When I was 22, I was drafted into the army. I remember the somber and emotional moment when I raised my right hand and took the oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” The year was 1970, and the Vietnam War was still raging and far from over. Close to a half-million American troops were stationed there, halfway around the world. Like many young men during that time, I was conflicted about the war, but nevertheless, I did my duty as an infantryman. I eventually came home safely – others were not so lucky. Their names and the dates of their deaths are inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.
Recently, three new granite war memorials were installed on the public grounds of the Talbot County Courthouse commemorating the soldiers from the county who did not return from WWI, WWII, and the Korean War. These memorials are a welcome addition to the Talbot County Vietnam Memorial that had previously been erected there. As a veteran and as a citizen of Talbot County, I applaud the presence of both the new memorials as well as the statue of Frederick Douglass that stands on the green to the north of them. The war memorials honor the men who fought for liberty and made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. The Frederick Douglass statue, in turn, pays tribute to a giant American patriot who was the principle moral compass for the nation during the Civil War and the years that followed, and was unquestionably the most well-known orator of his day.
What disturbs me, however, is the presence of the oldest of the monuments on the courthouse grounds, a Confederate monument commonly known as the “Talbot Boys” statue. This monument clearly a symbol of racism, thumbs its nose at Douglass and the Talbot veterans honored on the nearby memorials. Standing between them, it remains a stark contradiction that many, including three of our council members, Price, Divilio, and Callahan, choose to ignore. As a veteran, I firmly believe this monument, depicting its racially offensive Confederate flag, fails to meet the high standards of the other monuments located in the public space, and needs to be removed.
The Confederate soldiers names carved into its granite base never took the military oath that I and millions of others took “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” – quite the opposite. Their allegiance was to those states that chose to leave the Union and continue the institution of slavery. These soldiers never fought for anyone’s freedom. Instead, they sided with those who held the sinister belief of a white man’s right to own another. Contrary to what many believe, after the Civil War ended, these Confederate soldiers were not given status as veterans. It’s true, as a humanitarian gesture, their wives were able to receive benefits, but their husbands were never recognized as true veterans of the United States.
This all begs the question: What would Frederick Douglass think of this glaring contradiction if he were alive today? A recently published biography of Douglass, entitled Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight, gives us a fairly good idea. Talbot County’s most famous son, was the country’s most important civil rights leader during the last half of the 19th Century. He was also a crucial advisor to President Abraham Lincoln during the years of Reconstruction. Douglass felt strongly that history mattered and feared the Lost Cause sentimentality that was rapidly spreading across the Southern States soon after the Civil War. This was the same Southern historical fiction that was used to justify the erection of the Talbot Boys statue on the courthouse grounds in 1916 at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was at its peak and Jim Crow laws were being cruelly enforced by lynchings throughout the South and in many of the border states including Maryland.
According to Blight, Douglass believed such sentimentality was wrong and dangerous. He was equally upset with the veneration of General Robert E. Lee after he died in 1870, disgusted at what he called the “bombastic laudation” and the “nauseating flatteries” of the “rebel chief.” Douglass concluded, “He, (meaning Lee), was a traitor and can be made nothing else.” Like Douglass, I can think of no other country after experiencing such a horrific civil war, would be so magnanimous and eager to honor its enemy. The South’s keenness to honor Confederate generals with statues as well as romanticize the Confederate cause, I believe, is one of the principle reasons that this country, more than 150 years after the Civil War had ended, has not been able to heal its racial wounds.
Finally, let me be absolutely clear, those of us who want this monument to be removed from the courthouse grounds, do not wish to destroy it, or as some would argue, to erase history. All we ask is that members of the County Council find another location for the monument and not allow it to continue to be the last Confederate monument to stand on Maryland public land. That is certainly a distinction, but not one we should be proud of. There is no question in my mind, this monument that shamelessly honors traitors and continues to spread the false history of the Lost Cause, will be removed.
Jim Richardson is an artist and writer who lives in Claiborne, Maryland.
Paul Callahan says
As a veteran myself I would like you to do some basic research into your assumptions about the events of that time.
