Dear Ms. Lunelle,
When the door bell rang and I opened the door, there they stood looking disheveled and disheartened; fourteen of my babies. After a very short prayer, James began....
”Mr. HK, Senator Elizabeth Warren, when she stood in the Senate Chamber and declared the Southern Army and its people of the South to be traitors, knew that she had introduced a Bill of Attainder.”
“James”, I would interject…
"what some Senator should have said was ‘excuse me Senator Warren, what you have done is introduced a Bill of Attainder here that is in violation of Articles 9 and 10, Sections 1 of each of the United States Constitution because there was no treason charge or trial ever presented against either the government or representative of the Confederate States of America.
And while there is no consequence or punitive factor against you here, and no charge against the Constitution allowed because of ruling in Maurbary vs. Madison. However, there is still a rule of law and equal protection of the law afforded to the people whose birth place of origin was in the Confederate States of America.
And if your justification for the charges you bring forward here to the change names and places of bases named after Confederates are based upon this Attainder; then we cannot move forward with these proceedings. And I would suggest that your Commission needs to avail themselves of legal Counsel.’
However, none of this was forthcoming, and she continued with her malicious libelous rant while procuring support to validate her claims from Generals of the Army (Milley, Sidule....) who should have faced a minimum Article 15 disciplinary action for entering this political arena with Warren.
Warren as I see it, overstepping the questionable boundaries of a Renaming Commission as she carried out a Thaddeus Stephens like vengeance against the men of the Honorable General Robert E. Lee and Lee himself; the proclaimed father of reconciliation. Her charge no longer changing the names of bases and streets, but elevating to her own charge of removing Cenotaphs and grave markers to include the New South (Reconciliation Cenotaph) at Arlington National Cemetery.”
“And secondly, Mr. HK,” chimed in Mary, a young Black woman, “what right does any Northern White Senator have to speak for what a Black person whose birth place of origin is in the Confederate States of America should feel about a base being named after a Confederate hero? Representative John F. Harris, a former slave, Republican member, Mississippi House of Representatives representing Washington County vote on Bill to appropriate $10,000 to complete the Confederate Monument on the grounds of the State Capitol. The Clarion Ledger, February 23, 1890 recounted:
‘Mr. Speaker! I have arisen here in my place to offer a few words on the Bill. I have come from a sick bed, and was forced to struggle up here leaning on the arm of a friend. I stand here in considerable pain. Perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But Sir, I could not rest quietly in my room, sick though I am, and allow this discussion to pass without contributing to it a few remarks of my own.
I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentleman from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier should go record as opposed to the erection of a Monument in honor of the brave dead.
And, Sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines and the seven days fighting around Richmond, the battle fields covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their country's honor, he would not have made that speech.
When the news came that the South was to be invaded those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests for monuments to commemorate their brave deeds and holy sacrifices. But they died, and their virtues should be remembered.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to HK Edgerton's Reports & Letters to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.