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A fascinating and thought-provoking event took place in our city this weekend that focused on the single most important event in our national history – the War Between the States from 1861 to 1865. The symposium, hosted by the General Stephen D. Lee Institute, was titled, “The South Experiences the First Modern Total War.”
A successful soldier, farmer and educator, Lee retired as president of Mississippi A&M University (now Mississippi State) in 1899. Afterward, he became president of the United Confederate Veterans, and in 1906, as many veterans were passing, he made a spirited speech at their annual convention, which included many sons of Confederate veterans. To those taking the torch from their fathers, he stated, “Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations.” Obviously, the general was as concerned then about the misrepresentation of the Southern cause as many of us are today.
The symposium speakers were all outstanding scholars and writers in their fields, having doctorates in philosophy, political science and history. This was not a gathering of ideologues with inane shouts of, “The South shall rise again!” Such juvenile rhetoric fell on deaf ears long ago.
I’m sure my open-minded and politically self-righteous friends on the left are already screaming, “No, the war was all about slavery and the Southerners who defended that deplorable institution should have been killed and their culture destroyed!” However, anyone who grasps even a basic background of the War Between the States understands it was far more about Constitutional issues than it was about slavery.