"This [is] the sort of thing which I really behave the [council], as the voice of the student body, would want to become involved in, seeing that it's an issue which concerns undergraduates," he says. "I wasn't sure about the distribution of real feelings."

The poll found eleven representatives for the proposal and five against it. Freeman, however, says he questions the results of the poll, because more than half of the council was not present at the time he conducted his poll.

Though Freeman says he believes that "the time has come to forgive crimes of a 130 years ago," he adds he is prepared to write a bill reflecting whatever the majority of students want."

Outside Cambridge

The debate concerning the proposed memorial has extended beyond the University and is being followed by many groups and individuals around the country.

Many leaders of neo Confederalo organizations, such as John Hurley, president of the Washington D.C. based Confederate Memorial Association, argue that the University is committing a wrong taking no action.

"It is a recrimination that Harvard would take us out of their view of history which would seem to be violating academic integrity. I'm always hoping that truth prevails," he says.

But other outsiders, like Princeton's noted Civil War historian Professor James McPhearson, argue just as strongly against the memorial.

"My own feeling is that it should not be done, that a lot of people who are Harvard alumni, or students at Harvard today, will regard it as something of an insult to memorialize those fought against the U.S. and for a society based on slavery and I can sympathize with [them]," he argues. "Often times saying both sides fought is an evasion of moral commitment to which side was on the right."

He goes on to criticize the efforts of many of the groups which push for Confederate memorials.

"Though they say it is reconciliation, the hidden agenda is to legitimize retroactively a cause for which Harvard alumni fought against. The University associated with the Northern cause, including Oliver Wendell Homes Jr., and it is an insult to the memory of these people to memorialize the men against whom they fought," he adds.

With regard to the memorial of the World War II German soldier McPhearson says, "It complicates the matter and makes the argument against [memorial proponents] weaker, but I suppose you could say 'two wrongs don't make a right.'"

The Future

Even if the memorial is eventually approved it will not be appearing immediately Officials say further research must be done to ensure the memorial's accuracy.

"If this [the memorial] is approved, it could take a long time to materialize because all the names would have to be verified, especially the Confederate dead," says Shapiro.