By John Martin

A lot of Civil War buffs think of Edmund Ruffin as the man who, at least symbolically, began and ended the fight. Ruffin is widely believed to have fired the first cannonball at Fort Sumter. And in 1865, when all hope for a Southern victory or a stalemate was lost, Ruffin committed suicide rather than live under the rule of “the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race.”

But of course, the war isn’t over. It never has been. And it’s not hard to imagine what Ruffin would think of the compromise that has moved the Confederate battle flag from atop the South Carolina statehouse to a place of lesser enshrinement on the capitol grounds. Ruffin was a “fire-eater,” the antithesis of compromisers.

Yet the surprising thing is that any compromise could be reached, given the fire-eating spirit that lives on at the extremes of this endless war. Those who fought to keep the flag flying promise never to give up their efforts to sanctify the Confederacy. The NAACP vows to continue the boycott that is having a real impact on the state’s economy. When the flag was taken down, hysterical protesters from both sides were on hand.

In the end, though, the fire-eaters did not carry the day. Sensible people on both sides found a place to compromise. No one was asked to admit that his valiant ancestors were war criminals, or to acknowledge that the sins of the slaveocracy have been expiated. Given the emotion and atmosphere, the compromise that brought down the flag was probably the best resolution that could have been hoped for. It’s what legislatures do.

The flag has been down for a week now, and life in South Carolina goes on much as before. Sunbathers tempt melanoma at Myrtle Beach. The assembly line at Spartanburg rolls out BMWs. Interstate travelers peel off at South of the Border to buy cheesy souvenirs. No one now alive fought in the Civil War or was born into chattel bondage. Most South Carolinians would just like to move on and get over a conflict in which the crash of guns ended 135 years ago. In those days, there were real issues worth dying over; today, we argue endlessly and bitterly over mere symbols. Edmund Ruffin’s South is, as Faulkner described it, “dead since 1865 and peopled with garrulous outraged baffled ghosts.” But the day of the fire-eaters is over. Or maybe it will be soon.

John Martin is editor of Governing.com.

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