Confederate Memorial Historically Appropriate

Several aspects of the proposal to include in a memorial at Harvard alumni who died in the service of the Confederacy have been mistated or confusingly stated. As has been said before, the difficulty in proving what happened in an intersection accident only months ago demonstrates how unlikely it is that we can historically reconstruct events or mentalities 100 years ago or more. Some random points that may help put the project in perspective:

1. The project developed because of a letter in Harvard Magazine about two years ago listing 68 Harvard alumni (half from the Law School) who died in the service of the Confederacy. Since Memorial Hall was about to undergo renovation, it appeared to be a good time to those of us who read the magazine to suggest adding the names in an appropriate fashion. In my case, I always thought all alumni were included and was surprised to learn otherwise.

2. There is no legal reason why all alumni names cannot be included somewhere in Memorial Hall or on its grounds. I have read the original deeds of gift, and the only concern was to protect the seriousness of the memorial. Nowhere is there any language that even mentions the Confederacy. Remember how the dead were honored in the 19th century.

3. Yale already memorializes its alumni who fell on both sides in the Civil War, and Calhoun College is named for John C. Calhoun, the author of much secessionist political theory such as the nullification doctrine to protect minority rights.

4. African-Americans voluntarily served for both sides in the Civil War, surely for a variety of personal reasons, i.e. friendship, location, chance, money. The Confederacy also had Native American nations as allies, and a Cherokee, Stand Watie, served as a brigadier general in the Confederate army. The Confederacy also had a cabinet member who was Jewish. The United States had none of the above at that time.

5. The first slave holder in America was a free African-American who owned other African-Americans. His name was Anthony Johnson, and the first court case in North America establishing the right to own slaves was brought by him in Northampton County, Virginia, in 1653 with respect to a runaway slave named John Casor. The court's decision established the right to enforce lifetime servitude for the first time in the English American colonies over a person who had committed no crime.

All of the above are simply examples of the ambiguity of history. What we do today has less to do with what actually happened in the past than what drives our passions today. The proposal to honor all fallen Harvard alumni in the Civil War was an innocent (and naive) gesture to add to the general knowledge of what happened in mid-19th century America. Like Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes, I have concluded "Alas,...That day has [not] arrived," but for a different additional reason. We should have known better in our times to bring up the subject when the very integrity of history is so much at risk. --Walter S. Rowland '61   Wilmington, Del.