Which Was the More Fundamental American Liberty Achievement, Abolition vs. Women’s Suffrage?

That is the question behind another statue controversy that has erupted. It’s in New Jersey. This time it’s not as “cut-and-dried” as the Confederate statue version. In Bill to replace Kearny statue at U.S. Capitol passes N.J. Senate, angering residents, Peter D’Auria reports for The Jersey Journal:

Gen. Philip Kearny has watched over the U.S. Capitol for 132 years.

Kearny . . . earned honors for his bravery fighting in the Mexican-American War before his death fighting for the Union in the Civil War. The town of Kearny, where he lived for a few years, was named in his honor.

Since 1888, a bronze statue of the general, complete with cavalry saber and soaring mustache, has stood in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall alongside 99 other historical figures from across the country.

But Kearny’s watch may be ending soon. A New Jersey state Senate bill passed Feb. 10 that would ask the U.S. Library of Congress to remove Kearny’s statue and replace it with one of Alice Paul, a Mount Laurel advocate for women’s suffrage.

Lucienne Beard, the executive director of the Alice Paul Institute, a gender equality advocacy group, said she has nothing against Kearny specifically, but Paul “represents the New Jersey value of fighting for social justice and equality, writ large."

“The U.S. suffrage movement was the civil rights advance that affected the largest number of people in this country,” said Beard, who said she supports the bill but was not involved in drafting it. “That should be memorialized.”

That should be memorialized, I agree. But replacing Kearn, a Union hero of the Civil War, the culmination of the movement to end slavery, Abolition? There are opponents to replacement. William Styple, a historian from Kearny who is writing a book on Kearny, said he wrote a letter to lawmakers opposing the bill. “I just don’t think people are educated on who Philip Kearny was,” he said, “He detested slavery. He called it a stain on the American flag.”

Another opponent, State Sen. Nicholas Sacco, “I am a firm believer that Alice Paul should be recognized for her trailblazing role in achieving women’s suffrage. At the same time, General Philip Kearny is not only a historical figure but a war hero.”

State Senator Linda Greenstein, one of the sponsors of the bill, stated that “Kearny and Paul ‘were both great Americans, no question about that,’ [but] added, ‘I feel very strongly about Alice Paul.’”

So both sides acknowledge the historic roles of both people. The problem is, each state is allowed only two statues at the National Statuary Hall. So, debate is a matter of the proportional contribution of each NJ resident to advancing the cause of America’s liberty equality. Alice Paul’s supporters cite women’s suffrage, but also “diversity” and the always amorphous “social justice.” Kearny, of course, fought and died for the Union army in the Civil War.

I posted these comments:

America is a nation that prioritizes individual liberty over democracy. Freedom is not defined as the right to vote. Freedom is defined as the individual’s personal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness regardless of someone else’s vote or the outcome of any election. Defenders of the Confederacy held that slavery was a democratic matter for each state to decide, meaning that the majority could vote a minority into slavery, thus repudiating the American Founding principle of the inalienable and equal individual rights of all people. 

The victory over the treasonous Confederate slavocracy was a far greater advance for liberty than women’s suffrage. The Civil War, which Kearny fought on the right side of, ended slavery and led to the Civil Rights Acts of 1866, 1870, and 1875, and Constitutionally clarified and strenghtened the Founding principles of equality of liberty rights of all people through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. 

This is not to diminish the significance for liberty of women’s suffrage or of the 19th Amendment.  It’s that the Civil War was a far greater advance for liberty--2nd only to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. In fact, the 19th Amendment would not have been possible without the Civil War Amendments, which secured the primacy of federally protected rights and citizenship over states’ “rights.” As with other U.S. Constitutional rights, the 19th Amendment gives Congress, not the states, the power to secure the right to vote regardless of sex.

The issue is not Abolition vs. Suffrage. Both Kearny and Paul were liberty fighters. It’s a travesty to have to pick one over the other. But if it must be either/or, Kearny’s fight for Abolition was much more significant because much more fundamental to liberty.

True, more women got the vote than slaves were freed. But would anyone seriously believe that women getting the vote was more important to liberty than Confederate slaves escaping their chains into freedom? 

Related Reading:

The Confederate Statue Controversy vs. the ‘alt-Left’s ‘Effort to Cleanse American History’

The Gadsden Flag: Racial ‘Harassment’ or Symbol of Liberty?

Slavery, Racism and Collectivism... and New Jersey's Folly

Donald Trump on Charlottesville; Robert E. Lee vs. George Washington