Robert E Lee The Great Emancipator

[Thomas Thorne]

(06-07-2013 12:30 PM)william l. richter Wrote:  Robert E. Lee: The Great Emanciaptor
How many slaves the Proclamation freed and whether it was legal, do not matter. Lincoln had become an abolitionist. He corrected his legal stance by having Congress pass a proposed Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery completely. He was able to do all of this because Robert E. Lee kept the Confederacy alive for two critical years forcing Lincoln to act to deny the South its labor force and the North to accept this reality. In his own way, Lee was the Great Emancipator. He forced Lincoln to act to end slavery to win the war.

It is fascinating how the actions and even the triumphs of famous men and women often produce consequences that would have horrified them. Did Lee ever rue his military successes? Napoleon, who was certainly no Jeffersonian,was described as an "unwitting champion of democracy." Perhaps the ultimate in carrying this line of thought to ridiculousness was Randolph Churchill,the truly obnoxious son of Winston Churchill. Randolph stunned the city fathers of Tel Aviv by suggesting they build a statue of Hitler on the grounds that they owed the existence of Israel to the greatest anti -semite in history.

A comparison of Napoleon, Hitler and Robert E. Lee is instructive. The first two were among the great egomaniacs of history who happily waded thru rivers of blood for their own glory. Lee was raised in the tradition of George Washington which emphasized self abnegation, service to the state and subordination of the military to civil authority.

Perhaps Lee's greatest service to his country was to surrender in 1865 and go home without the slightest desire to renew the contest at some future date. It was better for the United States that Southerners gloried in the Lost Cause than create Confederate Liberation Fronts and either resume the Civil War or engage in the terrorism too often characteristic of people with a national identity but without a country.
Tom