Posted on 07/10/2015 10:11:35 AM PDT by ghost of stonewall jackson
The harder call concerns Robert E. Lee. Should schools and other facilities be named after the great Confederate general, or should his name be removed and replaced?
The case against Lee begins with the fact that he betrayed his oath to serve the United States. He didnt need to do it. The late historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor demonstrated that 40 percent of Virginia officers decided to remain with the Union forces, including members of Lees family.
As the historian Allen Guelzo emailed me, He withdrew from the Army and took up arms in a rebellion against the United States. He could have at least sat out the war. But, Guelzo continues, he raised his hand against the flag and government he had sworn to defend. This more than fulfills the constitutional definition of treason.
More germane, while Lee may have opposed slavery in theory he did nothing to eliminate or reduce it in practice. On the contrary, if hed been successful in the central task of his life, he would have preserved and prolonged it.
Like Lincoln he did not believe African-Americans were yet capable of equality. Unlike Lincoln he accepted the bondage of other human beings with bland complaisance. His wife inherited 196 slaves from her father. Her fathers will (somewhat impractically) said they were to be freed, but Lee didnt free them.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yes, let’s besmirch one of the greatest men America has ever produced. He is still the only man to get through West Point without a demerit.
His example paved the way for reconciliation after the war.
No he did not. He resigned his commission, which effectively revokes his oath. He decided to remain faithful to Virginia, which is the essence of States rights.
Then lets get rid of all JFK, MLK, Teddy, Bobby, Cesar Chavez references.
After all, these people killed others, were serial adulters, whoremongers, liars, ignored/violate laws, endorsed voter fraud, encouraged/protected illegal immigrants, and had far left/Communist conections (i.e., willing to deny Americans freedoms and rights)
So get rid of them all. Turnabout is fair play
Read the Headline and thought Brooks was commenting on the Dukes of Hazzard Dodge Charger.
I don’t need my culture “shaped” thank you very much. I am a proud Southerner and you mess with Robert E Lee at your peril.
There are two scenes portrayed in the movie “Gods and Generals”, pertaining to soliloquoys (sp) from General Robert E. Lee.
I suggest that this feller Brooks, who possibly still suffers from priapism when thinking of Obama’s pants creases, go back and watch those two clips, then rewrite his opinions.
Didn’t Lee urge Davis to end slavery to get that monkey off the Confederacy’s back? I may be wrong about this but that’s what I thought.
David Brooks dislikes Lee but still loves the crease in the pants.
Who cares what a far left Democrat like David Brooks thinks?
An officer resigning his commission is honorable. As to sitting out the war Lee was offered and declined command of all Union forces before he accepted a position with his country, Virginia.
The left does.
And the left runs this country.
“Usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally dont know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he knew both better than me. [...] I remember distinctly an image of—we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and Im thinking, a) hes going to be president and b) hell be a very good president.
This is the David Brooks I know.
I know Robert E Lee had respect from his men. I hate to see him “borked” or “flagged”
I believe the terms of the will said the slaves were to be freed within five years of his father-in-law's death. Lee did free the slaves, although the last of them were not freed until a few months after the fifth anniversary of date his father-in-law died.
No. Lee was mildly opposed to slavery at best.
U.S Grant, on the other hand, accumulated numerous demerits and finished in the bottom third of his class. And within six weeks of launching his Overland Campaign, he had Lee under siege in Petersburg, after which Lee was simply delaying the inevitable.
That's not true. As Douglas Freeman pointed out in his biography of Lee, Lee wasn't even the only man in his class to graduate without a demerit. But that does not change the fact that those who graduated with that distinction were very rare.
Brooks’ son serves in a foreign army (Israeli Defense Force). I wonder if future sanctimonious fascists will consider that treasonous.
“So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this, as regards Virginia especially, that I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by the war, and have suffered all I have suffered, to have this object attained.”
“In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country.”
General Robert E Lee.
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