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Traitor? Treason? [Robert E. Lee]
Old Virginia Blog ^ | 5/10/10 | Richard Williams

Posted on 05/10/2010 3:17:06 PM PDT by Davy Buck

"If Lee was a traitor (and I don't believe he was), he would be the only traitor for which a ship in the United States Navy was ever named. He would be the only traitor in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. He would be the only traitor whose image was used in a positive way to recruit military personnel to fight and win WWII. Quite an accomplishment for a "traitor", wouldn't you say. . ."

(Excerpt) Read more at oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: civilwar; confederacy; dixie; rel; robertelee; treason
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To: Davy Buck
Lee was a traitor according to Article III, Section III, which says, "Treason against the United States shall consist only of levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies."

Yet Lee was an honorable man of impeccable character. In Lee's perspective, after secession, he was loyal to his home state of Virginia -- even though disloyal to the continuing government of the United States. This conflict of loyalties was inherent in the American system of government of that era.

Moreover, when the war was lost, instead of transitioning to guerrilla warfare, Lee surrendered at Appomattox and spared the country a continued and even more bitter conflict. Similarly, in civilian life after the war, Lee's good conduct and support for reconciliation with the North did much to ease sectional and racial tensions and helped knit the country together.

Lee disapproved of violence against Blacks and was a leader of a successful effort to establish a system of schools in Virginia for Blacks. Lee also applied for a federal pardon and restoration of his citizenship.

Wisely, to promote reconciliation, the victorious North chose not to prosecute Lee and recognized him as the honorable adversary that he had been. Over the next generation, Lee was gradually embraced as a national hero.

This longstanding consensus is now rejected by many Black opinion makers on the basis that because of slavery, all things Confederate are evil -- and elite opinion has sided with this view. Hence, Lee sometimes gets condemned now as a "traitor," often by people whose concept of loyalty to the United States is unusually loose.

21 posted on 05/10/2010 4:08:17 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Fiji Hill; wardaddy

Agree...

I as you state like what I like.... Not what others tell me I should or shouldn’t ..

Stay Safe Sir....


22 posted on 05/10/2010 4:09:14 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: cowboyway
Don’t mind me, I’ll try not to get underfoot...

To which you replied:

"Watch out for the miniballs"

Let me be the first! They were Minié balls; named after co-developer, Claude Etienne Minié, inventor of the Minié rifle

Stepping back into the tree line--fire at will!

23 posted on 05/10/2010 4:10:09 PM PDT by two23 (Everything about them is a lie)
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To: Davy Buck

I just hope the South doesn’t change more than it already has.
And that’s from a Yankee y’all.


24 posted on 05/10/2010 4:10:51 PM PDT by Rappini ("Pro deo et Patria.)
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To: x; stainlessbanner; BnBlFlag
Don't let this endless and mindless Civil War chitchat take over the forum.

LOL...coming from you that is rich...very rich....you absolutely live for south bashing and white race baiting X....please.

let's don't be a hypocrite

25 posted on 05/10/2010 4:20:33 PM PDT by wardaddy (never been particularly pious but I stand with Franklin Graham...bigtime...you betcha...ya'll)
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To: NTHockey
While the the 'South' may have had legal and legitimate reason for their rebellion, they forfeited it all at Andersonville. :^(

And sadly, we all witnessed it again at the Duke LaCrosse incident....

Show the world you folks have grown up, and it will support your highest aspirations.!

26 posted on 05/10/2010 4:26:33 PM PDT by investigateworld (Abortion Stops A Beating Heart)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

And don’t forget George Washington WAS a redcoat, as a young man!


27 posted on 05/10/2010 4:32:49 PM PDT by browniexyz
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To: Davy Buck

Gerald Ford signed the document that made R. E. Lee a citizen again. Since Lee fought for the south he lost his rights as a citizen of the USA. He did sign an oath after the war but it was lost and he never regained it until Ford signed it by an act of congress.


