Naval Academy building renamed in honor of Jimmy Carter

[malthaussen]

12. Part of being a racist bastard.

I'm happy to see all Confederate monuments and memorabilia thrown into the dustbin of history where they belong.

Enemies may be honored, if they were honorable, and Maury made some important contributions to oceanography while he was loyal to the US. Honor does not extend to making statues of them, naming installations after them, or naming any new destroyers after them. It is to be regretted (despised, even) that so many people who made valuable contributions while they were loyal turned to treason. I do think, though, that a balanced view of history should not neglect the fact that they made those contributions. Benedict Arnold was a hell of a general, no matter whom he fought for. As for Maury, he is one of the founders of the modern science of oceanography. 'tis pity he was a traitor.

Maury was a racist, but so was just about everybody in the 19th century, including any number of abolitionists who hated the "Negro" almost as much as they hated slavery. IMO, abolition in the 19th century oddly resembles Right-to-Life today: free the slaves, but make no place for them in the country when they are free. Maury, like many (including one A. Lincoln) thought the best "solution" to the "Negro problem" was to send them off to another country as colonists/slave labor. In his case, he thought they'd be great for Brazil, and that by siphoning all the slaves from the South to Brazil, the institution would gradually wither away in the South, and conflict would be avoided. There were people on the other side of the Mason Dixon who thought much the same, but of course they didn't chose to take arms against their country when that idea didn't pan out.

-- Mal