U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Woke Virginia Democrat, Is a Traitor to Virginia’s History

Posted on June 30, 2024July 3, 2024 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 1 Comment

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Woke Virginia Democrat, Is a Traitor to Virginia's History

His District Includes Arlington National Cemetery

What Is the Character of a Person That Supports the Removal of a 110 Year Old Monument Surrounded by the Graves of 518 Soldiers and Family in a Sacred Cemetery After a War in Which 750,000 Died and Over a Million Were Maimed?

Beyer Wants Virginia to Hang Her Head in Shame but His Woke Hatred and Abject Ignorance of Virginia History Are What's Shameful

Aerial view of the desecrated Section 16 of Arlington National Cemetery where, for 110 years, the magnificent Confederate Reconciliation Memorial stood in all its glory and symbolism. Five contemporary U.S. presidents including its originator, William McKinley, a former Union soldier, helped establish the monument with great love and patriotism followed by a century of other presidents who sent annual memorial wreaths. They were commemorating the reconciliation of the United States of America after the bloody War Between the States. McKinley said "Every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The monument's removal in December, 2023 has desecrated Arlington National Cemetery and defiled the 518 graves in Section 16, and it has dishonored the descendants of the Confederate soldiers buried there who, for decades, have made up 44% of the United States Military.

ON JUNE 13, 2024, an amendment to the 2025 NDAA entitled "Relocation of Reconciliation Memorial to original location in Arlington National Cemetery" was voted on by the United States House of Representatives. It was submitted by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. The amendment lost 230 to 192 with 15 not voting. No Democrat voted for it because they stick together; 24 Republicans gave the middle finger to their voters and joined with Democrats to defeat the amendment.

Rep. Clyde is an American hero because he knows, as it stands right now, Arlington National Cemetery has been desecrated and the graves of 518 Confederate soldiers and family, who are by law American soldiers, are dishonored, and so are their descendants.

Those Confederate descendants have bled and died for our country since reconciliation after the Spanish-American War, and have traditionally made up 44% of our military. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the Southern plurality in our military by explaining how the Army met its recruiting goals in the past:

It did so by relying heavily on veterans and military families to develop the next generation of recruits, especially in the region known in the military as the "Southern Smile," a curving region from the mid-Atlantic and down across the southern U.S.ⁱ

Because of leftist extremists like Don Beyer who contributes to our recruiting crisis by supporting the destruction of monuments in cemeteries, many veterans are not recommending military service. It goes directly back to Biden's Wokeness in the military, DEI, CRT and other divisive hate. It is not fair to those serving today who have to carry a larger burden because of recruiting shortfalls. See the Wall Street Journal, Ben Kesling, "The Military Recruiting Crisis: Even Veterans Don’t Want Their Families to Join, Pentagon scrambles to retain the main pipeline for new service members as disillusioned families steer young people away," June 30, 2023.ⁱⁱ

Also my article, "Elizabeth Warren and her naming commission add to military recruiting crisis". Woke Rep. Beyer, whose pronouns are "He/Him/His," posted the following on X along with this link to his two-and-a-half minutes of pablum on the House floor:

Republicans are pushing an amendment to the NDAA, supposedly a national security bill, to put a Confederate monument back in Arlington National Cemetery after it was removed. Congress has better things to do with our time and your money than honoring treason in defense of slavery.

Beyer knows there were no treason trials after the war so he is a liar. If there had been trials of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee or anybody else, it would have proven the right of secession and the North's guilt in starting a war for the economic domination of the country. That's why smart Northerners were not about to lose in a court of law what they had won on the battlefield.

The part about slavery is pretty silly too. No Northern official said they were fighting a war to free the slaves. In their official documents like Lincoln's First Inaugural, they said the opposite and supported things like the Corwin Amendment, which would have left blacks in slavery forever even beyond the reach of Congress. Lincoln supported Corwin along with sending blacks back to Africa or into a climate they could survive.

It was always about Union for Lincoln and the North because their wealth and power depended on it. Here is the War Aims Resolution that passed the Northern Congress in July, 1861, three months after the bombardment of Fort Sumter:

. . . That this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or institutions [slavery] of the States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution [which allowed and protected slavery], and to preserve the Union. . . .ⁱⁱⁱ

The case Virginia Rep. Beyer makes specifically against Virginia - that it was fighting for slavery - is false beyond the shadow of a doubt as the historical record shows. A shallow person like Beyer is not too familiar with the historical record but he doesn't care because he knows the leftist news media will regurgitate anything he says so truth is not necessary. All good Marxists know this.

Virginia entered the War Between the States for the most noble reasons imaginable and they had nothing to do with slavery.

When the war started, there were more slave states in the Union than the Confederacy and Virginia was one of them. There were eight slave states in the Union, soon to increase by one,^iv and only seven in the Confederacy.^v Some war to end slavery, huh.

When Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to invade the South, only then did Virginia secede and the issue was clearly its disgust with Lincoln's declaration of war and unconstitutional, immoral invasion of sovereign sister states. Virginia's response was immediate.

On April 12, 1861, with Lincoln's warships and reinforcements almost to Charleston, the Confederates gave Lincoln's garrison every chance to evacuate Fort Sumter but they refused so it was bombarded.

On April 13, Fort Sumter surrendered.

On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to invade the South.

On April 17, Virginia seceded.

Virginia was followed over the next few weeks by the secession of Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina. In these four Confederate states were 52.4% of white Southerners, so a majority of white Southerners seceded over nothing to do with slavery.

Also, and importantly, Virginia was one of three states that had reserved the right of secession before acceding to the United States Constitution. The other two were New York and Rhode Island.

The acceptance of the reserved right of secession of Virginia, New York and Rhode Island, gave that right to all the other states as well because they all joined the Union as equals with the exact same rights.

In Virginia's ordinance of secession, she quoted her reserved right of secession.

So, contrary to what Rep. Beyer says, Virginia did not commit "treason in defense of slavery" nor did any Southern state. They all had numerous grievances and voted peacefully and democratically to leave the Union they had voluntarily joined. The South was creating the wealth of the nation with cotton but was paying most of the country's taxes, then three-fourths of the tax money was being spent in the North. Robert Toombs called this arrangement a "suction pump" sucking wealth out of the South and depositing it in the North.

They were all disgusted with Northerners sending terrorists into the South like John Brown to rape, murder and steal.

They were fed up with the Republican Party printing hundreds of thousands of copies of Hinton Helper's The Impending Crisis as a campaign document and distributing them coast to coast. It called for the throats of white Southerners to be sliced open in the night.

I wonder how long Rep. Beyer would put up with paying three-fourths of the taxes while three-fourths of his tax money was spent on his neighbors?

We can not allow virtue signalers like Beyer, Elizabeth Warren and Ty Seidule to cherry-pick events in history that help them politically but devastate the rest of the country.

We can not allow these hatemongers to repeal the reconciliation that the country was so proud of after the bloody war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed.

Despite being outnumbered four to one and massively outgunned, Confederate valor is unsurpassed in the history of the world. James McPherson writes in Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War:

[T]he overall mortality rate for the South exceeded that of any country in World War I and that of all but the region between the Rhine and the Volga in World War II.^vi

Click HERE to view 28 official United States Army photographs of the magnificent Confederate Memorial. Looking at these stunning photographs for one second shows you clearly that destruction of this monument was a barbaric, uncivilized act that only an extremist like leftist vice chair of the naming commission, Ty Seidule, along with fake Indian Elizabeth Warren and shallow Don Beyer, could be in favor of.

Seidule hated the Confederate Memorial, and the reconciliation of North and South after the bloody war, and said so in his screed, Robert E. Lee and Me.

The Confederate Memorial was NOT in the naming commission's remit, as they falsely claimed, nor did Congress specifically mandate its removal.

The naming commission's unverified report deliberately left out the primary history of the Confederate Monument, which is the reconciliation of North and South after the War Between the States. The reconciliation theme is irrefutable and stated repeatedly in Arlington National Cemetery's own application for its Historic District to be on the National Register of Historic Places. (download my PDF white paper "The Reconciliation of North and South After the War Between the States as Symbolized by the Confederate Memorial 'New South' in Arlington National Cemetery")

The Confederate Memorial symbolized peace, love, patriotism and the reunification of the United States of America. It does not commemorate the Confederacy.

The Confederate Memorial is one of the most significant monuments on earth, not only for its symbolism of reconciliation after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed, but because of its magnificence. Again, look at the Army Photographs and ask yourself what kind of person would want to destroy a monument like that?

Click HERE to view a United States Army video of the Confederate Memorial.

Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that:

. . . no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art.

Esteemed British art critic and historian, Alexander Adams, wrote in his "Testimony regarding Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial submitted to the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery Open Session," 7-8 November, 2022 (download PDF):

Having viewed a large amount of public statuary from the beaux-arts era (1850-1914), it is my professional opinion that the Memorial is a serious, iconographically complex and technically accomplished piece of art. In my view, it is a handsome sculpture and an entirely appropriate funerary monument. I consider it an internationally significant piece of art of its type and era. Any nation should be proud to host such a magnanimous and dignified monument.
The inscription “And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” provides a Biblical guidance to turning from war to peace. This is echoed by the personification of the South, which holds the wreath of glory and touches the plough of peaceful prosperity. The frieze below depicts the contributions of those who supported the war effort.

Here is some of the massive amount of history that the naming commission left out of their fraudulent report.

The monument was the idea of Union soldier and later president, William McKinley, after enthusiastic Southern participation in the Spanish-American War, and it was approved by Congress.

McKinley said:

. . . every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.

President William Howard Taft spoke and was warmly received at the UDC ceremony the evening the cornerstone was laid.

President Woodrow Wilson (download PDF photograph) gave the dedication speech June 4, 1914 (download Wilson's address).^vii

President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first memorial wreath that started an annual tradition observed by all presidents including Barack Obama.

President Warren G. Harding sent a message of condolence (download PDF here) that was read at the funeral of the monument's acclaimed Jewish sculptor, Moses Ezekiel, who was a VMI Confederate soldier. Here are some of Harding's comments from The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921:

'Ezekiel will be remembered,' the President wrote, 'as one who knew how to translate the glories of his own time and people into that language of art which is common to all peoples and all times. He served his state in the conflict that threatened to divide and that at last served to unify our country. He accepted the verdict of the civil war's arbitrament with all the fine generosity that has been characteristic of both the north and south; and the splendid product of his art, that here testifies to our nation's reunion, will stand from this day forth as guardian over his ashes.
'Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. The genius that produced, the love that gave, the devotion that will cherish it will forever be numbered among our ennobling possessions.
'[H]e wrought them into works which compelled the recognition of the chief art schools and won the honors of nations and cities that boasted of being the homes of sculpture's best traditions. Crowned with these honors, he turned his thoughts to his own country, and as the final and finest product of his talents gave to us the monument that from this day will mark his resting place. It is the memorial of reunited America the testimony to the tradition of indissoluble union, the shrine to which we are gathered today, and will gather through the years to come, those who would dedicate themselves to the ideal of unselfish, enlightened, upstanding Americanism as a force for our country's maintenance and all humanity's betterment.' (bold emphasis added)

You can not read President Harding's message without knowing that the Confederate Memorial represented reconciliation, peace, love and patriotism, all things the naming commission left out of its fraudulent, unverified report, and are things a historically ignorant leftist like Don Beyer can't comprehend.

Ezekiel created the Confederate Memorial in the City of Rome, Italy and was buried next to his monument before it was removed, along with two other Confederate soldiers and a Confederate sailor, which made the monument their grave marker as President Harding stated in his funeral message.

Grave markers were prohibited, in Warren's legislation, from being destroyed. Removal of the Confederate Memorial was ILLEGAL.

Rep. Beyer said an enslaved mammy was on the monument and another enslaved man was following his master to war.

That is a lie. There is no evidence that either of those blacks on the monument were slaves. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel did not state whether they were slaves or free. There were more free blacks in the South than in the North so the blacks on the Confederate monument were probably free, especially the black Confederate soldier.

Beyer, in his ignorance of history, does not know that several Northern and Western states had laws prohibiting blacks from living there or even visiting for more than a few days, and if they stayed longer, they were subject to arrest and whipping by the sheriff. Lincoln's Illinois was one of them.

Beyer does not understand that the South was an integrated bi-racial society unlike the North that was white supremacist and is where Jim Crow began. Jim Crow began in the North and was there for years before moving South at the end of the nineteenth century.

Blacks did fight for the Confederacy in large numbers so Beyer's support for the Confederate Memorial's removal and against its reinstallation is racist against them. Beyer is a racist. So is Elizabeth Warren and Ty Seidule. They are racist against black Southerners who voluntarily, of their own free will, marched off to war to defend their homes in the South. There were always blacks at Confederate Veteran Reunions and many drew state pensions.

Just one irrefutable example proves substantial black participation in combat on battlefields with the Confederate army. A Yankee official, Lewis H. Steiner, M.D., Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission, observed, firsthand, the exodus of Stonewall Jackson's army from Frederick, Maryland in 1862. Steiner writes in his official report:

Wednesday, September 10, 1862: At 4 o'clock this morning the Rebel army began to move from our town, Jackson's force taking the advance. The movement continued until 8 o'clock P.M., occupying 16 hours. The most liberal calculation could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in the number. They had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied, in many instances, with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, etc., and they were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of generals and promiscuously mixed up with all the Rebel horde (emphasis added).

I named a two-DVD set featuring Professor Edward C. Smith, who, before he passed, was a well-known authority on black Confederates, Mixed Up with All the Rebel Horde, Why Black Southerners Fought for the South in the War Between the States.

Steiner writes that there were "over 3,000 Negroes." That number could be much higher. Steiner was observing from a distance starting well before dawn and he would not be able to distinguish light-skinned African Americans from white Confederate soldiers.

So it's not unreasonable to think that 3,000 to 5,000 of every 64,000 Confederate soldiers were black meaning, from this one example, there could have been 50,000 or more armed Confederate blacks, at one time or another, marching with whites against the Union army. Of course, thousands of blacks served in the Confederate army in other capacities.

To get at the truth about the past, you have to read the words of the people of the past and make up your own mind. Academia and the news media are so politicized, most of them are worthless as historical sources.

Southerners fought to the bitter end for independence and lost only after four bloody years because of overwhelming Northern resources, as General Lee said at the end of the war; resources such as the North's pipeline to the wretched refuse of the world to feed Union armies. Some 25% of the Union army was not born here.

The truth is, blacks suffered enormously at the hands of the Union army. It has now come out that a substantial number of Union blacks were coerced into joining, and when they did, their families back home were not taken care of in the least despite Yankee promises. Many suffered mightily, were cold, ragged and starved to death.

There are accounts of dead blacks being buried by Yankees in mass graves along with dead horses and mules, all thrown together in wagons then thrown into unmarked ditches dug for that purpose. These are documented in Jim Downs' excellent book, Sick from Freedom: African American Death and Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction, which Samuel Mitcham says "should have won a Pulitzer Prize."^viii

The whole story of blacks in the War Between the States is a half-truth, which makes it a lie. Thousands of Confederate blacks are ignored because that does not suit political liberals in academia and the news media, and ignorant racist politicians like Don Beyer, Elizabeth Warren and Ty Seidule.

Sam Mitcham called Downs' book "his masterpiece." Mitcham writes and quotes Downs that the war:

'produced the largest biological crisis of the nineteenth century . . . wreaking havoc on the population of the newly freed.' Tens of thousands of freed slaves died due to the 'exigencies of war and the massive dislocation triggered by emancipation.' Downs estimated that 1,000,000 of the 4,000,000 freed slaves suffered serious illness or death. We do not know how many died, but there were tens of thousands of deaths, especially among black children.^ix

As a result of the war, Southerners lost 60% of their capital and "one in four of its young men of military age killed; one in four others crippled."^x

For Americans to forgive each other and come together for the good of the nation made America exceptional in world history, which is the opposite of the Woke hatred of Elizabeth Warren, Ty Seidule, and Don Beyer. Woke hatred guarantees our country will be divided forever. Democrats think hate and chaos will benefit them politically because they have enough of the news media to regurgitate anything they say. They have given up on political ideas that benefit the entire country, which is why they have imported 20 million new Democrat voters across our open southern border since Biden took office.

Rep. Clyde wrote a good piece June 11th that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It explains the Confederate Memorial's history and his motivation for wanting that world class monument by Moses Ezekiel back in Arlington National Cemetery. Ezekiel was one of the greatest sculptors in history.

Here is Rep. Clyde's piece:

National Unity Should Not Be Controversial

That’s why I’m asking the Reconciliation Monument be restored at Arlington National Cemetery.

June 11, 2024

By Andrew Clyde

As a 28-year Navy combat veteran, it pains me to see the fabric of our nation unraveling and the history of our country crumbling by the day. Many founding principles and symbols that make the United States the greatest country in the world have been demonized to sow discord for nefarious political gain.

After all, it is far easier to divide and conquer when the values, history and liberties that unite us are destroyed.

A powerful example of this deliberate division is the recent removal of the Reconciliation Monument from Arlington National Cemetery.

Following the Spanish-American War — where Union and Confederate veterans fought side-by-side under one flag — President William McKinley declared that the U.S. government would commit to properly burying Confederate soldiers. In 1898, McKinley passionately asserted, “Sectional feeling no longer holds back the love we feel for each other. The old flag waves over us in peace with new glories.”

In this spirit, Congress authorized Confederate remains to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 1900. Six years later, Secretary of War William Howard Taft permitted the construction of a memorial honoring our country’s new shared reconciliation from its troubled divisions. Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson unveiled the new memorial of national unity. Designed by a Jewish American sculptor, the monument is topped with a woman crowned by an olive wreath to symbolize peace.

Prior to the completion of the monument, President Theodore Roosevelt sent a floral arrangement to the Confederate section of Arlington National Cemetery. This established a tradition of sending a wreath to the Reconciliation Monument, a custom that has been carried out by nearly every U.S. president — including President Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, the now-disbanded Naming Commission, which was authorized by Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, recommended the removal of the Reconciliation Memorial. The Naming Commission was charged with recommending the removal of “all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America.”

[Publisher's Note: See my article "Naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical FRAUD", https://www.charlestonathenaeumpress.com/naming-commissions-report-on-the-confederate-memorial-is-a-historical-fraud/]

However, the Reconciliation Monument does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; it honors and commemorates national unity. Additionally, the Naming Commission’s authority explicitly prohibited the desecration of grave sites. I simply cannot fathom how removing the monument built to recognize our country’s journey to reconciliation does not desecrate the hundreds of graves encircling the marker.

For these reasons, I led an amendment to the fiscal year 2024 Defense Appropriations bill to prohibit the Department of Defense from using funds to remove the Reconciliation Memorial. Notably, my amendment passed by voice on the House floor and was included in the House-passed Defense spending bill.

Regrettably, my amendment was stripped out during budget negotiations with the Senate, and the memorial was removed from Arlington National Cemetery.

In a renewed attempt to protect the memorial and bolster its intended purpose of national unity, I recently introduced an amendment to the fiscal year 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill to return the Reconciliation Monument to Arlington National Cemetery.

My effort to preserve a structure representing the United States’ healing from a dark chapter in history drew outlandish but unsurprising ire. Specifically, my work to honor and safeguard this period of reconciliation led critic Jamie Dupree to label me as “the unofficial champion of the Confederacy on Capitol Hill.”

This is dishonest, disingenuous and patently false.

Mind you, support for the Reconciliation Monument is not partisan. Former Secretary of the Navy and former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), a decorated Marine Corps officer who served combat tours in Vietnam, published an inspiring piece detailing his opposition to removing the memorial.

Is Webb also an “unofficial champion of the Confederacy”? No. He is a patriot who loves his country. Though we bear different political stripes, we share the same concern of erasing our nation’s history — especially our history of reconciliation from deep, divisive wounds.

National unity should not be controversial. As bad actors revel in tearing our country apart, it is up to patriotic Americans to stand firm in preserving our history, protecting our freedoms and promoting a more perfect union.

Rep. Andrew Clyde represents Georgia’s 9th Congressional District and serves on the House Appropriations Committee.

Please support Defend Arlington's ongoing legal efforts to have the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial restored to Arlington National Cemetery.

NOTES:

ⁱ Ben Kesling, "The Military Recruiting Crisis: Even Veterans Don’t Want Their Families to Join, Pentagon scrambles to retain the main pipeline for new service members as disillusioned families steer young people away," June 30, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/military-recruiting-crisis-veterans-dont-want-their-children-to-join-510e1a25, accessed 6-30-23.

ⁱⁱ Ibid.

ⁱⁱⁱ The War Aims Resolution is also known by the names of its sponsors, Representative John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee: the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, or just the Crittenden Resolution. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives July 22, 1861, and the Senate July 25, 1861. There were only two dissenting votes in the House and five in the Senate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crittenden-Johnson_Resolution, accessed March 29, 2014.

^iv The eight Union slave states when the guns of Fort Sumter sounded were Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware. There were still some slaves in New Jersey but I'm not counting New Jersey. West Virginia came into the Union in early 1863 as a slave state, ironically, just weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. Lincoln did not require West Virginia to abolish slavery before joining his Union.

^v The seven states that seceded and formed the Confederate States of America were South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

^vi Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), xii.

^vii The fake news Washington Post covered up the fact that President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication address at the Confederate Memorial's dedication, June 4, 1914. In their article "Majority of House GOP, including 3 Black Republicans, vote for failed Confederate memorial measure" by Gillian Brockell, June 14, 2024, all the Washington Post said was: "It was installed in 1914, almost 50 years after the Civil War ended, by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in a ceremony attended by President Woodrow Wilson, who was noted even at the time for his racist view." The Washington Post is noted today for ITS racist, bigoted views in addition to its fake news as it proved by its malicious, fraudulent story against Covington Catholic High School's Nicholas Sandmann. Sandmann sued the Washington Post and other fake news outlets like CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the New York Times and Rolling Stone. See "Washington Post settles lawsuit with family of Kentucky teenager" by Paul Farhi, July 24, 2020.

