Posted on 01/18/2005 5:57:53 PM PST by wagglebee
All the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our Forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth.
--Robert E. Lee
Why do Americans continue to remember their past?
Perhaps it is because it was a time when truth was spoken. Men and women took their stand to give us the freedoms we now enjoy. God bless those in military service, who do their duty around the world for freedom.
The Hall of Fame for great Americans opened in 1900 in New York City. One thousand names were submitted, but only 29 received a majority vote from the electors. General Robert E. Lee, 30 years after his death, was among those honored. A bust of Lee was given to New York University by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Let America not forget January 19, 2005, the 198th birthday of General Robert E. Lee.
Robert E. Lee was born at Stratford House, Westmoreland County, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. The winter was cold and fireplaces were little help. Robert's mother, Ann Hill (Carter) Lee, was suffering from a severe cold.
Ann Lee named her son Robert Edward after her two brothers.
Robert E. Lee undoubtedly acquired his love of country from those who had lived during the American Revolution. His father, "Light Horse" Harry, was a hero of the revolution and served as governor of Virginia and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Members of his family also signed the Declaration of Independence.
Lee was educated in the schools of Alexandria, Virginia. In 1825, he received an appointment to West Point Military Academy. He graduated in 1829, second in his class and without a single demerit.
Robert E. Lee wed Mary Anna Randolph Custis in June 1831, two years after his graduation from West Point. Robert and Mary had grown up together. Mary was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington and the adopted son of George Washington.
Mary was an only child; therefore, she inherited Arlington House, across the Potomac from Washington, where she and Robert raised seven children.
Army promotions were slow. In 1836, Lee was appointed to first lieutenant. In 1838, with the rank of captain, Lee fought valiantly in the War with Mexico and was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec.
He was appointed superintendent of West Point in 1852 and is considered one of the best superintendents in that institution's history.
President-to-be Abraham Lincoln offered command of the Union Army to Lee in 1861, but Lee refused. He would not raise arms against his native state.
War was in the air. The country was in turmoil of separation. Lee wrestled with his soul. He had served in the United States Army for over 30 years.
After an all-night battle, much of that time on his knees in prayer, Robert Edward Lee reached his decision. He reluctantly resigned his commission and headed home to Virginia.
Arlington House would be occupied by the Federals, who would turn the estate into a war cemetery. Today it is one of our country's most cherished memorials, Arlington National Cemetery.
President John F. Kennedy visited Arlington shortly before he was assassinated in 1963 and said he wanted to be buried there. And he is, in front of Robert E. Lee's home.
Lee served as adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and then commanded the legendary Army of Northern Virginia. The exploits of Lee's army fill thousands of books today.
After four terrible years of death and destruction, General Robert E. Lee met General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, and ended their battles. He told his disheartened comrades, "Go home and be good Americans."
Lee was called Marse Robert, Uncle Robert and Marble Man. He was loved by the people of the South and adopted by the folks from the North.
Robert E. Lee was a man of honor, proud of his name and heritage. After the War Between the States, he was offered $50,000 for the use of his name. His reply was "Sirs, my name is the heritage of my parents. It is all I have and it is not for sale."
In the fall of 1865, Lee was offered and accepted the presidency of troubled Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. The school was renamed Washington and Lee in his honor.
Robert E. Lee died of a heart attack at 9:30 on the morning of October 12, 1870, at Washington-Lee College. His last words were "Strike the tent." He was 63 years of age.
He is buried in a chapel on the school grounds with his family and near his favorite horse, Traveller.
A prolific letter writer, Lee wrote his most famous quote to son Custis in 1852: "Duty is the sublimest word in our language."
On this 198th anniversary let us ponder the words he wrote to Annette Carter in 1868: "I grieve for posterity, for American principles and American liberty."
Winston Churchill called Lee "one of the noblest Americans who ever lived." Lee's life was one of service and self-sacrifice. His motto was "Duty, Honor, Country."
God Bless America!
Are you particularly short? You type like one or the other, that's all. Thought I'd ask.
I fought the Soviets for eight years. Your schoolground insults bother me not.
My coutry beat the British, the Confederates, the Nazis, and the Soviets. What about your country?
I am not short, but I must admit you have my attention and my curiosity. Can you elaborate on this theory?<p.My typing skills are horrendous and I cannot type as fast as my brain works, but this is the first time I have heard a theory which connects this to size. I DO lower my seat more than most and so sit low so, as I said, you have my attention.
So did I.
"Your schoolground insults bother me not."
You come into a thread honoring a great American on his birthday to spit on his memory and have the gall to call yourself an American. Like most blue-zone yankees, you have no concept of honor or decency.
"My coutry beat the British, the Confederates, the Nazis, and the Soviets. What about your country?"
My country beat the British (twice), man-for-man gave better than they got from the Yankees, beat the Mexicans, the Spaniards, the Imperial Huns, the socialist Nazis, the Soviets and sent the liberal yankees packing in the last two elections. Looks like my country has a better record.
AHA!
