I'm no fan of slavery, and I'm a northerner. But I have to disagree with the statement that Lee was a traitor. All our Founding documents recognize that it was up to the independent States to freely choose to join the Union by a vote of their own representatives. I have never seen a legal agreement stating that after that point, they ceased to be citizens of their States and that the States had no right to leave the Union.
I think the distinction matters. We can see the harm caused by central over-reach in our own times, when the Demo-Communists, unlike their forebears the Confederates, have become bloodthirsty advocates of centralized power (as long as it rolls their way). They go so far as to deny that the States have the responsibility and authority to set the rules of election procedure within their own boundaries and police the integrity of the process of selecting their own electors and representatives.
Maybe Lee was more of a prophet--a patriot who recognized a Federal power grab and the consequences that would follow. The States now lack the power to hold back those in Washington who claim that D.C. alone speaks for its subjects thousands of miles away on any issue bigger than parking tickets.
“Maybe Lee was more of a prophet—a patriot who recognized a Federal power grab and the consequences that would follow👍
👍
It was obvious then, imagine what a catastrophe it is now!
That was exactly the dynamic in play. Virginia didn’t secede until after Lincoln called for 10,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion after Fort Sumter. At the time Lee had his interview with Lincoln, Virginia was still in the Union.
The States seceded.
Then they attacked. They blew it.
To my knowledge, Lee never denounced his father for marching federal troops into western PA to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Nor, to my knowledge, did he show any disagreement with the pre-war fugitive slave laws that essentially allowed the fedgov to trample the rights of free states with southern (human) property laws.