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Old 08-16-2017, 09:55 AM
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Rational Anarchist
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: DFW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tybrad View Post
Let me start by saying that I am in no way a Trump supporter or apologist.

I woke to see the Baltimore story this morning. What is happening is SO very American- this erasure out of existence of anything or anyone who colored history regardless of their positive contributions. This is so very Soviet!

I think of Cosby. I think of Walter Lewin. And I think of the current condition. Lee was NOT like Hussein, Stalin, Hitler, Imin or any others who may some to your mind; to say so is extremely extremist in one's view. Some positive and constructive Lee facts from Wiki...

Lee privately opposed the Confederacy in letters in early 1861, denouncing secession as "nothing but revolution" and an unconstitutional betrayal of the efforts of the Founding Fathers. Writing to his eldest son in January, Lee stated:
The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the aggression, and am willing to take every proper step for redress. It is the principle I contend for, not individual or private benefit. As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for "perpetual union," so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assemble.

When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command.

After the war, Lee supported President Andrew Johnson's program of Reconstruction and intersectional friendship...

He urged them (the Radical Republicans) to rethink their position between the North and the South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the nation's political life.




Do I support what he stood for during the War years? No. But to cast this General as is being done is wrong-minded. It seems to me that Lee fought for what he believed in, but in defeat tried to heal, mend, reintegrate.
A very Lost Cause take on Robert E. Lee.
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