“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”
~Abraham Lincoln, Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858
What does that have to do with Lee? Do you have a quote from him indicating he had the opposite view from Lincoln?
One of the reasons Lincoln went out of his way to make this statement was do to the democrat smear of the Republican party (yes, it goes back THAT far) was to say:
Anti-slavery = Negro Lover.
Republican = Negroes marry your daughter
Abolitionist = Negroes with white slaves
None of it was true, because back then, everyone believed racial superiority was vested in the white, Christian race; and that was the way it was. You couldn’t call Lincoln a racist for those words as that was what people then believed.
As I stated above, God has tempered us over the centuries: Hammering, heating, plunging us in cold water, to make us better and stronger.
600,000+ AMERICANS died: Slave holders, abolitionists, slaves, freemen and those who didn’t give a dang. All part of the tempering.