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!
I spent half my life in the south.
From a previous thread - my words;
I have been fighting the good fight against Neoconfederates for a decade. Whenever I think about leaving the oppression of taxation and legislation which is NJ to return to the beauty and conservative governance of the south, I remember that the stain of Neoconfedercy. I admire my southern countrymen and women for many things. I am grateful for much of what they have done and continue to do for this nation. I admire much in them that is graceful, honest, polite, hard working, family-oriented, and patriotic.
But this absolute failure to see the reality of a past that is not their fault or their burden, which they nonetheless feel compeled to advance, saddens and confuses me.
Were it not for this willful blindness I would cosider it not a boast to call them the greatest America has to offer in a land of beauty and liberty. More is the pity. My love-hate with the south goes on.
You are a bigger fool than I thought. Why? Because you would alienate those who hold you in high reagrd on most things over a war lost by those who, in balance, when all things are considered including Northern crimes and sins, fought for a two reprehensible goals - the destruction of the United States and the perpetuation of Chattle slavery.
Your self-righteous proclimations of "flying the hammer and sickle" willfully ignores the contributions of thousands of "Yankees" at Tarwa, Bastone, and the depths of the North sea. Without United States victory in 1865, the historical trophies you summon for your argument (ie; defeat of the Soviets) would never have occuried.
More cognitive dissonance on the part of Neoconfederates.
Lee was the greatest general of the war...er...but...U.S. troops and genrals sucked!
Ahem...
Which is it? How did the greatest general (and he was good!) lose to such incompetants?
The central illogical point upon which the whole Lost cause myth rests.
"The Constitutional Debates"
" The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions"
"A Constitutional History of Secession"
These are good reads, but they can get long winded at times. However if you wish to get educated as to the Founders' Original Intent, then you'll read them.
I did! Thanks to Bill Clinton's chipping away at my enumerated rights under the Constitution.
Answer this, then I will answer you.
How are Geroge Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, etc..., great Americans when they "engaged in treasonous rebellion" against the British Crown?
Please. The party of 'let them root hog or die'? That is Lincoln's legacy, not his party. The two are separate.
At least you are consistent. you have the courage of your convictions which is more than I can say of some of your cohorts.
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.
Wrong answer. you told ME that Grant was roasting in hell. I have no such intimate knowledge. it is YOU who claimed to have it.
You been out listening to too much Bruce Springsteen again. Please refer to the titles in my previous post.
Gotta go do some stuff - but will check back later for what you have on this.
It's a good question; nay an excellent question!
Get ready for a gazillion snippets that prove a pre-ordained point by these people. To them the founders were patriots and the Southerners were traitors just because they recognized that the central gov't had violated the contract established by the founders. All of the snippets will be about some sort of constitutional this or that. Never mind that an entire region of the coutry was being manipulated and drained of its wealth to fund Northern despotism.
Thanks for showing back up. After I get back for getting some groceries, I look forward to seeing your limp noodle posts.
You take yourself much too seriously. Open a beer and pet your dog or cat.
2. Oppose any plan to offer amnesty to illegals.
3. Support strictly regulated guest worker program, similar to the bracero program we had in the 1940s and 1950s. That way, the guys work for a few years, send the money home to their families and then leave.
4. Like John Calhoun and George Wallace (and unlike those clowns Pat the Ultramontanist and Sam Francis) I support free trade with all nations. I am VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED, however to a. trade with countries that refuse to allow similar openness to their respective national markets. and b. trade in goods related to national security that may benefit potential adversaries.
Again, why have all the Southrons (as opposed to Southern Gentleman like Lee) embrace 19th Century Yankee economics that only served to retard development in the south. It is no coincidence that the rise of open markets worldwide after WWII has been in tandem with the development of the South from a depressed economic backwater to one of the most dynamic economic regions of the USA.
If Lee had possessed the same logistical/industrial attributes that the Yankees had, Grant would be an asterisk.
Not only that, but the Confederate government was quite eager to enlist the aid of foreigners, primarily the British and French, to make war on their fellow Americans. The differences between the most diverse of 1860 Americans, say New Englanders and South Carolinians, pale before the differences between Americans and Europeans. Of all the errors of the Confederacy, this willingness to reintroduce European interference into North America is one of the most indefensible
Done.
Sure, and if frogs ate mud and had wings and a body temperature of 300 degrees then they could fly and poop bricks at the same time. Long and short of it is that they can't and Lee lost. To a confused alcoholic. Embarassed, huh?
No, the Party of Lincoln.
And do some research on the 'root hog or die'. You've got it wrong. Again.
Good Lord!
I have been fighting Neoconfederates for over a decade and I have never seen that argument. Excellent! Bravo!
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