Statues and Stupid People

 I subscribe to the American Spectator. I started reading it in the 1990's with their coverage of the Whitewater Development and what was called "Troopergate". It went on with their coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky and Clinton-Paula Jones affairs. They publish a quarterly print issue which I normally read about six months after I receive it. I get most of my entertainment from their website which is updated every day during the week. I also subscribe to the A.M. Spectator, a newsletter which arrives in my e-mail every morning on "business days". Not the restaurant business days but that Monday to Friday schedule cult business days. The A.M. Spectator is written by Daniel Flynn.

On December 16, Mr. Flynn had in the newsletter the story below. A Ross Kaminsky responded and that was published on December 19. On December 20, I submitted a response to Mr. Kaminsky's letter, but that will obviously never be published. So, I have published it here. "Murder the Statues" and "Letter: No to Taney" were published in the AM Spectator.

Murder the Statues 

Roger Taney emancipated his own slaves even as he authored the dreadful Dred Scott decision. Accentuate-the-negative members of Taney’s political party focus on the latter in passing legislation to remove a bust of the former chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from the Capitol. “The bust of Roger B. Taney, the nation's fifth chief justice, sits inside the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol,” the Associated Press explains. “The chamber is where the high court met from 1810 until 1860. Taney led the court in that period, from 1836 to 1864.” So, it makes sense, from a historical perspective, to include a bust of Taney in the very place where he led a branch of the federal government. But Democrats, now the party of Talibanning statuary, do not like such unpleasant reminders of their history as Bull Connor, Franklin Roosevelt appointing a former Klansman to the Supreme Court, and Roger Taney.  

Letter: No to Taney

When I visited the Capitol with about 40 show listeners in July, we had the opportunity to see the Old Supreme Court Chamber. Upon walking into the opening vestibule, I noted Roger Taney’s bust and said to those around me something like, “He does not deserve to be here.” It is not an example of cancel culture, which I disdain, to suggest that a man who authored one of the worst and most egregiously racist decisions in Supreme Court history need not be given that particular place of honor. This is not the same as saying he should be removed entirely from display as he is an important historical figure. But as the main statue greeting you when you enter such a lovely and important room? Not just no, but hell no.

It’s worth noting that I also told my listeners that I was surprised to see the statue of John C. Calhoun in statuary hall. Calhoun is a very interesting historical figure as well. Brilliant man but functioned as the philosophical underpinning of the Confederacy as he attempted to put an intellectual and “natural order of things” gloss on slavery. Again, a very important guy and I did not say that his statue shouldn’t be there as much as I was surprised that it still was given the times we live in and given the evil he also perpetrated. Finally, I note that like so many statues of major figures of the Confederacy, the Calhoun statue was put in place well after the Civil War (1910 in this case), most likely to remind blacks that they were still thought of as below—far below—whites by a certain segment of our population. Given that, I understand why legislation was proposed to remove that statue as well as Taney. But they couldn’t get enough support to get rid of Calhoun so they’re just dispensing with Taney. Again, the Calhoun statue is a tougher call than the Taney one since it is, and always will be, important to remind people to study and think about unpleasant things in our history in an effort to avoid repeating them.

Ross Kaminsky   Denver, Colorado

RMOL Response, (unpublished by the American Spectator)

Mr. Kaminsky's comments about the reasons for the statue of John C. Calhoun being placed in 1910 are just another episode of the "Big Lie" story about American history. It worked for Hitler, maybe it will work for liberals.

In American culture, we have traditionally erected statues and created memorials long after people die. However, this is changing as we now erect statues to living movie stars, sports heroes and fictional characters (E.g., Rocky Balboa). 

Just for comparison, the Washington Monument was not completed until 1884. Why so long? The Lincoln Memorial was not even started until 1914. Did this have some racial overtones? The Lincoln cent was first issued in 1909. Was Calhoun's statue a response to this? The Jefferson Memorial was completed in 1943. Was this a WW 2 era response to fascism? The WW 2 Memorial opened in 2004, almost sixty years after the war ended. WW2 was the biggest war in history and yet we waited sixty years to build a memorial? The Korean War Memorial was opened in 1995, more than forty years after the fighting stopped. There is no national World War 1 monument. There is a clear pattern here and even leftists trying to rewrite history should be able to see it.

There are two lessons here for those who seek to change history. First, if you want to honor your heroes, you have to let other people honor their heroes. Second, Freud was correct. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Thanks,

Gilbert Jones

And furthermore!

I submitted the "Readers Digest" version of my letter to the AM Spectator for (non)publication. Here are other comments that I culled hoping for publication.

Roger Taney freed his slaves and even provided funds to assist the older ones. Yes, he did write the Dred Scott decision. Unlike many justices, Taney did not allow his personal feelings on a subject to interfere with his ruling. While freeing his slaves indicated his personal feeling that slavery was immoral, he did not let that affect his judicial decision. As a judge, his job was to decide what the law said. Obviously, he and a majority on the court decided that the Constitution did not outlaw slavery. 

It was a 7-2 vote on the Dred Scott verdict. Quick, name a justice other than Taney on that court. Are all of the six others who voted with Taney being attacked by the left?

Mr. Kaminsky vacillates on whether John C. Calhoun's statue should be there. John Calhoun served in the House of Representatives, served in the Senate, served as the Secretary of War, served as the Secretary of State, and served two terms as Vice President of the United States under two different Presidents.  In today's world, a radio host thinks that he has the right to decide whether or not there can be a statue of Calhoun in the U.S. Capitol. Really? How low can we go?

The Communists on the left like to claim that the South erected statues around the same time to support the Jim Crow laws. They also claim that there were more memorials erected during the Civil Rights struggle to demoralize the civil rights activists. 

In fact, the first wave of statues came around the start of the 20th century when the economy of the South had recovered, and the old veterans were starting to die off. The peak of the Civil Rights struggle occurred during the time of the Civil War Centennial. Those on the left who claim that all memorials are racist have not read a history book and certainly can't read a calendar.

What was the actual cause of Jim Crow laws? The Jim Crow laws were a result of "Reconstruction". The North's "Reconstruction" policies caused the Jim Crow laws just like the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 caused Adolf Hitler's rise to power and WW 2.  Follow the science, for every action there is a reaction.

It's time for us to stop judging people from the past by the moral standards of 21st century leftists in America. You can bet your ass that Roger Taney knew there were only two genders. A Supreme Court justice today claims that she cannot define what a "woman" is. What will the left do when people in the future talk about Roe V. Wade and Warren Burger the way they talk about Dred Scott and Roger Taney now?