^viii Mitcham, It Wasn't About Slavery, 174.

^ix Mitcham, It Wasn't About Slavery, 175.

^x Mitcham, It Wasn't About Slavery, 174.

African American Slavery in Historical Perspective, by Clyde N. Wilson – a Review by Gene Kizer, Jr.

Posted on May 16, 2024May 16, 2024 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 4 Comments

An imagined history of African Americans is the dangerous rock rolling down hill and smashing everything in its path. (page 67)

A review of Dr. Clyde N. Wilson's
African American Slavery in Historical Perspective

by Gene Kizer, Jr.

This book is a first rate historical analysis of slavery
distilled into a page-turning one-day read

African-American-Slavery-COVER-600-pix-43K

One of Shotwell Publishing's latest books is Dr. Clyde Norman Wilson's 80 page African American Slavery in Historical Perspective (Amazon, softcover, $11.95; Kindle, $4.99).

This is an extremely important book because putting slavery in historical perspective puts the lie to the worthless presentist history regurgitated ad nauseam by academia and the fake news media. You can not learn from history when the history being taught is a fraud.

Few, if any, have done more for American history than Clyde Wilson, who is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History with a 35 year career at the University of South Carolina. He is primary editor of the voluminous The Papers of John C. Calhoun and just finished editing an acclaimed 28-volume edition. He is author or editor of over 30 other books and over 800 articles, essays, reviews, etc. He has lectured all over the world. I have had the pleasure of attending many of them.

His professional accomplishments and awards are too many to list here but include founding director of the Society of Independent Southern Historians, the Bostick Prize for Contributions to South Carolina Letters, the Robert E. Lee Medal of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, founding dean of the SCV's Stephen D. Lee Institute, co-founder of Shotwell Publishing, and the M. E. Bradford Distinguished Professor of the Abbeville Institute.

A book like this has been badly needed for a long time. Everybody knows how pathetic and lacking the study of history is, in this day and age. The degradation of American History began in the 1960s when truth as the standard for history, began being replaced by leftist politics, as Marxists began their long march through the institutions.

That replacement is largely complete today with academia 100% liberal, and free speech and inquiry non-existent on so many campuses run by mediocre DEI appointees like Harvard's Claudine Gay, and the racists at Columbia who allow Jewish students to be attacked or prevented from going to class by violent mobs. Those mobs support terrorists and are driven by hate-America agitators from around the world.

I know the actual number of liberals in academia is closer to 90% but the few independent thinkers, especially in the humanities, are not going to speak up and have the screaming mob come to their office, or lose their chance for tenure. The entire atmosphere is sick and twisted, as always happens when woke politics takes over.

Academia, much of the time, does not promote knowledge or wisdom for young people. It interprets almost everything according to leftist, anti-white racist precepts such as Critical Race Theory, DEI and other Marxist imperatives.

Dr. Wilson states that slavery today is still a powerful, emotional force in public life and many have weaponized the word slavery though they "have no knowledge or understanding of what life was like in past times" thus "historical perspective is needed."

That is exactly right because the prime problem today is idiotic leftist standards such as 1) men can menstruate and get pregnant, and 2) it is fair for men to compete in women's sports because, if they say they are women, they really are women. That's all it takes to become a woman.

Biden just signed an Executive Order changing Title IX so bigger, stronger men can compete with girls and women though that puts women in danger (think rugby, lacrosse, basketball, and everything else). It is outrageous and degrading for women and girls to have to endure that along with men snooping around their bathrooms when they are most vulnerable, giving them no privacy or respect.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas, praised legislation just passed in Arkansas, that negates Biden's absurdity. She said:

Biden thinks anybody can be a woman just because they say so. As a woman, the mother of a daughter and our state's first chief executive to give birth … I can't think of anything more offensive or dismissive of the very real, very scientific traits that all women share and that no man does.

To understand the past you have to view the past the way people who lived in the past viewed it. It was not the past to them. It was their present.

Wilson writes that "before the invention of labour-saving machinery, beginning [with] Britain in the late 1700s, the master-servant relationship was normal in almost every human society. . . . Servitude was the everyday condition of great numbers of people who did most of the world's hard and dirty work." (p1)

There was slavery in the Bible though Christians "were urged to be good masters and good servants."

There was slavery in ancient Greece and Rome in their greatest days, slavery everywhere in the Islamic world including of whites, slavery in Asian civilizations, and for 500 years, Europe's serfs and peasants had "little more freedom from labour and inferior status than African American slaves." (p2)

Black Africans themselves were the source of most of the slavery of their black brothers and sisters.

African tribal chieftains waging never-ending warfare caused slavery in Africa to flourish "longer than any other part of the world" and it still exists there today.

The plantation economy of the pre-industrial world needed labor and black slaves were Africa's largest export for perhaps a millennium:

There is scarcely an African American person in the New World whose ancestors had not originally been enslaved by fellow Africans. (p2)

That is an amazing statistic. Only 5% of blacks in the African Diaspora came to the United States.

Read the famous African American anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, in her book, Barracoon, from my article "The Washington Poop, I mean Post: Fake News AND Fake History," when she discovered it was fellow blacks in Africa selling her ancestors into slavery. Slaves did not voluntarily go onto slave ships because the slavers waved a red handkerchief and the blacks were curious and got captured.

Black slaves were captured by other blacks in incessant tribal warfare then shackled and held behind bars for months in slave forts on Africa's coast such as Bunce Island off today's Sierra Leone, waiting on the slave trader to pull up. Those slave traders were mostly New Englanders and New Yorkers and, before them, Europeans.

Then poor slaves faced months through the Middle Passage, chained side by side in the bowels of scorching hot slave ships with no ventilation, in vomit, feces, and the stench of death.

It might make DEI racists sad but:

No movement against slavery and the slave trade ever arose in Africa. Slavery was abolished due to the efforts of [white] European soldiers, officials, and missionaries, often against stiff native resistance. (p2)

For the South-haters out there, Dr. Wilson writes:

. . . as John Adams point out to Thomas Jefferson, "slave" was just a word while the condition of the labouring poor in the North could scarcely be differentiated from that of Southern blacks. Despite the false information conveyed by television, John Adams was never an abolitionist. Adams and Jefferson agreed that American slaves, despite their situation, were in a far happier condition that the lower classes in Britain. The abolitionist Wendell Phillips discovered a boy working in a stable in Boston who did not know that he was a slave. (pp2-3).

The population increase of blacks in the United States is some proof of their condition, especially when black slaves in the Caribbean and other places did not increase at all. Mortality was high in the Caribbean because their lives were brutal. New slaves had to be brought in constantly, which caused many insurrections non-existent in the American South:

In North America the black population from the beginning increased abundantly, at a rate almost equal to the white, suggesting relatively good conditions. In 1780 the African American population was 566,000. In 1860 it was 4.4 million. (p3)

Even in the North, when "Slaves were 10 per cent of the New York population and household slaves were commonplace" Yale president Timothy Dwight "wrote a long poem about how much happier the slaves were in Connecticut than elsewhere." (p3)

Even though the slave trade was outlawed in 1808 by the United States Constitution, New Englanders, who loved the lucrative profits, carried on an illegal slave trade until after the War Between the States. See W. E. B. Du Bois's famous book, The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America, 1838-1870. On page 179, he writes:

The number of persons engaged in the slave-trade, and the amount of capital embarked in it, exceed our powers of calculation. The city of New York has been until of late [1862] the principal port of the world for this infamous commerce; although the cities of Portland and Boston are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis; they contributed liberally to the treasuries of political organizations, and their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

The New England Yankee attitude toward slave trading is stated well by John Brown, the founder of Brown University, not the infamous John Brown of Harpers Ferry but John Brown, American patriot of Providence, Rhode Island:

[T]here was no more crime in bringing off a cargo of slaves than in bringing off a cargo of jackasses.

That quotation comes from the excellent book by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank, Complicity, How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery (New York: Ballantine Books, Copyright 2005 by The Hartford Courant Company).

Dr. Wilson gives us a prime example of the North versus the South on slavery:

In 1860 a U.S. Navy vessel near the coast of Cuba intercepted a slave ship, the Echo from Providence, Rhode Island. There were 400 Africans on board, in miserable condition, the mortality rate on the voyage having been 30%. The U.S. vessel that captured the slave ship was commanded by John N. Maffitt who a few short years later would be an outstanding Confederate Navy officer. The captain and owner of the Echo was Edward Townsend, an educated man from an affluent Rhode Island family. (p6)

Townsend said he had "saved the Africans from death in their own land, which may well have been true." He was to make $130,000 on this trip which was a huge sum back then.

The Southerner Maffitt took the slave-trading criminal Yankee Townsend to the Northern-born U.S. judge in Key West. That judge refused to take jurisdiction over the Echo for its U.S. and international crime and directed the case to Boston, the supposed point of origin of the voyage. Townsend had "friends" and the Boston judge allowed him to walk free. (p6)

The Echo with its 400 Africans was sent to Charleston, South Carolina "where they were received sympathetically and provided with food and clothing." Dr. Wilson continues:

I once read an ignorant leftist novel which portrays Charlestonians chortling crudely over having new slaves. But that is not what happened. The U.S. Attorney James Conner, who was later to lose a leg fighting in the Confedrate army, was unable to get hold of Townsend who had been sent to Boston to be freed, but prosecuted the crew of the slave ship. One "historian" falsely states that the Africans were made slaves in South Carolina. In fact they were returned to their homeland, though most did not want to go. In Charleston they were treated well and supplied with their needs. (pp6-7)

Over time, many "believed that entering into Western Civilisation and Christianity, even in a subordinate status, was a net benefit for Africans." The Spanish Bishop of the Indies in the 1500s, Las Casas:

preached against the enslavement of Indians but thought that slavery was a benefit for Africans. The Episcopal bishop of Vermont wrote just before the war that never in history had so much been done for the uplift of Africans as by the American South. (p7)

White Southerners had a relationship with black Southerners "that was not entirely negative" while blacks were "virtually absent" from the rest of the United States. That is one reason why so many blacks were enthusiastic to become Confederate soldiers.

Dr. Lewis H. Steiner, Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission, observed the exit of Stonewall Jackson's army from Frederick, Maryland in 1862. He wrote in his report:

Wednesday, September 10, 1862: At 4 o'clock this morning the Rebel army began to move from our town, Jackson's force taking the advance. The movement continued until 8 o'clock P.M., occupying 16 hours. The most liberal calculation could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in the number. They had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied, in many instances, with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, etc., and they were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of generals and promiscuously mixed up with all the Rebel horde.

There could have been many more blacks than "over 3,000" since Dr. Steiner began observing at 4:00 a.m., before light, and could have missed many light-skinned blacks.

Steiner's is only one small example.

Contrast that to the laws in numerous Northern states that forbid blacks from even visiting, much less living there, including Lincoln's Illinois.

Six slave states fought for the North the entire war. West Virginia came into the Union as a slave state in 1863, ironically just weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed no slaves or few. The EP exempted all the Union slave states and all Southern territory already captured by the Union army.

Dr. Wilson writes that "Western civilization, the greatest achievement of mankind so far, was white." They believed in white supremacy. "Non-whites they encountered were either savages or of very strange cultures." This was reality and "People in those days did not feel a drive to 'fix' it." Wilson writes:

The only disagreement was over whether the superiority was permanent or could be changed, a subject of speculation by Jefferson. Southerners were guided by everyday experience - abolitionists by puritan rage against the sins of Southern white people. The welfare of black people was not a strong motive for them. (p8)

Abraham Lincoln believed in white supremacy. He said in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates he wanted the West reserved for white people from all over the world. That was the driving force behind the "no expansion of slavery into the West" argument. It was not concern for black people. Indeed, they did not want slavery in the West because they did not want blacks in the West.

All of the above, except for my additions, comes from just the Introduction. Dr. Wilson sets the stage for the rest of the book with this:

Slavery involved several million people over 10 or so generations and a vast territory, the great part of what was the antebellum United States. You can find an example of anything you want to find. However, it is proper for our understanding to consider the general life of Southern blacks and whites at a particular time rather than chosen examples. (p8)

In Chapter 2, Antebellum Bondage, Wilson writes:

The definitive work on slavery in antebellum America, largely ignored since its appearance in 1975, is Time on the Cross by Robert W. Fogel, a Nobel Laureate, and Stanley L. Engerman. These economic historians, neither of whom can be accused of sympathy with slavery or the South, showed that in general antebellum slaves fared well in nutrition, housing, leisure - superior to the norm for the working poor in the North and Europe and were, contrary to Northern claims, more productive than Northern workers. They reported that Southern slaves received a 90% lifetime return on their labour. . . . (p12)

He writes that "Plantations had no barbed wire, watchtowers, or attack dogs, or even very many locks. . . . Corporal punishment was used on the plantation, although not as often as alleged. It was also common in the army, navy, merchant marine, factories, as punishment for crime, and in nearly every family." (p13)

About day-to-day life, Wilson writes:

The plantation was a place where people lived and grew crops, often over several generations. African Americans were part of a joint enterprise where all rose or fell together. Incentive rewards were normal. Work was directed by black foremen more often than by hired white overseers. A significant portion of the slave population could be classified as skilled artisans, necessary to run the self-sufficient community, of immense value to them after emancipation. African Americans commonly had their own garden plots with produce to consume or sell. Northern soldiers were shocked to find that slaves had watches and fine clothes and spending money. There were puritanical Yankee visitors who thought Southern slaves were undisciplined, rowdy, and had too much freedom. (pp13-14)

Wilson writes that "history is the sad record of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind, antebellum American bondage was an evil not near the top of the list." Southerners, white and black:

made a livable society that had the moral resources for evolution toward a better society than that created by invasion and conquest and rivers of blood. (p17)

In contrast, Northern society was cold and hard:

In New York City in 1860 there were women and children working 16-hour days for starvation wages, 150,000 unemployed, 40,000 homeless, 600 brothels (some with girls as young as 10), and 9,000 grog shops where the poor could temporarily drown their sorrows. Half the children in the city did not live past the age of five (unlike slave children in the South). (p17)

Wilson points out that economic control of the country is what Northerners were fighting for. They had huge advantages and thought they could win easily. They saw the Western lands as markets to exploit, railroads to build, wealth that would flow back to New York, Boston and the entire North.

I could write volumes about the foaming-at-the-mouth determination of the North to control the taxes and tariffs of the country but here is one quote from the Daily Chicago Times, "The Value of the Union," December 10, 1860, 10 days before South Carolina voted unanimously 169-0 in a Convention of the People to secede from the Union. It comes from my book, Slavery Was Not the Cause of the War Between the States: The Irrefutable Argument. Here is what secession and an independent Southern republic meant to the North, and this is why Abraham Lincoln sent five naval missions into Southern waters in March and April, 1861, to start a war:

In one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to less than one-half what it now is. Our coastwise trade would pass into other hands. One-half of our shipping would lie idle at our wharves. We should lose our trade with the South, with all its immense profits. Our manufactories would be in utter ruins. Let the South adopt the free-trade system, or that of a tariff for revenue, and these results would likely follow. If protection be wholly withdrawn from our labor, it could not compete, with all the prejudices against it, with the labor of Europe. We should be driven from the market, and millions of our people would be compelled to go out of employment.

Concern for the black man was nowhere in their minds, as Dr. Wilson continues:

Abolitionists spewed hatred at the south without ever once suggesting any steps toward a gradual and practical solution. (p24)

Said Emerson, "The abolitionist wishes to abolish slavery because he wishes to abolish the black man." (p24)

Much abolition propaganda "was also a disguised form of closet pornography for puritans, dwelling on illicit sex, brandings, whippings, and the like." (p24)

Democrat New Jersey governor, Joel Parker, said:

'Slavery is no more the cause of this war than gold is the cause of robbery.' (p25)

About blacks during the war, Wilson quotes Allan Nevins in The War for the Union, "long the standard mainstream history of this period":

The story of the freedmen in wartime is one of gross mismanagement and neglect. The problem was neither vigilantly foreseen by the government nor dealt with vigorously and promptly ... The abolitionists who had called for so long for emancipation should have seen that the mere ending of slavery was far from a solution ... All too often squalor, hunger, and disease haunted the refugees, the camps becoming social cancers that were a reproach to the North ... Deaths were frequent, disease was universal, and the future so bleak that many of the refugees talked of returning to their slave masters. And some did so.
.... Many [of the Union officers and soldiers] had an instinctive dislike of Negroes.... (p40)

Wilson writes that the following is from the "official history of the 24th Massachusetts Regiment":

...the men had a spell of that almost universal horseplay known in those days as "tossing niggers" in a blanket .... Of course the poor victims screamed and yelled, but the louder the cries, the greater the fun for the lusty fellow at the blanket's edge ... (p41)

Wilson quotes Frederick Douglas, "the foremost African American spokesman of the 19th century" who later said that "everything Lincoln did was for white people. Any benefit to black people was incidental. He [Douglas] acknowledged twenty-five years after the war that blacks were worse off than under slavery and that the fault was mainly with the central government in relation to which the black man is":

a deserted, a defrauded, a swindled, and an outcast man - in law free, in fact a slave. I here and now denounce his so-called emancipation as a stupendous fraud - a fraud upon him, a fraud upon the world. (p43)

Nathan Bedford Forrest's "elite headquarters company contained several black men." Forrest

took 30 of his men with him to the war, promising freedom if they served faithfully. All but one did. Black Confederates were welcomed at veterans' reunions and received pensions from Southern States. (p43)

The words of former slaves are powerful evidence of their lives. Wilson writes:

The best evidence we have from the slaves themselves is contained in the library of Congress's multi-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of American Slavery. The narratives contain over 2,300 interviews with surviving slaves made 1936-1938. These materials have been criticized in various ways, but they cover every State and are fairly consistent in what they tell. Some terrible stories are told, but in general the narratives show no great resentment against slavery and masters, and many complain of the decline in the living standards after emancipation. (p44)

One of the former slaves said:

The Yankees done a lot of mischief. I knows because I was there. They robbed the folks and a whole lot of darkies who ain't never been whipped by the master got a whipping from the Yankees. (p45)

Wilson quotes Jim Downs's, Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction (2015). Downs said the black death toll was 1,000,000 and "We must also take account of the postwar toll of malnutrition, homelessness, and debilitation from wounds, leading to early death. There were in 1866-1867 epidemics in the South recalling the death toll of the Spanish Flu after World War I." (p48)

About Reconstruction, Wilson writes:

The primary description of Reconstruction, long and almost universally accepted, was as an era of corruption and oppression. A common motif of current historians is that Reconstruction was a noble effort to raise the black people to first-class citizenship. Much of later interpretation is based on that proposition, but it is a lie. This assumes that Northerners had dedicated themselves to a crusade for equality, a goal that never existed. That is not what Reconstruction and giving the vote to the freedmen was about. (p52)

In Chapter 6, Conclusion, Wilson writes:

In the long run of history, the story of America is the settlement by Europeans of a continental wilderness and their establishing of free institutions and a widespread prosperity that has been the envy of the world. African American slavery is a sidebar to this history, not the main feature. (p59)

Wilson is right when he writes:

The subject of slavery is today so entwined with unhealthy and present-centered emotions and motives - guilt, shame, hypocrisy, projection, prurient imagination, propaganda, vengeance, extortion, virtue signaling - as to defy normal historical discussion. (p59)

About the comparison of the South to Nazism, Wilson writes:

The proper analogy to Nazism is with the U.S. government and its war of conquest to punish disobedience to centralized government. If Americans knew anything real about the faction who forced through and carried out the war against the South other than a few pretty phrases from Lincoln's speeches, they would see how strong the motivation was related to greed and the will to power and how little to humanitarian thought and action.

'The Righteous Union Myth' is falser, stronger, and more destructive than the supposed 'Lost Cause Myth.' (p62)

Wilson writes that "Those who want the war to be about slavery and nothing but slavery are often hateful, disdainful, ignorant, and unwilling to engage in honest discussion. Reason, evidence, and fair discussion do not enter the question for them." And:

Even worse are the professors, plutocrats, politicians, and even high-ranking military officers who have taken a recent occasion to announce that Robert E. Lee was 'a traitor.' One wonders why Eisenhower had a portrait of Lee in the Oval Office while people without any observable merit of accomplishment, intellect, or character gloat over destroying his monuments. Fortunately, Lee is so much greater than his current critics that in the long view of history he will always stand tall.
People who reduce the complexities of American history to 'Lee, a traitor,' as many of high rank are doing . . . are pygmies and clowns in intelligence, ethics, and patriotism to anybody who is familiar with Lee and the leaders of his time and earlier. (p64)

Clyde Wilson's African American Slavery in Historical Perspective helps one understand history and see things the way the people of the past saw them. That is how you truly understand the past.

He points out George Orwell's statement that "'The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.'" (p67)

Today's politicized "emphasis on slavery has less to do with the real feelings of African Americans than with the deluded minds of white people seeking cheap virtue." Elizabeth Warren, Ty Seidule and Nikki Haley top the list.

This outstanding books ends with:

Critical investigation and examination of history has been a hallmark of Western man, not present in other civilisations. . . . We are now getting close to a Soviet-style official interpretation of the nature and meaning of our history, where anything not serving the rulers is suppressed and even punished. An imagined history of African Americans is the dangerous rock rolling down hill and smashing everything in its path. (p67)

The Moral Superiority of the South, by James Atticus Bowden

Posted on April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 2 Comments

In the future, the South will remain the moral master, because the ultimate defense of American and Western Civilization will be soldiered by stalwart Southerners more than anyone else.

The Moral Superiority of the South

Guest post by James Atticus Bowden

Picture01--Moral Superiority of the South 4-30-24

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - It is hard to argue with James Atticus Bowden's title for his piece that appeared on the Abbeville Institute Blog June 22, 2023, for the simple reason that people are moving into the South in droves to escape places where civilization is collapsing.

