Amy Goodman: Can you talk a little, Professor McPherson, about your thoughts about the Museum of the Confederacy?
James McPherson: Surely. Actually, I spoke at Tredegar back in 1992 when it was still under the auspices of the Valentine Museum in Richmond, which is a museum mostly for the history of the city of Richmond. Subsequently, they had financial problems, and I'm not quite sure what the status of the Tredegar is now, but I know the Museum of the Confederacy is hoping to acquire it and administer it. I think I agree a hundred percent with Ed Sebesta, though, about the motives or the hidden agenda -- not too deeply hidden, I think -- of such groups as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. They are dedicated to celebrating the Confederacy and rather thinly veiled support for white supremacy. And I think that also is the -- again, not very deeply hidden -- agenda of the Confederate flag issue in several Southern states. I do think, though, that the Museum of the Confederacy as it exists today is in a different category. Its founding motives back in the 1890s -- at the same time that the United Confederate Veterans and the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans were founded -- its founding motives were celebratory. But over time -- and especially in the last decade or two -- it has become a much more professional research-oriented, professional exhibit-oriented facility.
Amy Goodman: But what about when you have, for example, these balls every year like the Lone Star Ball that George Bush wrote the letter of congratulations for when -- you know, well, it takes place at the Tredegar, which is where they made the armaments. They wear period dress, they have all the flags of the Confederacy flying.
James McPherson: I can't -- I think the motives of people who raise money for the Museum and who attend balls in period costume and so on probably range from celebratory to genuinely historical, so there is a dimension to that. But I do think that the Museum of the Confederacy is now a research and professional museum in the same category as other highly regarded museums around the country. Some of its supporters, I'm sure, some of its sponsors, some of its members of the Board of Trustees are undoubtedly neo-Confederate. I do know that back in 1992 and 1993 the Museum of the Confederacy had a special exhibit on slavery and on the relationship of slavery and the Civil War which the old guard in Richmond, who identified with the Confederate heritage, were very angry about because that exhibit made all the same kinds of points that either Ed Sebesta or I would make about the Civil War, that slavery was at the root of the conflict that led to the War, that slaves played a major part as labor force for the Confederacy but also a major part as soldiers for the Union. They've also had a good exhibit on reconstruction and on the creative, positive roles played by blacks in reconstruction so they have moved away from the celebratory and pro-slavery heritage that was involved in their founding. As far as George Bush's letter, yes, "triumph and tragedy" can be interpreted as ignoring the fundamental issue of the Civil War. Those words are ambiguous and vague depending on the context, but I didn't hear anything in that letter as you read it that endorses the Confederate cause.