The Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton

Reconsidering the Confederate Soldiers Monument

I love visiting the beautiful grounds that surround the Texas State Capital. Of course, the capital building itself, a National Historic Landmark, dazzles the eye inside and out. And it is readily accessible to anyone wishing to admire it along with the historical treasures it houses. The same is certainly true of the Capital Grounds, 22 acres of sweeping lawns, graceful gardens, and towering trees. Paved walks invite one to ramble throughout this splendid space and to stop and visit the magnificent monuments and myriad works of art that pay tribute to Texans, their cherished ideals, and great moments in their proud history. Statues, sculptures, and pillars, all testify to the intricate and diverse heritage that forged our unique Texas culture.

The tree-lined "Great Walk" leading to the Capital steps is as stately an avenue as any that one might see in our nation's capital. Flanking this grand promenade are some of the oldest monuments on the grounds and include the Heroes of the Alamo Monument (1891), Volunteer Firemen Monument (1896), Confederate Soldiers Monument (1903), and Terry's Texas Rangers Monument (1907).

Construction of the imposing (and recently vandalized) Confederate Soldiers Monument began in 1903 by elderly veterans who wished to honor their fallen comrades and to mark the reason for which they fought in this bitter and bloody conflict. Five bronze figures stand on a gray granite base to represent the Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Navy, with president Jefferson Davis in the center. The base includes a list of battles and the names of the thirteen states that withdrew from the Union, eleven of which formed the Confederate States of America.

The war took the lives of more than a half-million Americans, North and South. In every state today, a vast number of Americans can trace their lineage, if they wished, to men who participated in in this great struggle. Memorials like the Confederate Soldiers Monument are important markers of the human cost of war, and it is worth resisting the modern urge to remove or deface these emblems of our past that still have the power to inform us today.

One doesn't have to agree with the original sentiment behind these statues to learn what they still have to teach us. Certainly, we moderns can be generous enough to allow our forefathers freedom to express their opinions, even if we think we know better now.

The opinions those old Texas veterans etched into the base of their monument was a common sentiment in their day:

We may disagree with them now, but this was the understanding and conviction of millions of Americans then, that in order to preserve their rights and freedom, states might withdraw from the Union. Eleven of those states exercised their perceived right and formed a new nation. In the minds of these people in 1860, they were no more traitors to the USA than were the Americans of Thirteen Colonies traitors to England in 1776. Each was defending a nation.

Of course, among the rights the South fought to preserve was the institution of race-based slavery. It was always a concept which needed to be torn out by the roots, but which was not forbidden in the US Constitution. Lost in the shouting today about slavery are the other "states rights" for which these Southern men bled and died, that is, those political powers that the Constitution left to the individual states rather than administered by the Federal government. One need look no further today than to the excessive use of Federal power over the liberties of individuals to see those other rights that were lost with the South's destruction. The scourge of slavery needed to end. The tragedy was that it had to be abolished at the cost of other rights as well.

The "Great Walk" and all the monuments on the Texas Capitol Grounds reminds us not only what a wonderful place Texas is, but also moves some of us to gratitude for the privilege of living in the America our ancestors preserved for us. The messages these statues convey may be mixed or even stray from actual fact, but the First Amendment still guarantees freedom of expression. It defended the voice of our forefathers then even as it should today.