In San Francisco, violent mobs created by liberal laws that encourage theft, ransack department stores and put employees at risk. Of course, that can not go on for long. No business can lose money and stay in business. They might squander their capital for a while but they are screwing their shareholders and showing their customers how stupid, cowardly and immoral they are for allowing this barbarism.

New York is the most corrupt place in American history where leftist politicians like AG Letitia James promise to use the law to "get Trump." "Too male, too pale and too stale" is her racist chant until she gets in front of patriotic New York firemen who boo her and shout "Trump! Trump! Trump!"

The blatant destruction of blind justice makes New York a fascist tyranny with its mouthpiece, the racist NY Times and its fraudulent 1619 "history."

The New York legal system is corrupt to the core as Alvin Bragg, NY County DA, shows us daily in his trumped-up case against President Trump but New York Governor Kathy Hochul assures us WE won't be prosecuted for having the wrong politics. It is only Trump they are after, in the most obvious case of election interference in history, directed by Biden's White House.

If you can't beat them in a fair election, invent a crime and prosecute them. Like Stalin said through his secret police, "Show me the man and I'll show you the crime."

Hochul recently called out 750 National Guardsmen to patrol the unridable subway system and if you try to help people threatened with violence, as U.S. Marine veteran Daniel Penny did, you will be prosecuted like the older bodega worker who was attacked by a young thug and had to fight for his life. He luckily picked up a knife and killed the assailant only to find himself charged with murder by Alvin Bragg and sent to Rikers Island.

Public outrage finally resulted in dropped charges and justice for this crime victim of Bragg's ideology and incompetence.

Your Natural Right to self defense does not exist in Bragg's New York. You submit to the criminals or Alvin Bragg will step away from his political prosecutions to put you in jail.

The good people of New York who are fed up with corruption, tyranny and taxes head South to Florida, Texas, South Carolina and places where they can breathe free air, where law and order, Jesus and the Second Amendment, are in charge, and criminals are not.

Fortunately, the majority of people fleeing places like New York and moving South are conservatives whose politics aligns well with most Southerners.

THE REMOVAL of the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery last December has desecrated Arlington National Cemetery for all time and must be restored.

Kirk Lyons of the Southern Legal Resource Center writes in an April update that a joint Appellant Brief of Defend Arlington and the SCV will be filed by May 22, 2024. Lyons states:

. . . we are advancing two VERY important national issues: 1. Protecting a national treasure from WOKE bureaucrats; and 2. Preserving "Judicial Review" over bureaucratic acts "mandated" by Congress. In its briefing, the Department of Justice lawyers basically told the judge that she, as a representative of the judiciary, had NO authority to review Secretary of Defense Austin's order to dismantle the 1914 Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery because the order was mandated by Congress.

Lyons goes on:

This case is nationally important and sets a very ominous precedent when a court agrees with the executive branch that a judge cannot review the legality or the constitutionality of the act of an agent of the executive branch . . .
This question goes to the heart of "judicial review" and the constitutional checks and balances . . .

Go to DefendArlington.org where you can help with fundraising by buying a beautiful coin on which one side shows the world class Confederate Memorial and the other, Jewish sculptor and Confederate veteran, Moses Ezekiel. It is $25, and they also have a beautiful symbolic medal with the coin attached for $40, and the medal says "Deo Vindice" (see picture above). Buy both of these beautiful pieces and add some extra so that your donation is an even $100. It will be money well spent.

You can also donate on my donation page HERE.

Bowden's biography on the Abbeville Institute website states:

James Atticus Bowden holds advanced degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities and is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is an independent historian and Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Virginia First Foundation.

See Bowden's biography on his LinkedIn page HERE.]

The Moral Superiority of the South

by James Atticus Bowden

(first published on the
Abbeville Institute blog,
June 22, 2023)

THE SOUTH is morally superior. It always has been and, looks like, likely will be. It all started when the Yankees showed up in 1620 to be the second English-speaking people here. The pilgrims were absolutist, stiff-necked, uncompromising, dissenting Puritans. They were different from the start. They mostly came from East Anglia and the ancient Danelaw. The Puritan’s religion, ideas, attitude, and accent were different from Virginia from day one. Virginia, where America and the South began, was more about individual rights and ‘live and let live’. The South had a better culture and way of life.

Two separate sub-cultures became the first four basic American cultures – Puritan New England, Quaker and Mennonite Mid-Atlantic, Anglican Tidewater, and Presbyterian, Scot-Irish Frontier. For almost 250 years the cultures evolved broadly into the regional ‘South’ and the ‘North’. Neither region was homogeneous. Diversity abounded, but core cultures created two separate regions. And the South was the moral master with greater freedoms and opportunities.

The year Yankeedom just began in the North was a year after representative democracy started in the South – in a church.

Also, it was a year after slavery started in the English-speaking colonies. Yet, the moral stain of slavery went north fast. The Yankee slave ships made a lot of money, as Yankee banks financed more slavery, and, later, Yankee factories got rich using slave-produced cotton and other raw materials. There were fewer slaves in the North because of climate and agriculture, not from any moral sense of right and wrong. The sin of slavery was all-American.

New towns were planned in New England with careful care that no one settler got more than another. In the South, if you worked hard you could buy more land and provide for your family with wealth a commoner could never get back in England.

By the time of the Revolution, the regions had grown apart independently enough, for the Father of the Country, George Washington, to express his immediate distaste and disgust for the North when he went to Boston for the first time – to command all the Patriot soldiers.

Right after the Revolution, Virginia led, as usual, to change the state right of religion to separate church and state. The Massachusetts legislature was last.

The state right for chattel slavery was ended over a period of decades where it was easiest first. Canada and some places in the North offered refuge for escaped slaves, but the Northern states didn’t offer for the wholesale migration of almost 4 million persons to their home. The abolitionists didn’t offer a path, or to pay for the means, to elevate humans up from slavery. Some Southerners, like Stonewall Jackson, taught slaves to read and write. Some abolitionists advocated wholesale murder, like Nat Turner – killing babies in the crib, women and old people.

No one in power had a plan to end slavery well. Just as no one really has a satisfactory plan for 20 million illegal immigrants in America today. And, as today’s advocates for open borders and amnesty demand the insanity of America’s suicide with great moral preening, abolitionists pushed murder in the name of freedom. Interestingly enough, even the Leftist icon, W.E.B. DuBois, said that slavery wouldn’t have lasted in the South because Southerners held too great of an innate sense of fairness and justice. Culture commands.

Then, awful war came.

The South truly earned its moral laurels during its heroic defense against invasion. April’s celebration of Confederate History Month is all about valiant Confederate soldiers and their families. Southerners who know their ancestors’ names and regiments – enriched by tales of oral history – take pride in their courage, honor, and fidelity. Winston Churchill wrote the most profoundly Christian army that ever marched was the Army of Northern Virginia.

People who defend their homes against invading, robbing, looting, burning soldiers have the moral high ground. Pretending the Recent Unpleasantness was a moral crusade all about slavery, all the time, bar everything else in conflict and sad step-by-step political stumble into war, is like saying WW II in the Pacific was because of the “Rape of Nanking” by the Japanese. No, the Japanese invaded and the Germans invaded in WW II. The Yankees invaded the South.

After the Yankees won, the Union Army occupied the South for 10 years. They stole everything they could. Oddly enough, they didn’t invite all the freed slaves to move North. Go figure.

Reconstruction begat Jim Crow segregation. This second American moral stain, segregation, falsely makes the South the perpetual tar baby, like slavery, because of de jure segregation. Yet, the real vicious, personal racism of de facto segregation thrived in the North. The last riots over racial integration of schools were in Boston, Massachusetts in 1974. Racism doesn’t have a regional home, it lives in the hearts of all kinds of people.

The victory of the Civil Rights movement, inspired by a Christian Southerner, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his ideas of non-violence, transformed the Nation. Today, the South is different from other regions of America. The better universities offer courses on Southern literature, art, music, history, politics, etc. And, the South is better. Why else, would so many Yankees move south to overwhelm too many, formerly Southern communities?

The absolutist, self-righteous, our-way-only, Puritan culture of the North slowly walked away from the God of the Bible after The War. Today, the Yankees who worship the small god of “Self” and cherish the liberal trinity of race, class, and genders are dangerous Human Secular Totalitarians. The Sissy Christians still up North who support them are their useful fools. The ideas changed over 150 years, but the culture is the same. The North is a pushy, money-grubbing, rude, arrogant, historically ignorant, tribal and socialist, absolutist culture. Yet, many good Americans live there, no thanks to the culture.

The Bible belt is buckled in the South. A Southern, Biblically-based, moral majority culture cherishes the Rule of Law, not men. Southern Conservatism holds dearly to the same ideas as the American Revolution. Southern culture is family-family-family, faith, and freedom. It’s still live and let live. It still places personal and family honor highly. In fact, the differences in culture are too many for this piece. Yet, some bad Americans live there, no thanks to the culture.

In the future, the South will remain the moral master, because the ultimate defense of American and Western Civilization will be soldiered by stalwart Southerners more than anyone else. Conversely, while the defense of Christianity against Islamist Totalitarianism may come from Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe – if a miracle happens, or Asia, Southerners will be prominent among Americans willing to fight the good fight for generations.

God save the South!

The Pathetic Truth About Lincoln Scholarship

Posted on March 31, 2024April 1, 2024 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | No Comments

Just as an overview, though, real historiography starts with the evidence and then logically derives conclusions. But professional Lincoln Studiers work backwards. They start with a few standard assertions — Lincoln Was A Hardy Pioneer Youth, Lincoln Saved The Union, Lincoln Freed The Slaves, Lincoln Was The Greatest President, that sort of thing. Of course there’s not a shred of evidence confirming any of those conclusions — no, there really isn’t — that’s the point — and every shred that we have left to us confirms just the opposite.

Kevin Orlin Johnson,
from the article below

The Pathetic Truth About Lincoln Scholarship:

"Lincoln Studies and a Stacked Deck"
by Kevin Orlin Johnson

"Lincoln Sells His Slaves"
by Clyde Wilson

Front cover of Kevin Orlin Johnson's 680 page 2023 book, The Lincolns in the White House, Slanders, Scandals, and Lincoln's Slave Trading Revealed.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - The two articles, below, by distinguished scholars of the Abbeville Institute, shine a great deal of light on the Lincoln fabrication, which is what so much of Lincoln scholarship is.

Kevin Orlin Johnson's 680 page 2023 book, The Lincolns in the White House, Slanders, Scandals, and Lincoln's Slave Trading Revealed (nominated for the Lincoln Prize) is based on irrefutable primary sources and is powerfully written by a distinguished scholar.

Johnson's "Lincoln Studies and a Stacked Deck" is a blistering assessment of Lincoln scholarship and why much of it is a fraud, a myth.

Clyde Wilson's review of Johnson's The Lincolns in the White House - "Lincoln Sells His Slaves" - follows and concludes that Johnson's book is "a stellar contribution to the growing body of sound scholarship about the real Lincoln."

Johnson's The Lincolns in the White House is not to be confused with a book of the same name by Jerrold M. Packard. Packard's book is on Amazon but Johnson's is not.

Go to the publisher, Pangaeus, to order Kevin Orlin Johnson's book: https://www.pangaeus.com/the-lincolns-in-the-white-house.

An appeal of the decision that led to the removal of the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery has been filed. The removal of that 109 year old world class monument to peace and patriotism has desecrated Arlington National Cemetery, which will remain desecrated and dishonored until the Confederate Memorial is restored. For an update go to www.DefendArlington.org and please contribute.]

Lincoln Studies and a Stacked Deck

By Kevin Orlin Johnson

(Published March 26, 2024 on the Abbeville Institute blog)

BACK IN 1949, two researchers, J. S. Bruner and Leo Postman, wanted to sort out the relationship between what we see and how we interpret what we see. They did a proper study of it — “On the Perception of Incongruity: A Paradigm”, Journal of Personality, 18:206 ff. (1949), if you want to look it up.

Bruner and Postman asked people to identify playing cards flashed before them for a fraction of a second. But they’d put in a few trick cards — a red six of spades, for instance, or a black four of hearts. The idea was that the trick cards would delay the response time as the subjects paused to figure them out.

It didn’t work. The subjects went at it knowing for a fact that a deck of cards has four and only four descriptive classifications — red hearts, red diamonds, black spades and black clubs. That presumption overcame observation, and the subjects immediately described the cards as they expected cards to be, not as those particular cards really were.

Bruner and Postman let the test subjects look longer and even asked leading questions, but still none of them could see the reality right there in front of their eyes. If forced to think about it, they became visibly confused and uncomfortable. “Oh, I don’t know what it is!” one shouted. “Take it away!”

And so it is, Bruner and Postman concluded, “either a very sick organism, an overly motivated one, or one deprived of the opportunity to ‘try-and-check,’ which will not give up an expectancy in the face of a contradictory environment. It would be our contention, nonetheless, that for as long as possible and by whatever means available, the organism will ward off the perception of the unexpected, those things which do not fit his prevailing set.”

That is, people honestly cannot perceive anything that doesn’t fit their expectation. That affects any investigation at least a little, but Lincoln Studies rather depends upon it.

Recently a few studies have pointed that out. In 2002 Thomas DiLorenzo published his The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, which he followed in 2006 with his Lincoln Umasked: What You’re Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe.

In 2009 John Avery Emison gave us Lincoln Über Alles: Dictatorship Comes to America. Now there’s my own little effort, The Lincolns in the White House: Slanders, Scandals, and Lincoln’s Slave Trading Revealed. It has plenty of details and documentation of how Lincoln Studies goes wrong, a whole chapter on their method, in fact. And there’s lots more to come.

Just as an overview, though, real historiography starts with the evidence and then logically derives conclusions. But professional Lincoln Studiers work backwards. They start with a few standard assertions — Lincoln Was A Hardy Pioneer Youth, Lincoln Saved The Union, Lincoln Freed The Slaves, Lincoln Was The Greatest President, that sort of thing. Of course there’s not a shred of evidence confirming any of those conclusions — no, there really isn’t — that’s the point — and every shred that we have left to us confirms just the opposite. So for the past 150 years or so Lincoln Studiers have trimmed and tucked those shreds to fit those categories because those are the only categories possible, as far as they can see.

Sometimes they just paraphrase the document into its reverse, which is understandable as an honest report of what the Lincoln Studier got out of reading it. Bruner and Postman might have had more to say about it when the interpretation flatly contradicts the original document quoted right there on the same page.

They might be hard pressed to explain how documents get lifted from their context and set into another series of events altogether. It’s like forcing a puzzle piece into the wrong place because you know for certain that the picture is supposed to be different from the one on the box, the one into which all of the other pieces fit perfectly.

Sometimes professors of Lincoln Studies have to cut out significant passages to make a document fit, so sometimes what’s left makes no more grammatical than historical sense. But in fact altering original documents to fit those preconceptions is so normal in the field that it’s difficult to get to real evidence about Lincoln.

Sometimes even the most prominent Lincoln Studiers edit a document just a little to say what its author must have actually meant, because nobody could actually mean what that author wrote about Lincoln. That’s why, as you read along, you might be puzzled by an added “not” or a missing one. One recent prize winner inserted “[Mrs.]” in front of Lincoln’s name to deflect an insult from The Emancipator to Mary Todd, whom he frankly despises — you always have to check the originals.

That’s another problem, though. The violence to the originals is often so astonishing in its scope that it can’t be accidental. For example, the son of Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles thoroughly re-wrote his father’s diaries before publishing them with the promise that “the text of the diary has been in no way mutilated or revised… No other evidence can be more sacred than a diary.”

The official editions of Lincoln’s own writings, even Roy P. Basler’s Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Rutgers 1955) — eight volumes, index, supplement and all — silently correct Lincoln’s habitual misspellings and his constant grammatical solecisms, but that way it all fits into the picture better.

Still, rewriting documents can only go so far. So from the beginning the giants in the field have simply gathered up and burned any documents within their grasp that said otherwise — and it all said otherwise. Notably, Henry Horner, Vice President of the Abraham Lincoln Association and Governor of Illinois; Oliver R. Barrett, President of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library and greatest Lincoln collector of them all; and of course Robert Todd Lincoln himself are all on record as ordering some of the greatest collections of primary Lincoln documents ever known consigned to the flames. Or just burning them, themselves.

That’s why you’ll notice in the Lincoln literature that no new evidence is brought forward, no new information is added to our understanding. Generations of Lincoln Studiers haven’t had any choice but to play the cards that they’re dealt, and shuffle them over and over again.

Kevin Orlin Johnson

Kevin Orlin Johnson holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in the History of Architecture, a Master’s degree in Art History, and a Bachelor’s degree in Art History; he has also fulfilled the requirements for a Bachelor’s degree in History. His publications in his principal field, on topics as varied as Louis XIV’s first designs for Versailles or the design of the Chapel of the Most Holy Shroud in Turin, are considered definitive by many scholars here and abroad. He is the author of The Lincolns in the White House (Pangaeus Press, 2022).

Lincoln Sells His Slaves

By Clyde Wilson

(Published on the Abbeville Institute blog February 14, 2024)

“The literature on Abraham Lincoln is vast, but it isn’t very good.” You have to love a book with a first sentence like that! The book is Kevin Orlin Johnson’s The Lincolns in the White House. While he has some interesting history of the Executive Mansion (the White House) the author is not limited to that one place and short time period, as indicated by the subtitle: Slanders, Scandals, and Lincoln’s Slave Trading Revealed. He presents a fresh and highly original social and political portrayal of the whole Lincoln era.

Probably people will find most interesting Lincoln’s direct order in 1850 to SELL the slaves of his father-in-law’s estate. It is plainly there in the documents, which somehow the host of Lincoln scholars have previously failed to notice. Not surprising, since other Northern heroes, Steven Douglas and U.S. Grant, also got slaves from the wife’s families and like Lincoln considered it a routine matter.

Johnson is eloquent, precise, and definitive in his exposure of the large and well rewarded class of “historians” he calls the Lincolnolators. In chapter and verse he shows how they have misinterpreted documents and suppressed others and counted undocumented third person gossip long after the fact as if it were conclusive evidence. Johnson contributes a needed revelation about the state of American historianship these days.

Lincoln was not personally corrupt in the White House but he apparently enjoyed considerable “honest graft” from gifts and insider information. When he died there were found in his office uncashed cheques and bonds worth more the $1.5 million in today’s money. He was certainly the first President to leave the White House richer than he entered it.

But that was routine in administration built on corruption. Most of Lincoln’ major appointments became millionaires—an interesting sidelight on the holy cause of Union. To Johnson this meant the permanent establishment of what he calls “the Party,” the exploitation of the taxpayers by the combination of capitalists and party politicians that has been the American regime from Lincoln to this day.

I am happy to see the evidence that corrects two erroneous assumptions that I had gathered from the literature:

1) Lincoln was not really a highly successful lawyer. He certainly was not nobly defending the humble. He was best-known for diverting juries by tricks and irrelevant story telling. During the Springfield years the house was bought and living expenses were paid out of Mary Todd Lincoln’s inheritance. What he earned (nothing in the last two years before his election) he spent on himself and politicking.

2) Mary Todd Lincoln was not a bad woman. She is pervasively portrayed in the literature as a shrewish spendthrift who embezzled government funds and became insane. Just another burden that St. Abraham patiently bore. In fact, as a Southern lady she was a first-rate hands-on housekeeper even with the extreme demands on a President’s lady dealing with irregular and inadequate support. Unlike most of those around her, she never did anything illegal. She was committed to an asylum, it is true. Her son Robert, truly an evil man, through greed had two thugs physically rob her of the bonds that were her main property and thrust her into an institution where she was heavily drugged, causing suffering for the rest of her life.

Dr. Johnson adds to his merit by a sprightly style and touches of satire. This is a stellar contribution to the growing body of sound scholarship about the real Lincoln, something America badly needs.

Clyde Wilson

Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina where he was the editor of the multivolume The Papers of John C. Calhoun. He is the M.E. Bradford Distinguished Chair at the Abbeville Institute. He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews and is co-publisher of www.shotwellpublishing.com, a source for unreconstructed Southern books.

The Use and Misuse of History by Dr. Clyde Wilson

Posted on February 29, 2024March 1, 2024 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | No Comments

The Use and Misuse of History

by Dr. Clyde Wilson

Google Epitomizes the Misuse of History, Suffers $90 Billion Stock Selloff Thanks to Its Woke Gemini AI

Racist Google's deliberate falsification of history from its Gemini AI February, 2024.

More Google Gemini AI obliteration of truth and history, February, 2024.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - Google's Gemini accidentally pulled back the curtain and revealed a hideous, racist, grotesque Google standing there naked for all the world to laugh at and NOBODY to ever trust again.

Google and other cheats have interfered in elections by manipulating search results so Woke leftists get top billing while people with far more talent and honesty are never found.

Google has just confirmed that AI is nothing but a way to magnify leftist politics by a trillion and put it everywhere on the planet so truth can never be found. "Truth" is now what Google reveals in every search on everybody's computer from now to kingdom come.

Nathan Leamer in "Disastrous Gemini Rollout Exposes Leftist Rot Permeating All of Google" writes:

The recent rollout of Google's Gemini AI was an absolute disaster by any measure. Over the course of several hours, users across the internet quickly realized the large language model developed by Google had erased white people. The AI model wasn't just prejudiced based on skin color, but would only give far-left ideological answers to various questions. For example, Gemini refused to acknowledge the shortcomings of communism when prompted. It was able to articulate, however, a diatribe about the folly of capitalism.¹

Leamer writes that the people behind Google's AI "fueled the large learning model with nothing but their liberal tears. A cursory look at the team behind Gemini shows a crew of individuals who have quite a bit of angst against white people, merit, or the capitalist society that made them uber-rich Silicon Valley tycoons paid to build a racist internet tool."

