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Trump: 'Robert E. Lee was a great general'
The Hill ^ | 10/12/18 | CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO

Posted on 10/12/2018 7:13:42 PM PDT by yesthatjallen

President Trump praised Confederate Geader Robert E. Lee as "a great general" on Friday during a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio.

"So Robert E. Lee was a great general. And Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn’t beat Robert E. Lee," Trump said before launching into a monologue about Lee, Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

"He was going crazy. I don’t know if you know this story. But Robert E. Lee was winning battle after battle after battle. And Abraham Lincoln came home, he said, 'I can’t beat Robert E. Lee,'" Trump said.

"And he had all of his generals, they looked great, they were the top of their class at West Point. They were the greatest people. There’s only one problem — they didn’t know how the hell to win. They didn’t know how to fight. They didn’t know how," he continued.

Trump went on to say, multiple times, that Grant had a drinking problem, saying that the former president "knocked the hell out of everyone" as a Union general.

"Man was he a good general. And he’s finally being recognized as a great general," Trump added.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2018 Trump has drawn criticism for his defense of Confederate statues, including those of Robert E. Lee.

He drew widespread condemnation last year following a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying that white nationalist protesters were there to oppose the removal of a "very, very important" statue.

"They were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said at the time. “This week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

Trump, speaking at another rally in Ohio last year, said that he can be one of the “most presidential” presidents to hold office. "…With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office,” he said to a crowd in Youngstown.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: bloggers; civilwar; confederacy; dixie; donaldtrump; robertelee; trump
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To: DiogenesLamp; jmacusa
DiogenesLamp: "You can't don the moral armor of fighting against the South because of "slavery" when you continue to practice it yourself.
It clearly wasn't "slavery" that was causing the invasion and fighting."

According to their own documents it was indeed protecting slavery that drove Fire Eaters to declare secession & war against the United States.
In the act of waging war Confederate forces invaded a dozen Union states & territories.

The US Congress made slavery a war issued in 1861 when it declared runaway Confederate slaves "contraband of war".

So it was "all about" slavery, from Day One.

321 posted on 10/14/2018 8:34:01 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: DiogenesLamp; Pelham; wardaddy
DiogenesLamp: "I don't think any of us are 'North Haters' or 'South Haters.' "

And yet terms like "South hater" or "yankeefa", etc. get thrown out by Lost Causers on pretty much every CW thread.
Why?

322 posted on 10/14/2018 8:37:52 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: Bull Snipe

“Some people claim that Lee himself didn’t own slaves, they were his wife’s.” The slaves at Arlington and other Custis properties were to be freed per the GWP Custis will. Custis died in 1857. He named Colonel Lee as the estates administrator. The Custis will gave the executor the discretion of freeing the slave once the estates debts and legacies had been paid in full, but they were all to be freed no later than 5 years after Custis’s death. Lee over the course of those years freed the slaves as the financial condition of the estate improved and freed the last of them in Nov 1862.

“Grant’s wife also owned slaves” Julia never owned the slaves in question. They remained the property of her father Fredrick Dent. They only attended her when she was in Missouri. He would not allow the slaves to accompany her outside the state. Those slaves were freed when Missouri outlawed slaver in January 1865.


323 posted on 10/14/2018 8:41:00 AM PDT by Bull Snipe (")
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To: DiogenesLamp
DiogenesLamp: "You are shark jumping again there bro. :)"

Says our master shark-jumping writer of historical fictions.

324 posted on 10/14/2018 8:44:45 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: yesthatjallen

Lee was Lincoln’s first choice for General of the Union Army.


325 posted on 10/14/2018 8:48:18 AM PDT by Fledermaus (Republicans - GROW A PAIR)
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To: Paladin2

Good one


326 posted on 10/14/2018 8:51:32 AM PDT by Fledermaus (Republicans - GROW A PAIR)
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To: DoodleDawg; DiogenesLamp
DiogenesLamp: "Lincoln didn't ORDER the slaves freed in areas under which he had control.
He did order them freed in the South, which was clearly contrary to constitutional law if you operate under the claim that the Southern States were still part of the Union."

As always, DiogenesLamp misstates the facts.
In fact, Lincoln ordered emancipation of slaves in states & regions in rebellion against the United States.
Emancipation was declared under the President's authority to suppress rebellion, "as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion".[21] , in Lincoln's words.