28 posted on 05/10/2010 4:37:01 PM PDT by crz
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To: Squantos
Photobucket
29 posted on 05/10/2010 4:43:25 PM PDT by wardaddy (never been particularly pious but I stand with Franklin Graham...bigtime...you betcha...ya'll)
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To: Rockingham

Lee had everything to lose by following his State of Virginia into the Confederacy, and nothing to gain personally. He had been offered the supreme command of the Union forces and turned it down because he correctly concluded that States were sovereign, and under Jeffersonian principles, people and their States had the right to fight against a govt. which exceeded Constitutional authority. Don’t kid yourselves. The Republican Party was the big-govt. party in those days, which wanted Federal public works and protective tariffs. The Republicans didn’t even bother campaigning in the South; they were a sectional party. The North used its vast industrial power, its complete naval dominance, and hordes of immigrant recruits to crush States’ rights by force. In the process, we all lost. If you really hold the obscene view that Lee, one of the finest leaders this country ever produced, was a traitor, then you must think the Tea Party movement consists of traitors. Shame on anyone who believes that.


30 posted on 05/10/2010 4:53:24 PM PDT by hellbender
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To: browniexyz
And don’t forget George Washington WAS a redcoat, as a young man!

No he wasn't. He was an officer in the Virginia militia. The Virginia militia wore uniforms of blue and buff. He wanted and tried to obtain a commission in a regular British regiment, but failed.
31 posted on 05/10/2010 4:54:07 PM PDT by Cheburashka (Stephen Decatur: you want barrels of gunpowder as tribute, you must expect cannonballs with it.)
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To: Retired Greyhound
South Carolina tried in good faith to purchase Federal forts and lands. Lincoln refused.

Nonsense. South Carolina made no such attempt.


The Union Army began massing large forces at Sumter. Quite provacative.

Nonsense. The garrison at Fort Sumter was not reinforced. Someone is lying to you. Remember who it is, never trust them again.
32 posted on 05/10/2010 5:04:28 PM PDT by Cheburashka (Stephen Decatur: you want barrels of gunpowder as tribute, you must expect cannonballs with it.)
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To: wardaddy

LMAO !!

Ya’ll dry out yet ?


33 posted on 05/10/2010 5:13:52 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: investigateworld

For a description of the Yankee behavior throughout the “Civil” War, please read “The South Was Right” by James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy, Chapter 4.

Then talk to me about Andersonville. BTW, Captain Wirz was convicted on perjured testimony of a deserter. And Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, (hardly a Southern sympathizer, noted that a higher percentage of Southern POWs died in Northern captivity than did Yankee POWs in Confederate hands.


34 posted on 05/10/2010 6:23:47 PM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Can anyone deny the George Washington was a traitor to the British throne? Of course he was! Robert E’ Lee led a war against the USA but he wasn’t a traitor? Impossible!


35 posted on 05/10/2010 6:28:05 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Retired Greyhound

“Though they were wrong about slavery,...”

As was the whole country. There was slavery in the north war was not fought to free slaves. The north has no moral high ground when it comes to slavery.


36 posted on 05/10/2010 6:30:55 PM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: NTHockey

Uhhh, ya you’re right, all those Yankees committed suicide.
Southern men at arms are forever stained ... sorry - facts are facts.


37 posted on 05/10/2010 6:45:24 PM PDT by investigateworld (Abortion Stops A Beating Heart)
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To: investigateworld

“And sadly, we all witnessed it again at the Duke LaCrosse incident....”

Uh...you really have no idea what you are talking about. Yankee students at a Yankee run school are falsely accused by a black stripper and an immoral lawyer doing his best imitation of a Philadelphia lawyer prosecutes because he wants to maintain standing within the black community that is Durham, NC. No which correlates to the old South or Confederacy at all.

“Show the world you folks have grown up, and it will support your highest aspirations.!”

LOL! Let the world show us that they still care about the Republic that once was the U.S. and the South tried to preserve and it may have some standing. Until then, you are not worthy to judge us or even hold my jock.


38 posted on 05/10/2010 6:45:26 PM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: Lee'sGhost
Again, I only have to note which ‘liberal’ was supported by NC during the last election? Will not Easly be re-elected by a huge margin?... get real.
39 posted on 05/10/2010 6:49:17 PM PDT by investigateworld (Abortion Stops A Beating Heart)
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To: investigateworld

Easley? You’re not very familiar with NC are you?


40 posted on 05/10/2010 6:52:00 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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