The Wilson Post
LEBANON WEATHER

Let everyone vote for location of Hatton statue




Letters to editor logo - ONLINE ONLY - Copy

Letters to editor logo – ONLINE ONLY – Copy

To the Editor:

I have read in The Wilson Post recently about Mayor Ash getting people from both sides to decide about Gen. Hatton’s statue on the Square. I think this is a good idea and I think Gen. Hatton himself would agree.

In what I have read about him in history he was a good man who, while a Congressman in Washington, was against succession and spoke trying to get both sides to compromise. During this time while speaking about this in Lebanon he was jeered by some in the crowd and afterward a mob came to his house with guns. They burned him in effigy later because of disagreeing with him.

But when Tennessee seceded, he joined the Confederate Army, eventually giving his life just as my great-great-grandfather did. Yes, he owned slaves just as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and many other prominent men did at the time (slavery was legal until toward the end of the Civil War).

My great-great-grandfather was a poor hill farmer who did not own a slave. When he died, he left a 16-year-old widow and a 1-year-old son.

To me monuments like Gen. Hatton stand for the sacrifices made by all during this time and should remain standing. But to be fair about this why not add this to the August ballot and let the people decide. Let each side present its side in the paper, on the radio, or in a public debate peacefully, then vote on this and do what the majority says.

Richard Gammon

Lebanon

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