Here are four statuary principles:
- All statues honoring Confederate officers should be dismantled.
- All statues honoring Confederate sympathizers should be dismantled.
- All statues honoring supporters/defenders of slavery should be dismantled.
- All statues honoring slaveholders should be dismantled.
The first principle covers Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, but not George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. The second principle covers Robert E. Lee, Union General George McClellan, and Union Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, but not George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. The third principle covers George Washington and Stonewall Jackson, but not Thomas Jefferson or (arguably) Robert E. Lee. The fourth principle covers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, but not those Confederate officers or sympathizers who weren't slaveholders.
As this shows, different principles have different implications. One wonders whether the people demanding dismantlement have given the matter serious thought. Perhaps, if they did give the matter serious thought, they would endorse all four principles.
