Editor, Gazette-Journal:

A recent letter to the editor protesting the display of the Confederate flag during May Faire (Readers Write, “A Divisive Symbol,” May 9, 2019) trivialized that bloody conflict referred to as the Civil War. Like it or not, the Confederate flag is the symbol of an era of history that had its beginnings with the very founding of this nation.

Recall that these United States was not initially a consolidated government, but a confederacy of 13 independent states governed by what was known as the Articles of Confederation. The adoption and ultimate ratification of the Constitution was fraught with controversy involving the sovereignty of the states.

The United States, under the Constitution, was still considered a confederate republic. None other than Washington himself, on numerous occasions, referred to the Constitution as a contract and spoke of the Union as a “Confederate Republic.”

The politics of the pre-Civil War era were fraught wi...