SCV RESPONDS TO ATTACKS

Sons of Confederate Veterans Rejects False and Unfair Smears of SCV and their kinfolk, the late Confederate Veterans

From Sons of Confederate Veterans Headquarters, Elm Springs, Tennessee

Press Release - April 18th, 2010 - For Immediate Release


For more information contact:
J. A. Davis
Public-Media Relations Committee
Sons of Confederate Veterans
770 297-4788
Gainesville, Georgia


The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and the historical truth have come under attack from media outlets like MSNBC, CNN, syndicated columnists such as Roland S. Martin (Creators.com) and Leonard Pitts, Jr., of the Miami Herald. They are attempting to lynch Virginia Gov. McDonnell and others of goodwill who recognize April as Confederate History Month --- which has been observed for many years in states across the country.

We applaud the recognition of various groups and organizations interested in the study of their heritage and their part in American history. Black History Month (February), Women's History Month (March), Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May), Native American History Month (November), Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep.15-Oct.15) and many others stand as examples.

Governors and mayors often issue proclamations observing such events and virtually always without controversy of any kind. Why is it that a Virginia governor is singled out for public pillory and character lynching for recognizing Confederate history? Where is the “tolerance” for diversity these malicious voices profess to revere?

The SCV is a strictly historical and educational organization, and neither embraces nor espouses acts or ideologies of racial and religious bigotry. Membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is open to all male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces, regardless of race, colour or creed.

Our Jewish SCV members, like the rest of us, take exception to being labeled as “Nazis”. Our SCV members of Native American, African and Hispanic ancestry, like the rest of us, take exception to being called “racists” and having our ancestors falsely called “terrorists.

CNN's Roland Martin has repeatedly referred to Confederate soldiers and officials as “terrorists” both on televised talk shows (CNN) and in syndicated columns (Creators.com). Martin’s April 9th column was entitled, “Confederates, Al-Qaida are the Same: Terrorists”. Comparing Confederate soldiers, recognized as American veterans by an Act of Congress (1958), to Al-Qaida terrorists is over-the-top, absurd and offensive. All Americans of goodwill should condemn this outrage, but it seems that too many media outlets consider it acceptable discourse to smear certain groups.

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., of the Miami Herald, recently authored a commentary contending that “The South fought to keep slavery, period.” In it, Pitts refers to the Confederate government as a “white racist government” guilty of “high treason.” Pitts' assertions are as false as they are malicious. Pitts cannot explain why President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress repeatedly asserted that the purpose of the war was to “preserve the Union” and denied any linkage to slavery. Pitts makes no effort to explain why Confederate President Jefferson Davis was held in prison for two years without trial after the war. The U.S. government realized that it could NOT convict Davis of treason in a public trial without convicting the Founders of treason for the Declaration of Independence.

In letters to various newspaper editors, SCV Commander in Chief Charles E. McMichael directly refutes Pitts' nonsense:

“Pitts projects a biased and false motivation on the part of Confederates and their union attackers which is not supported by the historical record. The South did NOT fight to preserve slavery nor did the North attack to abolish it. Despite the relentless repetition of absurd distortions by Pitts and other revisionists, the truth doesn't change.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans stands ready, willing and able to defend the true historical record and the good name of Confederate soldiers who are officially American veterans by Act of Congress. We unequivocally refute and condemn any suggestion that they were “traitors” or “terrorists” as recent revisionists have maliciously asserted.


The complete letter from Commander McMichael is reproduced below.

McMichael adds, “My great grandfather was a poor Georgia farm boy of 16 whose family owned no slaves and who endured four years of disease, starvation and deprivation, not to mention being shot at. It borders on the absurd to suggest that he suffered the ordeal of war to defend slavery for the benefit of six percent of the population.”

“The 30,000 members of the SCV will never accept the falsehoods of these malicious revisionists seeking to smear Confederate soldiers as “traitors” or their proud descendants as “racists,” McMichael said. “We challenge media outlets to give the SCV fair opportunity to respond to such smears and distortions with equal space and air time,” McMichael added.

For more information about the Sons of Confederate Veterans, its members, and activities please visit: www.scv.org


Charles E. McMichael
Commander-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans
CiC@scv.org


For more information contact:
J. A. Davis
Public-Media Relations Committee
Sons of Confederate Veterans
770 297-4788
Gainesville, Georgia

LETTER FROM SCV Commander-In-Chief CHARLES E. MCMICHAEL FOLLOWS:


Sons of Confederate Veterans
General Headquarters
P.O. Box 59
Columbia, Tennessee 38402-0059

April 17, 2010


Dear Editors:

Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald opines that “The South fought to keep slavery, period.” Please indulge a contrary view.

Confederate soldiers fought to defend their families and homes from an invading and destructive army. President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress made clear that the purpose of their invasion and blockade was to “preserve the union” and preserve federal revenues.

Lincoln in his first inaugural address expressed support for the constitutional amendment to permanently preclude federal legislation abolishing slavery. He stated that he had no intent or desire to interfere with slavery where it existed. The only thing not negotiable to Lincoln was payment of the newly doubled federal tariffs of which the South paid over eighty percent.

The British and European press saw Lincoln's invasion of the south for what it was, “a fiscal quarrel” and the north's desire “for economic control of the South.”

The U.S. House passed a resolution July 25th, 1861 to specify the war's purpose. It explicitly stated the war's purpose was NOT to interfere with “established institutions” of the states, but rather to “preserve the Union”---meaning tariff revenues.

Lincoln, in letters to Horace Greeley in August 1862, again reiterated that his war's purpose was to “preserve the union” and that slavery was not a priority issue. “If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it,” Lincoln wrote. With the Emancipation Proclamation published Sept. 1862 (well over a year into the war), Lincoln essentially promised that slavery would continue in all states (including union slave states) IF the seceded states would merely rescind their secession and return to the union before January 1st 1863. The Confederate states declined – clearly indicatinng motivations more involved than Pitts simplified fabrication.

Everyone is thankful that chattel slavery ended in America, but no war was necessary to end it. No other country in the world required war to abolish it. America certainly didn't.

Pitts projects a biased and false motivation on the part of Confederates and their union attackers which is not supported by the historical record. The South did NOT fight to preserve slavery nor did the North attack to abolish it. Despite the relentless repetition of absurd distortions by Pitts and other revisionists, the truth doesn't change.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans stand ready, willing and able to defend the true historical record and the good name of Confederate soldiers who are officially American veterans by Act of Congress. We unequivocally refute and condemn any suggestion that they were “traitors” or “terrorists” as recent revisionists have maliciously asserted.

Respectfully,
Charles E. McMichael
Commander-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Email: cic@scv.org

END