A Confederate Rationale - Lost Cause (Article 128)
“The South will rise again.” - Anonymous
The term “Lost Cause” originated in 1866, after the Civil War ended, when William Pollard, a newspaper publisher, wrote “The Lost Cause, a New Southern History of the War of the Confederates.” He stated that, although their cause had failed, secession was necessary to protect rights of individual Southern states from Federal interference. He believed that the eleven states which had joined the Confederacy, and the Southern White citizens, were victims of Northern states’ greed and an effort to control the Southern economy. He believed further that the North had shown a callous willingness to sacrifice thousands of young men in a war of attrition to meet those goals. He also added that Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant who pushed an unconstitutional war and emancipation mandate to destroy southern culture.
And he had plenty of supporters among the leaders of Southern states who needed someone to blame for a lost war and the devastation their people suffered as a result. Preservation of States Rights probably seemed like a more palatable explanation by the Southern leadership, which had touted secession and was willing to go to war, than the actual reason stated in almost all of their written declarations of succession; the preservation and perpetuity of slavery. Not States’ Rights, but Slavery.
For two centuries prior to 1860, the agrarian South had developed a culture which, in many ways, represented a more European aristocratic influence than that of the more industrialized North with its much larger population of immigrants. The South was perceived by many Americans and Europeans as more genteel, courteous, and refined, especially among the plantation ownership class. (Of course, the slaves did not enjoy a genteel and refined existence, nor did most of the poor White farmers.)
While secession was driven by political leaders who intended to perpetuate slavery through the formation of the Confederacy, the War was fought, in large part, by hundreds of thousands of southern young men who did not own slaves. Their reasons varied, but might be summed up by one captured foot-soldier who was asked by a Union officer, “Why do you fight us so?” The young man said, “Because you are here!” Their gallantry and sacrifice deserved a nobler justification than the preservation of slavery.
The “Lost Cause” rationale helped serve that purpose. But it was also intended to raise the spirits of the millions of other southerners who survived, but who had lost so much!
The Civil War had devastated much of the South’s financial base, including large areas of farms, plantations, and transportation infrastructure, and had removed the economic system driven by slave labor. By 1866, a year after the war ended, the South’s antebellum culture was in danger of being lost in the chaos.
William Pollard hoped to give Southerners a rallying cry; so he came up with “The Lost Cause!”
The stated goals of the “Lost Cause” movement were to help retain a sense of pride in Southern citizens for their “righteous” effort and to salvage as much as possible of the 200-year-old aristocratic Southern culture. Those goals were understandable, but other unfortunate beliefs of the “Lost Cause” were that slavery was benevolent, the Black race was suited to their fate, and the forced loss of that labor system on the South as a result of the Civil War was an unfair, and unconstitutional, imposition by the North. In fact, in the South, the term Civil War was often replaced by the terms “The War of Northern Aggression” or “The War of Northern Invasion,” or “Lincoln’s war against the South,” or, the more benign, “The War Between the States.”
Jubal Early, the Confederate General who had harassed Washington DC on occasion with rapid in and out attacks near the city, became an outspoken adherent and leader of the “Lost Cause” movement. Early was a proponent of slavery and White supremacy, and in 1870 (five years after the War ended and four years after the abolition of slavery) wrote: “Reason, common sense, and safety of the White race, required that the inferior race should be kept in a state of subordination, the condition of domestic slavery as it existed in the South before the war.”
Perhaps he may have been upset that he did not get his way!
After the Civil War, Early became committed to the preservation of the “Antebellum” Southern culture and to the personal legacy of Robert E. Lee, who he considered “As near a saint as any man who ever lived.” Early saw the “Lost Cause” movement as a way to favorably portray the sense of dignity, honor, loyalty, and chivalry of the Confederate civilian and military leaders, and the women who stood by them. In 1867, Early, working with William Pollard, formulated six tenets of the Lost Cause:
1. A commitment to State’s Rights led to secession, and was the cause of the “War of Northern Aggression,” not the need to preserve slavery. Secession was both Constitutional and necessary due to Northern political degradation of Southern interests. The South was morally and constitutionally correct to fight for state sovereignty, which the Southern states had not surrendered when they signed the Constitution in 1789.
2. The Confederacy was defeated militarily only because of the Union’s overwhelming advantages in men and supplies, and the North’s willingness to fight an immoral war of attrition without regard to the number of lives lost.
3. Confederate Officers, and the men under them, were heroic and honorable because of their willingness to stand and die for their beliefs. Their refusal to attack northern cities and civilians was gallant and moral.
4. Robert E. Lee should be revered above all other Southern officers and gentlemen as an honorable, heroic, and even saintly, figure.
