Commissioners Warren Mackey and Greg Martin engaged in a lively discussion surrounding the bust of Confederate General A.P. Stewart that is on the County Courthouse lawn.
The discussed resolution 1020-30 says:
“A Resolution to remove the bust honoring Confederate Army Lt. General Alexander Peter Stewart from the grounds of the Hamilton County Courthouse, and forwarding the County’s decision to the Tennessee Historical Commission in seeking their granting of a waiver pursuant to the provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated Section 4-1-412(c)(1).”
Commissioner Mackey began by questioning how a commission that pledges allegiance every Wednesday morning to the American flag "can honor a man who fought for an army opposed to that flag."
He said, “The flag for which it stands is very close to me, and at my core. We started the day pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States. How many countries can we be loyal to? How many flags can we be loyal to at one time?”
He characterized the confederacy as “turncoats,” and said such people still exist today within the armed forces.
“I bring this resolution because you have men and women who go through boot camp, and when they get inducted they take an oath to this country. This United States of America, and then they go to war. There are times when you get someone who will decide to turncoat and fight with the enemy and kill Americans.”
He said one of the most recent examples of this are American citizens who fight for organizations such as ISIS or the Taliban. He compared those honored by Confederate statues to such figures, and asked Commissioner Martin if he would approve of putting a statue of one of those people in front of the old courthouse.
“Would you put the American Taliban statue on anybody’s courthouse? We have a statue on our courthouse of a man who went through boot camp, and then turned and started fighting with the other army, killing Americans. Why would you want to honor that?”
He closed his opening statement by positing reasons for why the statue was erected in the first place. He said the statue glorifies and misrepresents what the Confederacy stands for.
“Somewhere between the 1890s and 1920s in Southern Culture, they moved away from why the war was fought, and focused more on things like ‘chivalry’ and ‘honor’ and being gallant riding across the battlefield, as if something was great about that.
“Why won’t we deal with this and move forward? If someone can explain how A.P Stewart is a hero, please do. How do you justify it? An American killing other Americans.”
Commissioner Martin retorted by saying that the resolution does not actually give the Commission the authority to take action when it comes to the statue.
“The resolution before us does not empower the Commission with the authority to remove the bust of General A.P Stewart. That authority rests with the State of Tennessee and the vetting of its historical commission.”
He said he is against “cancel culture.” However, Commissioner Martin also said he did not support what the Confederacy stood for.
“I’m not for cancelling history and giving in to the woke crowd, because where does that end? I’m not an apologist for the Old South. They lost and wars have consequences just like elections.”
Many statues of Confederate figures began to pop up decades after the fact. While Commissioner Mackey believed these statues were a way of “rewriting history,” Commissioner Martin believed they were created as a way for families to honor their fathers and grandfathers.
“I don’t have the divine gift of judging men’s motives when they’re in the grave. Is it plausible that some wanted to honor their fathers and grandfathers before they died? I suggest that some, like the daughters of the confederacy, just wanted to honor their aging fathers,” he said.
He also mentioned Sam Davis, who was honored by his enemies, as well as a few other examples of Americans crafting monuments of their enemies. Commissioner Martin wondered how people 100 years from now will look back at what people in the present are doing.
“Have we considered in 2120, some will look down upon us for eating red meat and extracting oil out of the ground to create the greatest economy and greatest country in the history of the world? I’d say we don’t have to wait 100 years to experience the judgement of those two ‘woke’ sins against humanity.”
He pushed against the idea that the South creating statues of Confederate figures is similar to having statues of Nazis in Germany. In addition to this, Commissioner Martin said he believed that America should not allow government to tell people how to think.
“The South was nothing like the Nazis, who wanted to take over the world and exterminate every Jew they could find. One of the reasons we have memorials to the Confederacy is because we believe in the freedom to have different views. We don’t believe in the federal government or some bureaucrat telling us what we must believe or what we must think.”
Lastly, Commissioner Martin closed his statement by once more criticizing cancel culture, and brought up religion.
“What do we cancel next?” Commissioner Martin asked. “The cross, because the KKK has hijacked it? No, I will never surrender the cross or any other symbol to the cancel culture and the secular humanists. So what do we do?”
Rather than removing the statue, Commissioner Martin advocated for posting a plaque next to or onto the statue. This plaque, crafted by historians, would provide what Commissioner Martin called “context” to General Stewart and his legacy.
Commissioner Mackey ended by asking his fellow commissioner the question he asked in the beginning of the discussion.
“Name one country in any period of time that has celebrated natives from that country turning on the government of that country and killing citizens. Name one. You don’t memorialize that.”
“You made reference to Sam Davis and how the army treated prisoners from the South. They took their lead from their leader, Abraham Lincoln. He said, “With malice toward none, and charity for all.” That’s not “There is both people on good sides for Nazis” in my opinion.”
No other commissioners commented.
The Hamilton County Commission will vote on this resolution next week.