July 14, 201511 yr The Right Way to Remember the Confederacy To paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, America has ever been a laboratory for that democracy. The Confederacy is its most notable failed experiment. The debate over the relation of the states to the federal government had been present since independence. The idea that secession was an alternative if conflicts over sovereignty couldn’t be resolved arose often enough that it was likely to be tried eventually, and so the Confederates tried. They failed. But good scientists don’t erase their laboratory failures; they learn from them. Even today, separatist voices rail against the federal government, call for radical localism and sometimes embrace secession as a solution to parochial issues. The Confederate experience is there to remind them that going it alone means losing vastly more than there is to gain. American democracy is ever-changing, a constantly evolving work in progress. We shall be fortunate if it remains ever thus, but we need to remember our entire past in all its dimensions to inform the process and keep it alive. Ossification is the first step on the road to extinction for great ideas.
July 14, 201511 yr Author Nice summary of the issues by Dr. William C. Davis, a former executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech.
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