Keep the CSA Monument

Cape's Historic Preservation Commission, which recently voted unanimously to remove the monument to Southeast Missouri's Confederate soldiers has proven that it is not interested in history or preserving it.

Charges made by the commission and some very visible left-wing activists that the monument was placed as a warning to African-Americans is unfounded.

During Reconstruction veterans of the Confederate army could not vote, hold most jobs or political office, therefore it wasn't until the 1900's that the ladies of the United Daughters of the Confederacy could begin fundraising, which was further delayed by World War I. It took until 1931 before the monument could be erected.

Nothing in the newspaper archives or the UDC records indicate the group had any motives other than honoring Confederate soldiers from Southeast Missouri. Most of the men it honors fought for the Confederacy because Union General Lyon, on Tuesday, June 11, 1861, declared that he would kill every man, woman and child in the state. During the war Missouri lost one-third of its population.

The HPC let the public attend their meeting but no input was allowed, giving it an air of legitimacy when in reality it was a farce, as was their charge that the monument's "historical integrity" was disturbed.

I ask that Mayor Fox and the city council do not give in to those wanting the monument's removal. Appeasement never works and if the monument is removed, it will only result in more demands by activists to take down more monuments.

CLINT E. LACY, Marble Hill, Missouri