One good thing noted by Leamer as a result of the disastrous Gemini rollout:

Consumers are hungry for products not informed by the extreme ideology on display at Google, but one that fosters free thought and encourages open discourse. There is clearly a market for this, as described by the near-universal backlash to Gemini. This would greatly contrast with Google, OpenAI, and others trying to lock in the regulatory regime to bolster their supremacy - as Marc Andreessen describes, "a cartel of government-blessed AI vendors protected from new startup and open source competition."

This is EXACTLY why the government wants to be the one to decide what is misinformation and disinformation. They want to push their authoritarian tyranny on the public and obliterate every other idea.

How about do as Thomas Jefferson said and let a true free press and free speech reign supreme and let the people decide what is B_ll Sh_t and what is not. That's why our white founders, who Google hates, put all those protections in the First Amendment to the greatest document every written, the United States Constitution.

It might be time, now that Google has been exposed as Claudine Gay was, that it gets the same treatment as she did.

A NOTICE OF APPEAL has been filed with regard to the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. The magnificent 109 year old world class memorial was removed last December because of the Woke naming commission's historically fraudulent report. See my articles on www.CharlestonAthenaeumPress.com including "Naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical FRAUD":

https://www.charlestonathenaeumpress.com/naming-commissions-report-on-the-confederate-memorial-is-a-historical-fraud/

We are hoping a successful Appeal will order the monument to be restored to all its glory in our nation's most sacred burial ground.

Other things are in the works too such as our many allies in Congress adding an amendment to the 2024 NDAA requiring the Confederate Memorial to be reconstructed.

The removal of the monument desecrated 500 graves in concentric circles emanating out from where the monument once stood.

Those Confederate graves of soldiers and family members are, by law, the same as the graves of any other American soldier. Laws were passed in the early 1900s out of patriotism and love as our great country came back together after the bloody War Between the States, which was fought by the South for independence and the right of sovereign states to govern themselves as our Founding Fathers intended.

It was fought by the North for economic control of a country that promised to be the greatest in history.

Please go to my Donation Page to make a donation today. We can not allow Arlington National Cemetery to remain as desecrated as all the other places where Woke mobs destroyed ancient monuments to valor and patriotism:

https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/sshfl/defendarlington/GeneKizerJr2

Dr. Clyde Wilson is one of the most consequential and accomplished historians of the past century.

His article, below, was published on the Abbeville Institute Blog February 28, 2024. Please visit and join the Abbeville Institute: www.AbbevilleInstitute.org.]

The Use and Misuse of History

by Dr. Clyde Wilson

February 28, 2024

“I am heir to the greatest civilization the world has ever known. I’d like to defend it but I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.” –Alice Teller

“By 2050—earlier probably—all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed….shall exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be.”–Orwell, 1984

Taught these days to IBM employees: “Greeks came to Africa as students to discover what Africans already knew. Writing, science, medicine, and spirituality were already a part of African civilizations.” Accompanied by a picture of a sub-Saharan black instructing Greeks.

This is being taught in your schools and colleges today. There are two very large lies here. 1) That the classical Greeks who initiated Western Civilisation got their knowledge from Egyptians, and 2) that Egyptians were black Africans. This distorts the history of the human race, not only destroying knowledge but contaminating all public discourse in our own time.

There is now a large grievance literature, apparently widely believed, that Europeans not only stole civilisation from blacks but they maliciously and deceitfully suppressed giving credit where it was due.

The simple truth (which many scholars are lavishly funded to disguise) is that black, sub-Saharan Africa was outside the European/Asian sphere of civilisations, existing in a most primitive state. Except for a few encountered by Egyptians, quickly enslaved, black people were nearly unknown and marginal to the civilized world until daring and skilled Portuguese sailors touched the west and east coasts of Southern Africa in the 1500s, while Arabs begin to extend Islam and the slave trade to East Africa.

For the classical world “Africa” meant the Southern shores of the Mediterranean inhabited by white Egyptians and Phoenicians, and from Alexander’s time on heavily inhabited by Greeks and Romans. We now have everything that is called “African” ascribed to the sub-Saharan black tribes who had little relation to North Africa.

The mass media and “educational” establishment are now busy destroying Western civilization–destroying you and me and our descendants. We now have regular portrayals of the Egyptians (including Cleopatra) and the Phoenicians as black, as well as a Viking Queen, a Persian emperor, and Roman centurions. And according to some, Socrates drew all his wisdom at the feet of African geniuses.

The Renaissance does not escape. The great Queen Elizabeth I is now black, as are some Scottish nobles. One of the Three Musketeers is black and another is in love with a black woman.

Later on, Audubon is portrayed as black artist and scientist because he was called a ‘Creole,” the word for a white Frenchman born in the colonies. Slaves not born in Africa were called “Creole Blacks.” Blacks now inhabit portrayals of Jane Austen’s country gentry.

It seems to have entirely escaped consciousness that the African slave trade depended entirely on Africans enslaving and selling other Africans. A number of significant colonial instances in which blacks helped defeat slave revolts have been ignored.

More recent times do not escape distortions. Portrayals have black combat leaders in the then segregated U.S. army. Very recently I saw a show in which a black ship commander with a mostly black crew was in combat with German ships. There are similar treatments of Vietnam.

I have the memoir of a World War II combat captain from Michigan. He was in action from Normandy to Germany. He writes that the worst time he had in the war was dealing with the black support soldiers encountered while he was in port waiting for return home.

In a recent film, “12 Strong”, the first Special Forces men into Afghanistan are portrayed. One is a black soldier sympathetically and prominently displayed with more attention than anyone except the team leader. Such a man does not exist.

In every European television series, even including Iceland, superior and sympathetic blacks are portrayed, whether they fit in or not–not to mention a president of Finland and Yorkshire farmers.

There are doubtless people who think they are doing good deeds with these lies perpetrated on a historically ignorant people. In other cases it may be malicious ignorance. But telling lies is never a good thing. This denies rightful credit to other people.

History in the proper sense is a Western achievement–the rational review and understanding of evidence and meaning in the past life of humanity. There will always be disagreement in interpretations, which is a good thing, but does not vindicate fabrication. Despite oppression by whites, Africans are major beneficiaries of Western civilisation.

Like so much else History as an intellectual discipline begins with the Greeks. Advanced China and Japan did not have this phase of intellect. To seek the truth of the past, as best we can, does not require disrespect or lack of sympathy and charity for any of our fellow creatures. Rather it recognises the diversity of our Creator’s work. Lying is almost never a good thing. To deliberately falsify the facts is a blow against civilisation itself. It thwarts our efforts to understand fully the history of our mysterious human species.

Clyde Wilson

¹ Nathan Leamer, "Disastrous Gemini Rollout Exposes Leftist Rot Permeating All of Google," The Federalist, February 28, 2024. https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/28/disastrous-gemini-roll-out-exposes-leftist-rot-permeating-all-of-google/. Accessed 2-29-24. The article states that: Leamer is CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and Executive Director of the Digital First Project. He previously worked as a Policy Advisor to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide.

Robert E. Lee and the DOD by Dr. Joe Haines – REVIEW of Tyrus Seidule’s Robert E. Lee and Me

Posted on January 31, 2024February 1, 2024 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 2 Comments

Robert E. Lee and the DOD
by Dr. Joe Haines

A review of James Tyrus Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me

More than anybody else, Seidule, vice chair of the naming commission, is responsible for the desecration of Arlington National Cemetery

Coming Soon: Nikki "Birdbrain" Haley, the Elizabeth Warren of South Carolina

Woke authoritarian Tyrus Seidule, in his book Robert E. Lee and Me, expressed his hatred for the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Under Seidule, the naming commission submitted an historically fraudulent report on the Confederate Memorial leaving out its primary history and leading to its being removed just before Christmas, 2023. For over a century, American presidents including Barack Obama sent annual memorial wreaths to the Confederate Memorial commemorating patriotism and the reconciliation of North and South after the War Between the States. The destruction of the Confederate Memorial has desecrated Arlington National Cemetery and is an ongoing national disgrace contributing to our military recruiting crisis.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - My friend, Dr. Joe Haines, a medical doctor in North Carolina, has written an outstanding review of Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me. The review was published January 5, 2024 on the Abbeville Institute Blog.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial was leftist politics at its worse and not history.

See my article "Naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical FRAUD," August 29, 2023.

Traditionally, 44% of our military was recruited in the South because military service was once revered in the South.

Because of Woke hatemongers like Seidule for whom political hatred knows no bounds, recruiting is way down across the board. It is past being a national security threat.

The healthy pipelines of recruits from the most patriotic places like the South have now been damaged by Woke ideology like DEI and Seidule's monument hatred.

We now have the smallest military since World War II yet are facing wars all over the globe, but Seidule hated the Confederate Memorial and his hatred is the most important thing to him and his career. The country be damned.

Seidule wrote in Robert E. Lee and Me on Page 162:

Of the thousands of monuments around the country to the Confederacy, the one in Arlington National Cemetery angers me the most. Every year, the commander in chief sends a wreath, ensuring the Confederate monument receives all the prestige of the U.S. government. That's why it riles me so much. . . .ⁱ

Seidule then admits that the Confederate Memorial stands for reconciliation, and he, himself, regrets that:

I know both political parties and white citizens in the North and South brought the country back together after the tremendous bloodletting and destruction of the Civil War. The posts named for Confederate officers during World War I also served to knit white America back together as it fought a common foe. And it worked, but we must recognize that reconciliation came at a steep and horrifying cost. African Americans paid the price with lynching, Jim Crow segregation, and the loss of the franchise. The price for white reconciliation remains far too high. (Bold emphasis added.)ⁱⁱ

About Nikki Haley, I am from Charleston, South Carolina and lived through Haley's reign of terror down here. I can tell you she is a RHINO who was enthusiastically supported by leftists in New Hampshire recently though she still got trounced by Trump.

Haley is EXACTLY the same as fake Indian Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Both are desecrators of the history of people who are better than they could ever be.

When Haley stands in front of a mirror, Elizabeth Warren looks back.]

Robert E. Lee and the DOD
by Dr. Joe Haines

Published on the Abbeville Institute Blog, January 5, 2024

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, I read a book that is so flawed, biased and outright wrong that I can hardly finish it. Such is the case with “Robert E. Lee and Me” by Tyrus Seidule. I have always sought to give those who disagree me a fair hearing. Occasionally I may even learn something. But in Mr. Seidule’s case, his book is nothing more than a vile anti-Southern rant.

What is even more odd, is that Mr. Seidule was raised in Virginia by a good Southern family. As a boy and young man he naturally and rightfully revered Robert E. Lee, who along with George Washington, are considered to be the two greatest men in American history.

Perhaps because Mr. Seidule was once a Southerner (he now resides with the Yankees in New York), he exhibits what psychoanalysts call a reaction formation against the South, particularly most white Southerners, who are little more than irredeemable racists in his assessment.

This book is little more than an exercise in virtue signaling. Certainly as an Army officer he was subject to the usual Defense Department “woke” ideology, and it appears that Seidule took the bait. Wokeness, along with virtue signaling and shutting up and following orders summarizes current DoD policy.

I have a particularly good understanding of the current mentality across all branches of the service. Unlike Seidule, I have served in every branch of the armed forces except for the Coast Guard. I was most impressed with the Marine Corps, who were definitely a cut above the rest. Seidule’s experience was limited to the Army.

At times, Seidule’s hate for the South practically leaps off the pages of his book. For someone who claims to be a historian, his arguments are extremely one-sided. He makes no attempt to present a rational and unbiased presentation. Mr. Seidule believes he was betrayed in his youth regarding his Southern heritage. His historical analysis is reduced to the simplistic believe that slavery is bad and the South had slaves, and slavery caused the war and thus the South is evil.

Of course, this is a completely false belief, as the North also had slaves and Yankee fortunes were made in the slave trade. The federal government made millions of dollars taxing slaves as property. During the excavation of a site in Manhattan, approximately 400 graves of slaves were discovered. Many of the skeletons showed evidence of severe abuse. Northern states, like Abe Lincoln’s Illinois, passed laws forbidding the entry of slaves into their state. Seidule’s belief that the Yankees were somehow the defender of the slaves is totally inaccurate.

Speaking of Lincoln, when he was a lawyer in Illinois, he represented a slave owner in a custody case to return his escaped slave. Lincoln also famously told Horace Greeley that if he could free all the slaves to save the Union, he would do so, or keep all slaves in bondage to save the Union he would do so. Lincoln’s ultimate “solution” to the slave problem was to deport the slaves. There’s compassion for you. Of course, Lincoln’s top general U.S. Grant kept slaves during the war. When ask why he didn’t free them, he allegedly replied, “Good help is so hard to come by these days!”

The northern history books are so biased that the fact of Lincoln being America’s greatest executioner is little known. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find that on December 26, 1862, Lincoln ordered the execution of 38 Sioux Indians in Minnesota. After “trials” lasting as little as five minutes and no legal representation, the 38 men were found guilty and hanged. This execution easily surpassed any lynchings in the South. Originally, the plan was to hang 303, but Lincoln feared disapproval from potential European allies.

Lincoln also famously told Frederick Douglass that whites and blacks could never live together as equals. He apparently was unaware that in the South whites and blacks lived and worked side by side. Many slaves were alarmed at the prospect of losing their homes and the care provided for them if the North won the war. Their fears were justified, as nearly one million slaves died in the years following the war due to starvation, disease and neglect. The incompetent federal government was entirely unprepared to care for the massive number of homeless slaves.

As most honest scholars believe, the cause of the War for Southern Independence (it was not a civil war, as the South was not seeking to overthrow the U.S. government, but rather peacefully withdraw from the Union) cannot simply be reduced to slavery, as Seidule believes. Like all wars, it was about power and greed on one side (Union) and fear and self-preservation on the other side (South).

Mr. Seidule makes a big point of the lynching in the South, certainly a great evil. But it is curious that he omits the lynchings in New York City during the NYC Draft Riots of 1863. Over 5 days at least 11 black men were lynched. Some estimates say that 1200 people were killed, many of them black. The riots were started by Irish-Americans, who resented being drafted for what they perceived was a war to free the slaves. So, lynchings were not exclusive to the South.

If they were not fighting for slavery, then what were Southerners fighting for? My ancestors were farmers in Tennessee who, like the majority of Southerners, did not own slaves. They fought in the Confederate Army in response to the Yankees invading their homeland. Resisting invaders is a perfectly honorable response. A true man cannot stand by while an army from another country invades his home. To do otherwise would be dishonorable. It is never treason to defend one’s home from invaders.

Volumes have been written about Union General Sherman’s war crimes against the Southern people, including the slaves. Sherman’s men raped and murdered many slaves on his forced march to the sea. When one of Sherman’s staff officers, Capt. Poe remarked to Sherman about all the dead women and children in the streets of Atlanta, Sherman remarked that it was a “beautiful sight.” Of the 400 buildings in Atlanta before Sherman’s arrival, only 40 were left standing. Robert E. Lee and his officers strictly avoided warfare against Yankee civilians. In contrast, if the South had won the war, Sherman and Lincoln would be rightly executed as war criminals.

Seidule fails to appreciate that you cannot fairly judge the past by modern-day standards. By today’s standards, all whites in the 1860’s, North and South, were racists; even Saint Abraham. We must look to the past and learn from it, not judge it. We never have all the information. Of course, for the “Wokester” who is merely virtue signaling, facts are not particularly important. So many lies have been told about the War that the facts are often obscured.

Seidule criticized the South’s secession as an “armed rebellion.” Of course that’s exactly what the colonies did when fighting the British Empire. The United States was born from armed rebellion, so it was nothing new in 1861. A fundamental disagreement between Yankee sympathizers like Seidule and true Southerners was expressed by President Jefferson Davis, who said, “We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for independence …”

Several times Seidule makes a point of saying that “Lee and his comrades killed more U.S. Army soldiers than any other enemy, ever.” But he fails to mention that Lincoln and Grant killed more Confederate States of America soldiers than any other enemy, ever.

Seidule also insists numerous times that Lee committed treason. This simplistic statement is of course totally false. At this time in American history, a man’s first loyalty was to his state; in Lee’s case Virginia. Loyalty to the United States was purely secondary. No true Virginian could be expected to raise his hand against his home state and his family.

It was not until Lincoln’s time that the states were permanently diminished and the all-powerful federal government that we labor under today came into existence. The author appears angry that while the North won the war, the South has won the peace. Yankees by the millions have escaped the cold, inhospitable North to enjoy the warm, friendly South.

Seidule doesn’t seem to understand that each of the 13 states entered into an agreement to form an alliance, the United States of America. There was never an understanding that this was a perpetual union. A state could leave the union as easily as it entered. In fact, several New England states threatened to leave the Union in the early 1800’s and even refused to support the War of 1812. So were these New England states plotting treason? Of course not! The South has never had any problem with Yankee states leaving the Union, especially since they such disagreeable people.

There is no surprise that Washington and Lee University gave Seidule a standing ovation for his speech dishonoring Robert E. Lee and the South. University faculties have succumbed to Wokeism, weak minded liberalism, virtue signaling and white guilt. There is a move to rename Washington and Lee, which Seidule heartily supports. My suggestion is “Woke University.” Southerners should no longer consider attending a school that despises its heritage.

While our country is far from perfect, it is certainly true that African Americans fare much better than their African brothers in countries like Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Ghana, to name a few. This is a simple fact of life that has nothing to do with racism. Today’s African Americans owe much to the sacrifices of their slave ancestors. America has made great strides toward racial equality. We are not perfect and never will be.

Mr. Seidule recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal (Aug 26-27, 2023) attempting to further his cause, even resorting to the use of exclamation marks. He also proudly refers to his appointment as vice chair of the “naming commission,” which was tasked by the Department of Defense to remove all references to the Confederacy at DoD installations. The main outcome of this so-called commission’s actions was to insult and inflame Southerners. But this is of course typical of Yankees, who excel at telling others how they should think.

Seidule and I will never agree, and that’s fine. Unlike Yankees, I have no compulsion to force my beliefs upon other people. As for me, I will soon have raised five sons and a daughter who have been taught to honor their Southern heritage, and especially the great American hero, Robert E. Lee. My children will teach their sons and daughters and so on down the line. Millions of Southerners feel as I do, so Mr. Seidule, your cause and your misguided book are doomed to failure.

ⁱ Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me, A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lst Cause (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2020), 162.

ⁱⁱ Ibid.

We will lose the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial this week without a legal injunction

Posted on December 5, 2023December 5, 2023 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 5 Comments

We will lose the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial this week without a legal injunction

Demolition will begin December 18 and take four days

That will absolutely destroy Arlington National Cemetery as our nation's most sacred burial ground

It will desecrate the graves of almost 500 Confederate soldiers and family surrounding the memorial in concentric circles who, by 1901 law, are American soldiers entitled to the same respect and dignity as any American soldier who has ever lived

President William McKinley said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor"

Those 500 "tributes to American valor" will now surround a mangled shaft and be targets of hate and derision for eternity

The Nazis started this way against the Jews

If ever you wanted to strike a blow against Woke hatred and iconoclasm, help us defend Arlington National Cemetery and its most magnificent historic memorial

Arlington National Cemetery, 109 year old Confederate Memorial to the Reconciliation and Reunification of our great nation after our bloodiest war. It was the brainchild of Union soldier and president, William McKinley, who said "every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor." The sculptor, internationally renowned Jewish artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was a VMI Confederate soldier. Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that "no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is in and of itself a work of art." In a barbaric crime against art and history, the naming commission and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin want the monument demolished.

Aerial view of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery with over 500 graves of Confederate military personnel and some family in concentric circles around the monument. Sculptor Moses Ezekiel is buried with two other Confederate soldiers and one Confederate sailor around the base. The monument is literally their headstone but the naming commission and Secretary Austin want the monument destroyed. Respect for Southern dead is not something they care about despite 44% of today's United States military being recruited in the South.

View from the ground at Arlington National Cemetery of the beautiful Confederate Memorial to the reconciliation of North and South. The Woke naming commission and Secretary Austin want it demolished in the cheapest way possible. Photo courtesy Derrick Johnson.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - The DoD must respond today, Tuesday, December 5, 2023 to a judge's order that they explain why they think they are above the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act and can go ahead with their demolition of the world class Confederate Reconciliation Memorial, the greatest achievement of internationally acclaimed Jewish sculptor Sir Moses Ezekiel, a VMI Confederate soldier.

Two days later, by Thursday, December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, Defend Arlington will respond.

After that, the fate of the Confederate Memorial is in a DC judge's hands though we will certainly take additional action and fight to the bitter end.

This litigation is expensive and we desperately need to put money in our War Chest so PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY AND IMMEDIATELY.

I have set up a fundraising page by Gene Kizer, Jr. - Charleston Athenaeum Press, under Defend Arlington's main fundraising website. It is safe, easy to use, and acknowledgements and receipts are emailed to your instantly. Here and below are links to it:

https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/sshfl/defendarlington/GeneKizerJr

Last Friday, December 2, I submitted a 15 page Comment on DoD's Environmental Assessment (EA), which, apparently, they are doing in order to skirt the strict requirements of the National Environment Policy Act for a formal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The kind of historical examination required by an EIS and required by the National Historic Preservation Act's Section 106 Process, with public input, can take four years but DoD is doing it in four weeks.

DoD, in its rush to implement Elizabeth Warren's history-destroying legislation and demolish the Confederate Memorial by January 1, 2024, is blind to the unintended consequences that will be forced on Arlington National Cemetery and our country.

The demolition of Ezekiel's magnificent Reconciliation Memorial surrounded by 500 Confederate graves in concentric circles out from the monument, will utterly, completely and absolutely destroy Arlington National Cemetery as our nation's most sacred burial ground.

What would be special about Arlington National Cemetery if it is forced to become a destroyer of historic monuments and desecrator of American soldier graves?

Warren's legislation gave us the Woke political naming commission with its extremely biased vice chair, Ty Seidule, who has written extensively about his hatred of the Confederate Memorial and who appears to regret that our nation came back together after the War Between the States.

