Located only one hundred miles south of Washington, D.C., Richmond, the state capital of Virginia and former capital of the Confederate States of America, is rich in history and institutions of cultural enlightenment, such as the exceptionally beautiful campus of the University of Richmond, the stately Valentine Museum, The Jefferson Hotel (one of only 25 five-star hotels in the country), St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which has nine Tiffany windows, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Science Museum of Virginia, The Canal Walk, The Library of Virginia, and so much, much more.
On April 5 of this year Richmond welcomed - with some opposition (but not from the city's esteemed Museum of the Confederacy) - a statue of President Abraham Lincoln and his twelve year old son, Tad. The statue commemorates their visit to the captured capital one month to the day after his Second Inaugural Address. He came to Richmond, still engulfed in fires set by the retreating Confederate Army, risking his and his son's life, to remind the South that he truly meant what he said when he stated in his speech, "With malice toward none, with charity for all." In other words Mr. Lincoln came to Richmond to pardon, not to punish. Ironically, the statue is very near the scenic James River on the grounds of the Richmond Civil War Visitor Center, formerly the site of the Tredegar Iron Works foundry, the largest such weapons manufacturing facility in the entire confederacy.
Therefore, I believe that had Lincoln lived through his second term in office (no president had been reelected since Andrew Jackson), the reconstruction of the South would have been entirely absent of the excessively vehement rancor and recrimination that the Radical Republicans, in both houses of Congress, sought to inflict upon the former confederate states in their determination to not only reek revenge and retribution, but to also demonize and humiliate the South, a reconstruction policy that our government wisely avoided imitating after we defeated the Germans and Japanese in a much later war that would redefine the destiny of the world.
This year marks the 140th anniversary of several significant Civil War era related events, such as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Chancellorsville (which brought about the death of confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson) and is portrayed in the movie, "Gods and Generals", The Battle of Gettysburg, which is portrayed in the movie, "Gettysburg," the New York City Draft Riot, which is featured in the movie, "Gangs of New York," the Battle of Fort Wagner (which is immortalized in the film, "Glory"), and lastly President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," which I believe (aside from its brevity and eloquence as a belated eulogy) was the president's first campaign speech for his reelection in 1864 when he said, "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; - that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...."
It can be easily argued that among all of America's presidents, Lincoln remains the only one that was a "poet."
The Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 B.C.) fought between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta, was the first great civil war in the western world; our costly four year struggle was the last of such devastating, internecine wars and there are political parallels between Pericles, the ruler of Athens, and Lincoln, the leader of the Union, especially in their respective-and renowned-funeral orations.
In many ways America's Civil War (the most written about conflict in all of world history) is in essence a simple tale of two cities, Richmond vs. Washington. The first capital of the Confederacy was Montgomery, Alabama, but after Virginia seceded from the Union, which followed the firing on Fort Sumter, President Jefferson Davis (named in honor of Thomas Jefferson) eagerly moved the capital to Richmond in May, 1861. Such a move meant to him and his followers that they as secessionists were not "rebels" or "traitors" but revolutionaries. Thus, they saw themselves, not their opponents, as the true sons of 1776.
President Davis was inaugurated for a single six year term on February 22, the birthday of George Washington. Such symbology is highly significant since the equestrian statue of George Washington in Richmond constitutes the centerpiece of the official seal of the Confederacy. The sculpture is the work of Thomas Crawford, the same sculptor who created "Armed Freedom," the statue that adorns the dome of the U.S. Capitol and who was the brother-in-law of Julia Ward Howe, the composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," which she wrote in 1861 while staying at Washington's famed Willard Hotel.
The Constitution was entirely silent on the subject of secession and consequently the states voluntarily entered the Union as "sovereign" political entities and therefore reserved for themselves the right to voluntarily exit the Union. Their sense of sovereignty is manifested in many ways, but especially in their state capital cities, state flags and independent court systems. Lest we forget, South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860, completely alone. Her sister state, North Carolina, was the 10th (next to the last) state to secede.
Richmond pre-dates Washington as a capital city by twenty years. It became the state's capital in 1780 and although the District of Columbia was conceived in 1790, ten years of "gestation" took place before Washington was "born" (in terms of buildings) in 1800.
The state capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson while he was serving as the new nation's Ambassador to France from 1784 through 1789. It is the first Greco-Roman building in America. Consequently, all of the magnificent neo-classical structures that we have in Washington are elegant architectural "echoes" that emanate from his creation in Richmond.
In 1993, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth, Jefferson was awarded the coveted Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. Fifty years earlier, in 1943, the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin was dedicated.
Finally, with so much to see and savor, a visit to Richmond, the urban jewel of the South, will always prove to be a richly rewarding experience.
Professor Edward C. Smith is the Director of the American Studies Program at AU.
