Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson were among the most honorable Americans ever.
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They had their noble attributes, especially Lee, who freed his slaves during the war. But we need to stand for freedom for all. Suppose you, or one of your ancestors, had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. Would you want a statue of your master erected in his honor?
You going to tear down Washington’s and Jefferson’s monuments?
Remove their faces from our coin or currency?
Erase their names from our institutions?
No?
Didn’t think so.
Lee and Jackson fought against The Swamp (or, at least, perceived themselves as doing so); they’re heroes to me.
“Lee, who freed his slaves during the war.”
They were not Lee’s slaves. They were the property of G.W.P. Custus, Lee’s father in-law. Lee was one of the executors listed the Custus will. The will authorized the executors to free the slaves once the debts and legacies’ were paid in full. But under no circumstance were they to be kept in bondage longer than five years after Custus’s death. Lee kept some of the Custus slaves for the entire five years, freeing the last of them in Dec 1862.
You dou realize Northerners didn’t give 2 sh!ts about freeing the slaves. That is why the conscription act needed to be enforced.