I’m writing in response to your recent editorial “ Holiday ’s time has passed: Confederate Heroes Day contradicts values” calling for an end to the recognition of Confederate Heroes Day, January 19^th.

As Texas Land Commissioner and a descendant of Confederate veterans, I feel compelled to defend state recognition of this day and seek to calm those panic-stricken by the word “Confederate.” If you think Confederate Heroes Day, or the Confederacy itself, is exclusively about slavery, then read on.

January 19^th is the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and was recognized as a state holiday by the Texas Legislature in 1931. In 1973, the day was officially designated Confederate Heroes Day, to recognize all the Texans who served their state while a part of the Confederacy.

While your editorial admits this day recognizes the sacrifice of Confederate ancestors such as my great-grandfather James Monroe Cole, it echoes a commonly held myth that the Confederacy was solely about slavery and therefore any remembrance of the Confederacy is racist.

In our sound bite, bumper sticker society it is convenient to draw black and white lines or espouse perceptions of history that are simply not supported by the facts. Consider the following: President Abraham Lincoln, often perceived as the Great Emancipator, placed little importance on ending slavery. “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union ,” Lincoln said, “and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it.” On more than one occasion, even after the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln took the position that he would allow slavery to continue in the Southern states if they rejoined the Union .

Yet, the man Confederate Heroes Day honors, Robert E. Lee, opposed slavery. He never owned slaves himself, and before the war had freed slaves passed on to his family through his father-in-law’s will. “There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil,” Lee wrote while stationed in Texas in 1856. “We see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers.”

Yet his Union counterpart, U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant, was a slave owner. Even during the war now seen as a war of emancipation, Grant’s wife continued to own slaves and brought her personal slave on visits to see her husband on the front lines.

As mentioned in your editorial, Texas hero Sam Houston vehemently opposed Texas leaving the Union . But you failed to mention Houston supported slavery. As did Alamo heroes William Barrett Travis and Jim Bowie.

Slavery was an integral part of America , both North and South, for a century before the Confederacy even existed.

If we arbitrarily choose to stop remembering Confederate Heroes Day because of the connection to slavery, then we must also cease recognition of the Fourth of July. America was born on that date as a nation that supported slavery. Slavery existed under the American flag for almost 100 years, but existed only four years under the Confederate flag.

Following the argument made by your editorial, we should not honor the black Buffalo Soldiers of the American West. Sure, they sacrificed for their country, but wasn’t their mission to subjugate and destroy an entire race: the Plains Indians? Nonsense. As Texans, we are right to honor the Buffalo Soldiers for their fortitude and courage. The same goes for Confederate soldiers.

The facts are clear. The Confederacy was about more than slavery. Confederate Texans starved, suffered and died for issues other than slavery. It is that which we honor and should continue to honor with Confederate Heroes Day.

JERRY PATTERSON is the 27^th Texas Land Commissioner and a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans.

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