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To: DoodleDawg
He took the same position as some of the Founding Fathers.

For example?

Thomas Jefferson and Slavery

It's interesting to note that Lee also supported his wife's efforts in setting up an illegal school for slaves at Arlington and freed his slaves in 1862 (about a year before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.)

More examples of the Founders views on slavery:

Founding Fathers and Slavery

There were, however, several notable black slave owners at the time of the war.. His name escapes me at the moment but one notable one was in Louisiana.

And was this person also calling slavery an evil for whites?

Not relevant. I include the example of black slave owners to shed some light on 19th century thinking.

With that in mind why do you suppose Lee fought for the Confederacy? It certainly wasn't to preserve slavery.

He fought because Virginia joined the rebellion. He chose state over country, which I think was a mistake.

You're applying 21st century thinking to the 19th century. I'll leave you with this thought from Walter Williams:

Did states have a right to secede?

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, James Madison rejected a proposal that would allow the federal government to suppress a seceding state. He said, "A Union of the States containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a State would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound."

I'll be offline for a bit.

170 posted on 05/21/2015 6:37:50 AM PDT by Jed Eckert (Wolverines!!)
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To: Jed Eckert
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery

But as your article pointed out Jefferson linked the end of slavery with the need to remove all the freed slaves from the U.S.

It's interesting to note that Lee also supported his wife's efforts in setting up an illegal school for slaves at Arlington and freed his slaves in 1862 (about a year before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.)

Lee freed the slaves in 1862 because his father-in-laws will required he do that. And I think the story that his wife set up an illegal school for slaves is just that, a story.

Not relevant. I include the example of black slave owners to shed some light on 19th century thinking.

I don't see how it accomplished that.

You're applying 21st century thinking to the 19th century. I'll leave you with this thought from Walter Williams:

And I'll leave you with another quote from Madison: "I partake of the wonder that the men you name should view secession in the light mentioned. The essential difference between a free Government and Governments not free, is that the former is founded in compact, the parties to which are mutually and equally bound by it. Neither of them therefore can have a greater fight to break off from the bargain, than the other or others have to hold them to it."

171 posted on 05/21/2015 6:58:40 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Jed Eckert
It's interesting to note that Lee also supported his wife's efforts in setting up an illegal school for slaves at Arlington and freed his slaves in 1862 (about a year before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.)

"Lee's slaves" were in reality part of the estate of Lee's father-in-law, George Washington Park Custis.

George Washington Parke Custis stipulated that all the Arlington slaves should be freed upon his death if the estate was found to be in good financial standing or within five years otherwise. When Custis died in 1857, Robert E. Lee—the executor of the estate—determined that the slave labor was necessary to improve Arlington's financial status. The Arlington slaves found Lee to be a more stringent taskmaster than his predacessor. Eleven slaves were “hired out” while others were sent to the Pamunkey River estates. In accordance with Custis's instructions, Lee officially freed the slaves on December 29, 1862.

Source: http://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/slavery.htm

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863, three days after Lee freed those slaves. That was precisely five years after the death of Custis.
173 posted on 05/21/2015 9:30:30 AM PDT by Ditto
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