Three military veterans said the sacrifices soldiers made for the United States should be honored, not Confederate soldiers now showcased on the Talbot County Courthouse lawn.
The veterans were among 82 who participated in a virtual rally held Tuesday by the nonpartisan Move the Monument Coalition. Because of a recent spike of COVID-19 cases, the rally, the seventh held by the coalition, was conducted on Zoom.
Mia Mason, a retired veteran of the Navy, Army and DC National Guard who ran as a candidate this year for Congress in Maryland District One, said that the monument should be removed to another site and veterans who have fought for their country should be honored instead. “In its place should be [memorials to] our veterans of the Eastern Shore who have been serving since Desert Storm,” she said.
Carl Tankersley, who retired as a Commander after serving 25 years in the Navy, said that he appreciated that families wanted to honor their ancestors. But, he said, the monument to the “defeated enemy of our country” should be moved.
“It does not deserve a spot on the courthouse lawn,” he said. “To me the courthouse is where we honor ‘one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.’”
Jim Richardson, who was drafted into the Army in 1970 and served in Vietnam with the 23rd Infantry Division as an infantryman and later as a combat artist, praised the recent addition of the three memorials to veterans of World War I, World War II and Korea as well as the statue of Frederick Douglass on the courthouse lawn.
By contrast, he said, the Talbot Boys memorial “clearly a symbol of racism, thumbs its nose at the Frederick Douglass statue and to Talbot veterans honored on nearby memorials. I firmly believe this monument fails to meet the high standards for a memorial in the public space and it needs to be removed.”
The rally is part of an ongoing commitment to gather on the nights the Talbot County Council meets to send the message that their 3-to-2 vote to leave the statue in place does not represent the sentiments of the majority of Talbot County’s citizens who will continue to push for its removal.
For more information, contact: [email protected] Also, visit our Facebook page at Move the Confederate Talbot Boys Monument.
Paul Callahan says
I would ask that the Spy re-consider the title of this article. Many readers assume that this is a position taken by “Veterans” as a group instead of three individuals who happen to be veterans. The title should state “Three Veterans” so as not to mislead the public.
I am a veteran, a former Marine Corps Officer and I could not disagree more. I seriously doubt that any of these individuals understand what happened to Maryland in the US Civil War and the Constitutional crisis they faced.
Any veteran of our modern military, particularly an Officer understand they took an oath to the Constitution and to protect the same from all enemies both foreign and domestic. Secondly, they took an oath too obey all “lawful” orders. I know Officers were trained on what is and what is not a lawful order. For example an order to execute non-combatant civilians or to bombard an American city must be refused – even if that order came from the President himself.
The issue with Maryland during the US Civil war is that the President committed so many Constitutional abuses against our State and issued so many unlawful orders without explanation or authorization from Congress, while at the same time ignoring a US Supreme Court Justice’s order to stop, ultimately resulted in many Patriots rising against this abuse.
Now there are “excuses” given today as to why Mr. Lincoln did this but the fact remains that Mr. Lincoln used power that was not given to him by the Constitution, or was reserved exclusively for Congress. The fact remains that the US Supreme Court in 1866 ruled that Mr. Lincoln had violated the Constitution by his policy of allowing his troops to imprison and execute non-combatant civilians – most of which were Marylanders.
What were the actions taken by Mr. Lincoln that violated our Constitution?
He Instructed his top commander to immediately bombard Maryland Cities if Maryland resisted.
He sent troops to occupy the jurisdictions of Maryland without authorization of our Governor, our Legislature or US Congress. This was by no means a “friendly” occupation. Military records record 450 rapes committed by occupying forces, personal property was confiscated, citizens were beaten.
He suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus to all Marylanders.
He allowed his occupying Military to imprison thousands of Marylanders based upon their political beliefs.
Marylanders were subject to unlawful search and seizures by Federal forces.
He allowed his military to execute non-combatant Marylanders.
He had the Baltimore Mayor, city council and its police commissioner arrested and replaced by Federal Officers.
Mr. Lincoln had Maryland’s representative to the US Congress, Congressman Mays, imprisoned without charges.
He violated the 2nd Amendment both for our civilians and our Militia, confiscating arms and munitions and arresting the Militia Commanders.
He violated the first amendment by censoring and shutting down newspapers throughout the State, along with imprisoning many journalist and editors just for reporting the events above. Francis Howard Key a journalist who reported on the happenings in Baltimore was imprisoned at Fort McHenry. Francis thought this quite ironic since he was the grandson fo Francis Scott Key who wrote the Star Spangle Banner about the flag flying above Fort McHenry nearly 50 years prior at the same location. “ The Home of the Free”? The editor of the Easton Star was also imprisoned.
Our Talbot County Judge, Judge Carmichael had his courthouse surrounded by 125 Federal Troops. Judge Carmichael was beaten unconscious and drug out of our own Courthouse. His crime? – attempting to give Constitutional protections to Talbot citizens unlawfully arrested by Federal troops.
Our Maryland Legislature did all they could with formal protests outlining all of these abuses to our US Congress. Mr. Lincoln had them arrested.
Our elections were violated with General Dix, the Union Commander, implementing a plan to manipulate our elections. This included the arrest of political opponents, intimidation of voters at the polls, and allowing all Union troops, citizens of other States, to vote in Maryland’s elections.
The uniformed may mistakenly excuse this by stating it was a cause against slavery – it was not, at least until the Emancipation Proclamation in the War’s third year- well after the men of Talbot made their decision as to who they must fight for. They were forced to choose, most were members of our Militia which Mr. Lincoln ordered to be transferred to Federal authority to invade the South – something most Marylanders believed to be Constitutionally and morally wrong.
Additionally our reconstituted Legislature, the one that had the approval of Mr. Lincoln after many members of the original were arrested, issued a proclamation to the people of Maryland (December 1861) telling them that both Mr. Lincoln and the US Congress proclaimed that the war was not about slavery and was only about Union. They stated slavery was protected by the US Constitution and would remain in effect after the Southern States were brought back.
We today have the hindsight to see how things turned out – those men of that day did not have our luxury and actually had to live those events and make decisions.
We as citizens should never excuse or accept the abuse of our Constitution by a President, either then or now. The Constitution has remedies and the President has limited power given to him by the Constitution. Our Constitution is perfect, men are not.
Fellow Veterans, I ask you to head my words written above and ask yourself “When do Patriots Rise?” I write this not in chastisement but to inform and I write this with the trust and I integrity as a former Officer, but always a Marine, who also took an oath to our Constitution.
Each statement above has been fully researched, from Mr. Lincoln’s own hand written order to have our cities bombarded to the Proclamations issued by the Legislature and recorded in Maryland’s archives.
Your status as a a veteran is being inappropriately used to support a political or social cause. Though that cause may be just – if they desire to use our history or our veterans in support of that cause, it must first and foremost be based upon truth.
As for our non-veterans – I would like to know what position would you take today if our current President committed the exact same Constitutional abuses?
Please no “lost cause” myth comments, that just shows that you know little about what that statement really means. “Lost cause” was about the confederacy – everything I have written is about MARYLAND.