150 Years Later Civil War Still Leaves Scars

For some the Civil War will never be over:

When National Park Service rangers fired a New Year's cannon shot at this Civil War battleground to hail the arrival of 2011, they also ushered in the start of a four-year commemoration of the war's 150th anniversary.

The events include a multitude of battle re-enactments, lecture series, readings, concerts and plays that will be held on the battle fields tended to by the Park Service and in private estates from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to New York.

But the slate of commemorations is also fraught with political peril. Deep divisions over why the war was fought persist, especially in the South. The debate still roils over slavery's role as the principle cause of the war. The first commemoration, a private "secession gala" organized by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Charleston on Dec. 20, did not signal an auspicious start to the upcoming calendar of events.

The date marked the 150th anniversary of the day South Carolina became the first of 11 states to secede. Inside the ballroom, elected officials and others in period costume celebrated the courage of their fore-bearers to stand up for their state's right to leave the Union. Outside, on the sidewalk, the NAACP led 100 demonstrators who viewed the event as a celebration of a treasonous act against the federal government in order to protect the institution of slavery.

"They called their parents patriots," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the state branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "Was Timothy McVeigh a patriot? He disagreed with America."

Mark Simpson, the commander of South Carolina's division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, defended the gala, saying it was not about denying slavery as "an issue" in the war, but honoring South Carolina's rights.

"We recognize and stated in all the media interviews that slavery was an issue in the war," Simpson said. "But this would be like taking a book that has 10 or 15 chapters and tearing all the chapters out except one. While slavery was an issue, it was by no means what brought about the war."

The gentlemen from South Carolina is correct. The states that rebelled did so primarily because they did not want to see their rights taken away by an overreaching federal government. Slavery was wrong and probably would have died out on its own within 20 years due to social pressure, but the war accelerated that process. And, unfortunately, the federal government has grown stronger and the states weaker ever since.