Seidule's naming commission issued a historically fraudulent report that left out the primary history of the Confederate Memorial, which he knew well to be the reconciliation of our country.

The report falsely stated that the Confederate Memorial is in the naming commission's remit.

It is not.

A monument to the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war does not commemorate the Confederacy. It commemorates the goodness and genius of the United States of America back then, certainly not today.

As I say in my Comment, the destruction of the Confederate Memorial will also dishonor and devalue the OCEANS of Southern blood gladly spilled by descendants of Confederate veterans in all of our nation's wars since traditionally 44% of our military has been recruited in the South.

It is no wonder the Army can't recruit following extremist Woke legislation from liars like fake Indian Elizabeth Warren, who could have been stopped by Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe when Republicans had control of the Senate in 2020. The despicable Inhofe promised President Trump he would stop Warren's hate legislation but Inhofe is as big a liar as Warren. Our nation deserves so much better.

Just click HERE and look at the Army's 28 stunning photographs of the Confederate Memorial with its beauty, incredible detail and symbolism.

It is the most historic and magnificent memorial in Arlington National Cemetery and it's slated for destruction on what will become one of the darkest days in American history, December 18, 2023, when Arlington National Cemetery ceases being our nation's most sacred burial ground.

You expect grave desecration from Hamas and ISIS but not from the United States Department of Defense and Arlington National Cemetery, itself.

Please go to my Donation Page and donate to Defend Arlington for our crack legal team because it is the last hope for the Confederate Memorial.

At my Donation Page you can also create your own Defend Arlington sub-donation-page with your name or organization's name, and donations will go straight to Defend Arlington. Just click on "Support this campaign" and follow the instructions. You might have to wrestle with it but you can get it.

Also scroll down, past my Comment, to donate in other ways and for other valuable information.

Thank You.]

COMMENT on the

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA) OF THE REMOVAL OF THE CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL FROM ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA dated November, 2023.

By:

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press
Invited Consulting Party
December 2, 2023

This EA contains so many subjective statements that are NOT TRUE, at some point an investigation should occur and hold people accountable.

Alleged violations of rules and regulations required by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in this entire process are legion and have required multiple law suits.

The Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery should all resign in protest as should Ms. Karen Durham-Aguilera, Elecutive Director, Office of Army Cemeteries, because the action proposed in this EA will utterly, completely and absolutely DESTROY ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY as our nation's most sacred shrine.

The action proposed in this EA reverses Arlington National Cemetery's "Our Mission" which states:

Arlington National Cemetery represents the American people for past, present and future generations by laying to rest those few who have served our nation with dignity and honor, while immersing guests in the cemetery's living history.

The FONSI in which the Army issues a Finding Of No Significant Impact from the destruction of the Confederate Memorial is obviously false and created to check boxes in a process that should take years if done properly and by the law but instead will be done in four weeks.

This EA destroys a significant part of the organic history, past and present, of the American nation that was built by veterans, North and South, and presidents for a century, but most importantly, it dishonors and devalues the oceans of Southern blood spilled by the descendants of Confederate soldiers in all of our wars since traditionally, 44% of our military has been recruited in the South. No wonder the Army can't recruit.

The message is, if your politics is not Woke enough, your life and family do not matter. That is the same message the Nazis sent to the Jews in the 1930s.

The Confederate Memorial is surrounded by the graves of 500 or so Confederate soldiers and family who, by laws passed in FY1901, are American soldiers deserving the same honor and respect as all others.

Destroying the Confederate Memorial, as the Army has already stated will occur if the 109 year old bronze elements are removed, will leave those 500 graves in concentric circles around a mangled shaft, out in the open with no context, like freaks to spit on and laugh at, which will make the United States Army and Arlington National Cemetery desecrators of American soldier graves.

But back to the statements that are not true in this EA.

The first is one that ANC and the Army are hiding behind, which is that Congress in the FY2021 NDAA is making them remove the Confederate Memorial.

That is NOT TRUE.

Congress in the FY2021 NDAA does not mention the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Here's one of many of ANC's not true statements:

As required by Congress and implemented by the Secretary of Defense, Army National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) is required to remove the Confederate Memorial in Section 16 of Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). (https://anmc-confederatememorialpubliccomments.com/)

The FY2021 NDAA authorized a "Commission on the Naming of Items of the DoD that Commemorate the Confederate States of America" and that so-called naming commission has resulted in multiple law suits because of its allegedly illegal processes and unquestionably politicized and INCORRECT HISTORICAL ASSESSMENTS such as concerning the Ranger Memorial at former Fort Benning, Georgia.

Retired United States Army Brigadier General Joseph S. Stringham, Chairman of the National Ranger Memorial Foundation, confirms that the naming commission's report is "without verification" and mistakes have been made that have required legal action that is ongoing. BG Stringham wrote to his Rangers last spring:

Implementation of dramatic/radical edicts and shifts in policy at issue here are frequently accompanied by inaccuracies, (stupid) interpretations, injustices to survivors and a strong political slant offensive to substantial sectors of society. The deceased named in this directive, the Mosby family and the Bowen family in particular, are victims of woefully targeted legislation enacted by the Pelosi, WOKE, 117th Congress. Interpretations of this legislation have received the slavish obedience by both civilian and military management at the national level as passed down, apparently without verification, to our installations. For example, and wrongly identified with the Confederacy, Gen Morgan was a BG in the Continental Army under Gen Washington and the hero of the Battle of Cowpens against the British. Gen. Morgan had passed away 57 years before the start of the Civil War. The injustice to the name of John S Mosby and his descendants is extraordinary and thoughtless. Notwithstanding his extraordinary combat record, Ambassador Mosby, a staunch anti-slavery activist, was appointed by President Grant as US Ambassador to China later in his distinguished service to our nation. (Emphasis added)

The same is true, but it is worse, with the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial. The Confederate Memorial is NOT in the naming commission's remit as they falsely claimed.

Secretary Austin made his decision on the Confederate Memorial based on the naming commission's HISTORICALLY FRAUDULENT REPORT that left out the Memorial's primary history, which is the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war.

The reconciliation theme is irrefutable, thoroughly documented, and beyond the shadow of a doubt. Presidents of the United States for over 100 years sent annual memorial wreaths to the Confederate Memorial including Barack Obama.

Obama was not commemorating the Confederacy. He, along with the others, was commemorating peace, patriotism and the reconciliation of the United States of America, which is a GREAT thing for a nation after a bloody war that occurred largely because of different regional interests and interpretations of our Constitution.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, had a picture of Gen. Robert E. Lee on his White House wall the entire time he was president. He explained the causes of the War Between the States and importance of Gen. Lee's efforts to bind up the nation's wounds, in simpler, clearer terms than anyone I have ever read.

Eisenhower said the issues of States Rights versus supreme federal power, the right of secession, etc. were not settled before the War Between the States and good men and women, North and South, had legitimate disagreement. Eisenhower's letter in its entirety is below.

If Secretary Austin had been given a truthful report from the naming commission and told about the reconciliation theme and symbolism of the Confederate Memorial, it is NOT CONCEIVABLE that he would have ordered it demolished.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial was driven by politics and personal prejudice, not history, and certainly not historical truth.

Naming commission vice chair Ty Seidule hates the Confederate Memorial. He wrote in his book, Robert E. Lee and Me, on page 162:

Of the thousands of monuments around the country to the Confederacy, the one in Arlington National Cemetery angers me the most. Every year, the commander in chief sends a wreath, ensuring the Confederate monument receives all the prestige of the U.S. government. That's why it riles me so much. . . .

Seidule then admits that the Confederate Memorial stands for the reconciliation of the United States of America, but he, himself, regrets that reconciliation:

I know both political parties and white citizens in the North and South brought the country back together after the tremendous bloodletting and destruction of the Civil War. THE POSTS NAMED FOR CONFEDERATE OFFICERS DURING WORLD WAR I ALSO SERVED TO KNIT WHITE AMERICA BACK TOGETHER as it fought a common foe. And it worked, but we must recognize that RECONCILIATION came at a steep and horrifying cost. African Americans paid the price with lynching, Jim Crow segregation, and the loss of the franchise. The price for white RECONCILIATION remains far too high. (Emphasis added.)

Truth is, none of the Army base names should have been changed, because, as Seidule himself admits, they were named after Confederates as part of the reconciliation of the United States of America, not to commemorate the Confederacy, and they were part of the organic history of our country.

Selective use of history is incredibly dishonest.

For example, Northerners, New Englanders especially, were virtually 100% of America's slave traders. They carried on an illegal slave trade the entire antebellum period.

Even during the War Between the States, in 1862, Boston and New York were the slave trading capitals of the world according to W. E. B. Du Bois in his famous book, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870.

Jim Crow started in the North, not the South. The South was an integrated society out of necessity.

Six slave states fought for the North the entire war including Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, represented on the Confederate Memorial. They are on the Confederate memorial because substantial numbers of the citizens of Missouri and Kentucky fought for the South and an organized group in each state issued an Ordinance of Secession though the state did not actually secede.

All you have to do is read the words of Maryland's state song until just recently, Maryland, My Maryland, to know how they felt.

All three had full representation in the Confederate Congress, which is why they are on the Confederate Memorial as they should be.

The other Northern slave states were Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey. West Virginia came into the Union as a slave state just weeks AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

None of the Northern slave states were required by the Lincoln administration to abolish slavery. In fact, some of the Northern slave states had slavery well after the war, even after slavery had ended in the South. Those Northern slave states were the last to end slavery and it took the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December, 1865, to do it.

No monument to Union soldiers states that they fought to end slavery. They all talk about their honored dead, patriotism or preservation of the Union.

The massive amount of the history of the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial left out of the naming commission's report is documented below.

I have been part of the fight to keep the Confederate Memorial right where it is, where it should stay forever, for a year-and-a-half or more. I have attended every meeting of the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery and subcommittees, and all meetings related to the Section 106 Process of the NHPA, NEPA, and I have made detailed comments at all of them by Zoom testimony and/or written statements. I wrote a white paper entitled "The Reconciliation of North and South After the War Between the States as Symbolized by the Confederate Memorial 'New South' in Arlington National Cemetery" on the reconciliation theme that is part of Defend Arlington's book: Arguments Against Naming Commission Recommendation, RE: Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial.

The numerous politicized or historically incorrect statements in this EA, and the false FONSI cause me, as an invited Consulting Party, to distrust all the statistical analysis of this EA as stated in Section 1.4 Public Participation, Tribal Consultation, and Agency Coordination.

The public has not been able to see the actual figures and comments and how the Army analyzed them, and based on the Army trying to do in four weeks what usually takes four years, makes me know that politics is behind this EA, not adherence to historical truth or our historical preservation laws.

Every meeting at which the public could testify by Zoom, 100% of those testifying strongly supported the Confederate Memorial. Even the Advisory Committee of Arlington National Cemetery has expressed distain about destroying the Confederate Memorial and has asked why they could not just interpret it themselves as they did before the creation of the naming commission, and as they do with all other monuments in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Confederate Memorial with its reconciliation theme and 500 graves is arguable the most significant, as well as magnificent memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, and one of the most magnificent on earth.

The unhistorical, politicized interpretations of history throughout this EA can easily be proven false through scholarly argument but let me provide one glaring example.

In Section 1.2.2.2 Description of the Memorial, the EA states:

. . . As the naming commission concluded, the monument offers a highly inaccurate representation of slavery. The commission stated: 'Two of these figures are portrayed as African American: an enslaved woman depicted as a "Mammy," holding the infant child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.'

Labeling those African Americans on the Confederate Memorial as slaves is false. There is no statement from the sculptor that they are slaves. Tens of thousands of blacks fought for the South, both free and slave. Historian Samuel W. Mitcham estimates 80,000 to 100,000 blacks fought for the South.

Free blacks enthusiastically signed up and their stories are throughout the primary record. They were men too who bled and died as they saw fit for their homes in the South when the South was invaded. They marched alongside white Confederate soldiers and were not segregated in the back of the line as were black Union soldiers, who, by the way, were all commanded by white officers (USCT).

See the first hand observation of Union officer Lewis H. Steiner, M.D., inspector of the Sanitary Commission as stated in his diary in September, 1862 when he observed thousands of black Confederates, armed and dressed the same as the whites and all marching together "mixed up with all the rebel horde" as he stated.

One of the most esteemed scholars of Union and Confederate monuments, Ernest E. Blevins, in his white paper "Headstone of the Confederate States: Moses Ezekiel's Arlington Confederate Monument, Symbolism, Meaning, National Register Eligibility, and Potential Adverse Effects to Alternations or Removal" states that there is NO EVIDENCE for the naming commission's claim that the blacks on the Confederate Memorial are slaves:

The naming commission's statement includes interpretative errors - fallacies, in fact. The first is in citing that black figures are slaves. There is no documentation on the enslaved or free status of the two images; therefore, one must not assume their condition. Of the two, the soldier could be free or slave; in either case, he could be volunteering or going by choice to war. Research by archivist and historian Teresa Roane of Chesterfield, Virginia, regularly demonstrates in her research which is rooted in primary records, frequently posting copies of the records on Facebook of many free blacks who joined the Confederate cause in a variety of significant positions . . .

What is most concerning about this EA is stated in 1.0 Purpose and Need, 1.1 Introduction:

. . . Removal of the Memorial is required by law, and the Army does not have authority to take environmental factors into consideration in determining whether to take the proposed action.

That is stated in numerous places and makes this EA and entire process dishonest and a politicized sham.

The biggest sham, though, is the naming commission's claim that a monument that commemorates the reconciliation of the United States of America as participated in by presidents for 100 years including Barack Obama, who sent his annual memorial wreath, actually commemorates the Confederacy therefore is in its remit.

That is false. The Confederate Memorial is not in the naming commission's remit and their report on the Confederate Memorial, which leaves out its primary history, is a complete historical fraud.

ANC's "Section 106 Process Submission: Revised Area of Potential Effect (APE) and Assessment of Adverse Effects (November 2, 2023)" contains, among other things:

Confederate Memorial: Assessment of Potential Effect
Arlington National Cemetery Historic District: Assessment of Potential Effect

In both, ANC admits serious "adverse effects on the characteristics that qualify the Confederate Memorial [and ANC Historic District] for individual listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)".

ANC also states that the 109 year old Confederate Memorial if removed would likely not survive deconstruction and the "materials, design, and workmanship (which are qualifying characteristics of the historic property)" would be damaged or destroyed.

The Confederate Memorial is one of the most magnificent memorials on earth. It was the great Jewish artist and VMI Confederate soldier, Moses Ezekiel's, finest creation.

Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that ". . . no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is and of itself, a work of art."

Destroying that would be an egregious crime against history and art, especially based on a historically fraudulent report from the political naming commission.

Just look at the Army's own pictures of the Confederate Memorial. It is clearly stunning in its artistry as well as symbolism. Destroying it would put Arlington National Cemetery in the same class with other monument destroyers such as Hamas, ISIS and the Taliban, and it may well be illegal.

Over 70% of the American public do NOT want our historic monuments destroyed.

As stated, if ANC removes the Confederate Memorial it will leave 500 Southern graves in concentric circles around a mangled shaft, out in the open with no context, like freaks to spit on and laugh at.

Those 500 Confederate graves are American soldier graves, by law, which BG Stringham pointed out in his May 23, 2023 letter to then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Hon. Mike Rogers, Chairman, House Armed Services Committee.

Stringham writes:

. . . we draw your attention to President McKinley's address at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which he urged reconciliation based on the outstanding service of Southerners during the U.S. war with Spain. Congress's response to this plea was magnanimous and resulted in the Appropriation Act of FY 1901, in which Confederate soldiers were recognized as fellow countrymen deserving of the respect and honor accorded to U.S. soldiers. These laws are still in full force and effect to this day . . . .

It would not only be 500 Confederate graves that Arlington National Cemetery would be desecrating, it would be an enormous dishonor to the descendants of Confederate soldiers who have been the proudest and most patriotic Americans and have spilled OCEANS of Southern blood enthusiastically for our great nation.

Audie Murphy, Alvin York and millions of others who are and were proud of their Confederate ancestors - and indeed drew great inspiration and bravery from them - would be dishonored by the United States Army and Arlington National Cemetery itself.

Does Arlington National Cemetery really want to insult our military by sending the message that only some American veterans are worthy of respect while others can go to the devil as the Woke political winds blow? Will our Vietnam veterans be dishonored one day or our dead from the wars on terror?

If the Confederate Memorial is demolished, then 500 graves in Section 16 and all their descendants and fellow Southerners, some 80 million Americans, will be dishonored for all time. Once Humpty Dumpty is shattered into a million pieces, you can not put him back together again.

Eighteen states from where those 500 burials come will also be dishonored.

The reconciliation that makes our country so unique and exceptional will be repealed by hateful Woke politics, and all the presidents who created the Confederate Memorial, and the veterans North and South who celebrated it, will be dishonored.

ANC's logo states that it is "Our Most Sacred Shrine" but ANC ITSELF will become a desecrator of soldier graves that President McKinley said were all tributes to American valor.

Arlington National Cemetery would no longer be worthy of respect but would be just another place that filthy Woke politics can degrade.

ANC should always be above politics, a place for all of us to cherish and be proud of and not one that promotes hatred and ignorance of history among our own people.

Again, all ANC Advisory Committee members and Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera should resign before allowing the desecration of Arlington National Cemetery due to the potentially illegal processes and the false statement by the naming commission that the Confederate Memorial, symbolizing the reconciliation of the United States of America, is in its remit.

Here is some of the massive amount of history the naming commission left out of its report:

The Confederate Memorial was the idea of Union soldier and later president, William McKinley, after enthusiastic Southern participation in the Spanish-American War and it was approved by Congress.

McKinley said:

. . . every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.

President William Howard Taft spoke and was warmly received at the UDC ceremony the evening the cornerstone was laid.

President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication speech June 4, 1914.

President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first memorial wreath that started an annual tradition observed by all presidents including Barack Obama.

President Warren G. Harding sent a message of condolence that was read at the funeral of the Confederate Memorial's sculptor, Moses Ezekiel. Harding's words are beautiful, inspiring, and definitive. Here is some of his message from The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921:

Ezekiel will be remembered,' the President wrote, 'as one who knew how to translate the glories of his own time and people into that language of art which is common to all peoples and all times. He served his state in the conflict that threatened to divide and that at last served to unify our country. He accepted the verdict of the civil war's arbitrament with all the fine generosity that has been characteristic of both the north and south; and the splendid product of his art, that here testifies to our nation's reunion, will stand from this day forth as guardian over his ashes.
Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. The genius that produced, the love that gave, the devotion that will cherish it will forever be numbered among our ennobling possessions.
[H]e wrought them into works which compelled the recognition of the chief art schools and won the honors of nations and cities that boasted of being the homes of sculpture's best traditions. Crowned with these honors, he turned his thoughts to his own country, and as the final and finest product of his talents gave to us the monument that from this day will mark his resting place. It is the memorial of reunited America the testimony to the tradition of indissoluble union, the shrine to which we are gathered today, and will gather through the years to come, those who would dedicate themselves to the ideal of unselfish, enlightened, upstanding Americanism as a force for our country's maintenance and all humanity's betterment.

Clearly, the Confederate Memorial represents RECONCILIATION, peace, love and patriotism, all things the naming commission left out of its historically fraudulent, unverified report.

Veterans North and South, with love and enthusiasm for our reunited nation, supported the Confederate Memorial and spoke at its ceremonies.

Esteemed British art critic and historian, Alexander Adams, writes in his "Testimony regarding Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial, submitted to the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery Open Session," 7-8 November, 2022:

Having viewed a large amount of public statuary from the beaux-arts era (1850-1914), it is my professional opinion that the Memorial is a serious, iconographically complex and technically accomplished piece of art. In my view, it is a handsome sculpture and an entirely appropriate funerary monument. I consider it an internationally significant piece of art of its type and era. Any nation should be proud to host such a magnanimous and dignified monument.
The inscription “And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” provides a Biblical guidance to turning from war to peace. This is echoed by the personification of the South, which holds the wreath of glory and touches the plough of peaceful prosperity. The frieze below depicts the contributions of those who supported the war effort.

The Area of Potential Effect (APE) is all of Arlington National Cemetery and the entire United States of America, indeed, the world.

Millions of good Americans will lose respect for Arlington National Cemetery if it commits the horrendous act of destroying a world class historic monument on what is supposed to be sacred ground.

The United States House of Representatives passed an amendment that is included in its version of the FY2024 NDAA prohibiting spending any money for the removal of the Confederate Memorial in ANC. That bill is now in the Senate and may well end up law.

ANC cannot disregard the will of Congress today after the smoke of the George Floyd riots has disappeared and minds are much more clear.

With our country indirectly involved in two wars, we do not need to desecrate our most sacred military cemetery with Woke iconoclasm that disgusts 70% of the country.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1st Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in World War II, later president of the United States for eight years, had a picture of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on his wall in the White House his entire time there.

Like President John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower had great respect for Gen. Lee and his men and cause and he appreciated Lee's efforts to bind up the nation's wounds after our bloodiest war.

On August 1, 1960, a New York dentist, Dr. Leon W. Scott, wrote an angry letter to President Eisenhower excoriating him for having that picture of Lee in his White House office.

Scott wrote:

I do not understand how any American can include Robert E. Lee as a person to be emulated, and why the President of the United States of America should do so is certainly beyond me. / The most outstanding thing that Robert E. Lee did, was to devote his best efforts to the destruction of the United States Government, and I am sure that you do not say that a person who tries to destroy our Government is worthy of being held as one of our heroes.

President Eisenhower wrote back on August 9th:

Dear Dr. Scott:
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War between the States the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee's caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation's wounds once the bitter struggle was over, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower

The good people at Arlington National Cemetery and in the United States Army need to get through to Secretary Austin that the naming commission erred when they said the Confederate Memorial is in their remit.

It is NOT.

