I just read in the Portsmouth Daily Times that conversation surrounding the Confederate flag during a prior Portsmouth City Managers’ session caught the attention of a national organization dedicated to its descendants and proponents of its history.
John Anson, Ohio Division Commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, addressed the matter of banning its presence on city properties in a letter sent to City Clerk Diana Ratliff where he urged no action to be taken.
“I understand that this flag is sometimes considered offensive, however, it is only through ignorance of the flag’s meaning,” Ratliff read aloud from Anson’s letter on December 14.
(Patrick Keck. “Competing visions of Rebel flag shared at City Managers.” Portsmouth Daily Times. December 17, 2020.)
Such discussions on the flag are a continuation of 2nd Ward Councilwoman Charlotte Gordon’s November 23 inquiry if any action could be taken after hearing complaints regarding the symbol’s presence along the riverfront campgrounds.
Gordon feels this symbol does not align with the city’s message of inclusiveness and hurts attempts to attract businesses and students to Shawnee State University. Fellow Council members Sean Dunne, Edwin Martell, and Dennis Packard agreed.
The city owns the campgrounds. The Daily Times reported that Martell had said previously that a 1977 city ordinance regarding prohibited signs and statements might apply in this scenario. That legislation, Chapter 1308.08 of the Portsmouth Codified Ordinances, denies the presence of “obscene, indecent, or immoral character” symbols on city lands.
Whether or not any legislation will or can be created was unknown as of the November meeting and is still being considered a discussion item. City Solicitor John Haas said during that session that he needed time to review legal precedent but sensed First Amendment challenges.
Many people who proudly display the Confederate flag on their property and on their vehicles claim to be preserving history and honoring a great American past. While ignoring the direct association with the unspeakable horrors of the system of slavery, they glorify the Lost Cause and incessantly argue that a “battle flag,” although a recognized symbol of the Confederacy, does not ignite continued philosophical, political, cultural, and racial controversy in the United States.
Confederate Flag History
After the first seven states seceded, one of the first things the Confederacy did was appoint a Committee on the Flag and Seal, chaired by South Carolina’s William Porcher Miles. A public call for suggestions overwhelmed the committee with entreaties to “preserve the principal features of the Stars and Stripes,” so as to not let the Union “monopolize” a symbol that still held power for both sides.
It “does not represent to the world [the] oppressions & wrongs [done to us],” said one letter-writer, “but the independance [sic] & prosperity of a great country.” In response, the Committee commissioned the “Stars and Bars”—two thick red stripes with white in the middle, and a blue field in the top left corner with a circle of stars. This served as the official flag of the Confederacy for a little over two years, from 1861 to 1863.
Miles said the “Stars and Bars” was a flag of tyranny. He concluded: “It is idle to talk of 'keeping' the flag of the United States when we have voluntarily seceded from them.”
(John M. Coski. The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem. 2005.)
As it turned out, the Stars and Bars looked too similar to the Stars and Stripes, especially when lack of wind left it slumped down on the pole. “At least one Confederate regiment fired on another Confederate regiment, possibly because it was unable to distinguish between battle flags,” says John Coski, historian and director of the library and research at The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
General Pierre Beauregard proposed that the Confederacy increase their symbolic arsenal to include “two flags — a peace or parade flag, and a war flag to be used only on the field of battle.” Miles had just the thing – his Battle Flag called to troops “under its untarnished folds… to find everlasting immunity from an atrocious despotism.”
(Tom Geoghegan. “Why do people still fly the Confederate flag?” BBC News. August 30, 2013.)
As the war grew more protracted, Confederate soldiers and citizens started to turn on the Stars and Bars. An 1862 Committee on the Flag and Seal meeting, convened to address the problem, and ended up agreeing “that the Flag should be as unlike as possible the Stars and Stripes of the United States.”
Inspired by Miles’s now-popular battle flag, they settled on what they called the “Stainless Banner” – made up of a smaller battle flag “on a pure white field.” In a series of editorials featured in his Savannah Morning News, William Tappan Thompson wrote why he felt that design represented the Confederacy as "The White Man's Flag." Thompson wrote …
“As a people, we are fighting to maintain the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race: a white flag would thus be emblematical (sic) of our cause … As a national emblem, it is significant of our higher cause, the cause of a superior race, and a higher civilization contending against ignorance, infidelity, and barbarism. Another merit in the new flag is, that it bears no resemblance to the now infamous banner of the Yankee vandals.”
