By joining Confederacy, Maury supported slavery

EDITOR, TIMES-DISPATCH:

Ellen Ball’s Letter to the Editor about Matthew Fontaine Maury helped to inform us about his worldwide contributions.

Unfortunately, there is one serious biographical omission that ties in with the glaring error in her presentation.

Maury was a commander in the Confederate Navy and chief of the Naval Bureau of Coast, Harbor and River De-tense, liaison to Great Britain and France. Therefore, he was an important leader in the Confederacy.

Ball states that Maury was not a supporter of slavery. This is a recurrent factual error regarding Maury and other Confederate leaders. The Confederate Constitution clearly makes slavery, its continuation and extension a centerpiece of the new nation — see Article IV, Sec. 2 (1 and 3) and Sec. 3 (3). Ironically, the framers of the Confederate Constitution “set slavery above state sovereignty: inviolate, untouchable,” according to author William C. Davis in “Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America.”

By supporting the Confederate Constitution, anyone by that fact alone was a supporter of slavery in the present and future, including Maury.

JOHN WHITING.

RICHMOND.

Maury’s annexation plan an attempt to save slavery

EDITOR, TIMES-DISPATCH:

Regarding letters about Matthew Fontaine Maury, author Charles Mann, in his book

“1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created,” explains how Maury’s support for slavery led to his plan for the annexation of the Amazon basin in Brazil so that Southerners could migrate to South America and take their forced labor with them. Some people did make the trip but the project failed.

RICHARD ROSE.

RICHMOND.