Removing it will divide our country FOREVER. It will dishonor millions of Southerners who have served and are serving, and devalue the oceans of Southern blood spent in defense of our country. It will desecrate 500 graves in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 16 and make the United States Army and Arlington National Cemetery, itself, desecrators of American soldier graves.

The Confederate Memorial must stay right where it is forever. As President Harding said in his message read at Moses Ezekiel's funeral:

Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. . . .

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press
December 2, 2023

(Slightly revised December 4, 2023)

Links to Important Resources

Defend Arlington Fundraising Site where you can help save Moses Ezekiel's MAGNIFICENT 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery by Buying Outstanding Merchandise featuring BEAUTIFUL images from the monument. Art critics have said that every image on the monument is a work of art by itself. There are all kind of things like shirts, hats, hoodies, clocks, art prints, tote bags, note cards, stickers, ipad skins and cases, cell phone cases and skins, wall art, coasters, mugs, pins, throw pillows, water bottles, journals, magnets, etc.! ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE DEFENSE FUND! Go spend some time on this site! You will love it!

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Defend Arlington's recording of the 35 or so speakers on behalf of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that took place Wednesday, March 15, 2023 in a virtual meeting of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee of Arlington National Cemetery.

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to

[email protected].

Please Donate Now -- THANK YOU!

Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington's attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is naming commission vice chair. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled "The Civil War Was Not for Slavery."

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

The Desecration of Arlington National Cemetery by the naming commission

Posted on November 2, 2023November 2, 2023 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 2 Comments

The Desecration of Arlington National Cemetery by the naming commission:

My Public Comment as an Invited Consulting Party

The Public Can Submit Comments Online Until Nov. 3 (11:59 p.m.)

In Honor of Moses Ezekiel, by H.K. Edgerton

Fearless advocate for the truth of Southern history, HK Edgerton at Park Square in Boston, MA, former site of Lincoln statue 4-29-22.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - Click HERE to make a Comment to Arlington National Cemetery about their proposed removal of the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial that came about because of extremist leftist fake Indian Elizabeth Warren's amendment in the FY2021 NDAA, and the subsequent naming commission's historically fraudulent report.

The naming commission left out the primary history of the Confederate Memorial, which is the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war. There is no question about this because numerous presidents helped create the Confederate Memorial and all presidents including Barack Obama sent annual memorial wreaths to the Confederate Memorial.

As part of the Section 106 Process required by the National Historic Preservation Act, ANC is looking for two things: Assessment of Effects, and Mitigation Measures.

There is information on their website but the bottom line is this:

The Assessment of Effects that demolishing the world class 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial surrounded by 500 Confederate graves in concentric circles out from the Memorial, is that those 500 graves will become freaks and objects of hate and derision, which makes Arlington National Cemetery ITSELF a desecrator of American soldier graves. By law that was passed in FY 1901, Confederate soldiers are American soldiers entitled to the same respect and protection as all American soldier graves. That law and others are still in effect.

The naming commission KNEW about the irrefutable reconciliation theme but in their Woke dishonest political report, left it out.

Following my Comment is a short powerful article from our good friend, fearless compatriot and tireless fighter for our Cause of historical truth, H. K. Edgerton. It is entitled "In Honor of Moses Ezekiel." There are links to HK's substack writings under "HK Edgerton's Reports & Letters" and ways to get on his blog list.

Following HK are links to valuable information and how to donate to Defend Arlington for our crack legal team.

We will win or lose the Confederate Memorial in the next few weeks.

Click HERE to view the Army's 28 Breathtaking High Resolution Photographs of Ezekiel's world class monument then click HERE to write your Comment of DISGUST at the proposed act of demolishing such a magnificent work of history and art surrounded by 500 graves in our nation's most sacred burial ground.

The shredding of the fabric of our nation must stop in Arlington National Cemetery.

PLEASE DONATE as much as you can!

Thank you and God Bless!]

ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTS, AND MITIGATION MEASURES

Confederate Memorial Removal

COMMENT by:

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press
Invited Consulting Party

November 1, 2023

Section 106 Process of the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act regarding the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

PREAMBLE TO COMMENT

In all of Arlington National Cemetery's public documents regarding the Confederate Memorial, ANC makes an INCORRECT statement to characterize what they are doing such as this one under heading "Arlington National Cemetery: Confederate Memorial Removal Public Comments" (https://anmc-confederatememorialpubliccomments.com/):

"As required by Congress and implemented by the Secretary of Defense, Army National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) is required to remove the Confederate Memorial in Section 16 of Arlington National Cemetery (ANC)."

That statement is not true and is a gross mischaracterization.

Congress in the FY2021 NDAA does not mention the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

The FY2021 NDAA authorized a "Commission on the Naming of Items of the DoD that Commemorate the Confederate States of America" and that so-called naming commission has resulted in multiple law suits because of its allegedly illegal processes, and unquestionably incorrect historical assessments such as concerning the Ranger Memorial at former Fort Benning, Georgia.

Implementation of dramatic/radical edicts and shifts in policy at issue here are frequently accompanied by inaccuracies, (stupid) interpretations, injustices to survivors and a strong political slant offensive to substantial sectors of society. The deceased named in this directive, the Mosby family and the Bowen family in particular, are victims of woefully targeted legislation enacted by the Pelosi, WOKE, 117th Congress. Interpretations of this legislation have received the slavish obedience by both civilian and military management at the national level as passed down, apparently without verification, to our installations. For example, and wrongly identified with the Confederacy, Gen Morgan was a BG in the Continental Army under Gen Washington and the hero of the Battle of Cowpens against the British. Gen. Morgan had passed away 57 years before the start of the Civil War. The injustice to the name of John S Mosby and his descendants is extraordinary and thoughtless. Notwithstanding his extraordinary combat record, Ambassador Mosby, a staunch anti-slavery activist, was appointed by President Grant as US Ambassador to China later in his distinguished service to our nation.

The same is true, but it is worse, with the 109 year old Confederate Memorial. The Confederate Memorial is not in the naming commission's remit as they falsely claimed.

Secretary Austin made his decision on the Confederate Memorial based on the naming commission's historically fraudulent report that left out the Memorial's primary history, which is the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war.

The reconciliation theme is irrefutable, thoroughly documented, and beyond the shadow of a doubt.

If Austin had been told about the reconciliation theme and symbolism of the Confederate Memorial, it is not conceivable that he would have ordered it demolished. We are in a military recruiting crisis and traditionally, 44% of our military has been recruited in the South.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial was driven by politics and prejudice, not history.

The massive amount of history left out of the naming commission's report follows my Assessment of Effects, and Mitigation Measures.

ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTS, AND MITIGATION MEASURES

ANC's "Section 106 Process Submission: Revised Area of Potential Effect (APE) and Assessment of Adverse Effects (Oct. 3, 2023)" contains, among other things:

Confederate Memorial: Assessment of Potential Effect

Arlington National Cemetery Historic District: Assessment of Potential Effect

The Confederate Memorial is one of the most magnificent memorials on earth. It was the great Jewish artist and VMI Confederate soldier, Moses Ezekiel's, finest creation.

Destroying that would be an egregious crime against history and art, especially based on a historically fraudulent report from the political naming commission. It would put Arlington National Cemetery in the same class with other monument destroyers such as ISIS, Hamas and the Taliban, and it may well be illegal.

Over 70% of the American public do NOT want our historic monuments destroyed.

There are currently multiple court cases pending that need to be decided including any appeal before anything should happen with the Confederate Memorial.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING under "Confederate Memorial: Assessment of Potential Effect" is ANC's statement that "the proposed undertaking should have no adverse effect on the graves in Section 16 . . .".

That is UTTERLY FALSE.

There are over 500 Confederate graves in concentric circles emanating out from Ezekiel's magnificent monument, and there are four graves, including Ezekiel himself, at the monument's base, making the Confederate Monument a grave marker. Grave markers are specifically exempt from the naming commission's remit.

If ANC removes the Confederate Memorial it will leave those 500 graves in concentric circles around a mangled shaft, out in the open with no context, like freaks to spit on and laugh at.

Those 500 Confederate graves are AMERICAN soldier graves, by law, which BG Stringham pointed out in his May 23, 2023 letter to then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Hon. Mike Rogers, Chairman, House Armed Services Committee.

Stringham writes:

. . . we draw your attention to President McKinley's address at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which he urged reconciliation based on the outstanding service of Southerners during the U.S. war with Spain. Congress's response to this plea was magnanimous and resulted in the Appropriation Act of FY 1901, in which Confederate soldiers were recognized as fellow countrymen deserving of the respect and honor accorded to U.S. soldiers. These laws are still in full force and effect to this day . . . .

It would not only be 500 Confederate graves that Arlington National Cemetery would be desecrating, it would be an enormous dishonor to the descendants of Confederate soldiers who have spilled OCEANS of Southern blood enthusiastically for our great nation from the Spanish-American War, on.

Audie Murphy, Alvin York and millions of others who are and were proud of their Confederate ancestors - and indeed drew great inspiration and bravery from them - would be dishonored by Arlington National Cemetery itself.

Does Arlington National Cemetery really want to weaken our military by sending a message that only some American veterans are worthy of respect while others can go to the devil as the Woke political winds blow? Will our Vietnam veterans be dishonored one day or our dead from the wars on terror?

If the Confederate Memorial is demolished, then 500 graves in Section 16 and all their descendants and fellow Southerners, some 80 million Americans, will be dishonored for all time.

Eighteen states from where those 500 burials come will also be dishonored.

The reconciliation that makes our country so unique and exceptional will be repealed by hateful Woke politics, and all the presidents who created the Confederate Memorial, and the veterans, North and South who celebrated it, will be dishonored.

MITIGATION MEASURES

There is no Mitigation for the degradation that demolishing the Confederate Memorial will have on not just the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, but on Arlington National Cemetery itself.

ANC's logo states that it is "Our Most Sacred Shrine" but ANC ITSELF will become a desecrator of soldier graves that President McKinley said were all tributes to American valor.

Arlington National Cemetery would no longer be worthy of respect but would be just another place that filthy Woke politics can degrade.

ANC should always be above politics, a place for all of us to cherish and be proud of, and not one that helps shred the fabric of our country.

All ANC Advisory Committee members should resign before allowing the desecration of Arlington National Cemetery due to the potentially illegal processes of the Woke political naming commission.

As stated, the Confederate Memorial is not in the naming commission's remit. It does not commemorate the Confederacy. It commemorates the reconciliation of North and South and the reunification of the United States of America into the great nation we are today.

The report submitted by the naming commission on the Confederate Memorial is a historical fraud.

Here is some of the massive amount of history the naming commission left out of its report:

The monument was the idea of Union soldier and later president, William McKinley, after enthusiastic Southern participation in the Spanish-American War and it was approved by Congress.

McKinley said:

. . . every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.

President William Howard Taft spoke and was warmly received at the UDC ceremony the evening the cornerstone was laid.

President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication speech June 4, 1914.

President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first memorial wreath that started an annual tradition observed by all presidents including Barack Obama.

President Warren G. Harding sent a message of condolence that was read at the funeral of Moses Ezekiel. Harding's words are beautiful, inspiring, and definitive. Here is some of his message from The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921:

'Ezekiel will be remembered,' the President wrote, 'as one who knew how to translate the glories of his own time and people into that language of art which is common to all peoples and all times. He served his state in the conflict that threatened to divide and that at last served to unify our country. He accepted the verdict of the civil war's arbitrament with all the fine generosity that has been characteristic of both the north and south; and the splendid product of his art, that here testifies to our nation's reunion, will stand from this day forth as guardian over his ashes.
'Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. The genius that produced, the love that gave, the devotion that will cherish it will forever be numbered among our ennobling possessions.
'[H]e wrought them into works which compelled the recognition of the chief art schools and won the honors of nations and cities that boasted of being the homes of sculpture's best traditions. Crowned with these honors, he turned his thoughts to his own country, and as the final and finest product of his talents gave to us the monument that from this day will mark his resting place. It is the memorial of reunited America the testimony to the tradition of indissoluble union, the shrine to which we are gathered today, and will gather through the years to come, those who would dedicate themselves to the ideal of unselfish, enlightened, upstanding Americanism as a force for our country's maintenance and all humanity's betterment.'

Clearly, the Confederate Memorial represents RECONCILIATION, peace, love and patriotism, all things the naming commission left out of its historically fraudulent, unverified report.

Veterans North and South, with love and enthusiasm for our reunited nation, supported the Confederate Memorial and spoke at its ceremonies.

Esteemed British art critic and historian, Alexander Adams, writes in his "Testimony regarding Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial submitted to the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery Open Session," 7-8 November, 2022:

Having viewed a large amount of public statuary from the beaux-arts era (1850-1914), it is my professional opinion that the Memorial is a serious, iconographically complex and technically accomplished piece of art. In my view, it is a handsome sculpture and an entirely appropriate funerary monument. I consider it an internationally significant piece of art of its type and era. Any nation should be proud to host such a magnanimous and dignified monument.
The inscription “And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” provides a Biblical guidance to turning from war to peace. This is echoed by the personification of the South, which holds the wreath of glory and touches the plough of peaceful prosperity. The frieze below depicts the contributions of those who supported the war effort.

The Area of Potential Effect (APE) is all of Arlington National Cemetery and the entire United States of America, indeed, the world.

Millions of good Americans will lose respect for Arlington National Cemetery if it commits the barbaric act of destroying a world class historic monument on what is supposed to be sacred ground.

ANC cannot disregard the will of Congress today after the smoke of the George Floyd riots has disappeared and minds are much more clear.

With our country indirectly involved in two wars, we do not need to desecrate our most sacred military cemetery with Woke iconoclasm that disgusts 70% of the country.

The Confederate Memorial must stay right where it is forever. As President Harding said in his message read at Moses Ezekiel's funeral:

Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. . . .

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press
November 1, 2023

In Honor of Moses Ezekiel

by H. K. Edgerton

First published on HK Edgerton's Reports & Letters, October 29, 2023

Sir Moses Jacob Ezekiel, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.

Dear Ms. Lunelle,

While I could not secure the funds to travel to Arlington National Cemetery on October 28, 2023 to celebrate the 179th birthday of the Honorable Moses Ezekiel, I would don the uniform of the Southern Soldier and post the Southern Cross at the base of what is left of the Honorable Governor Zebulon Baird Vance's Cenotaph that was illegally removed at the direction of disgraced Mayor Ester Manheimer.

I would soon find myself surrounded by two Northern couples who would ask why a Black man would be standing beside a Monument base wearing a Confederate soldier’s uniform with the Confederate Battle flag?

“In celebration of the Honorable Moses Ezekiel's birthday,” I would reply.

“Who is Moses Ezekiel they would ask?”

He was a famous and world-renowned Jewish Sculptor and a Confederate Veteran who was given the Charge by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to build a Monument in Memorial to the Confederate Veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery at the request of President McKinley who had watched and read the reports of how those former Confederate soldiers and their sons had so distinguished themselves on the field of battle during the Spanish American War displaying unprecedented valor. It would not be a Memorial depicting the legality of secession or the battles fought. It was to be a shrine depicting the hour of reconciliation between the North and South.
Arlington Estate was made holy and given the grace of the Almighty God when the women of the United Daughters of the Confederacy finally relented to the pleas of President McKinley to accept the burials of the Confederate soldiers and to build a Memorial that would be a symbol of reconciliation forever between the peoples of the North and South.
Yet here in the 21st century, the Anti-Semitic Army would go beyond their charge of the United States Congress to enact the recommendation of an appointed “so-called” Naming Commission under the direction of an Anti- Semitic, Southern hating, criminal Senator….one Elizabeth Warren… to remove this Holy Shrine fought so hard to have built by President McKinley and applauded by sitting Presidents ever since it's unveiling.
Of this spectacular shrine, Mr. Ezekiel would describe it as his greatest work. He would capture the honor and dignity of the Blacks of the South in such detail that a man of my age feels strong enough to stand up and fight with the people of Jesus (the Jewish people) in Israel today. And not to forget at the passing of Mr. Ezekiel, he would be buried at the base of the Reconciliation Memorial.
And this Anti-Semitic Army that proposes to tear down this Shrine is not playing on the same playing field of morality as President McKinley, President Taft, President Roosevelt, and a host of other Commander In Chiefs to include President Obama who would lay a wreath at its base on Confederate Memorial Day.
Instead of removing the Reconciliation Cenotaph, perhaps the Anti-Semitic Army ought to get politically correct and remove the signage that depicts the Black Union soldiers as “Colored”. Instead of removing the Reconciliation Cenotaph, the only integrated entity in this Cemetery (the Reconciliation Memorial), perhaps at the asking of the Black Union soldiers in two petitions to Congress and was denied on both occasions; the right to be buried alongside the Union soldiers they fought beside.
In today's time, Hamas wants to rid the world of Christians. My dad was a Baptist Minister and a Christian, and along with my mother, taught their children to be the same. How could I not support the people of Jesus Christ, the Jews of Israel?

God Bless you,

Chairman Board of Advisors Emeritus Southern Legal Resource Center
Member Save Southern Heritage Florida
Honorary Life Member Zebulon Baird Vance Camp 15 Sons of Confederate Veterans
Honorary Life Member Jackson Rangers Camp 1917 Sons of Confederate Veterans
Member Judah P Benjamin Camp 2210 Sons of Confederate Veterans
Honorary Associate Member Abner Baker Chapter 14 United Daughters of the Confederacy
Honorary Life Member North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia Orders of the Confederate Rose
President Southern Heritage 411

Links to Important Resources

Shop Now

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to

[email protected].

Please Donate Now -- THANK YOU!

Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

The fight for the Arlington Confederate Memorial intensifies

Posted on October 22, 2023October 23, 2023 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 3 Comments

The fight for the Arlington Confederate Memorial intensifies

Video of Arlington National Cemetery Consulting Party Meeting October 18 shows supporters DOMINATE; only one detractor, a college professor, of course

Testimony often emotional, always well-stated, hard-hitting

Five descendants of Moses Ezekiel strongly support the Confederate Memorial and want to join the Defend Arlington lawsuit

List of all Invited Consulting Parties, which you should JOIN!

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - On Wednesday, October 18, 2023 approximately 45 Invited Consulting Parties to Arlington National Cemetery's Section 106 Process required by the National Historic Preservation Act, gave three hours of Zoom testimony with regard to historical Adverse Effects and Mitigation if the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial is removed.

The overwhelming majority strongly supported the Confederate Memorial and the tone was outrage at removing it.

There was only one detractor favoring removal though there were several parties who supposedly care about history but seemed neutral or weak. Many were SHPOs (State Historic Preservation Offices) who were probably afraid of being called names by leftists rather than preserving American history.

At least the SHPOs were not detractors, but anybody purporting to care about history should be outraged at the planned destruction of a 109 year old world class work of art in our nation's most sacred burial ground, and they should speak up loud and clear -- Americans do not destroy century old monuments to war dead in cemeteries.

You can find your State Historic Preservation Office easily with a Google search. Send them a nice email or call and tell them that destroying the Confederate Memorial will destroy Arlington National Cemetery and make IT a desecrator of 500 soldier graves that President William McKinley said were all tributes to American valor.

The Confederate Memorial is one of the most magnificent memorials on earth. Just look at the Army's 28 High Resolution Photographs, and Video.

There are approximately 18 states represented in the 500 graves that surround the Confederate Memorial in concentric circles. Those graves are an integral part of the memorial and were lovingly placed into our nation's most sacred soil to symbolize that the United States of America is one country, reconciled, patriotic and united after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed.

About those 500 graves, President McKinley, who was a Union soldier in the War Between the States and who conceived the idea for a Confederate Memorial in Arlington said:

. . . every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.

The "sons and grandsons of those heroic dead" and their descendants have spilled oceans of Southern blood around the world in all our nation's wars, and, until just recently, made up 44% of our military.

Racist Woke policies including the planned destruction of the Confederate Memorial have caused a military recruiting crisis that is now a national security threat.

As one party stated Wednesday, the destruction of Confederate monuments has not resulted in larger numbers of minorities joining our military but it has resulted in fewer Southerners than the traditional 44% of the recent past.

Click HERE to view the powerful testimony at the three hour Zoom meeting October 18th.

The whole process by DOD and the Army is a sham because it should have taken place months ago as required by the NHPA and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin relied on the naming commission's historically fraudulent report on the Confederate Memorial, which, for political reasons, left out the Memorial's primary history: The reconciliation of the United States of America after the War Between the States.

The Confederate Memorial was not in the naming commission's remit, as they falsely claimed, thus removing it is not only immoral but illegal.

Multiple law suits have been filed and are still pending.

I doubt if Secretary Austin would have signed off on the demolition of the most historic monument in Arlington National Cemetery if he had been given a truthful report instead of one based on the leftist extremist politics of naming commission vice chair, Ty Seidule. See my blog article "Naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical FRAUD" August 29, 2023.

The reconciliation theme is irrefutable and beyond the shadow of a doubt. Arlington National Cemetery itself states it over and over in their documents and history, and to make a long story short, several presidents and Congress participated in the creation of the Confederate Memorial along with veterans North and South. All presidents since Teddy Roosevelt, including Barack Obama, sent an annual memorial wreath to the Confederate Memorial.

Paul Ezekiel, who can prove that he is descended from Sir Moses Ezekiel, testified Wednesday and strongly supports the Confederate Memorial.

He and four other descendants of Moses Ezekiel want to join the Defend Arlington lawsuit.

Paul challenged another Ezekiel, a woman who was the ONLY party to want the monument down.

That woman said she is a college professor claiming to represent 42 others descended from Moses Ezekiel. She has gotten much national coverage from the Washington Post and other leftist media.

However, Paul Ezekiel said he does not know her and has never seen her at any family reunion. He believes she may be descended from a different branch of the Ezekiel family and is no kin to Moses.

Paul's testimony was powerful and sincere. He has agreed to do an interview, possibly in the next few days, that we will make available.

Later in Wednesday's meeting, the Ezekiel detractor said something to the effect that she wanted the monument down because it added to the myth of black Confederates.

