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Wilkie, who delivered the speech in front of a statue of Davis at the United States Capitol at an event sponsored by the American Girls of Confederation, also declared that it was "not a southern apologist, "that he" was looking at the story "and the ferocity of the Confederate soldier only through the prism of slavery and the careless standards of the present is dishonest and does no service to our ancestors. "
Wilkie's speech, whose account was published in the magazine Girls of the Girls of the Confederation, reveals his belief in the theory of the" lost cause "of the civil war, which describes the southern states who have seceded as heroic and denies the central role played by slavery as a cause of conflict.
A KFile study also revealed that Wilkie had attended a pro-Confederate event in 2009 and had delivered a speech on Robert E. Lee to a division of Maryland composed of Sons of Confederate Veterans
CNN's KFile found references to Wilkie during his research, the neo-Confederate movement, which seeks to promote a more sympathetic vision of the Confederate States during the Civil War, and obtained copies of the speeches of Neo-Confederate movement scholar Edward Sebesta
Press Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs Curt Cashour did not address the content of Wilkie's remarks when CNN asked him, but said in a statement that the events Wilkie had attended "were strictly historical in nature. As Secretary Wilkie stated at his confirmation hearing in June, he stopped attending once the problem was addressed. has become a factor of division. "
Wilkie then said:" I must add that, as the eminent scholar and historian James I. Robertson of Virginia Tech made it here last year, I am not an apologist for the South, and I have never adhered to this Penn Warren and his colleagues called "The Moonlight and Magnolia School", where the decorative past replaces the usable past. "
" The South has a lot of warts, "he continued." Real estate slavery and its consequences are a blot on our history, as on all civilizations in history. But slavery was a collective American tragedy. (President Abraham) Lincoln understood that there was enough guilt to spread from Maine to Key West. Seeing our story and the ferocity of the Confederate soldier only through the prism of slavery and the neglected standards of the present is dishonest and does not serve our ancestors. We can not deliver American history to an imposed political orthodoxy dictated to our attention-hungry politicians, street corner demagogues and radicals engaged on campus. "
Professor David Blight, historian of the Civil War at Yale, told CNN in an interview that Wilkie's words were" from the neo-Confederate reading book. "
" This is the standard ideology of Lost Cause around 1890 to 1910, "he said." This man, that language, is the standard defense of the lost cause built over the decades as an ideology explaining the defeat of Confederation, but also as a racial ideology. "
"Their Cause Was Honorable"
In his In his 1995 speech, Wilkie stated that Davis' life was the reflection of a "proud people" and that all "the noble human experiences do not succeed".
"In the case of Jefferson Davis, we must tell the truth to America about the complicated man who carries with him the dreams of South independence," he said. he declares. "His life was a reflection of the simplicity and perseverance of a proud people, men and women who endured the horror of defeat and its equally infamous consequences, men and women who , through their Christian prism, have understood the fall of man and the imperfection of human institutions – that all the noble human experiences do not come to fruition. "
also stated that Davis' "contempt of the radical Republican abolitionists of the Republican Party" was not about slavery, but rather about fearing "that they would violate any law and would be free to impose their laws". idea of society just to others ". Wilkie said that the radical abolitionists of Congress were "as lying as the Jacobins of revolutionary France" and called those who financed the raid of the abolitionist John Brown on Harpers Ferry "enemies of freedom".
Wilkie added that Davis' "unshakeable spirit" after the war reminded the people of the South "that their cause was honorable and that everything would be fine in the end".
Wilkie concluded his speech by tying Davis "to fight for the congressional fights at the time, shortly after Republicans won the majority in the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections of 1994.
"Once again, congressional halls are resonating with brutal individualism, state sovereignty and disregard for the centralized super-state," concluded Mr. Wilkie. "These are bloodless battles that Davis would never have led, but they are no less vital to the future of American civilization. As our cities deteriorate and our standards and spiritual traditions deteriorate, America is looking for a better way. Walker Percy urged us to look south. find the community, the stability and the feeling of belonging to the order of God that we have unfortunately lost. It's an ambitious proposition, but Jefferson Davis would certainly understand a proposal for which he would fight.
Recent Pro Confederate Links
At the time, a confederated proclamation of 1862 called "occupation" and "tyranny" and "terrible despotism" the occupation of Maryland by the Union According to reports and archived web pages, the chief from this camp at the time was Richard T. Hines, a prominent member of the neo-Confederate movement.
Wilkie began his career as an aide to Senator Jesse Helms, the Republican of North Carolina known for having criticized Martin Luther King Jr. and being opposed to a holiday in his honor. "Wilkie then worked for Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who resigned from his post as Republican leader in 2002 after praising the presidential campaign segregationist of Strom Thurmond in 1948. Wilkie then served in the Bush administration, working for Condoleezza Rice on the National Security Council of the White House and Donald Rumsfeld on the Pentagon.
Wilkie's past work with Helms and Lott was the subject of a thorough review during his confirmation hearing in June. Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono asked Wilkie, citing his former leaders and a Washington Post article, "Would you welcome the look you will likely make on the basis of your past positions to ensure that you treat women and minorities with fairness and respect ". the leader of the VA, should you be confirmed? "
Wilkie replied," Well, senator, I will say – and I say respectfully – I welcome the scrutiny of my record. The Washington Post seems to have been arrested on my own, about 25 years ago. If I had been what the Washington Post had suggested, I do not think I could have worked for Condoleezza Rice, Bob Gates or Jim Mattis. "
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