Mission of Confederate history organization often grossly misunderstood
Published: June 17, 2009
Paul Houser
Commander, Powhatan Troop,
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Recently, an article was published as “My Point Of View” in Powhatan Today. The author attributed to recent distribution of some literature to ‘KKK/Confederate/Terrorists.” The Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp 1382, The Powhatan Troop, condemns racism and hate in the strongest possible terms. We stand with all people of good faith in the struggle to achieve a colorblind America with “liberty and justice for all.”
The SCV was founded in 1896 and exists t fulfill the charge delivered to us by Stephen Dill Lee, which states in Part: “To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the cause for which we fought; to your strengths will be given the defense of the Confederate soldiers’ good name, the guardianship of history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish…”
Every member of our camp has taken an oath to this effect. We attempt to fulfill this charge by perpetuating accurate history, erecting roadside historical markers, marching in parades, maintaining cemeteries and restoring vandalized ones along with granting scholarships. We do not drop racist literature in people’s driveways.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, like the Confederates we honor, are not “terrorists,” “relics of an ugly past” or “serial killers.”
Most Americans link the Confederacy with hate, racism and slavery.
Some groups have even stolen our flags and symbols, distorting their image to symbolize their ideologies. When the North won the war, it also won the power to write its official but deceptive history. Justifying the whole scale war on law-abiding, Southern people required demonizing the South and glorifying the North. This was accomplished by means of a myth portraying Southerners as illiterate racists who caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in a war to protect their “right” to hold people in bondage. Northerners were portrayed as enlightened humanitarians who faugh tony to free the slaves and rid the nation of racism and hate. The North dedicated itself to the myth in order to justify Lincoln’s illegal act of war against the sovereign states of the Confederacy. Generations of Americans have been indoctrinated into this myth. Abraham Lincoln said “My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery.”
Robert E. Lee said, “There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery is a moral and political evil.”
Lee also rejoiced to see slavery eradicated from our shores, and said he would gladly have suffered the loss of all the war cost him to see the end of slavery. The overwhelming majority of Southerners agreed with him, including thousands of free blacks that volunteered as soldiers in the Confederate Army. Many of their descendants are members of the SCV.
Our members attempt to live exemplary lives in order to fulfill the charge that we have been given to “guard, emulate and perpetuate” our historic values.
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