(George Henry Preble. Our Flag: Origin and Progress of the Flag of the United States of America. 1872.)
After the “Stainless Banner” fell out of favor—it got too dirty on the battlefield—the Committee took up one more redesign. Named the “Blood-Stained Banner,” it was identical to the last incarnation, but with a big swath of red on the right side. A month after its adoption, the Confederacy surrendered.
This history is revealing on a number of levels. What may have started as a battle flag – not a peacetime flag, mind you – stood originally not for a collection of states or for a non-partisan national identity, but for a war. And, by the end of the Civil War, the battle flag's dissemination was nearly complete among southern forces, and it had become synonymous with the Confederate cause. As Coski points out, the "cause" was the preservation of slavery, and the battle flag symbolized the defense of that institution.
Sons of Confederate Veterans
John Anson's group, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, believes “the citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America.” They also believe the “preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South’s decision to fight the Second American Revolution.” And, they subscribe to this tenet:
“The tenacity with which Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and represent the foundation on which this nation was built.”
(Sons of Confederate Veterans. Scv.org.)
The symbol for the organization features the Confederate flag, and their motto is “Make Dixie Great Again.” The group claims the Sons of Confederate Veterans is preserving the history and legacy of these heroes so that future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause.
In addition, membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is exclusive. It is open to all male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces.
The Ohio Division claims to be “very proud of our Confederate Heritage.” To support this claim, they write …
“Three of our Camps are named after Ohio born Confederate heroes. Ohio has a rich Civil War heritage. Six of Ohio’s sons became Confederate Generals. The war first came to Ohio in 1862, when Confederate Colonel Albert Jenkins rode into Ohio on a raid. General John Hunt Morgan then rode through Ohio in July of 1863, and brought the War into Ohio. He suffered defeat at Buffington Island in Meigs County.”
Conclusion
It is clear that the Confederate Battle Flag, incorporated in both the “Stainless Banner” (2nd National Confederate Flag) and the “Blood-stained Banner” (3rd National Confederate Flag), is symbolic of slavery and secession from the Union. As an artifact of the Lost Cause, it has no place on public ground in the State of Ohio. It should find a home in museums that can properly identify and display its infamous history.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans mask the despicable racist beliefs of the Confederacy by claiming that the flag represents a positive “history and legacy” and that its presence supports “liberty and freedom” as guaranteed in the Constitution – a document the Confederate states denied when they seceded from the United States.
Ohio is a proud Union state whose important place in 19th Century history is unrivaled. Ohio raised nearly 320,000 soldiers for the Union army, third behind only New York and Pennsylvania in total manpower contributed to the military and the highest per capita of any Union state. Many leading Union generals were from Ohio, including Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan. Five Ohio-born Civil War officers would later serve as the President of the United States. The Fighting McCooks of Carrollton, Ohio, gained fame as the largest immediate family group ever to become officers in the U.S. Army.
Note: The Fighting McCooks were members of a family of Ohioans who reached prominence as officers in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Two brothers, Daniel and John McCook, and thirteen of their sons were involved in the army, making the family one of the most prolific in American military history. Six of the McCooks reached the rank of brigadier general or higher. Several family members were killed in action or died from their wounds. Following the war, several others reached high political offices, including governorships and diplomatic posts.
Approximately 11,237 Ohio soldiers died from wounds received on the various battlefields of the Civil War, while another 13,354 men perished from diseases. Eighty-four of every one thousand Ohio men who served died in the war.
Most of the people who continue to support flying the Confederate flag seem to relish the symbol as emblematic of their “rebel” 21st century persona. It remains a banner certainly legal to display, but highly offensive in its presence to most who view it.
If people choose to display this divisive symbol on their personal property or on their person, they should be aware of the meaning and negativity they impose upon their fellow human beings. To employ this symbol now is to invite others judgments of their knowledge and their offensive intentions.
