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!
Sure you did,
Just like Robert E. Lee
who sold out his country.
"How is Robert E. Lee a "great American" when he engaged in treasonous rebellion against the U.S. government."
History has already judged him as such. It's just the way it is.
Well, that last post of NJ Neo just reeked of Walt - I recall thousand line posts that the banned one would put up (complete with the bold)
Coinkydink?
Hmmm...
Nonsense, learn to read. It's not the EXISTANCE of slavery - to which EVERY state agreed was legal - it's the history of the Northern states to fail to ABIDE by the terms of the agreement.
He told Lincoln thanks...but no thanks, when he was offered command of the entire Union army. He resigned his commission and fought with HIS country. To have done otherwise would have been treason.
No matter how much you sputter and whine....Robert E. Lee will always be remembered as a great American by the majority of Americans and all true Southerners.
Obviously, the Confederate states didn't jump all over it, so something else must have been their reason for departure, and for their refusal to rejoin.
He was a traitor. He fought against the United States of America. You have written you will do likewise.
Lee's country was Virginia, not the Confederate States of America. He had no more loyalty to a federal CSA than he did to a federal USA. He didn't want Virginia to split from the USA. I think that if Virginia had remained in the Union, he would have offered his services to Lincoln and Virginia against the rebellion.
I stand proudly behind what I have written. Too bad you don't even have the guts to quote even one sentence I've written in it's entirety. You have to chop it up to suit your needs.
No doubt. Virginia was his country.
Come in please.
Or was it that they had taken care of protecting slavery by their acts of secession? And having done so, why would they rejoin? They made their decision to go it alone, it's very hard to back out of that.
"Hannibal was the greater general."
Wasn't Hannibal a Yankee?
"He betrayed his country. He brought war and destruction on Virginia for the sake of holding human beings whose skin was black to be slaves in perpetuity. Fortunately he lost the war."
Lee fought for Virginia. He brought war and destruction upon his foes as well, and usually gave much more with much less than what he got. That's war.
I don't argue the outcome of the war, or the demise of slavery, I don't think any American does. The only thing that merits discussion is the demise of the 10th amendment - striken from the Constitution by force, and causing the subsequent insatiable growth of the Federal Monster and it's increasing usurpation of freedoms for all Americans.
There will likely be another event required just as traumatic as the Civil War if the growth of Federal powers are ever to be stemmed. I don't think it will come to arms again, but it will most certainly involve citizen rebellion of sorts against the federal gov't. If you live that long, will you be there to judge those who believe in the Constitution and a limited federal government?
Your understanding of this history is wanting, your analysis is weak, but your hindsight appears to be 20-20.
Read about Lee, 19th century America and you, too will admire this man. The Civil War would have been much more divisive and reconciliation much more difficult without him and his honorable example. America today would not be the dominant force for good in the world without the Civil War.
That's what they told us growing up. But now it's hard not to be more skeptical about that idea. Lee was in the US Army for something like 30 years and had sworn an oath of allegiance when he accepted his commission. Clearly he felt great loyalty to Virginia and didn't want to raise his hand against his native state. His attitude was wholly understandable, but it doesn't look at all as praiseworthy as it once may have.
He had no more loyalty to a federal CSA than he did to a federal USA. He didn't want Virginia to split from the USA.
Once the war started Lee was a strong supporter of the centralized Confederate government against "state's rights." It was a matter of giving the central government in Richmond the means and resources to win the war, and he was totally behind that. After all, it would have made little sense to subordinate everything to the interests of one state, rather than to the nation at war.
Lee was loyal to the CSA or to Virginia in some ultimate sense was another matter. But if he did consider himself to be a free agent, bound only to his attachment to Virginia and not the the various government he'd sworn allegiance to, there's a lot that's morally questionable about that.
I think that if Virginia had remained in the Union, he would have offered his services to Lincoln and Virginia against the rebellion.
That is also a tricky assumption that raises moral questions. One thing about Lee is how much he changed over time. Within a few months he went from not accepting secession as constitutional, to embracing it, to giving his all for the Confederacy.
Lee was certainly a great gentleman, but the image of him as a man of unwavering principle may not hold up. He looks to have been led by his heart and sentiments more than by his head. Such sincerity can be laudable, but heeding the emotions more than reason can also lead people astray.
Just playing Modernman. I hope that your family and you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year's.I guess the proper way to view it all, is there is the right, the wrong and the truth. We were not there at the time and who really knows what went on. History when repeated through different people begins to vary and the number of people told concepts will vary.. I do respect your right to your opinion. I have no quarrel with you and wish you the best in life. Take care my friend. NSNR.
Do you think that a nation needs a well educated population to remain free, independent, and strong?
But Lincoln offerred a Constitutional amendment to protect slavery, yet the Confederacy was formed anyway. hmmm
The pen is mightier than the sword. Would you deny any mentally ill person a voice, too?
A couple of problems with your conspiracy theory. Lincoln didn't offer it...and it didn't pass out of Congress until March 1861, weeks after the southern states has seceded.
I would deny them the right to vote.
The mentally ill should not have the right to vote or bear arms unless they are healed.
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