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!
Nonsense. Lincoln was inaugurated until March, long after the south had organized iteself into the confederacy and several weeks after Davis had been installed as president, so the claim that South Carolina was acting on it's own is ridiculous. The idea that ther was a truce with the Buchanan administration is also false. There was an agreement not to reinforce Sumter so long as the South Carolina militia did not seize federal facilities in Charleston but that had been violated by South Carolina back in January.
Charleston was a ready to ignite for months. Lincoln dropped the match.
The only match that was dropped was the one Jeff Davis dropped on the touchhole of the first cannon in Charleston Harbor.
Lincoln lacked the political or popular support to force the issue through military means. So no, had Davis not fired on Sumter then Lincoln could not have sent troops to force a reunion. Or if he had then the south would have been able to claim that they were the injured party. Status quo worked for Davis far more than it did for Lincoln. Had the south held fire then it's likely that the confederate sovereignty would have been recognized by default by the summer.
Is that what you are saying?
Yes.
Since I never said any of that then I guess it's none of it. But for the record, no, Lincoln didn't invade anyone. You invade other countries not rebellious sections of your own. And Lincoln took no military actions against the southern rebellion at all until the south started hostilities at Sumter.
OK?
Stainless, why do you keep dredging up Fernando Wood and his call for New York City secession without also mentioning that his idea was dismissed by the city council, Wood was tossed out of office at the next election, and that after the south initiated hostilities he changed his mind and became a supporter of the war?
Virginia sent its militia to seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry on April 17, and began organizing them for that task before the Virginia convention voted for secession. North Carolina seized the U.S. Mint in Charlotte on April 21 and the federal arsenal in Fayetteville on April 22. Virginia organized her army and appointed commanders in violation of the Constitution by April 26. And you want us to believe that they were not participating in the rebellion? In light of those actions, Lincoln's including them in the blockade made perfect sense.
What do you base that on?
"What do you base that on?"
The same foundation of sand as the hypothesis I was responding to........NOTHING. That was kinda the point.
"A Union of the States containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a State, would look more like a declaration of war, than an infliction of punishment, and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound."30
Wood shows secession is not just a "southern" thing. It also shows how divided sentiments in the Union ran.
Yes. And it also shows just how much those sentiments changed once the south initiated hostilities at Sumter. Wood himself took the lead in raising the 40th New York Volunteer Infantry, known as the 'Mozart Regiment' after his political factionm in the days following the attack.
Forgot to mention that part, huh?
Just as Lincoln planned it. He knew an attack on Sumpter would rally Union men, so he provoked it.
But the power was later given to the president under the terms of the Militia Act. And nowhere does the Constitution say that troops cannot be called out against a state in rebellion against the federal government.
Gee, I thought we were talking about Fernando Wood, that stalwart supporter of the southern rebellion? Now you bring Lincoln in. Well, I suppose it's useless to point out to you that nobody forced Davis to take the bait. He could have held his fire and that nefarious plot by that mean 'ol Lincoln would have come to naught. Doesn't Davis deserve any accountability for his actions?
Tanks, aircraft, missiles, and WMDs
Where do you keep yours ?
Oh come on now...why not cannons, too? After all, that's what the colonists were trying to protect at Lexington and Concord.
Nope, there was nothing inconsistant in your spin about it. You're gonna get dizzy...
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