Coming back to this thread after a few days' absence, I discover that we seem to be fighting the Civil War all over again. The debate over the cause of the war -- slavery vs. states' rights -- has been going on since before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. Most historians agree that both were important causes which were inextricably linked. The hot political issue of the day was the "right" of the southern states not only to continue slavery (Lincoln allowed that he would not try to stop that), but also to extend it to new territories and states. They had an interest in extending it in order to maintain the viability of their economic system, and to avoid being outvoted in Congress every time an issue related to slavery came up for a vote. States' rights was clearly an important issue, but the primary "right" being defended was the right to keep slaves and maintain a viable slave-based economy. As in so many wars, the primary cause was economics, which is based on a lot of factors (manufacturing vs. agrarian economies, trade with other nations, etc.). But slavery was an essential element of the confederate states' economic systems, and the one which ultimately proved to be the defining issue of the war.

For the record, I believe that the men who died in the Confederate cause (including a number of my ancestors) are deserving of praise and honors. Like most soldiers in most wars, they were fighting for their fellow soldiers, and for the folks back home. Most soldiers did not own slaves, and most did not consider slavery to be the primary issue. But I do not feel it is necessary to honor them by draping their coffins with newly-manufactured Confederate flags, any more than I think it would be appropriate to resurrect all the pomp and circumstance of Nazi rituals (swastikas, SS honor guards, etc.) whenever a German soldier's newly-discovered remains are laid to rest. We can honor them without honoring their discredited cause. And the fact that that cause is frequently used as a rallying cry for racist groups that are active in the US now makes it all the more important that we don't legitimize it.

People who lose wars do not get to hang onto their symbols, for good reason; the winners do not want these symols to serve as a rallying point for those who would fight the same war over again. That's the way the world works, and I think it is as it should be. {And my view is that the bones of the silors recovered from the deep really would not object to the absence of Confederate flags at their funerals.]