Dear House Transportation Committee Member, 1/21/23
As you are aware, HB 2088 states the following:
Personalized license plates; references to Confederacy or persons who committed treason. Directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to amend the Personalized License Plate Issuance Guidelines to prohibit the issuance of any personalized license plate that makes reference to the Confederacy or any persons who committed acts of treason against the United States and to cancel any personalized license plate issued by the Department that makes reference to the Confederacy or any persons who committed acts of treason against the United States.
This Bill is a direct attack, not only upon Southern heritage and history, but the constitutional rights of citizens as well.
Prohibit the issuance of, and cancel, any personalized license plate that makes reference to the Confederacy. . . This is a clear violation of a person’s First Amendment right. Also, to confiscate/cancel a person’s property, in this case being a personalized license plate already paid for, without due process is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.
. . . or any persons who committed acts of treason against the United States and to cancel any personalized license plate issued by the Department that makes reference to the Confederacy or any persons who committed acts of treason against the United States. The historical ignorance and falsehood contained in this statement is easily refuted. No Confederate committed treason against the United States. The Confederate States of America were legally formed and had their own government. No Confederate was ever tried for treason, even though President Jefferson Davis was arrested and endured much torture waiting for what was to be “the trial of the century” for treason. He wanted the trial. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Salmon P. Chase stated that no Confederate could be tried for treason because by the Constitution, secession is not treason. He said that if any Confederate was tried, what was won on the battlefield would be lost in court. This would prove that the South committed no crime, and this would infuriate Northern citizens who had seen their loved ones spill their blood, needlessly, on the fields of battle for four long years.
Also, treason is defined as:
SECTION 3. Clause 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open court.
By this definition, it was Lincoln who committed treason in “levying War against them” (them meaning the States).
The legislation you are proposing is not only another attack upon Southern history and heritage, in the long list of grievous atrocities committed upon our historical monuments and symbols due to total and complete ignorance of the truth about our history, but slanders our ancestors who fought an illegal invasion of murderers, looters, arsonists and rapists in defense of their homes and families. No, they were NOT fighting “to protect slavery”, since it was already protected in the U.S. Constitution, and since there were slave states in the Union during the war, and more than 429,000 slaves in the Union. No, slavery was not the issue. Lincoln’s lust for money, power and greed were what caused the war. Had Lincoln not invaded, there would have been no war.
I implore you to discard this piece of legislation, as it serves no purpose other than to cast more hate towards our honorable Confederate heritage, of which Virginia is a part, and also to cancel out property already bought and paid for by citizens of Virginia. Why can every other group of people celebrate their heritage and history, but when it comes to Southerners, we are told that we should be ashamed of our heritage? We are to be ashamed because of slavery, even though it was the New England Yankees who worked the slave trade and sold slaves to Northerners and Southerners. Nobody condones slavery, but it was the way things were during that period in history. Liberals in academia, the media, and politics have created a false narrative of the War and its causes, and have called our symbols and monuments “racist” and “representatives of hate”. The only hate I have seen is from those who wish to eliminate all of our historical symbols and heritage. Don't be a part of the cultural genocide crowd.
