Posted on 07/12/2007 6:04:07 AM PDT by RDTF
Two old steamer trunks sit in the rare-book room at the Virginia Historical Society, looking worn and forlorn. The smaller one was once red but the paint has faded to a dull rust. The larger one is brown with a piece of tin patching a hole in the top. On one side, a name is stenciled: "M. LEE."
That's Mary Custis Lee, Gen. Robert E. Lee's adventurous eldest daughter. In 1917, she stored these wooden trunks in the "silver vault" in the basement of Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust in Alexandria. A year later, she died at the age of 83. Her trunks sat in a dusty corner of the vault for 84 years, unclaimed, until E. Hunt Burke, the bank's vice chairman, discovered them in 2002.
Burke called his high school classmate Rob E.L. deButts Jr., who is Robert E. Lee's great-great-grandson. Together, the two men descended into the vault. Burke carried a basket of old keys.
"The first one I pulled out was a perfect fit," he says.
The trunks were stuffed with Lee family papers -- a priceless cache of 4,000 letters, photographs and documents. DeButts carted them to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, which houses the world's largest collection of Lee papers. He spent a week there, sitting at a desk in the research library, reaching into Mary Custis Lee's trunks and picking out treasures and trash.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
btt, will read later.
Dixieoutfitters? That the best you can do?
Conveniently ignore the contrasting view from the same source you posted.
None of Lee's daughters ever married.
Who do they remember from history? I doubt they've heard of Grant or Sherman either, if they've never heard of Lee.
Greenbrier County in what state?
Western Virginia its in the book Civil War The New River Valley Written by David Bard
Well I haven't read the article you mentioned but I've ordered the back issue and it'll be interesting to compare the two. Until then what evidence did they offer?
Yet his decision to surrender his army, along with Grant’s willingness to give generous terms, probably saved the country from ten more years of strife. He set the course followed by the Confederate generals. Johnston, Moseby the guerilla leader, Dick Taylor and even Bedford Forrest.
It is a 1926 reissue (with additional material) of "Recollections and Letters of General Robert E Lee" by his son, Captain Rovert E Lee.
Original publication was 1904.
Sounds really great. Too bad it’s not a first edition!
Well, to be technical, Lee fought subjugation of the governments of the states. Recall Mr. Lincoln’s claim that the Southern states were not withdrawing voluntarily but had been taken over by cabals. IAC, As a result of the Union’s victory, the very definition of the United States Government changed. The 13th and 14th Amendments radically changed the character of the Union.
thank you for all of your great posts - and for getting this thread back on track! lol
Not in the same form, at least. I think it is very interesting to read Brutus's objections to the Constitution in the Anti-Federalist papers and see how stunningly accurate that the predictions are. Perhaps given the long-term short-comings of our present government, it might have been better had the anti-federalist prevailed. Obviously it's just pure speculation, but it's one worth thinking about given the failures of the Federalists' system.
The older article had some accounts, anecdotes, and observations that can credibly confirm there were Black Confederates. The real debate is how many there were since many records, muster rolls, etc were destroyed, lost, disappeared.
I believe it's likely there were more black regiments than officially recognized. I've met several descendants of black confederates and the stories handed down are amazing.
And of course, that's Captain Robert.
“It really is shocking where our nation is today. It can not last much longer on this course.”
Neither does it deserve to.
Sorry, but it’s “conceive”, not “concieve”.
I think your answer is somewhat simplistic. In truth, imho, and in many other’s esteemed opinions, it was about, (as usual), money and control.
One other point, slavery still exists today, everywhere, even though we’ve turned a blind eye and/or euphemistically call it by some other name.
[In President Lincoln’s first inaugural address, he said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so.”
A precursor for a War Between the States came in 1832, when South Carolina called a convention to nullify tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, referred to as the “Tariffs of Abominations.” A compromise lowering the tariff was reached, averting secession and possibly war. The North favored protective tariffs for their manufacturing industry. The South, which exported agricultural products to and imported manufactured goods from Europe, favored free trade and was hurt by the tariffs. Plus, a northern-dominated Congress enacted laws similar to Britain’s Navigation Acts to protect northern shipping interests. Shortly after Lincoln’s election, Congress passed the highly protectionist Morrill tariffs.
That’s when the South seceded, setting up a new government. Their constitution was nearly identical to the US. Constitution except that it outlawed protectionist tariffs, business handouts and mandated a two-thirds majority vote for all spending measures.
The only good coming from the War Between the States was the abolition of slavery. The great principle enunciated in the Declaration of Independence that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” was overturned by force of arms. By destroying the states’ right to secession, Abraham Lincoln opened the door to the kind of unconstrained, despotic, arrogant government we have today, something the framers of the Constitution could not have possibly imagined.]
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