327 posted on 10/14/2018 8:56:39 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: DiogenesLamp; DoodleDawg
DiogenesLamp: "My point of course is that Lincoln didn't have the legal power to do it in the North or the South."

Lincoln had constitutional/legal authority to suppress rebellions.
Emancipation was an act of war against Confederates.

States & regions loyal to the Union remained under Constitutional protections until ratification of the 13th amendment.

328 posted on 10/14/2018 9:07:22 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: central_va; DoodleDawg
central_va: "When President A$$ Longcolon repackaged the war after Sharpsburg as the war to free the black man, he needed the conscription act to back up his big executive order that really did nothing."

Lincoln's emancipation proclamation eventually freed millions in the Confederacy.
As for conscription: Confederates began drafting in April 1862, the Union in July 1863.
Cartoon from the time showing Confederates drafting a Southern Unionist:

329 posted on 10/14/2018 9:28:05 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: central_va; DiogenesLamp
central_va: "You confuse Federal haters with North haters."

Naw… I'm just returning tit for tat.
We get called all kinds of names here, of which "South haters" is one of the milder, and all for no real reason except apparently some people enjoy hurling colorful invectives.

Amazingly, the same people so quick to cry "South haters" are just as quick to claim they're not "North haters", and to take offense at the term!

I'm just saying...
If you don't like being called a "hater", then don't use that word on your fellow FReepers.

Reserve it for those who truly deserve it -- like Democrats.

central_va: "So can a patriot hate the Federal Government and still love his state?"

Curiously, ahem, some posters reserve their "hate" less for either certain states or Federal government than for some cities, most notably, New York City & Washington, DC.

Go figure...

330 posted on 10/14/2018 9:40:40 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: BroJoeK
So can a patriot hate the Federal Government and still love his state?"

Quit dodging and answer the question South hater.

331 posted on 10/14/2018 9:42:46 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: central_va; x
central_va: "The meme that the South wanted to conquer that North is total BS fairy tale."

The meme that the Confederacy did not start war, did not declare war and did not fight an existential war against the United States, in Union states & territories is, ahem, total BS fairy tale.

332 posted on 10/14/2018 9:44:38 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: BroJoeK
Yes, for the South the reason for conscription are plainly obvious. He was ok with fighting and the cause but the word was getting back about the horrible conditions the average Rebel had to live under.

The North had the opposite problem, the cause "freeing the black man" wasn't worth dying for and frankly to them it sucked, but the living conditions were much, much better for them.

333 posted on 10/14/2018 9:47:25 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: Zeneta

The clueless media won’t understand.


Oh, they know the truth, but they have a job to do, so....


334 posted on 10/14/2018 9:47:44 AM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: central_va; Bull Snipe
central_va: "The reason for the CSA conscription was much more simple and less political..."

So let's see if I can follow your logic here:

  1. Confederate draft: good
  2. Union draft: bad
  3. Period.

??

335 posted on 10/14/2018 9:48:48 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: BroJoeK
Only an idiot would buy the modern rewrite of history that the CSA EVER intended to conquer the North. The fact that you actually believe this fairy tale means you are stupid, a liar, have and agenda OR PERHAPS ALL THREE.

I will PAY anyone to find one contemporary reference that even mentions that as a real possibility. I know because I've looked and still look for it while doing research.

336 posted on 10/14/2018 9:52:23 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: BroJoeK

You are not a sophisticated person. The differences between the reasons for conscription are stark and enlightening but lost on your neo historical pea brain.


337 posted on 10/14/2018 9:54:49 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: wardaddy; Rockingham
wardaddy: "You’re a silly man"

No, you raised h*ll, you cr*pp*d all over this thread starting at post #95 because you didn't like Rockingham's notice that RE Lee fought more aggressively than Confederate resources could support -- a mild criticism at worst.

Now you come along telling us Lee was not a great general at Gettysburg because he failed to make his orders clear?

WTF?

338 posted on 10/14/2018 10:02:15 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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To: BroJoeK

Are you really certain that the South lost?


339 posted on 10/14/2018 10:03:21 AM PDT by Don Corleone (Nothing makes the delusional more furious than truth.)
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To: central_va
central_va: "Quit dodging and answer the question South hater. "

So you want to be called a "North hater"?
Fine, OK North hater, the answer is obvious -- love or hate whom you wish, but if you hate your country, then I'd recommend moving to a different one you like better.

340 posted on 10/14/2018 10:10:53 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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