5. Southern women were loyal to their men and their cause, and their sacrifices deserve reverence.
6. Africans were faithful slaves, loyal to their masters, served in a benevolent system, and were unprepared for free status. Slavery was, therefore, morally justifiable.
As biographies and memoirs of former Confederate leaders began to emerge, the “Lost Cause” rationale was frequently woven into their renditions; especially those of Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and of course Jubal Early. One notable exception was former Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, who never penned a memoir, and who did not directly support or join a specific “Lost Cause” group. However, General Lee did provide historical records and wrote letters about his recollections of troop strengths, heroism of others in battle, and sacrifices of Southern civilians. Several of his biographers speculated that Lee probably believed and would have supported four of the Six Tenets; but not his individual accolades nor the tenet describing slavery as benevolent.
But, by 1870, Jubal Early sadly noted that he could already see a decreasing interest in the “Lost Cause” among Southerners who he felt were moving on, “without the reverence for the Confederate sacrifices I hoped would last for generations.”
That year, however, two events occurred which recharged the movement. In January, the Commonwealth of Virginia was readmitted into the United States with federal troops withdrawn from civilian areas. Then, on October 12, 1870, Robert E. Lee died, and the outpouring of grief, respect, and the reverence which Early had thought was waning, again embraced the South. Confederate veterans’ groups were formed, and women started organizations like the “Daughters of the Confederacy” and similar historical societies, all with elements of the “Lost Cause” as part of their foundations. While some of these groups fostered a persistent hope that “the South will rise again,” in most cases, all that these people wanted was reasonable respect for their past and hope that the positive aspects of their culture would endure. In fact, the “Daughters of the Confederacy” organization made it a mission to erect memorials and statues to the Confederacy and its heroes throughout the south. And, for the next fifty years, the group commissioned hundreds of commemorative works that were placed on university campuses, town squares, and cemeteries.
However, not all “Lost Cause” adherents were satisfied to simply try to preserve a genteel and honorable culture.
While some historians link the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) during this period to the “Lost Cause” movement, most note that five of the Six Tenets were about self-appreciation, and none were about violence and retribution. However, when Southern states regained the right to have their own civilian political structures, rather than those imposed by reconstruction laws imposed by the Federal government, some proponents of the “Lost Cause” pushed for new “Black Code” laws to keep the former slaves downtrodden.
These laws carefully avoided the legal definition of slavery but could force involuntary servitude on former slaves who were convicted of a crime, whether real or fabricated, unable to pay debts, or even tricked into agreeing to serve “voluntarily” for years if provided a small parcel of land. The KKK was instrumental in the development of the “Black Code” laws, and frequently, and violently, enforced the provisions.
Until near the end of the 20th century, in some areas of the South, there would be periods of resurgence of the KKK, and violence would accelerate against individual Negroes, sympathetic Whites, and civil rights organizations; but most historians attribute that to cultural racial discrimination and do not directly connect the “Lost Cause” movement to these events.
Late in the 19th century, some historians began to note a subtle shift in the organizations, other than the KKK, which supported the “Lost Cause.” They seemed to move from solemn memorialization of the Confederacy to designated holidays and celebrations; probably because the last of those who were directly involved in the war were dying out. There are still many Southern groups that celebrate the more positive goals of the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy, (courage, honor, fighting for a belief) and strive to keep those relevant in today’s South.
Remember that the “Lost Cause” was formulated after the end of the Civil War, but there are some who are still ready to fight old battles!
There are a few groups who still embrace the “Lost Cause” in its entirety, defending the right of states to secede, lamenting that the war was either an unconstitutional invasion of the South or that it was needless because slavery would have eventually died out, and promoting segregation as an appropriate racial philosophy. These groups often refer to themselves as “Confederate Avengers” in their publications, and some even celebrate the birth date of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin to show their contempt for Lincoln and his determination to preserve the Union by defeating the Confederacy. Unfortunately, White supremacy still rears its ugly head within these groups.
The position of some with Southern heritage still is that, if the North had not “invaded” the southern states, slavery would have died out over the next few generations without a devastating Civil War. Of course, they give no consideration to the four million men, women, and children who were slaves in 1865; and for those who would have been born over the next few generations who would also have become slaves. Further, they usually do not offer a date at which slavery might have “died out” or ceased to be economically feasible. Was it to be twenty years, thirty years, fifty years,…. or more?
Fortunately, while still seen in some pockets, the impact of the “Lost Cause” on the Southern culture has waned as the population shifted with immigration from other parts of the country, civil rights laws were passed, and of course, simply the passage of time. By in large today, even those with a long-term Southern heritage, disavow White supremacy and the intolerance it brings, and are loyal citizens of the United States. However, we must acknowledge that there are some “Lost Causers” who espouse bigotry, intolerance, and even another secession, and they are teaching that to another generation. That is why we should be aware and still keep watch.