Removing Confederate Generals portraits?

[J. Beckert]

My point was, when stating that they became part of the Union again, was that they assimilated back into a country that was facing a long, painful process of Reconstruction. I'm sure that wasn't easy, but they were again part of the U.S. That period is a study in itself. I think the words "a new birth of freedom" mark what would be the beginning of molding the U.S. into something much different than it was in 1861.

To say that not all Southerners today believed in what the CSA did implies that we have to beat this dead horse until everyone agrees that all Southerners were evil, slave raping and beating heathens, which is simply untrue. We don't have to agree with the mores of the time, we have to view them in the context of the beliefs of those who lived in them. They lived in a different world and to apply what we think is right to them and extinguish any reference to valiant men who served their country with distinction because it doesn't jive with certain ideologies is just wrong.