If states took a vote to join the Union why can’t they vote themselves out. While I don’t agree with slavery; what if you were today to go to all farms and take their machinery away ? Screwing with their ability to make a living. Same thing then . There were people and animals not John Deere, IH , Masey-Harris or Oliver to do the work. Also when Lincoln freed the slaves in the south ,the ones in the few northern states that permitted slavery were not freed til after the war.
Virginia has “Lee Jackson” day (as in “Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson”) as a state holiday as well. Up until 2002 or 2003 it was observed on the same day as the federal Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and it’s now observed on the Friday before - thus separating those admittedly odd bedfellows and also giving state employees a 4 day weekend.
Richmond also has an entire Museum dedicated to the Confederacy. Once again, in proper context, there is nothing wrong with that - it’s a significant period in American history and this area was one of the focal points.
Lincoln initially only wanted to keep the Union together, free or slave. But, with the Southern Confederacy wanting French & British recognition and the Europeans wanting to see a weakened and divided U.S., Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation after the Union victory at Antietam to give a moral, universal cause to the fight to preserve the Union and keep the Europeans out of it.
Lincolns number one priority was keeping one nation together, not giving one up for two.
Besides, once the Confederacy got into the war, Jefferson Davis realized he needed a centralized, federal government to run the war. The Confederates were heading in the same direction as had the Union prior to the war, and the confederate states’ governors ripped Davis for trying to centralize federal power at the expense of their states’ rights. If the CSA had won, I doubt it’s federal powers would have been much different than the USA, in fact, it may have been even more so.
Somehow I doubt the .mil will go along with this.
Homer: All right, Marge. We’ll get your nanny. And to pay for it, I’ll give up the Civil War Recreation Society I love so much.
[cut to Moe’s]
Moe: All right, Homer’s out. We’ll need a new General Ambrose Burnside.
Barney: I’m not too fond of our Stonewall Jackson, either.
Apu: The South shall COME AGAIN.
Objection. 
Just as we seceded from Great Britain 85 years before. What’s the difference? The Constitution Convention specifically voted down the “perpetual union” language of the Articles of Confederation.
BTW, is divorce ever OK? Just sayin’.
Interestingly as I was reading this thread the news came on and said the Governor had apologized for the proclamation and it sounded like he was rescinding it. I may have heard wrong, my wife had the news on in the other room but that was certainly what it sounded like.
I gotta say between McDonnell crawfishing on the proclamation and what the Northrop Grumman deal “looks like” he’s having a bad day. And making me wish we had a true conservative third party in VA. The Virginian Republican Party needs to get their pimp hand strong or they are going to lose even more support. I’ve never been bothered by the good ol boy politics but our good ol boys are getting pretty fuckin stupid.
As a minority myself who happen to belong to the race that was imported into this country by the Spanish long before they knew about the Dark Continent; I am glad to see that the Commonwealth of Virginia is once again celebrating its heritage THAT IS NOT RACE SPECIFIC.
IMHO, actual historical facts should never be ignored for PC reasons. Contrary to popular belief, the just because the Union’s battle cry during the Civil War may have been “free the slaves”; it doesn’t mean that this is the prime reason of that conflict. Espcially since most of the Confederate Soldiers who actually did the fighting and dying WERE NOT SLAVE OWNERS.
Celebrating the Confederancy and its demise after theCivil War should be a celebration of the bravery and honor of those who fought on both side. It should also be a reminder that this type of a conflict is counter-productive to the national goal because it involves sacrificing our Nation’s brightest from both sides. JM2CW.
Between Polk and Austin we were hijacked, and I am a member of the first 300 of Texas. I can understand the Southerners. Anyway, Virgina can do what it wants. I always marvel at the CSA monument in Comal County, downtown New Braunfels, TX. Nobody owned slaves in Comal, but yet there stands a monument. It was not fought over slavery. Maryland nearly left over banking issues early on in this nation’s history. From the get go there were issues between North and South, not to mention States period.
He was not rescinding it. He amended it with a statement condemning slavery. Placating, not rescinding. He pointed out that he had initially focused on the war, not the cause.
I think McDonnell is as close to a true conservative as you can get on the big stage these days.
People often try to turn the civil war into a very black and white issue. (no pun intended) However this is not the case. A lot of good and a lot of bad came out of it in the end. States rights took a huge hit(Bad), Slaves were freed, (Good).
History would be a lot different without a strong united states.
I don’t believe there would have ever been a solid truce between the two sides, which mean a further weakening of two already weakened countries. This of how different WW1 and WW2 would have been without a strong US involved. Or if the two countries had backed different sides in the wars.
Hard decisions were made and we have to deal with the consequences of those decisions. Trying to hold onto the past isn’t going to help anyone. Recognize it happened, honor the good people involved on both sides, and make the country we now have better.
That was put much better than I could put it.
You must have been reading Harry Turtledove. 
Actually I have had the books almost a year now and still haven’t read them. 
With the exception of being extraordinarily pro-slavery, the Constitution of the Confederacy was a fantastic document and should be studied more than it is.
650,000 lives lost, and somebody is giving him grief for saying we shouldn’t forget strikes me as absurd.
I came across this website: Black Confederate Soldiers
The South Was Right: great book that details the reasoning behind the war. It wasn’t about slavery, it was about gasp money! The South pulled in much more revenue through taxes than the North did. Read some of the editorials of the New York Times(Slimes) from the period. Wasn’t about slavery.