Please review President Lincoln’s inauguration speech of 1861 and Frederick Douglass’ Freemen’s monument speech of 1876. Then please review the proclamation published by the Maryland State legislature in December of 1861. With this you will discover that Mr Lincoln had no intention of abolishing slavery when he sent troops into the South. You will also discover that slavery was protected by the US Constitution throughout the war and did not become a war objective until the Emancipation Proclamation in the war’s third year and the same freed no slaves in Maryland or the Union’s other slave States.
After that you can look up the Constitutional abuses suffered by Marylanders which included; unlawful imprisonment of thousands of citizens, violations of the 1st and 2nd amendments, unlawful arrests of our Talbot County Judge, Militia Commander, the Baltimore Council and police commissioners, Maryland’s representative to the US Congress, and finally the arrest of Maryland’s Legislature.
You will also discover that Mr Lincoln sent in Federal troops and Provost Marshals to oversee each local government in Maryland.
After this review you will better understand why men from Talbot rose in opposition.
Though I was a Marine Officer you don’t have to take my word, except for Mr Lincoln’s and Mr. Douglass’ speeches (which you can look up with google), every bit of this is documented in the Maryland historical archives which you can review online.
If you do so you will see how our Legislature documented these abuses, proclaimed that such was a gross violation of the US Constitution and published these findings throughout Maryland.
You will also discover their repeated protests to Congress and to Mr. Lincoln…. right up to the point where they were arrested. Their arrest and imprisonment is also documented by the Chief Clerk of the Legislature and is in the archives.
Our history is not always what we have been told by others…..
Semper Fi….
Glenn Baker says
When I was 19 I was drafted into the US Army. Not sure what that has to due with the War Between the States and our brave citizens.
Paul Callahan has been making the same points about our local history and the invasion of Federal Forces in Talbot County for several years.
Yet we still have folks who don’t know or want to know the history as it was.
I can’t image what would happen today if our elected officials were locked up, our Judge beaten in the Talbot County Courthouse, our newspapers closed and troops stationed in town to guard and suppress our citizens for 4 years.
Clive R. Ewing Easton, MD says
The federal government violated the U.S. Constitution and Marylanders paid a heavy price. The June 1861 MD General Assembly resolution says it all, “Now therefore, be it resolved, That the Senate and House of Delegates of Maryland, in the name and on behalf of the good people of the State, do accordingly register this their earnest and unqualified protest against the oppressive and tyrannical assertion and exercise of military jurisdiction within the limits of Maryland, over the person and property of her citizens, by the Government of the United States, and do solemnly declare the same to be subversive of the most sacred guaranties of the Constitution, and in flagrant violation of the fundamental and most cherished principles of American free government.”
This history is unique to Maryland. Visit Point Lookout and Ft. McHenry, read about how private MD citizens were imprisoned there and elsewhere, without trial, and many dying while incarcerated. Due process? Read about our Judge Carmichael, dragged from the bench, and beaten by federal “authorities” because Lincoln disagreed with his rulings. Separation of powers? This incident was so appalling, the local paper called it “a tragedy to surpass in atrocity the most infamous deeds in history”. Of course, then the local paper’s editor fell into disfavor from the federal masters, and he was arrested. Freedom of the press? Might these incidents alone compel 84 local men to resist? Damn right they did.
JT Smith says
As a fellow Vietnam era veteran (USAF), I applaud Jim Richardson’s cogent recitation of the arguments that the Talbot Boys have long outlived their Jim Crow status on the Courthouse lawn. I remain interested in Paul Callahan’s vigorous counterpoint, which illuminates the challenges posed to Lincoln’s leadership in a Capital City surrounded by Confederate Virginia and split sympathy Maryland. His interesting history does not justify continuing honor at the entrance to the courthouse to the rebel fraction of Talbot citizens.
paul Callahan says
As veterans of our modern military we must honestly ask ourselves when is it ok for Patriots to rise? We took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. When does the domestic enemies come into play? Only when directed by the President? What if it is the President?
We also took an oath to obey all lawful orders with emphasis on lawful. We were instructed that we were not to follow unlawful orders even if given by the President himself. If you were ordered to execute a civilian non-combatant would you have done it? I doubt it. If you were ordered to level an American city with your artillery, would you follow that order? I certainly hope not. Mr. Lincoln had instructed his top military commander to immediately bombard Maryland’s cities if Maryland resisted. Federal troops under the authorization of Mr. Lincoln imprisoned and executed non-combatant civilians.
