Virginia Governor Announces Removal of Robert E. Lee Statue

[David Lockmiller]

(06-05-2020 12:28 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  It was sad to read this headline - Forgive me but as a historian, I feel something has to be said in Lee's defense.

Davis wanted Lee to continue the war guerrilla style but he declined.

I read JMadonna's post for the first time today. It is extremely well-written and highly informative. In the moment of now, it had escaped my memory of what General Lee did not do that so benefited this entire nation in reconciliation.


President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ~ that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

"With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

What would this nation be like now if General Lee had followed the express orders of his Commander-in-Chief, President Jefferson Davis, and committed his army to guerilla warfare?

The answer to that question must be put on the scale of justice in defense of the character and reputation of Confederate General Robert Lee.

Even then, as historian JMadonna notes: “[T]he unveiling of the Lee statue served as a moment of reconciliation for Americans. Union and Confederate veterans gathered together on the same platform, honoring a man many Americans, north and south, regarded as the epitome of military brilliance, bravery, and honor.”

I believe that General Lee’s statute should remain where it is, in order to honor his noble act of moral courage. I believe that President Abraham Lincoln would have agreed with this assessment.