I find it difficult to understand the selective logic of those politically-correct Americans who insist on tearing down all monuments to and insignia of the Confederacy in the civil war because, in their opinion, these artefacts glorify slavery (‘North Carolina protestors pull down Confederate statue’, August 22).

The American civil war was not just about slavery, it was also about state rights. The ordinary ‘Johnny Reb’ did not own slaves but he fought out of a patriotic duty to his home state.

Indeed, some Confederate generals were opposed both to secession and to the continuation of slavery but still fought on behalf of their states. The monuments, consequently, commemorate patriotism and duty; they do not glorify slavery.

Most of the founding fathers of the American republic were slave owners.

Can we now expect monuments to George Washington and his colleagues to be torn down in a continuation of this campaign of senseless and entirely pointless historical cleansing?