Posted on 01/05/2010 3:28:41 PM PST by BigReb555
“No thanks. I’ll let you fight in support of slavery.”
Ah, you complain about revisionism - but when called out, you turn to the very thing you complain about. A poor self-loathing fool you are.
While you are self-loathing, you should change your screen name - you aren’t worthy of Lee or Reagan.
Then so was George Washington...
“With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword...”
His last five years were spent as a non-citizen with life and liberty at the mercy of the bounders and petty tyrants who had come exercise the power of the United States. This he endured with exemplary Christian fortitude and charity. Lee was an audacious military genius and inspired leader of men, called by Churchill the greatest captain of the English-speaking peoples, but his fame rests even more upon his character. No American leader has ever set a higher example in peace and war of what the Western world used to understand as a Christian gentleman. When the “traitor” died in 1870, the New York Herald editorialized: “Here in the North we . . .have claimed him as one of ourselves. . . have extolled his virtue as reflecting upon us – for Robert E. Lee was an American, and the great nation which gave him birth would be today unworthy of such a son if she regarded him lightly.”
Explain yourself ReaganMAN!!
Had he accepted the war would have ended quickly.
That kind of mindset is beyond the comprehension of most people today. A nation that despises those kinds of loyalties has nothing to complain about when it ends up being led by a half-black, quasi-Muslim chief executive who considers himself a "citizen of the world" and has no loyalty to this country at all.
You’re all emotions and no brains. LOL
The major cause that led to the Civil War was the issue of slavery. Proponents of slavery wanted to see its continuation and westward expansion. While Lee was an exemplary soldier, he was on the wrong side of a great moral issue. Lee fought to see slavery survive. Those people who stood for slavery were not heroes, they were pure evil and deserved to die.
Here at TxDOT we celebrate Robert E. Lee’s birthday as Confederate Heros Day. I’ll be spending it on my Harley if the temp gets up enough.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming Lee/Jackson Day—I’ll be taking off work for it and will reflect on these two great countrymen.
Thanks for the article.
My loyalty is to the good old USA!
If you're going to use "moral issues" as the measuring stick for judging a man this way, then you're going to find that you're on the same side as so-called radical Muslim extremists more often than you'd ever be willing to admit.
“Those people who stood for slavery were not heroes, they were pure evil and deserved to die.”
You are, at best, a complete moron. The people on both sides of the civil war were Americans.
That Lee was a great American needs no validation from you.
However, just as Lee would do, I forgive you for your ignorant notions about America. Take the admonishments you are about to receive and make yourself a (better) man through them.
Lee was as great as Washington, he just happened to lose.
I don’t know where you are getting your information but you should read more broadly before you make such statements.
The war between the states was about state’s rights and about $$$$$$.
I used to believe it was about slavery and then I realized the textbooks I read in high school were written by northern liberals.
slavery existed for all of human history, every race and nationality has enslaved other and been enslaved.
So according to you everyone in human history was evil and deserved to die.
Get Real.
In that context, understand this quote:
"With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword....." Lee in a letter to his sister, April 20, 1861
It was an honorable decision..to suggest anything else is revisionist.
Lest anyone think I wrap myself up in the Rebel Flag and sing Dixie, not so fast. My family was considered nothing less than traitorous. My ancestor was considered the leader of a "Nest of Union men" between Cold Harbor and Dispatch Station. The night of the succession vote he rode past the tavern with 2 Union flags on his buggy and a "Whoop and a holler." The day after the vote he and others raised a Union flag high above Barker's Store.
"He did more for the black man than he could have done had he picked up a gun and fought with the Yankees." Not my words, the words of a friend, an ex-slave, who would drive the market carts from Richmond with a Rebel deserter, an escaped Union prisoner or a runaway slave hidden in the back. Another member of the 'nest' was a man considered to be the "meanest son of a bitch in the county because he believed no man should be owned." Another painted a sign with an eagle and the words "E Pluribus Unum" and put it in front of his tavern...the very tavern where the succession vote was held. He was disinherited by his father.
When they arrived at the old place my ancestor would smuggle them past confederate lines to Charles City. He rented a house in New Kent County for them to stay until the group was ready to leave. He loaned them money--a gift really because he knew he would not see these people again.
As a Virginian, I understand Lee's decision. I respect it. I admire the decision my family made. The lesson learned was stand up for what you think is right, regardless of the risk.
One thing is for certain, the very same people who called my family traitors and wanted to hang them from a tree for siding with the Union were a hell of a lot more forgiving than people are today. When the war was over, it was over. They got on with their lives.
So I am not some Southern "Heritage, not Hate" romantic as we are stereotyped. I don't pretend to speak for all Southerners, they don't need my voice. But I have made it a point to learn how history affected my family through the centuries.
I am not a debater. I cannot argue the causes of the war on a scholarly level. But I do have a good idea of what the real world was like for my family. I usually stay away from these threads. It is like arguing religion. Sometimes I just get pissed off and can't keep my mouth shut. :-)
History!
In the election of 1864, the Republican Party platform called for the unconditional surrender of the South, and for an amendment to the Constitution to outlaw slavery in the United States. In contrast, the Democratic Party's platform called for a negotiated peace and the protection of slavery. Nuff said!
You clearly do not understand this term any better than you understand U.S. history.
Like I said, another poor victim of the government school system.
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