Why? The decision to display the Confederate flag should be a matter of ethics. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. The term “ethics” is derived from the Greek word “ethos,” which can mean “custom, habit, character or disposition.” Our concepts of ethics are derived from religions, cultures, and philosophies. They cover the dilemmas of how to live a good life, our rights and responsibilities, and moral decisions.
Ethics are based on our values. Values are standards or ideals with which we evaluate actions, people, things, or situations. Beauty, honesty, justice, peace, generosity – are all examples of values that many people endorse.
Our values help determine our principles of standard behavior. They guide or motivate our attitudes and actions. Generally, we are predisposed to adopt the values with which we are raised. So, we tend to believe that those values are “right” because they are the values of our particular culture.
It is imperative to note that ethical decision-making often involves weighing values against each other and choosing which values to elevate. Conflicts can result when people have different values, leading to a clash of preferences and priorities.
Therefore, being ethical requires making a moral judgment, and that’s not always easy. Ethical behavior takes courage and it has to be practiced with consistency. The ethical choices we make often occur in the public arena. There, we display our personal values.
So, in our daily lives, we face decisions that requires us to ask “What should I do?” If there is a law to guide us, it may seem easy – we probably just follow it. But, what if that decision requires a moral judgment and a choice involving ethics? What happens when our personal, religious and/or moral principles seem to be in conflict with the rights and values of others, or even with larger concepts of compassion and justice?
It is here – in the face of others with their own values – that the right to do something – one's individual choice – may conflict with the ethics of doing that very thing. Oh yes, liberty and legality may be deeply rooted in our values; however, shouldn't our obligation to others be just as fixed in our principles?
I believe respecting the values of others, promoting the public interest, and strengthening social equality are increasingly important. Too often today people delight in engaging in behaviors that divide society. Their decision to rebel – particularly rebellion for the sake of “raising hell” or for promoting hatred of entire groups of people – are misguided.
Many of these folks use controversial means to strengthen their ego or to further their narrow, selfish desires. Their sense of “me” makes them oblivious to the diverse values of “them.” Lost in this equation is the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Also sorely lacking is the golden corollary, the Silver Rule, which focuses on restraint and non-harm: “Do nothing to others you would not have done to you.”
Where is the application of those rules – empathy and restraint – in the continuation of support for the Confederate flag? The Lost Cause is a distorted ideology of denial that advocates the belief that the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was a just and heroic one. This ideology has furthered the belief that slavery was just and moral because it brought economic prosperity.
A person who continues to advocate for symbols of the Confederacy may likely ignore the symbols' continued representation of racism, slavery, segregation, white supremacy, intimidation of African-Americans, and treason. The ideology of the Lost Cause has furthered the belief that slavery was just and moral, because it brought economic prosperity.
In conclusion, many people make the mistake of thinking that following the law equates with being an ethical person. This is known as “ethical legalism.” The belief is flawed. The law does not prohibit many acts that would be widely condemned as unethical such as lying, cheating on one's spouse, or betraying the confidence of a friend. The laws set minimum standards of ethical behavior, and ethical people go beyond the laws in their respect for others.
When the rules are unclear, an ethical person looks beyond his/her own self-interest and evaluates the interests of the stakeholders potentially affected by the action or decision. In the case of the Confederate flag in 2020 – in Ohio, in Scioto County, places where so many Union dead inhabit our cemeteries – we are honor bound to remember those who gave their last full measure of devotion for the United States of America.
We cannot subscribe to the Sons' philosophy of preserving history and legacy of “making Dixie great again.” If they want to fly the Blood-Stained Banner, they should do so where old and divided times “are not forgotten” … in places that dangerously perpetuate the myth of the Lost Cause.
The "legacy" of the Confederate flag has always been one of systemic racism, oppression, and subjugation, and its own designer would not have denied that.
“Our idea is simply to combine the present battle flag with a pure white standard sheet; our southern cross, blue, on a red field, to take the place on the white flag that is occupied by the blue union in the old United States flag or the St. George's cross in the British flag. As a people, we are fighting to maintain the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematic of our cause. ... Such a flag would be a suitable emblem of our young confederacy ... it would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as the White Man's Flag.”
– William T. Thompson, 1863
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