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Conclusion The fast pace at which Confederates constructed their nation meant that they continued to tinker with the apparatus of national symbolism right up to the end of the war. The alacrity with which they wrote a Constitution was not matched, for example, in deciding on a definitive national flag, motto, or seal. The official Confederate motto, adopted by Congress in 1863, was Deo Vindice, customarily translated as “God will vindicate.”1 The translation of that phrase, however, and the debate over exactly what the motto should mean, suggests rather more complex depths to the relationship between Confederate nationalism and the divine. It also demonstrates that the minute details of Confederate nation-building mattered to their participants. The Confederate House of Representatives originally proposed as the national motto Deo Duce Vincemus, or “Under the leadership of God we will conquer.” When the Senate took up this proposal in April 1863, Louisiana Senator Thomas Semmes objected, noting that duce was “too pagan in its signification,” and that duce vincemus combined reduced God to the leader of a physical army, by means of which we will conquer, or must conquer. If God be our leader we must conquer, or he would not be the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, nor the God of the Christian. This very doubt implied in the word “vincemus” so qualifies the omnipotence of the God who is to be our “leader,” that it imparts a degrading signification to the word “duce” in its relations to the attributes of the Deity. The idea that an army led by God could not be victorious was an oxymoron to Semmes, and yet he did not wish to tempt fate by arrogantly declaring the Confederacy’s victory before the fighting had ended. Thus, it would seem, the possibility of defeat on Earth led Semmes to temper his enthusiasm for the original proposal. Instead of Deo duce vincemus, Semmes proposed the phrase Deo vin- confederate visions 142 dice majores aemulamur, or “Under the guidance and protection of God we endeavor to equal and even excel our ancestors.”2 The latter part of this mouthful was intended to connect with the statue of George Washington that adorned the center of the proposed Great Seal of the Confederacy —Washington being representative of the “ancestors.” Semmes’s Senate colleagues rejected his strained phraseology and finally settled on just the first half of his phrase, Deo Vindice. As Semmes put it, this had multiple meanings that, when combined, spelled only success for the Confederate cause: “Under God as the asserter of our rights, the defender of our liberties, our protector against danger, our mediator, our ruler and guardian, and, as the avenger of our wrongs and the punisher of our crimes, we endeavor to equal or even excel our ancestors. What word can be suggested of more power, and so replete with sentiments and thoughts consonant with our idea of the omnipotence and justice of God?” According to Semmes, the root verb vindex can “signify an assenter , a defender, protector, deliverer, liberator, a mediator and a ruler or guardian . . . an avenger or punisher.”3 At least one prolific Confederate commentator was certain that Deo Vindice meant one thing and one thing alone: “God our Vindicator.” Joseph Addison Turner adamantly rejected the notion he had read in the Macon Confederate that the new national motto had anything to do with either revenge or avenging. Instead, it signified that the Lord would guard and defend the cause of the Confederacy and “be the vindicator of our claims to nationality, and independence.”4 For as Turner implicitly understood, something is customarily avenged by a third party after the death or destruction of the individual or cause. So accepting “God will avenge us” as one among several possible readings for Deo Vindice, then Confederates also implicitly accepted the possible defeat of the Cause. Nineteenth-century scholars loved to dispute the various meanings of Latin phrases, but there is more at work here. Deo Vindice as a national motto was a symbol of the Confederate nation, and in this case, as with so many others, Confederates devoted considerable intellectual and physical energy to devising it, debating its significance, and defending it against recidivist challenges. Symbols are the material manifestation of nationalism, and we must take them seriously. Confederate nationalism has itself become a symbol in the years following its defeat. Deo vindice , resurgam (or “God will vindicate, I shall rise again”) has become a [18.119.132...

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