When I heard that I typed into the meeting's chat that thousands of blacks, both free and slave, fought for the South and marched alongside their Confederate brothers. They were not segregated and in the back of line like Union blacks.

I included this 1862 account from Union officer Lewis H. Steiner, M.D. citing his report entitled Diary Kept During the Rebel Occupation of Frederick, MD when he was with the U.S. Sanitary Commission.

On Wednesday, September 10, 1862, Steiner wrote:

At four o'clock this morning the rebel army began to move from our town, Jackson's force taking the advance. The movement continued until eight o'clock P.M., occupying sixteen hours. The most liberal calculations could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 negroes must be included in this number. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabres, bowie-knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied, in many instances, with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, etc., and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of Generals, and promiscuously mixed up with all the rebel horde. . . .

Frankly, I am sick of racist attacks on black Confederates such as the black soldier on the Confederate Monument. There is no proof that that man was a slave. Thousands of free blacks and slaves fought enthusiastically for the South, and, as Steiner proves, whether free or slave, blacks were armed to the teeth and dressed in clothing "not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks."

This is what I love. Steiner confirms that Southern blacks:

were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of Generals, and promiscuously mixed up with all the rebel horde. . . .

Here is the list of interested parties under title "ANC Confederate Memorial Removal: Invited Consulted Parties". You can become a Consulting Party by signing up HERE, and/or you can make written comments (get on Defend Arlington's email list for constant updates - write them at [email protected]. You can also donate via Zelle with that email address).

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)
American Alliance of Museums
American Battlefield Trust
American Institute for Conservation (AIC)
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)
Americans for the Arts Public Arts Network
Anti-Defamation League
Arlington County Department of Environmental Services
Arlington County Government, Historic Preservation
Arlington Historical Society
Arlington House Family Circle
Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI)
Catawba Indian Nation (aka Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina)
Center for Jewish History
Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division
Commission of Fine Arts (CFA)
Defend Arlington
Defend Arlington; Veterans Defending America; Heritage Protection of North Alabama
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma
Division of Arkansas Heritage, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3
Florida Division of Historical Resources
Guardians of American History
Heritage Protection of North Alabama
Jewish War Veterans of the USA
Kentucky Heritage Council
Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
Missouri State Historic Preservation Office
Monument Lab
Monumental Task Committee (MTC)
Mr. Ernest Blevins
Mr. Gene Kizer Jr - Charleston Athenaeum Press
Mr. Ted Ehmann
Nansemond Indian Nation
National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC)
National Museum of American Jewish Military History
National Park Service - George Washington Memorial Parkway
National Park Service National Historic Landmark Program
National Trust for Historic Preservation
New Jersey Flaggers [Publisher's Note: This group is GREAT!]
Pamunkey Indian Tribe
Preservation Virginia
Relatives of Moses Ezekiel
Save Southern Heritage
Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
Society for History in the Federal Government
Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV)
SCV, Beaufort Plowboys, SCV Camp No. 2128
SCV, Maryland Division
SCV, N.B. Forrest Camp No. 3
SCV, Tennessee Division
SCV, Virginia Division
South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office
Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Tennessee Historical Commission
Texan Historical Commission
The American Historical Association
The American Jewish Historical Society
The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington
The National Association for Interpretation
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Arlington Branch
The National Council on Public History
The Organization of American Historians
The Society for the Preservation of Jewish Civil War History
The Virginia Council
U.S. Army Center for Military History (CMH)
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Upper Mattaponi Tribe
Veterans Defending Arlington
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

My public testimony, below, comes in three parts:

1) Comment on Section 106 Adverse Effects
2) Comment on Section 106 Mitigations
3) President Warren G. Harding's patriotic message that was read at Moses Ezekiel's funeral.

Since we were only given one minute, twice, and two minutes, once, I had to leave out and skip around for maximum effect. The caps are for my own use to know what to emphasize when speaking.

Scroll down past my testimony for links to important resources.

We are at a CRITICAL STAGE in this fight. We are going to win or lose in the next 10 weeks.

We can WIN this fight and make Woke ignorance DIE at Arlington National Cemetery.

Stand up and FIGHT!

We need money for our crack legal team. Please scroll down and donate generously to Defend Arlington.

Thank you SO much and God Bless!]

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press

Comment on Section 106 Adverse Effects

Good afternoon. I'm Gene Kizer, historian, publisher, spokesman for Charleston Athenaeum Press. I applied months ago to be a Consulting Party and have attended and spoken at every meeting related to the Confederate Memorial in over a year. I have also submitted several detailed comments and a white paper that is part of Defend Arlington's book entitled Arguments Against Naming Commission Recommendation RE: Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial.

I know we are discussing the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial but we HAVE to consider the Adverse Effects destroying the Confederate Memorial will have on Arlington National Cemetery ITSELF.

Right now, Arlington National Cemetery is our nation's most sacred burial ground and a place dear to all Americans.

If you destroy Ezekiel's monument that several presidents helped construct, and all sent annual memorial wreaths to, including Barack Obama, then you DESECRATE Arlington National Cemetery itself.

Arlington National Cemetery will become a desecrator of 500 soldier graves who will be out in the open surrounding a mangled shaft, like freaks to laugh at.

This whole process is illegal because a memorial to the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war is NOT in the naming commission's remit. It does not commemorate the Confederacy unless you think Barack Obama was commemorating the Confederacy when he sent his wreath to the Confederate Memorial.

This process does not yet include a DOCKET OF COMMENTS, nor the TIME for interested parties to analyze, consult and write up helpful analyses.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical fraud. It does not even mention reconciliation, which is the Memorial's primary history. The reconciliation theme is in all of ANC's own documentation REPEATEDLY and is IRREFUTABLE and beyond the shadow of a doubt.

The APE [Area of Potential Effects] you list is WAY too small because the actual APE is the entire United States of America, and, really, the entire world.

Americans do not remove memorials to war dead from cemeteries. Hamas, ISIS and the Taliban do, but not Americans. Please don't let Arlington National Cemetery be the first.

The Confederate Memorial should stay right where it is, forever.

Comment on Section 106 Mitigations

You can not mitigate the destruction of a world class memorial surrounded by 500 graves that are part of the memorial.

You can not mitigate illegally removing the grave marker of Moses Ezekiel and the three others buried with him at the base of his monument.

You can not mitigate the destruction of the reputation of Arlington National Cemetery itself, which becomes a desecrator of the graves of 500 war dead.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical fraud because, for political reasons, it left out the primary history of the Confederate Memorial, which is the reconciliation of the United States of America after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed.

The Confederate Memorial was NOT in the naming commission's remit.

Everybody at Arlington National Cemetery should appeal to Secretary Austin to leave the Confederate Memorial right where it is FOREVER.

If you don't, you will be violating your own oaths to make sure that ANC is always our most sacred burial ground and place that ALL Americans think of for love, patriotism and inspiration.

Woke politics does not belong in Arlington National Cemetery.

Final Comment

President Warren G. Harding sent a message of condolence that was read at the funeral of Moses Ezekiel. Here are some of Harding's comments from The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921:

Ezekiel will be remembered as one who knew how to translate the glories of his own time and people into that language of art which is common to all peoples and all times. He served his state in the conflict and accepted the verdict of the civil war's arbitrament with all the fine generosity that has been characteristic of both the north and south; and the splendid product of his art, that here testifies to our nation's reunion, will stand from this day forth as guardian over his ashes.
Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. . . . It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom . . . . Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil.
[Ezekiel created] works which compelled the recognition of the chief art schools and won the honors of nations and cities that boasted of being the homes of sculpture's best traditions. Crowned with these honors, he turned his thoughts to his own country, and as the final and finest product of his talents, gave to us the monument, that from this day will mark his resting place. It is the memorial of reunited America the testimony to the tradition of indissoluble union The shrine to which we are gathered today will gather through the years to come, those who would dedicate themselves to the ideal of unselfish, enlightened, upstanding Americanism as a force for our country's maintenance and all humanity's betterment.

Links to Important Resources

Shop Now

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to

[email protected].

Please Donate Now -- THANK YOU!

Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

Defend Arlington’s Official Regulatory Response

Posted on September 5, 2023September 5, 2023 by Gene Kizer, Jr. | 1 Comment

The Army’s proposal to remove the Reconciliation Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery violates Congressional mandates in Section 370 of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and procedural requirements of both NEPA and the NHPA. The Army’s after-the-fact attempt at compliance with NEPA and NHPA is meaningless as that process will not address the important question the Secretary seeks to avoid, of whether the Memorial should be removed. As discussed in these comments, the Army has neglected to consider the impacts on important historic and cultural resources in its politically charged rush to complete an EIS and complete removal by year’s end. These illegal actions have been challenged in court and the Army must not take any further actions until the validity of these actions is decided.

Part of Defend Arlington's 16 page Regulatory Response

Defend Arlington's Official Regulatory Response

The most awesome thing I have ever read

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - Prepare to experience a HUGE surge of adrenalin and gratification as you read the official 16 page regulatory response filed Friday September 2nd by Defend Arlington. It was largely written by their brilliant attorney.

We can and must win this fight because it is not only the magnificent 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial we are fighting for but the honor and dignity of Arlington National Cemetery itself.

There is no way ANC escapes desecration from Elizabeth Warren and the naming commission's historically fraudulent report if ANC itself becomes a desecrator of American soldier graves, which is EXACTLY what destruction of the Confederate Memorial would make them.

How could it not?

Destruction of the Confederate Memorial would leave 500 graves in concentric circles around Ezekiel's monument, graves that Union soldier and later president, William McKinley, said were ALL tributes to American valor, in the open as freaks to hate and deride.

Imagine Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Army doing that to graves in what is supposed to be our nation's most sacred burial ground. The thought is shocking but is more of the Marxist shredding of the fabric of our country that comes from Woke virture-signaling extremists like Elizabeth Warren and the naming commission she spawned with its historically fraudulent report that is politics, not history.

That is an especially stupid thing to do since 44% of our military has traditionally been recruited in the patriotic South, and we are in the middle of a recruiting crisis that is now a national security threat.

Nothing is sacred to Woke extremists like Warren and her naming commission except their leftist politics.

HERE is a PDF of my 13 page regulatory comment submitted last week. It has VALUABLE PDF LINKS such as President Eisenhower's letter on White House letterhead defending Gen. Robert E. Lee, the picture of the handshake across the wall by the old Union and Confederate veterans at Gettysburg's 50th Anniversary, testimony of professional art critics and historians, speeches and pictures from the monument dedication, etc.

More battles are coming but Defend Arlington's brilliant regulatory response makes it clear that we can win this fight, and MUST. Please share it, print it, save it, forward it and use it any way you can.

Make Woke hatred DIE at Arlington National Cemetery.

PLEASE DONATE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN for our crack legal team. Scroll down for donation links.]

September 2, 2023

Ms. Renea Yates
Director, Office of Army Cemeteries
1 Memorial Avenue
Arlington, VA 22211

Via electronic submission:

[email protected]

https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/About/Confederate-Memorial-Removal

Re: Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Initiate Section 106 Public Consultation Regarding Removal of the Confederate Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery 88 Fed. Reg. 51786 (August 4, 2023)

Dear Director Yates:

On behalf of Defend Arlington and the undersigned organizations, we write in strong opposition to the Army’s intent to remove the Confederate Memorial (“Reconciliation Memorial” and “Memorial”) from Arlington National Cemetery (“ANC”). The Army’s proposed actions violate Congressional mandates in Section 370 of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and should not be finalized.

Comment Summary

Secretary of Defense Austin’s (“Secretary”), designation of the use of federal military resources occurred on January 4, 2023, when he ordered Army Secretary Wormuth to implement the Naming Commission Recommendations relating to the Memorial constituted final agency action; and that final agency action required review under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”) Section 106.¹ The Secretary seeks to avoid these important procedures by focusing its review on how the removal will occur rather than on whether it should occur at all. If the Secretary had complied with NEPA and NHPA, he would have received important information from his federal advisory committee, members of the military, state historic preservation officers, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (“ACHP”), local governments, historians, academics, and the public about the significance of the Memorial, both historically and culturally, and he would have used that information to inform his decision about whether to implement the recommendation. Importantly, the Secretary would have considered that the recommendation failed to comply with the underlying statutory requirements at 370(g) and (j). Had the Secretary complied with NEPA and NHPA prior to expending federal funds and prior to directing the implementation of the Naming Commission’s recommendations, as required by law, he would have concluded that removal of the Memorial in ANC exceeds his authority, as that recommendation failed to comply with Congressional directives at §370(g) and (j). For these reasons, we believe the Army must not take additional actions to remove the Memorial until the following important legal and procedural requirements are met:

1. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issues a decision in pending litigation,² including any appeal of that decision.

2. The Army extends the public comment period for the proposed EIS, including conducting an additional public scoping meeting, to ensure the purpose and intent of NEPA and the NHPA are met.

3. The Army’s consideration of the Report to the Secretary of the Army from the Federal Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery, and also submission of the Report to the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees and House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

4. The Army revises the scope of its EIS and NHPA Section 106 reviews to consider the effects of the Secretary’s order to use federal military resources to remove the Memorial, including the connected actions of determining how and where deconstruction and removal would occur as required by NEPA and NHPA.

Statement of Interest

Defend Arlington ³ is an unincorporated association of individuals and groups that include those dedicated to the preservation of the integrity of Arlington National Cemetery as a National Register Historic Site, particularly as it relates to the planned Orwellian destruction of one of the Cemetery’s most iconic memorials. Defend Arlington members develop resources and educational materials, articles, White Papers, attending and speaking at conferences and other events in furtherance of increasing understanding of the American Military History, and the cultural, artistic and military historic significance of the Reconciliation Memorial.

Defend Arlington is a consulting party in the NHPA Section 106 review. Defend Arlington has requested to be a consulting party in the NHPA Section 106 review.

The Virginia Council, an affiliate of the Common Sense Society, is a citizen's initiative whose mission is the preservation of Virginia History, civil discourse, and the rule of law. We are signatory to this letter because Moses Ezekiel was a preeminent internationally recognized Virginia artist.

Heritage Protection of North Alabama is a citizen’s initiative whose is to prevent destruction and/or relocation of all historical monuments; inform the public about heritage issues; assist in restoration / maintenance of historic sites / monuments / memorials and defend our Southern heritage by challenging those who seek to destroy it. HPNA is a grass-roots organization of concerned citizens across the five counties of the Tennessee Valley in north Alabama. HPNA is particularly concerned about the ANC Reconciliation Memorial because of the extensive connection between the State of Alabama and the Memorial. This not only includes the incorporation of the Alabama Coat of Arms on the Memorial, as well as the numerous Alabamians whose final resting place the Memorial marks, but also the significance of Alabama Senator and 33^rd US. Secretary of the Navy, Hilary A. Herbert, who recommended Sir Moses Ezekiel as the sculptor for the Memorial, and who served in leadership for the Memorial’s erection. HPNA has requested to be a consulting party in the NHPA Section 106 review.

Save Southern Heritage Florida Chapter (SSHFL) is an unincorporated association of individuals whose purpose is to preserve the history of the South for future generations. SSHFL focuses efforts on Florida history. SSHFL has a particular interest in the ANC as the State of Florida is recognized on the Memorial as its coat of arms is incorporated on the Memorial itself, and also in that three Floridians are buried in the Florida section in the concentric circles surrounding the Cenotaph.

SSHFL has requested to be a consulting party in the NHPA Section 106 review.

Military Order of the Stars and Bars, James I Waddell Chapter 32, Raleigh NC – like our namesake, James Iredell Wadell, the last to lower the Stars and Bars, we will be the last to surrender in the battle to honor our American ancestors by preserving the Reconciliation Memorial in its rightful place in America’s outdoor museum of Military History.

Society for the Preservation of Jewish Civil War History (SPJCWH) is an unincorporated group of individuals whose mission is to educate the public on the history of the Jewish people in the War of 1861-1865. The interest in the Reconciliation Memorial is due to the ethnicity of the Jewish artist, Sir Moses Ezekiel, and because of the anti-semitism removal from a United States government cemetery would ignite world-wide. SPJCWH has requested to be a consulting party in the NHPA Section 106 review due to the immense impact on the safety and security of Jews worldwide.

Military Order of the Stars and Bars, North Carolina Chapter – an association dedicated to being First, Foremost, and Farthest in the fight to save the Arlington Reconciliation Memorial just as our ancestors were in battle. The North Carolina coat of arms is represented on the Memorial and 47 known North Carolinian graves are marked by the Memorial.

R.E. Lee Monumental Association - a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to cleaning, restoring, repairing, and managing all monuments in the New Orleans area and south Louisiana since 1989 and is interested in saving the Reconciliation Memorial because all memorials and monuments to American veterans should be honored, respected and preserved. These memorials serve to honor those who gave all, and to educate future generations about important events in American history and Louisiana’s contribution to it, especially the maintenance of the emblem of the State of Louisiana displayed on the Memorial.

Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Major General W H C Whiting Chapter 305, Wilmington NC – is a non-profit entity dedicated to preserving the heritage of its gallant ancestors who fought only for self-determination and continued that fight for America through every war after the War of Northern Conquest. The subject Arlington Memorial is a symbol of reconciliation, a grave marker. and a precious work of art that must be preserved for succeeding generations for its historic importance.

Friends of Judah P. Benjamin (“Friends”) – an unincorporated group of individuals who seek to educate and inform the public about the immense contribution of Jewish Americans in the history of our Nation and particularly in the American South where both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews alike were feely accepted into Southern society and valued as part of a multi-cultural, diverse society for their unique contributions. Judah P. Benjamin, himself, was the first Jewish member of a Presidential Cabinet, for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the first admitted Jew to serve as US Senator when he took office from the State of Louisiana in 1853. The Friends view the planned removal of the Memorial as an attack on Jewish-American history.

Hoods Texas Brigade Association (“HTBA”) – a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation charted under the laws of the State of Texas whose members encourage and foster among the public an understanding of the history of Hood's Texas Brigade and its soldiers; advance historical appreciation for the part that the Brigade played in Texas and Confederate history; organize and sponsor educational activities such as seminars and symposiums about the Brigade. HTBA’s interest in the Memorial is the Texans whose final resting place is marked by the Reconciliation Memorial and the emblem of the State of Texas enshrined in the Memorial.

Guardians of American History, Inc. (GAH) is a non-profit whose mission is to preserve our American History including historical assets pertaining to America and the United States. The mission will be undertaken through education and direct preservation efforts and in collaboration with others with a common purpose to fight back against cancel culture. GAH has requested to be a consulting party in the NHPA Section 106 review.

Detailed Comments

The Proposed Removal Actions Exceed the Secretary’s Authority and Should Not Be Finalized

The Army’s proposed actions violate Congressional mandates in Section 370 of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”). The NDAA required consideration of local sensitivities ⁴ and exempted grave markers from consideration for removal.⁵ The Secretary exceeded his authority when he directed the use of existing military resources to initiate the removal action without complying with these clear statutory directives. The Secretary also violated NEPA by failing to consider the environmental impacts and alternatives associated with the decision to deconstruct and remove the Memorial.⁶ Similarly, the Secretary violated the NHPA by failing to consider the impacts on historic and cultural resources prior to directing deconstruction and removal and by failing to provide the ACHP an opportunity to comment on the removal directive.⁷ The Army cannot change the fact that compliance with both NEPA and NHPA must occur prior to a Federal Agency decision and the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds.⁸ The Army’s after-the-fact attempt at compliance with NEPA and NHPA, announced on August 4, 2023,⁹ is meaningless as that process will not address the triggering federal action. The triggering action was the Secretary’s decision to order the implementation of the Naming Commission’s recommendations which included the removal of the Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery, including the designation of federal funds to undertake the removal action. The Army’s illegal actions and invalid NEPA and NHPA processes have been challenged in litigation pending before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.¹⁰ The Army should not expend any additional military resources until the court determines the validity of the Secretary’s actions.

The Army’s NEPA Process is Fatally Flawed

Even assuming the Army’s NEPA and NHPA actions are legitimate, but they are not. The process is rushed and deliberately designed to limit or completely exclude important voices. First, the Army announced an aggressive schedule for completing preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement under NEPA.¹¹ The Army intends to prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) within less than thirty days and a final EIS and Record of Decision before the end of 2023, completing the entire process within just a few months. The proposed timeline is unrealistic for such a significant undertaking. By comparison, preparation of an EIS for disposition of historical airport hangars within the Fort Wainright, Alaska, National Landmark, and historical district took three years.¹² The Army’s rushed schedule must be reconsidered and extended to provide sufficient time to ensure an informed agency decision, particularly, where the proposed destruction and removal action would be both expensive and irreversible.

Next, the Army has made significant decisions about Arlington National Cemetery without seeking input of the Congressionally chartered federal advisory committee established for providing advice regarding ANC.¹³ 10 U.S.C. 4723(a) directs “the Secretary of the Army shall establish an advisory committee” and (b) “shall advise and consult with the advisory committee regarding the administration, erection of memorials and master planning of ANC.” The Secretary violated these important mandates by failing to establish an advisory committee for the period of February 2020 to November 2022 and once the committee was established, discouraging it from developing an advisory report regarding the removal. Indeed, on November 8, 2022, after advisory committee members raised concerns with the decision to remove the Memorial. The Department of the Army responded that the decision to remove the Memorial had already been made and that there was no opportunity for the committee’s input to the Secretary.¹⁴ However, we understand that notwithstanding the Army’s discouragement, the Federal Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery (“FACANC”) is preparing a report to the Secretary of the Army.¹⁵ No further action to remove the Memorial should be taken until such time as the findings of the FACANC are considered. In addition, 10 U.S.C. 7723(d) requires that, within 90 days after the report is received, the Secretary of the Army shall submit the report, and any comments or recommendations, to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House. The Army must comply with these mandates prior to conducting any removal actions in ANC.

