part of their agenda.
Hatred between the races began and is fueled by ignorant politicians and people like the Rat Al, they make a lot of money doing it. Stopping the hate has never been in their agenda’s, The cultural divide grows!
There were 393,975 slave owners counted in the 1860 U.S. census. Most were not rich. Only about 100 of them owned 100 or or more slaves. Only about 11,000 made up the plantation aristocracy. Basically all lived in the states that soon seceded (only a few did not). They did not live in columned mansions but log cabins and dog-trot houses. Most of them owned 4 to 6 slaves. They didn’t have slave quarters; in many cases, the slaves slept in the kitchen of the owners house.
The subject of slavery has been greatly lied about in this country. Many people, “educated” and lay people, talk about it as if they actually know about. They probably couldn’t give you the information in the paragraph above.
Its my understanding that 8 million whites lived in the south in 1860, The war was also brought about by taxes and tariffs, state by state succeeded from the union as a result. The war itself was brought about as a well planned out event that eventually brought about and ended with land being taken at fractions of what it was originally worth, The emancipation proclamation only came about as a result of the north needing allies and freeing the slaves and giving them property and a mule for they’re war efforts created hostilities that hold true today, Slaves and Owners that once worked in the fields together were now enemies, The largest portions of slave owning people were in Coastal plantations, The very Government that allowed this travesty to begin with, was also responsible for the cause of this horrible war responsible for more American deaths and tragedies than all other wars combined.
Can’t stop hate and ignorance. Not a single Confederate monument says anything about slavery. They were fighting for independence against what they saw as a tyrannical government, save as our revolutionary fight for independence. End the Hate, Support Our Confederate Brothers and Sisters.
600,000 men, how many women and children were killed by Yankee invaders? Please mail, call or email your reps and request they deny this bill!! https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Quote: “The Confederate battle flag is one of the most controversial symbols from U.S. history, signifying a representation of racism, slavery, and the oppression of African Americans.”
So does the US flag. Slavery, CSA, 4 years. Slavery, USA, 89 years. Segregated military, red-lined cities, sundown towns, whatever it is Colin Kaepernick is protesting….
These meaningless attacks on Confederate symbols are simply a method of creating hatred for white Southerners, past and present.
Whatever charges you wish to level at the Confederacy, the same and much, much worse can be said about the United States.
There may have been a people somewhere on the planet with the moral authority to wage war on the Confederacy — for slavery or anything else — but it wasn’t the USA.
NOTHING —
~not secession
~not “preserving the union”
~not ending slavery
~not ANYTHING
–justified the union’s brutal, savage, genocidal war on the Southern people.
This is nothing more than continued hatred, bigotry and divisiveness against Southern people and their symbols. The South did not create slavery which was wrong but legal at the time. The Northern states of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware And Rhode Island brought slaves to the country after they were purchased from African tribal leaders. At the end of 1700 there were more slaves in New York than in Georgia. The war against the South was due to the need to keep the South in the Union. The North’s economy would be destroyed without the South. Read about the Morrill tariff, Corwin Amendment and Lincoln’s inaugural address in which he said he would not interfere with slavery.
These are evil Fascists and communists. They are luciferians
A. Lincoln, Jan. 12, 1848, U.S. House of Representatives………..”…. Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right—a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movement. Such minority was precisely the case of the Tories of our own Revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines, or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones. …”
If you need some ammunition to argue for Confederate Monuments, The Abbeville Institute recently published my work including chart. A longer version is coming out this month in Nineteenth Century Magazine (published by the Victorian Society in America — it is a peer-reviewed magazine.https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/…/the-real-reason..
There are lots of things that are offensive to lots of people. You are offensive to me.
Jeanne, This post has been edited to reflect proper decorum and family values. Profanity is not allowed and will not be printed. You may agree or disagree with news or published articles, opinions are respected but ill language is not.
Vile, disgusting, pandering politicians led by a power hungry ~#\^*! named nikki. Shame on them for disgracing American veterans’ memorials!!!
Confederate forces are veterans just as much as Union forces are. Memorials should be left alone.
The North approved and made slavery legal perhaps for the sole purpose of getting rich selling to the South. They even built special ships to import them it. Then the South gets blamed. Some sense this makes. Then some evil doers utilize the Confederate flag to do bad things. So if evil doers use our now American Flag do we ban its use?
The whole GD country has gone crazy. I’m an AMERICAN with African roots. My 14th Great Grandfather was among the 1st Africans brought to the Virginia Colony in 1619. He was born in Senegal in 1609 and sold to slave traders by Muslims in west Africa when he was 10 years old. The Confederate doesn’t symbolize hate but to a handful of ignorant people. To me, it symbolizes heritage of a people that were brought up in a different time. It symbolizes time of yesteryear. The heritage and not hate. We as a country already fought and WON that war. Let’s not fight that war over and over. It makes as much sense to tear down these statues and monuments as it does to send people with African ancestors back to the dark continent. Use common sense and the brain God gave you.
So the Confederate flag offends some people?!? Well I’m a Serbian. The American flag and anything to do with Moslems and NATO offends me……