by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter 

(NOTE: This is a commentary written by Fred Swift of the Hamilton County Reporter. The views expressed are those of Fred Swift and do not necessarily reflect the views of LarryInFishers.com.  This opinion piece is posted here as part of a partnership between the Reporter and LarryInFishers.com) 

The recent hysterical demands for political correctness in dealing with our nation’s historical figures is getting close to home. Neighboring Madison County has now succumbed to this righteous indignation by giving up plans for a statute of former President James Madison for whom that county is named.

Never mind that Madison was instrumental is getting our Constitution adopted and responsible for composing the Bill of Rights. The current problem for Madison, 200 years after the fact, is that he was a slave owner.

The political correctness craze also demands men from history who engaged in brutality to American Indians, disloyalty to their wives or were insensitive to industrial employees should be dishonored generations after their misdeeds. Never mind that they may have contributed greatly to our current way of life.

If we pursue this line of revisionist thinking further we find examples right here in Hamilton County.

William Conner was complicit in removing the Indians, including his own wife, from central Indiana.

General Phil Sheridan, for whom Sheridan is named, thought the only good Indian was a dead Indian.

And Cicero, the ancient Roman politician, was a slave owner. (The town, however, was probably named for a local boy who perhaps had the fortune or misfortune of being named for the martyred Roman.)

In addition, Washington, Jackson and Clay townships are named for slave owners.

And, then there’s the question of whether the Strawtown monument to Chief Straw is an honor or a political no-no.

Should we discredit these men by changing the names of communities or removing monuments because of things they did many years ago, deeds that are now regarded as dishonorable?

Of course not. They made history for vastly different and more honorable pursuits and should continue to be remembered for them.

And, thank goodness nobody will be after us to remove the portrait of Alexander Hamilton’s from the courthouse. He was not a slave owner.