Union leaders were kinder to the South than Mayor Adler

What would Lincoln do, Mayor Adler?

The very persons responsible for taking the Rebel states captive after the Civil War and initiating Reconstruction were perhaps kinder to the memory of the Confederacy than your average liberal is 152 years after the war.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler conscribed to the ranks of those who have less affinity for the legacy of Southern patriots than even those who pointed their rifles at them. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Adler seceded from the city’s annual Veterans Day parade, which is taking place today.

Why? Not because of the Rebel flag we all recognize. But because lesser-famed Confederate imagery was used to honor the veterans who served to defend the ground underneath our feet during the time when Texas was part of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865).

Across our own Mason-Dixon line of sorts -- the boundary between Williamson and Travis counties -- the WillCo Sheriff is fuming:

[Adler's decision] has drawn the ire of Williamson County’s top law enforcement officer. Just after midnight Friday, Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody chided Adler on Twitter and called on him to reconsider his decision not to join the parade. 

“Shame on you @MayorAdler!” he wrote. “As a veteran I’m offended you would allow a small group dictate the true meaning of the intent of the parade.” 

Later that day, Chody explained his tweet came from his military experience, having served in the Army for four years and an additional four years in the Army National Guard. 

“I think it was political correctness that the leader of Austin has chosen … and letting a small group of people dictate the true honor and respect the veterans deserve,” he said. 

Adler said he faced a “near impossible choice” after the Veterans Day Parade Committee’s decision to let certain flags tied to the Confederacy be flown in the parade. 

“I resent having to make that horrible choice,” the mayor said. “I had the one choice (that) I could do something, and the other choice I couldn’t undo. But at the end of the day, there were other ways to honor vets, and I’ll do that all weekend.”

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local-govt--politics/austin-mayor-williamson-county-sheriff-clash-over-veterans-day-parade/ZD7lTjU1mn562l6yg2IZ8M

We respect Adler for taking a bold stand and risking public fury to defend his conscience. What we regret is him letting a recent spate of Gettysburg envy drive him to abandon a parade that should not be about our differences but about what brings us together.

We hope his honor the Mayor will take note of these four examples of how North and South operated in harmony in the difficult years following the American Civil War.

VETERANS REPATRIATED

Confederate soldiers were not all branded for life as traitors. Rather, in 1868, President Andrew Johnson pardoned all Confederate soldiers, while not granting them automatic U.S. veteran status.

Many lower-ranking CSA troops went on to serve as U.S. military, even during a time of massive drawback following the War Between the States. Around 5,600 former Confederate soldiers enlisted in the "United States Volunteers", organized into six regiments of infantry between 1864-66. Many later became known as "Galvanized Yankees" and some were given federal military honors during the Plains Wars.

As early as 1906 the U.S. Department of War began extending headstones, burials and pension privileges to Confederate veterans and their spouses. The last Confederate veteran died in the 1950s and the last Confederate veteran widow qualifying for a pension died in 2004. They died being taken care of by Uncle Sam.

To note, it wasn't until after the Civil War (1867) that national cemeteries for veterans were established. Just 30 years later, the Arlington National Cemetery (Robert E. Lee's captured homestead, by the way) contained nearly 500 Confederate soldiers in a section dedicated for them.

Honor for traitors? No, for veterans who fought for their homeland, despite any errant or noble underlying cause.

THE FLAGS STILL FLEW

Adler's problem may not have been so much about honoring the deceased CSA veterans themselves but the flags used. The parade had already banned the use of the St. Andrew's cross ("X"-pattern) battle flag, but allowed for other CSA flags to be used.

The following states still have Confederate-related imagery on their state flags: Alabama (authorized in 1895), Arkansas (1913), Florida (1900), Mississippi (1894 -- and retains the full battle flag after many attempts to change it), South Carolina (1861 -- designed during time of secession with Revolutionary War imagery).

No federal tanks or (worse) bureaucrats armed with legal paperwork came to remove or redesign these flags. They were allowed to be flown. It was understood why, even if frowned upon by northerners.

MONUMENTS STOOD TALL

Much has been said about Robert E. Lee statues over the past few years, and just about any Confederate marker, memorial, or plaque, so we'll keep this short. A prevailing thought has been that these monuments were established as a "Lost Cause" reaction to racial integration in the South. But the fact remains that

1) monuments to Union soldiers were also erected in the northern states during the same period in which there was an explosion of Confederate tributes, and

2) Confederate monuments began to appear as early as the 1890s and much earlier to individual CSA soldiers and officers (some even during Reconstruction).

No Union regiments came rolling across the plains to remove these markers as symbols of the South attempting to rise again. They were allowed to wave.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Adler's own party was up until recent years kind to Confederate heritage, if not merely tolerant.

For well-over a century the Democratic Party was the bastion of the South. One might argue the party itself is a monument to the Confederacy! Even the Bill Clinton campaign used Rebel flag imagery to stir up Southern support for his successful candidacy for President.

As Republicans have increasingly defended federalism, Judeo-Christian values, and state sovereignty (and an exodus of conservative Democrats flocked to the Republican Party over the last couple of decades), the Democrats have thrown their Southern heritage under the bus. This year, the University of Texas mothballed sculptures of President Woodrow Wilson and Gov. Jim Hogg because they were part of the same statuary as a handful of Confederate heroes. Guilt by association, we suppose.


We're not asking Mayor Adler to take up a Confederate flag and join the so-called Lost Cause. We won't either. But a little perspective would be helpful in helping our country heal the divisions that are still with us.