Debates about the causes and motives underlying the American Civil War continue unabated.

1. Still Fighting the Civil War
Dr. Bruce Clary
Thursday, January 3, 2013

2. Here’s one way the Civil War is still being fought today…
…but this isn’t the kind of fight I’m talking about.

3. Americans still fight about…
1. What was the Civil War about? What did the soldiers fight for?
2. Who was in the right? Which side can lay claim to the moral
high ground?
3. Which side fought honorably? Did the ends justify the means?
4. Which side was more racist?
3

4. Issues underlying the North/South divide
1. What is the meaning of freedom? Who is it for?
2. What is the purpose, and what are the limits, of republican
government?
3. Are all people created equal? What constitutes equal
opportunity?
4

5. Names for the Civil War
Union Sympathizers Confederate Sympathizers
The Great Rebellion The Lost Cause
The War for the Union The Yankee Invasion
The War for Abolition The War for States’ Rights
The Southern Rebellion The Second American Revolution
The War of the Rebellion The War for Southern Independence
The War Against Slavery The War Against Northern Aggression

6. Protest signs at the dedication:
April 12
• “Just say NO to America’s greatest WAR CRIMINAL — the murderer
of 600,000!!”
• “NO LINCOLN MEMORIAL Not even with a rope around his neck”
• Build a JOHN WILKES BOOTH statue instead!”
Bragdon Bowling, Virginia division commander of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans, was a speaker at the protest. He said,
“As a Southerner, I’m offended. You wouldn’t put a statue of
Winston Churchill in downtown Berlin, would you? What’s next,
a statue of Sherman in Atlanta?”

7. May 2010
Texas State Board of
Education requires
history textbooks to
include the Jefferson
Davis’s Inaugural
Address. The address is
atypical in that it does
not mention slavery.

8. The Confederate Battle Flag…
A constant source of controversy

9. This is not an assignment, but
I encourage you to poke around the Internet,
find other examples of Americans
still fighting the Civil War
and bring them to class to share.