I’m not putting down Arlington, because it’s a beautiful place and I think it’s a fitting way to honor our fallen heroes. However, I do find it ironic that the cemetery was actually started there as a thumb in the eye to General Lee. Dead Union soldiers were buried there largely as payback for his disloyalty in resigning his commission from the Union army and joining the Confederacy. At around the same time they were deciding to bury Union soldiers there, the Union was swindling the Lee family out of the land through an illegal scheme (later overturned by the Supreme Court) wherein they refused to accept payment of taxes from an agent of the Lee family and demanded that they pay the taxes in person, which they knew the Lees would be unable to do.
I just found that fascinating when I toured Arlington last year. I had never heard it before.
“was swindling the Lee family out of the land through an illegal scheme”
This proves the government has always and will always screw over people.