The Cornerstone Speech, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

In 1861 a speech was made, we should now rightfully shun
Still today, some do claim, slavery was not the game
Some don’t understand why monuments are moved

They argue it is erasing history’s due, they’re mislead
Or bigots who, know the truth, but want to hide
Promote the same old shitty white pride

Today I heard an apologist rave, as if his knuckles
He needed to shave, neanderthal logic, dwelling in a cave
That most of the Rebels who fought for the South

Didn’t own slaves. Yes you read that right.
Even I couldn’t believe it was in my sight
As if they were the victims of Lincoln’s tyranny

Same old dead cacophony, dog whistle homogamy
Whitewashing history, there is no mystery
The Rebels had no victory

We all know the traitor Jefferson Davis
Robert E Lee, General, certainly famous
Do you know the their Richmond VP?

Take a look at the speech he wrote
It was obvious not even a remote
Chance of misunderstanding intent

Alexander H. Stephens would not relent
He expressed vehemently the war’s intent
It was God’s order that whites were superior

And that of blacks, they were inferior.

So when you wonder why a monument is removed
It isn’t to erase history, but to place in proper context
Monuments are symbols of honor, not to be approved

Slavery belongs in history books, not to be glorified
As something good. Forever, forever we must remember
The horrors of the hood, the chains and the scars, lynchings

Amistad, Tubman, King behind bars, a motel balcony
Edmund Pettus Bridge, Malcom X and all the dead.
Condemn those who honor the Rebels instead.

Blood is blood, and red is red, sleep not well
Those who are fed, the idea that Stephens was a hero.
(end)

Today I heard a fucking ridiculous argument from a defender of the South using the same old Lincoln was a Republican, even going as far as to say most Soldiers who fought for the south did not own slaves. Yes some stupid fuckface argued that. It did not negate the Antebellum Plantation rich owners who did fund the Rebel government.

I have no problem preserving history, even the horrors of the past SHOULD be preserved, in the proper context. Civil War Memorials or Monuments were built during the Reconstruction era as an afront to the loss and were meant as monuments of honor, not mere markings of history. Those monuments need to be moved, not destroyed, but moved to places where plaques in museums can say that this person was evil, and a monster and fought to keep slavery.

There is no excuse whatsoever to defend slavery at all. Alexander H. Stephens wrote an explicit speech he gave in 1861 stating that it was “God’s will” that whites were the superior race and blacks were meant to be slaves. This was the Vice President of the Confederacy.

And before anyone goes arguing that Lincoln was a Republican,
which was true, back then, don’t lie about the history after. Because the parties flipped on minority rights with the Civil Rights movement and was cemented by Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

This poem is about a specific speech as noted in the title, “The Cornerstone Speech” as to which these are the words Stephens wrote and spoke in that speech in opposition to the North.

“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” Alexander H. Stephens Vice President of the Confederate States.

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1861stephens.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/cornerstone-speech