We also understand that our Constitution is worthless without Americans willing to stand up for it, willing to sacrifice all for its principles.
The argument to remove the Talbot Boys is on the moral accusation that they fought to preserve slavery. Unless Mr. Lincoln lied in his inauguration speech and other proclamations, unless Frederick Douglass lied in his speech before President Grant, members of Congress and the US Supreme Court, and unless Governor Hicks and the Maryland Legislature inputted false documents and journals into the historical archives, we know for certain when the men from Talbot rose the conflict had nothing to do about fighting for or against slavery. It was over Union and for Marylanders it was over the severe Constitutional violations against her citizens and State.
As described by our Legislature at that time Maryland was grappling with severe Constitutional issues the likes of which no American State has had to deal with either before or after. The documents also clearly reveal that Maryland was faced with the great moral issue of not wanting to take arms against their fellow countrymen for a cause they believed Unconstitutional. With Mr. Lincoln tasking Maryland to provide her militias for his cause, this moral dilemma was also imposed upon the members of our militia of which we believe most of the Talbot Boys were members.
As Americans we believe in the rule of law, but what if the rule of law is denied us? We know for certain our Talbot County Judge, Judge Carmichael was beaten unconscious in our courthouse and imprisoned by Federal troops. What crime did this Judge commit? Judge Carmicle was beaten and imprisoned for attempting to give our Talbot citizens previously arrested by Federal troops their Constitutional protections. He knew he was in grave danger but he did his duty to the best of his ability. Was our Judge right? YES! – by the decision of the US Supreme Court!
Late in the war Federal forces stationed in Indiana arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to death an Indiana civilian. President Lincoln sent his military commander a message that he wanted this man executed as soon as possible. Somehow his case came to the US Supreme Court who made their ruling in 1866. The US Supreme Court stated that the President must comply with the US Constitution both in peace and in time of war. They stated the US Constitution requires that, even if Habeas Corpus is temporarily suspended, the military had no authority to try or sentence civilians when the District, Circuit and Federal Courts are open in the State and must be turned over to the civilian courts within 20 days. (Exparte Milligan, 1866 which you can google) This is exactly what Judge Carmichael tried to do!
Please do not for an instant think that I do not support peaceful protests for social change. I certainly believe that our liberties were not given to us by our government but by people demanding these liberties. I just believe that truth must always be put first. I also understand that history is not always what we have been told.
I pose my question again – when is it ok for patriots to rise?
Vickie Wilson says
Jim, thanks for your service
Dick Deerin says
Hear, Hear. Well said. I agree completely. The Confederate Monument must be removed from the public grounds of our Talbot County Circuit Courthouse.
Paul Callahan says
Jim,
According to the US Supreme Court in Exparte Milligan 71 U.S 2 (1861) President Lincoln violated the US Constitution by authorizing and allowing his Federal Forces to imprison and execute United States civilians in the States that had not seceded. So by your definition provided, Mr. Lincoln as determined by the Supreme Court’s ruling, betrayed both the US Constitution and the people of Maryland by violating their Constitutional rights. Will you ignore this fact? Or should we go by your opinion instead of the US Supreme Court?
I have cited documents from the States historical archives, the proclamations made by Mr. Lincoln and speeches given by Mr. Douglass. You have provided your own opinion. Who is attempting to revise history here?
By the way “the lost cause” had nothing to do with Maryland’s history.
History is what it is, and if we forget it we will repeat it.
If we did not have citizens willing to stand against tyranny we would still be British.
“Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places” (Douglass 1876)
Jim Richardson says
Definition of a TRAITOR: 1. A person who betrays another, a cause, or any trust. 2. A person who commits treason by betraying his or her country.
FACT: There are 84 Confederate soldiers’ names carved into the “Talbot Boys” monument base who chose to betray their country, for whatever reason. By definition, they are all traitors. It appears to me that Mr. Callahan, Mr. Ewing, and Mr. Baker choose to ignore this fact and instead continue to support the false revisionist history of the “Lost Cause.”