Lee most definitely did NOT think the seceders had it right. He opposed secession right up until VA pulled out and he had to choose between the Union and his State.
Especially when my childhood hero Honest Abe ignored multiple rulings by the Supreme Court on the illegality of his actions….and…marshaled that pesky army to invade his own country.
AFAIK, the Supremes never ruled on whether Lincoln had legal power to invade the South. Chief Justice Taney made several rulings Lincoln ignored, but they were mostly habeas corpus rulings and such.
The Supreme Court, during the period of the war, never ruled on secession, mostly because southern states chose not to address secession via the legal system or in other constitutional means. Instead, they chose to "appeal to arms."
“Lee a union man and Lincoln vs the SCOTUS.”
You are reading well beyond what I write in a pique. Books are written about these topics for a reason. They are complex, like men. Positions evolve over time, like men.
Lee most definitely DID (learned those caps from you) think the South had it right.
Lee fought for secession for 4 years to bring the Feds to the table to recognize Southern independence. Whatever he was up until 1861 and after 1865...he was for secession in between. Like most on both sides, he wished the war had never come, but once come, he did his duty as he saw it. Virgina and home over DC and nation.
As you well know, most of the Southerns were union men right up until they had to choose. I am sure you know Senator Breckenridge of KY (former VP and even prez candidate in 1860) was arguing for union on the Senate floor right up until Union troops started arresting people back in KY. Once back in KY to try to stop the insanity there, he had to flee to VA. There he helped raise a rebel regiment of exiled Kentuckers and accepted a Confederate generalship. Go figure. Unionist? Rebel? Both depending on the time and circumstance?
Methinks you get it. You just want to argue.
When forced, Lee chose Virgina because it was his home and like others saw the feds as over reaching. Otherwise he would have followed fellow southerns like George Thomas and Andrew Johnson and thousands of others who stayed loyal to the Feds.
Likewise, my reference to SCOTUS vs Lincoln didn’t have a gosh darn thingie to do with Taney secession rulings which never occurred. It was to demonstrate that Lincoln ignored the Constitution left right and sideways in many areas whenever it suited him....kind of like Obama, eh?
Army troopers arresting citizens for political speech would tear it for me even though I am a unionist.
Now do we want to argue over the SCOTUS authority to rule on executive actions or laws being made from whole cloth by Justice Marshall? Hope not. There are books about that as well.
I won’t patronize you, but likewise, don’t presume to send high school Survey of American History lectures in my direction.
Just when I decided to be nice, too.