Confederate Quotes

• The flag that was the symbol of slavery on the high seas for a long time was not the Confederate battle flag, it was sadly the Stars and Stripes.

  Alan Keyes

  Stars, Sea, Long

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• There are among us those that would criticize our Confederate ancestors. Would you allow a stranger to come into your house and criticize your little ones? I say it's not whether we should be ashamed of our fathers and mothers of the Old Confederacy. I say it's a question of whether they should be ashamed of us.

  Calvin Johnson

  Mother, Father, House

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• The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a 'rebellion' is a gross abuse of language.

  Jefferson Davis

  Government, League, Abuse

  Jefferson Davis (1971). “The rise and fall of the Confederate Government”, Peter Smith Pub Inc

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• The flags of the Confederate States of America were very important and a matter of great pride to those citizens living in the Confederacy. They are also a matter of great pride for their descendants as part of their heritage and history.

  Winston Churchill

  Pride, America, Important

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  Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

  George Santayana

  Past, Infancy Is, History

  "The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress", Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense by George Santayana, 1905-1906.

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  The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.

  Stonewall Jackson

  Country, Peace, Military

  Attributed to Stonewall Jackson in "Stonewall Jackson: An Address" by Hunter McGuire (p. 16), 1897.

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• A doctor today would never prescribe the treatments my grandfather used in the Confederate Army, but a minister says pretty much the same thing today that a minister would have said back then.

  John Templeton

  Optimistic, Army, Doctors

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• The dangers which threaten us are twofold: First, from the Confederate forces, composed of men whose earnest convictions and reckless bravery it is idle to deny.

  Robert Dale Owen

  Men, Ethos, Bravery

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  There are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers , but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels.

  Frederick Douglass

  Real, War, Army

  "The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: The Civil War, 1861-1865".

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• Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery . . . is his natural and normal condition.

  Alexander H. Stephens

  War, Men, White Man

  Alexander H. Stephens' “Corner Stone” Speech, teachingamericanhistory.org. March 21, 1861.

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• I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.

  Howard Dean

  Guy, Flags, Want

  "Dems battle over Confederate flag". Des Moines Register Interview, edition.cnn.com. November 2, 2003.

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• According to its doctors, my one intransigent desire is to have been a Confederate general, and because I could not or would not become anything else, I set up for poet and beg an to invent fictions about the personal ambitions that my society has no use for.

  Allen Tate

  Ambition, Doctors, Desire

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

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• Narcissism and the Confederate dead cannot be connected logically, or even historically; even were the connection an historical fact, they would not stand connected as art, for no one experiences raw history.

  Allen Tate

  Art, Historical, Connections

  Allen Tate (1999). “Essays of Four Decades”, Isi Books

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• For black folks, the Confederate flag represents the same thing that the Nazi flag represents to the Jews. There is absolutely no difference when we look at it. Now, white folks try to explain it away like, 'Oh, it's OK.' But when you're black, it is not OK. It represents oppression and murder.

  Ken Page

  White, Differences, Black

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• They do not know what they say. If it came to a conflict of arms, the war will last at least four years. Northern politicians will not appreciate the determination and pluck of the South, and Southern politicians do not appreciate the numbers, resources, and patient perseverance of the North. Both sides forget that we are all Americans. I foresee that our country will pass through a terrible ordeal, a necessary expiation, perhaps, for our national sins.

  Robert E. Lee

  Country, Perseverance, Determination

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• Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

  Alexander H. Stephens

  Philosophical, Men, Race

  Cornerstone Speech, Delivered 21 March 1861, Savannah, Georgia

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• It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.

  Patrick Cleburne

  Giving Up, War, Military

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• If Wild Bill could have made his successful dash into our lines earlier in the day, the attuck would have been made sooner, and greater results might have been expected. The Confederates had suspected him of being a spy for two or three days, and had watched him too closely to allow an opportunity to get away from them sooner.

  Buffalo Bill

  Two, Spy, Three

  "Story of the Wild West and Camp-fire Chats".

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• The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States.

  Laurence M. Keitt

  Party, Government, Democracy

  "Congressman from South Carolina, in a speech to the House". The Congressional Globe, January 25, 1860.

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• Throughout history, every government that's printed money, the money has eventually gone to its ultimate value which is zero. Remember? The confederate dollar went to zero. The continental went to zero. That's what happens when you have a bank that's allowed to print as much money as it wants to.

  Robert Kiyosaki

  Zero, Government, Dollars

  16 Copy quote

• The landscape in Montgomery and in the South is just saturated with imagery. Markers are everywhere. There's a marker for the first Confederate post office, there's a marker for a ball that Robert E. Lee hosted, there's a marker for where Jefferson Davis had a meeting. We love reminding people about all that was going on in the mid-nineteenth century.

  Bryan Stevenson

  People, Office, Balls

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Well, it is all over now. The battle is lost, and many of us are prisoners, many are dead, many wounded, bleeding and dying. Your Soldier lives and mourns and but for you, my darling, he would rather, a million times rather, be back there with his dead, to sleep for all time in an unknown grave.

  George Pickett

  Military, War, Sleep

  George Edward Pickett, La Salle Corbell Pickett (1913). “The Heart of a Soldier: As Revealed in the Intimate Letters of Genl. George E. Pickett”

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• Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret.

  Robert E. Lee

  Regret, Views, Light

  Robert E. Lee, Ben Wynne (2004). “Recollections and Letters”, p.221, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• ...there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate Army...as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government...There were such soldiers at Manassas and they are probably there still.

  Frederick Douglass

  Real, War, Army

  Frederick Douglass (1952). “The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: The Civil War, 1861-1865”

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• Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.

  Robert E. Lee

  Gratitude, Army, Wish

  John Esten Cooke, Robert E. Lee (2017). “General Robert E. Lee: The True Story of the Infamous “Marble Man”: The Life & Legacy of Robert E. Lee, Including & Personal Writings, Speeches and Orders”, p.43, Madison & Adams

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