In Scotland, the gravesite and memorial of Adam Smith, the Enlightenment philosopher who is widely considered the father of modern capitalism, is now being targeted by local officials’ in an investigation over possible ties to “slavery and colonialism,” as reported by Breitbart.
The Edinburgh City Council launched a formal review of various statues, memorials, monuments, and other historical locations throughout the city in the aftermath of the far-left race riots last summer. The investigation is seeking any potential candidates for “removal or re-interpretation” if any of them are found to allegedly have ties to “racism and oppression.” The council consists almost entirely of members of left-wing parties, including the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party.
On Saturday, it was reported that among these targets is the gravesite of Smith, located in Canongate Kirkyard, in addition to a statue of Smith on the Royal Mile. The investigation’s reasons for targeting Smith include the accusations that Smith himself “argued that slavery was ubiquitous and inevitable, but that it was not as profitable as free labour.” Smith himself indeed expressed vocal opposition to slavery throughout most of his life, and said that all slaveowners should be held in “contempt” by society.
In response to the ongoing council investigation, Robert Poll of the Save Our Statues campaign released a statement reading, in part: “Edinburgh’s statue review is out of control…and a sad illustration of what happens when we rush to hand over editorial control of our history to activists. Smith was a titan of Scotland’s Enlightenment, and that his views can be so quickly and wrongly reinterpreted shows the risk currently hanging over our history.”
Other historical figures in the United Kingdom who have been targeted for removal and historical revisionism are the Duke of Wellington, Queen Victoria, Admiral Nelson, Enlightenment philosopher David Hume, and the legendary Scottish poet Robert Burns.