Likewise, at the November 8, 2022, FACANC meeting, the Army abruptly determined, without explanation, that members of the public who had registered to speak would no longer be afforded the opportunity. Public input was similarly silenced when several people who had registered to present their views at the Army’s August 23, 2023, virtual public hearing experienced technical problems or were simply not called on to speak. The Army must address these procedural deficiencies prior to taking any further removal actions.

The Draft EIS Must Consider the Following:

1. NEPA § 101(b)(4) states that the Federal Government must use all practicable means to “preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage.” 42 U.S.C. § 4331(b)(4). ANC is the nation’s premier military cemetery and Section 16 and the Memorial play an important role in conveying important aspects of our historic, cultural, and national heritage.¹⁶ The Army must describe the steps it has taken to comply with 42 U.S.C. § 4331(b)(4).

2. NEPA § 102(2)(C) requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental consequences of their actions and consider any alternatives to proposals for all major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. The Army’s proposed actions will significantly affect the Memorial, Section 16, ANC and its collection and confluence of memorials to fallen American service personnel as ANC developed over time to become a historic district listed on the National Register. The Army must evaluate the environmental consequences of the Secretary’s order to remove the Memorial from ANC and consider any alternatives to the proposed action as required by NEPA. The Army’s NEPA analysis should first focus on the triggering action which was the Secretary’s order directing the use of federal military resources to remove the Memorial.

3. The Army’s EIS scope must include consideration of connected actions. NEPA requires that any connected actions, actions that are closely related to interdependent parts of the larger actions and would not occur without the other actions, must be considered in the same EIS. Decisions about “how and where” the destruction and removal would occur are connected actions under NEPA and must be analyzed as such in the same EIS. 40 CFR 1508.25(a)(1) (i-iii).

4. The Army must conduct a cumulative impact analysis to include a comprehensive review of the remaining cultural resources within ANC that may be threatened for removal on similar grounds, and the impact of potential additional future removal actions on Section 16 and ANC, including any impact on the ability of ANC to retain its listing on the NR as a historic district. 40 CFR 1508.25(a)(2).

5. The Army must conduct an air quality analysis, particularly PM 2.5 and airshed analysis to assess the impact on air quality and increases in criterion pollutants from the operation of heavy equipment, and construction vehicles.

6. The Army must conduct an analysis of the environmental impacts on environmental justice communities, including air, dust, noise, traffic, vibration, and congestion caused by the removal; and a cumulative impact analysis considering existing environmental burden.

7. A work plan must be developed, in coordination with fence line communities, the public, and ANC, taking into consideration impacts on the peace and serenity experience in Section 16 and ANC, interference with burial ceremonies from increased noise, interference with traffic patterns, and increased dust and air emissions during construction.

8. The Army must prepare a detailed budget, including assurances that the work will be conducted by appropriately licensed and trained contractors.

9. A study must be conducted to show that the graves will not incur damage. Verbal assurances are insufficient. The study must, at a minimum, comply with accepted scientific methodology and be cognizant of social and cultural cemetery practices.

10. Viewshed modeling must be conducted to assess the impact of removal on the ANC historic district and the Monument Corridor Viewshed.

11. The Army should consult with each State represented on the Memorial, and whose service personnel will be de-marked by the planned removal.

12. The Army should provide an earnest attempt to contact all the living descendants of those buried in Section 16 and consider the opinions about and the effect of de-marking them.¹⁷

The Proposed Scope of the EIS and NHPA Section 106 Review Must be Revised to Include the Following:

1. The Memorial is Eligible for Listing on the National Register of Historic Places

The Memorial is an extraordinary historic and cultural resource eligible for listing on the National Register. The Army National Military Cemeteries Phase II Intensive level survey evaluated the Memorial and determined it is potentially eligible to be included in the National Register of Historic Places.¹⁸ The survey found the Memorial potentially eligible “because it constitutes a significant physical example of the contested national effort to commemorate the Civil War, and specifically the Confederacy, as part of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century efforts at reconciliation.”¹⁹ In addition, the survey found the Memorial potentially eligible “for its design by sculptor Moses Ezekiel, a master sculptor whose distinctive work stands out from other Confederate memorials constructed during the same period of significance. It merits listing in the NRHP due to its status as a unique historical artifact that embodies, in monumental form, the discourse surrounding the memorialization of the Civil War.”²⁰ The Memorial is also significant in our nation’s military and cultural history and remains relevant today as a symbol of how America healed its wounds from our own Civil War as described by Jim Webb, U.S. Senator, Navy Secretary and Marine infantry officer in Vietnam.²¹ As such, under NHPA regulations, the Army must identify and evaluate the historic significance of this historic property and determine its eligibility prior to proceeding with removal. 36 CFR 800.4(c).

2. The Memorial as a Contributing Resource to the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District

Arlington National Cemetery, the Nation’s military cemetery, is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Memorial is listed as a contributing resource to the historic significance of ANC.²² ANC is the final resting place for more than 300,000 veterans of every American conflict, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan. Since its founding in 1864, ANC has provided a solemn place to reflect upon the sacrifices made by the men and women of the United States Armed Forces in the name of our country.²³ The Civil War makes up a critical and defining conflict in our nation’s history, and soldiers who perished on Civil War battlefields are rightly recognized and buried at ANC. Indeed, the ANC was created and founded as a direct result of the Civil War – built on grounds previously owned by and resided on by Mary Custis Lee, her husband General Robert E. Lee, and their family.

3. Section 16 of ANC as Potentially Eligible for Listing on the NRHP and Must be Evaluated.

The Army has failed to include any mention of Section 16 of ANC in conducting the required identification efforts. The Army must make a reasonable and good-faith effort to identify historic resources within the project’s area of potential effects.²⁴ Section 16 contains an area that has been specifically set aside and designated by Congress to re-inter the remains of approximately 260 Confederate soldiers who died in prisoner-of-war camps and in hospitals and battlefields near Arlington.²⁵ After Section 16 was established, the Memorial was erected. Section 16 would continue to be an active burial site for Southern veterans and their spouses into the 1960s. Section 16 has its roots in the early 1900s and came about as an effort by President McKinley, himself a veteran of the Union in the War, and a symbol of reconciliation between the North and South in the post-reconstruction era, and in the post-Spanish American War era. Section 16 was promoted by President McKinley, who also led the effort to re-inter at ANC American service personnel from Cuba who perished on the USS Maine in the lead-up to the Spanish-American War. The mast of the Maine was eventually placed as the focal point of that circular burial site, marking the sailors who perished in the Maine’s sinking. McKinley similarly promoted the establishment of Section 16, which, likewise, originated with re-internments and was later marked with a central marking memorial. These two neighboring twin memorials stand together in the history of ANC and launched a plan to commemorate casualties of significant American sacrifices that continues to today. As such, the Army must evaluate Section 16 under criteria set forth in National Park Service regulations at 36 CFR Part 60, (a)-(d). At a minimum, the Army should evaluate the degree to which Section 16 meets criteria (a) that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; and (b) that are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. We believe Section 16 is individually eligible under these criteria for listing on the NRHP. The Army may not move forward with the removal of the Memorial until these important eligibility decisions are made. In addition, eligible or not, the Army must consider the impacts, both direct and indirect, of the removal of the Memorial on the integrity of Section 16.

4. The Memorial as a Contributing Resource to a Broader Monument Core

This memorial is part of the Washington Monumental Corridor Master Plan.²⁶ The Monumental Corridor was part of the “American Renaissance” and North-South linkage promoted by renowned architects McMillan and Olmstead. They envisioned a “city beautiful” plan for Washington, DC that extended over the Potomac River into Virginia to Arlington House and the Cemetery. The bridge was to become a symbolic link between North and South from DC to Arlington and the addition of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, punctuated with monuments and memorials evidenced this American Renaissance, and to demonstrate to the world American unification. This beaux-arts style memorial is the most significant monumental artwork at Arlington, and part of the American Renaissance which ignited a movement to build monumental art around the country. The entire Monumental Corridor, the Viewshed from Mount Vernon through to the Capitol, must be included in the EIS study area and the NHPA Area of Potential Effects (“APE”), as they are part of the master plan and significant in the north-south reunification and the American Renaissance. The APE must be expanded to include the entire Viewshed of the Washington Monumental core.

5. The Memorial Site as Eligible for Consideration as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site

The Memorial is significant to Canada and other nations and is potentially eligible to be a UNSECO World Heritage Site. One of the graves in the plot marked by the Memorial is of a Canadian citizen, Jerry Cronan, who was killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania. There were many more citizens of other nations who perished in service to one of the states represented on the Memorial. These other nations need to be identified and consulted as they are being impacted as well. Because of its significance in American history, Arlington House and the Arlington National Cemetery are eligible for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

6. The Memorial as Significant to the Descendants of the Buried

There are over 500 soldiers and widows whose remains are interred in concentric circles at the Memorial, which marks the site of their burials. Some of the remains were relocated in Section 16 from other sections of Arlington, others from POW camps nearby before the Memorial was erected. However, after the Memorial was erected, others chose to be buried there, undoubtedly because of the new Memorial. The Army must make a sincere effort to contact the descendants of the buried dead and seek their views.

7. The Memorial as a Grave Marker

The Memorial is a grave marker for Moses Ezekiel. Unveiled in 1914 and dedicated by President Woodrow Wilson, the Memorial was designed by noted American sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a Confederate veteran and the first Jewish graduate of Virginia Military Institute, to mark Section 16. Ezekiel originally named the Memorial the New South Memorial. It is also commonly referred to as the Reconciliation Memorial. Ezekiel was buried at the base of his creation in 1921. It was Ezekiel’s request to be buried at the base of the Memorial in Section 16 of Arlington—laid to rest inches from the base of his Memorial without the traditional approved white marble headstone authorized for use in Arlington. Three other service personnel and spouses are interred inches from the base of the Memorial: Lt. Harry C. Marmaduke, Capt. John M. Hickey, and Brig. Gen. Marcus J. Wright. The graves of the approximately 500 Southern service personnel and their spouses are arranged in concentric circles around the Memorial and its abutting graves. The fact that the Memorial is a grave marker precludes its removal. In NDAA § 370(j), Congress explicitly exempted grave markers from the Naming Commission’s consideration for renaming or removal. Congress delegated to the Naming Commission the definition of Grave Marker, i.e. “Markers located at the remains of the fallen”. As the Memorial is inches not only from Ezekiel’s grave, but also marks the entire plot of graves, the Memorial meets the Naming Commission’s definition of a Grave Marker, and so this removal is outside the scope of the NDAA and the Naming Commission’s remit.²⁷

The NHPA Section 106 Review Must Consider the Following:

NHPA § 106 requires Federal agencies with jurisdiction over Federal undertakings, prior to the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds, shall consider the effect of the undertaking on any historic property and provide the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation an opportunity to comment.²⁸ The Secretary’s directive to implement the Commission’s removal recommendation is a Federal undertaking.²⁹ Any site that is included in the National Register is considered historic property.³⁰ The Arlington National Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The entirety of the cemetery is counted as one contributing site, and every resource except the small-scale features within the boundaries is contributing to the ANC Historic District. The Memorial is listed as a contributing resource to the historic significance of ANC. The Army must consider the adverse effects that removal of the Memorial will have on the integrity of the Arlington National Cemetery as our nation’s military cemetery. In addition, as stated previously, the Memorial itself and Section 16 are potentially individually eligible for listing and must be evaluated under the National Park Service criteria prior to any removal actions.

NHPA compliance requires the agency to proceed through specific steps in consultation with SHPOs, consulting parties and the public to first identify historic properties potentially affected by the removal, assess the effects, and seek ways to minimize or mitigate any unavoidable adverse effects. Failure to proceed consistent with these regulatory requirements is a violation of the statute.³¹

The Advisory Council’s NHPA implementation guidance recommends that each step of the Section 106 process must be completed prior to moving to the next step.³²

As stated previously, the Army has not completed a reasonable, good-faith effort to identify important historic and cultural resources, including whether the Memorial and Section 16 are individually eligible. The Army has also neglected to include the Washington Monument Core district in the scope of review.

Furthermore, The Army is violating the NHPA by seeking public input on mitigation measures prior to completing the following regulatory requirements:

Identifying the proper scope of review (36 CFR 800.4),
Identifying historic properties (36 CFR 800.4(b)),
Evaluating historic significance under the National Register criteria (36 CFR Part 63),
Determining whether a property is eligible for listing on the National Register (36 CFR 800.4(c)(2)),
Notifying consulting parties that there are historic properties that may be affected by the undertaking and invite their views (36 CFR 800.4(d)(2)),
Applying criteria of adverse effect (36 CFR 800.5)(d)(2)).

Only after completing all these steps in consultation with SHPOs and other consulting parties, is it appropriate for the Army to seek input on resolving adverse effects, including modifications or alternatives to avoid, minimize or mitigate.³³Without completing this important information gathering and consultation requirements, the Army has not provided the public with the information necessary to engage in a meaningful discussion of mitigation.

Recommendations:

Scope of Review

The Army must determine an appropriate scope of review, defined as the Area of Potential Effects (APE).
The APE must include the entire Viewshed, as the Memorial is an important contributing element in the ANC historic district and the Washington Monumental Core that extends from the Washington Monument across the Memorial Bridge to ANC, including Section 16 and the Memorial around which Section 16 was built.
Aerial and visual impact modeling must be completed to analyze impacts.

Identification of Adverse Effects

The Army must develop information on the direct, indirect, and cumulative adverse effects of the removal action, including the following:

Physical destruction of the Memorial from removal and relocation or destruction of the bronze elements - a study must be conducted.
Change in character of Section 16 caused by the removal action.
Transfer out of federal control without adequate preservation restrictions.
The cultural impact of removal on those States that are represented in the Memorial and whose service personnel are marked by the Memorial or who were citizens of such State.
The cultural and emotional impact of removal on the descendants of those interred in Section 16.
Viewshed impacts.
Impact on ANC historic district from removal of the Memorial, a known contributing element to the district’s significance.

Resolving Adverse Effects

The Army must consider alternatives for avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of adverse effects:

There is no adequate mitigation:

o The Memorial represents a significant historic work of art.

o The Memorial was commissioned; and designed by the artist for; display at the designated site, marking the graves in Section 16.

o No alternative location is suitable. ANC is the Nation’s Most Sacred Shrine and a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The Memorial has been determined to be a contributing element to the historic district. Removal would have a devastating impact on Section 16 and the district.

o The Reconciliation Memorial is a focal point for the graves interred in Section 16. The mortal remains of American service personnel and wives, including the Memorial’s creator, are located under the Memorial. The FY21 NDAA clearly stated the Naming Commission’s objectives were to preclude grave markers; yet the Reconciliation Memorial is central to the design of Section 16, and removal will leave over 400 gravestones facing an empty slab without interpretation.

o Arlington National Cemetery, as a National Register Historic District, is an outdoor museum dedicated to American military sacrifice and a display of the respect that Americans show for that sacrifice. Removal of the Memorial will extricate and suppress from Arlington the complete historical timeline and story told through the sequence of memorial monuments at Arlington and will diminish the respect and significance of this important historic site.

o Any proposal to move the Memorial must be codified, after providing for public notice and comment, in an enforceable Memorandum of Agreement with the consulting parties prior to taking any actions that would adversely affect the Memorial or the ANC historic district in which it is located.

Attachments

In addition to this document, we submit the following that address the inability to mitigate the removal of the Memorial, as well as the Area of Potential Effect, and the environmental and cultural impacts of removal:

“Save the Confederate Memorial at Arlington”, Wall Street Journal August 18, 2023, by Senator Jim Webb and

Arguments Against Naming Commission Recommendation Re: Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial: A collection of White Papers, articles, testimony, and the Presidential Monument dedication speech.

Conclusion

Respectfully submitted,

s/Vincent Balducci
Defend Arlington

s/Dr. Ann McLean
The Virginia Council, an affiliate of the Common Sense Society

s/Lt. Col. Edwin Kennedy, US Army, Retired
Heritage Protection of North Alabama

s/James Shillinglaw, US Navy, Retired
Save Southern Heritage Florida Chapter

s/Commander
Military Order of the Stars and Bars, James I. Waddell Chapter

s/ Lunelle Siegel
Society for the Preservation of Jewish Civil History

s/Howard Talley, III
Military Order of the Stars and Bars, North Carolina Society

s/Geary Mason
RE Lee Monumental Association

s/H.K. Edgerton
Veterans Defending Arlington

s/Commander
Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Major General W.H.C. Whiting Chapter 305

s/Glenn Carroll, President
Hood’s Texas Brigade Association

s/David R. McCallister
Friends of Judah P. Benjamin

s/MJ Stephens
Guardians of American History, Inc.

Links to Important Resources

Shop Now

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to

[email protected].

Please Donate Now -- THANK YOU!

Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website

NOTES:

¹ 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (2)(C) and 54 U.S.C. § 306108.

² See Hudson, et al. v. United States Dep’t of Defense, USDC DC; Case No:1:23-cv-02094;

Defend Arlington c/o Save Southern Heritage Florida, et al. v. United States Dep’t of Defense et al., USDC DC, Case No. 1:23-CV-00441.

³ Signatories Defend Arlington and Save Southern Heritage Florida and their members are Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed February 16, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, CV No. 23-CV-441 challenging the Secretary of Defense’s, and the Secretary of the Army’s illegal actions under the Administrative Procedures Act, NEPA and NHPA.

⁴ Pub. L. No. 116-283, §370(g).

⁵ Id. at §370(j).

⁶ NEPA § 102(2) requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental consequences of their actions and consider any alternatives to proposals for all major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (2)(C).

⁷ NHPA § 106 requires Federal agencies with jurisdiction over Federal undertakings, prior to the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds, shall consider the effect of the undertaking on any historic property and provide the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation an opportunity to comment. 54 U.S.C. § 306108.

⁸ See Lee v. Thornburgh, 877 F.2d 1053, 1056 (D.C. Cir. 1989) (NHPA applies prior to approving the expenditure of funds).

⁹ 88 Fed. Reg. 51786 (Aug. 4, 2023).

¹⁰ Hudson, et al. v. United States Dep’t of Defense, USDC DC; Case No:1:23-cv-02094; Defend Arlington c/o Save Southern Heritage Florida, et al. v. United States Dep’t of Defense et al., USDC DC, Case No. 1:23-CV-00441

¹¹ See Arlington National Cemetery - Home (arlingtoncemetery.mil)(announcing August 23, 2023 Public Meeting announcing a draft EIS would be completed in September, just shortly after the September 2, 2023 close of the scoping public comment period to discuss mitigation of adverse impacts of removal of Confederate Memorial).

¹² Disposition_of_Hangars_2_and_3_FinalEIS.pdf

¹³ Established pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 4723, and in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (5 U.S.C., Appendix, as amended) and 41 C.F.R. Section 102-3.50(a).

¹⁴ Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery, Nov. 7-8, 2023, meeting minutes available at: ACANC Meetings (arlingtoncemetery.mil).

¹⁵ Meeting of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery, August 11, 2023.

¹⁶ See Senator Jim Webb, Save the Confederate Memorial at Arlington, Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2023.

¹⁷ 40 CFR §1508.25(a)(2).

¹⁸ See Phase II Intensive-Level Survey of the Confederate Memorial (000-1235) SHR File No. 2022-0201, March 20, 2023 available at: ConfederateMemorial-Phase II Survey Report- 230803-DHR 2022-0201_1.pdf (arlingtoncemetery.mil).

¹⁹ Id. at pg. 1.

²⁰ Id.

²¹ See Webb, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 18, 2023.

²² Id. (In 2014, the Confederate Memorial had been listed as a contributing resource to the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District (000-0042).

²³ See U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places (https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/000-

0042_ArlingtonNationalCemetery_2014_NRHP_nomination_FINAL_complete.pdf.)

²⁴ 36 CFR §800.4(b)(1).

²⁵ See Nat’l Park Service, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington

(https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/virginia/arlington_national_cemetery.h tml).

²⁶ See FrameworkPlan1_Intro.pdf (ncpc.gov).

²⁷ The Naming Commission Final Report to Congress; Part III: Renaming Department of Defense Assets.

²⁸ 54 U.S.C. § 306108.

²⁹ 36 CFR §800.16(y).

³⁰ 54 U.S.C. § 300308.

³¹ See 36 CFR Part 800 procedures for how Federal agencies meet these statutory responsibilities.

³² See CitizenGuideSmallSizeFinal4Web.indd (achp.gov).

³³ 36 CFR §800.6

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Those 500 "tributes to American valor" will now surround a mangled shaft and be targets of hate and derision for eternity

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The Public Can Submit Comments Online Until Nov. 3 (11:59 p.m.)

In Honor of Moses Ezekiel, by H.K. Edgerton

ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTS, AND MITIGATION MEASURES

PREAMBLE TO COMMENT

ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTS, AND MITIGATION MEASURES

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING under "Confederate Memorial: Assessment of Potential Effect" is ANC's statement that "the proposed undertaking should have no adverse effect on the graves in Section 16 . . .".

That is UTTERLY FALSE.

MITIGATION MEASURES

In Honor of Moses Ezekiel

by H. K. Edgerton

Links to Important Resources

The fight for the Arlington Confederate Memorial intensifies

Video of Arlington National Cemetery Consulting Party Meeting October 18 shows supporters DOMINATE; only one detractor, a college professor, of course

Testimony often emotional, always well-stated, hard-hitting

Five descendants of Moses Ezekiel strongly support the Confederate Memorial and want to join the Defend Arlington lawsuit

List of all Invited Consulting Parties, which you should JOIN!

Gene Kizer, Jr. Charleston Athenaeum Press

Comment on Section 106 Adverse Effects

Comment on Section 106 Mitigations

Final Comment

Links to Important Resources

Defend Arlington's Official Regulatory Response

The most awesome thing I have ever read

There is no adequate mitigation:

Links to Important Resources

A review of Dr. Clyde N. Wilson's
African American Slavery in Historical Perspective

This book is a first rate historical analysis of slavery
distilled into a page-turning one-day read

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