Raise your seat just a little, a little more now so I can see ya', that's it:
POW!
Hey Jubal! I just got us another yankee.
How is Robert E. Lee a "great American" when he engaged in treasonous rebellion against the U.S. government.
He resigned his commission in the U.S. army and fought to defend his home (Virginia) and family from the yankee invaders. To have done otherwise would have been the real treason.
Typical for a neoconfederate, you are cluless.
I never said anything against Lee. I came in to correct lies about Grant, Lincolin, and the war in general. I am ambivelent about Lee. I admire him for some things and critizize him for others. he was a good man who was misdirected. Had he fought on the side of truth and justice, had he fought for the United States of America, I would count him among the greatest men who ever lived.
My country beat the British (twice), man-for-man gave better than they got from the Yankees, beat the Mexicans, the Spaniards, the Imperial Huns, the socialist Nazis, the Soviets and sent the liberal yankees packing in the last two elections. Looks like my country has a better record.
Wrong. Your country died in April of 1865. You would rather have seen the Confederacy win. You would throw away half the nation now (including conservative brothers in non-conservative lands). You believe those who fought against my country should have won.
And sending liberals packing is means what? YOUR land produced Carter, Clinton, and LBJ - all elected on the backs of souther votes.
Why> Isn't it the constant claim of the southron choir that secession wasn't illegal because the Constitution didn't prevent it? Well what about this? If you read the Constitution it says that the writ of habeas corpus will not be suspended unless invasion or rebellion requires it. It does not say who may or may not suspend it, and the Supreme Court has never ruled on who may not suspend it. Lincoln's actions have never been shown to be unconstitutional.
Respectfully.........and I don't mean to bump right into this thread, especially today, Gen. Lee's birthday
.........but it always seems to me that MY country did ALL of those things, and a lot more, and even survived a horrendous bloodbath almost like The Terror in France, between itself..brother to brother...just like in the Old world, from whence we came.
You may find it interesting that Robert E. Lee was post commander at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, NY. The Church where he had (an adult) Stonewall Jackson baptized still stands in the neighborhood. I would pass it daily on my walks home.
Lee was a fine General, and an upstanding individual in his personal life. Nevertheless, he sided against the USA, which was represented by the Union.
Personally, I've always loved the fact that the South was for Free Trade while the North (including Abe Lincoln) were Buchanan-style protectionists. Makes it odd that the "Paleocons" who claim to be "sons of the South" embrace the economic philosophy so popular with Lincoln and Seward, yet despised by their ancestors.
No there is no reason why secession should not be possible, with the consent of the people. The southern acts of secession failed to take that into consideration.
Interesting that you know that, considering no records were kept of the proceedings, owing to their arguably treasonous nature....or are you saying it wasn't treason?
On the contrary, records were kept. The Hartford Declaration is available on line, and any reasonable study of the convention will confirm that those desiring a separation from the United States were a minority, and were voted down very early on.
In fact, were not representatives dispatched to Washington to negotiate such, in addition to the declaration/proposed amendments to the Constitution?
No.
Besides, Aaron Burr was part of a secession attempt nearly a decade before Hartford, as a result of the Louisiana Purchase.
And he stood trial for it.
"The People of Virginia declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the People of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will." --Virginia's ratification conditions for the Constitution, 1788.
But when they choose to act outside the bounds of the Constitution then they are entering into rebellion. And that only works if you win.
Semantics. Everyone knows Southerners are more Conservative than yankees. Heck...our worst democrats are more Conservative than your best Republicans. Without the South and our traditional Conservative values this country would be flyin' the hammer and sickle by now. We ARE America.
Then you would no doubt be fascinated by the fact that one of the early acts of the confederate congress was to enact a tariff. I guess they were for free trade, within reason.
Excellent. Every word.
Few of us are bashing Lee. Most are interested in giving the other aspects of the record the same bows to truth and reality that we give to Lee.
Let me guess....you're also an "open borders" and "illegal alien amnesty" proponent?
And yet he captured three confederate armies, including the one that Bobby Lee surrendered to him. That must just embarass the hell out of you, huh? Losing to a confused alchoholic?
You are venturing into the absurd.
I have never heard of Jubal Early, although there was a Jubal Arledge, a couple of years older than I, in my hometown.
I fly nothing on my front porch now, although for a brief period I flew the Jolly Roger, as a means of gently needling my neighbors.
If you are so well-conncected to the Almighty, as to claim that I am ignorant of His designs, then you may conjure him to appear in front of me, to strike me with thunderbolts, or otherwise bludgeon me with your risible claims. I await the demonstration of your awesome power.
And here you are, voting for the Party of Lincoln. Ironic, huh?
(The Constitution).."was intended for "perpetual union" so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the other patriots of the Revolution.
.....All the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our Forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth."
I find these to be beautiful words, and I think he meant them. Together we helped rid the world of ghastly things overseas. Indians and freed slaves' offspring and determined immigrants here all worked on it together, and bled and suffered immeasureably. We did good.
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