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We live with history for much longer than most people realize. Slavery was a historic mistake that haunted our nation from its founding to the current day. The Constitution of the United States set forth a wondrous governing agreement that we lost a great deal of as a consequence of the Civil War. That Lee would stay with Virginia, based upon his interpretation that the northern states were overreaching their rights under the constitution, is entirely honorable. That slavery was abolished is certainly good. However, Lee apparently mightily disagreed with the methods used to accomplish the objective.

The damage of the Civil war seems still apparent in many areas of the south. Lexington, Virginia, seemed impoverished to me in many ways. The pre-war development seemed rich in comparison to the post-war development in some respects.

I have no doubt that Robert E. Lee would have made an excellent president. Perhaps he could have met the necessary moral objectives (abolition of slavery) and kept the provisions of the constitution in place while doing so.

There is little doubt in my mind that the loss of "limited, enumerated powers of the federal government" in favor of the immense federal behemoth and politicization of the judiciary is the offspring of the civil war.

So is it possible that slavery was wrong and Lee was right, both, simultaneously?

So is it possible that slavery was wrong and Lee was right, both, simultaneously?

This whole post is stated perfectly.

Thank you!

Our Country has suffered from not acknowledging his stature. Along with others in our not too distant past.

So is it possible that slavery was wrong and Lee was right, both, simultaneously?

Good post. Any reading of RE Lee makes it clear that he was a soldier first, politician not at all. Robert E. Lee did not foment secession, but when his state left, he went with it as its servant.

The alternative was for him to renounce his home, as he wrote about it....and from that perspective, he had no other choice...He was on the right side as far as his conscience and honor could grasp.

GregGinn, you should be so lucky that you never have to make such a fateful decision.