443,98″^ including Washington, D.C.,rnwhich liad a shie population of ^,185rn(U.S. Census, 1860). (West Virginia wasrncalculated bv counting the Virginiarncounties that later comprised West Virginia.)rnNone of these states was requiredrnto free its shn’cs in order to remain in thernUnion. These slaves were not freed atrnthe beginning of the war or by thernEmancipation Proclamation. That noblerndocument freed onlv slaves in statesrnunder Southern control—other peoples’rnslaes. The North kept its slaves until afterrnthe war and the Thirteenth Amendment.rnThe household of General Grantrnenjocd tlie scr ice of slaves throughoutrnthe war. General Lcc owned no slaes.rnI he Federal Armv in Nashville boughtrnand trafficked in slaves until the end ofrn186^—Stars and Stripes slaves. Thevrnwere used to build railroads, bridges, andrnforts. In the first vcars of the war, slavesrnwho esca|5ed from Southern farms werernadised to return to their masters (thernfederals didn’t want to feed them), butrnlater in Nashillc slaves (“contrabands”)rnwho had left their Southern masters wererninrpressed to labor on federal forts (alongrnwith whites) and promised pav that wasrnneer rendered, whereas slaves who hadrnleft Ihvoniat masters were returned tornthe loxalist owners. (In its ceaselessrnsearch for grieancc, the NAACP andrnfriends can, for a change, here find arnalid lawsuit for all that backpav.) Thernpresent attack bv the modern liberalrnupon all SMiibols which suggest that thernOld South still endures, and with honor,rnis based on the assumption that thernSouth is e il and the rest of the countrvrnpure.rnThe 1861 “Armv of I .iberation” came,rnin fact, not to free black slaves, but to cnslarnc the South, both blacks and whites.rnAs Bisho])-General Lconidas Polk obserrned in 1861, “All ages and conditionsrnare united [in the South | in one grandrnand hoK purpose of rolling back the desolatingrntide of invasion, and restoring tornthe i^eople of the South, that peace, indepenclcnce,rnand right of self-governmentrnto w hich thc arc bv nature and nature’srnGod as jointU’ entitled as thosernwho seek thus to enslave them.” ThernNorth prevailed and the South was enslavedrnthroughout Reconstruction and,rnin man wavs, into the 1930’s and be-rn()nd.rnThe issues in 1860 were the right of arnstate to secede and all the freedoms ofrn1776. The South feared Lincoln andrnthose around him. Most Southernersrnfelt that the right to own slaves ought tornbe decided bv the states, not by the federalrngovernment. Slaverv was merelv onernof the many fields on which a struggle forrnpower between the federal governmentrnand the several states—Northern andrnSouthern—took place. The New Englandrnstates were the first to threaten secession,rnas eariy as 1796. Governor Wolcottrnof Connecticut said, “I sineerclvrndeclare that I wish the Northern statesrnwould separate from the Southern statesrnthe moment that event (referring to thernelection of Thomas Jefferson) takesrnplace.” In 1845 New England threatenedrnsecession over the admission ofrnIcxas. And don’t forget the infamousrnHartford convention in 1814. Nullificationrnwas used by 11 Northern states beforernthe war, as opposed to onlv threernSouthern states. Though Negroes wererndenied suffrage in the South, so werernthev denied in all Northern states exceptrnfive, where Negroes, except for onernor two, existed onlv in books. In thernNorth, Negroes were not given the suffragernuntil after Grant was safelv elected.rnI he Republicans recogni/.ed the rightrnof Northern states to determine who ()ted.rnNegrophobia was prevalent in sornmanv Northern states that the partvrnthought it best not to risk a rebellion ofrnits own states. In most Northern statesrnno blacks voted.rnI have sketched the various attitudesrnof the dav regarding secession, nullification,rnslavery, and voting rights to suggestrnthat a little forbearance might be exercised,rnlest we condemn too hastilv andrntoo widch” and make the South thernw hipping bov for Northern malpractice.rnAttacks on traditional svmbols with norngrasp of their meaning, natural or historicalrnor otherwise, is lack of vision.rnOne last issue has been the source ofrnhonest puzzlement to me. Whv, in arncommercial industrial nation, developedrnin that direction by the Northeast, wherern”deals” are contracted evcrvdav and allrninole at least two parties, is the Southrnalwas condemned for having slaves as ifrnthe’ dropped from heaven, or rose fromrnhell, with no human interention?rnSlaves were bought from the slae tradersrnof New k’aigland and from the English,rnFrench, Spanish, and Portuguese slaverntraders, who bought them from Negrornslave traders in Africa. Slavery and slaverntrading were sanctioned bv and blessedrnin New England. It was saving Africanrnsouls as well as hlling Puritan holds. Notrnuntil the slaves were all l^ought and paidrnfor did slavery become “wrong.” Onlyrnthen was a Northern war of aggressionrnwaged and the Southern slaves freed,rnbut not paid, or paid for. SusannernLanger in Philosophy m a New Key saysrnthat the most intolerable injurv one manrnor group of men can do to anf)thcr… tornconstrain a man against his principlesrn. . . make a pacifist bear arms, a patriotrninsult his flag . . . is to endanger his attituderntoward the world . . . no matterrnhow fantastic mav be the dogmas hernholds saered, it is never a light matter torndemand their violation.” To attack thernsnibols under which nw grandfatherrnga’e his life is indeed not a “light matter.”rnNor is it a light matter to attempt torntell him (or me) what thev “mean.” Torndecide to hate a svmbol w ithout knowingrnits traditional meaning as stated bvrnits originators is puerile and shows a lackrnof the minimum education necessary forrngood citizenship.rnIn Civil War battles, the color bearerrnwas the most exposed soldier on thernfield. Yet the position was eagcd’ soughtrnand proudlv held. If the color guard wasrnshot, the nearest soldier sacd the colorsrnfrom falling until periiaps he too wentrndown. At Seven Pines, ten of the 11 colorrnguards of the Palmetto South CarolinarnRegiment Sharp Shooters werernwounded or killed, yet the colors passedrnthrough manv hands without ever touchingrnthe ground.rnMen of the North and Men of thernSouth both fought and gave blood andrnlife for their flags as symbols of all thatrnthe stood for. It is not meet or properrnthat abolitionists, old or modern, orrnKlansmen, black or white, should attemptrnto belittle that which is much largerrnthan they are or mav hope to be.rnjack Kershaw is an artist living inrnNashville, Tennessee.rnThe Fear of thernOriginalrnby George MitsonrnThe demands of life are endlesslvrnself-contradictory. It is a supremerncompliment in intellectual life, for example,rnto be called original; but it can bernalarming to discover something—sornalarming that people have been knownrnMAY 1994/43rnrnrn