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Aug 27, 2017 15:59:51   #
Dewey Dee
 
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]

Reply
Aug 27, 2017 16:04:00   #
no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun
 
Dewey Dee wrote:
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]
Note the date... br br © Copyright 1999 The Washi... (show quote)


Thank you for the history lesson. Very informative.

Reply
Aug 27, 2017 16:11:24   #
Quakerwidow Loc: Chestertown, MD
 
Dewey Dee wrote:
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]
Note the date... br br © Copyright 1999 The Washi... (show quote)


shared

Reply
 
 
Aug 27, 2017 16:21:43   #
Big dog
 
Dewey Dee wrote:
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]
Note the date... br br © Copyright 1999 The Washi... (show quote)


You are proof that intelligence is more powerful than ignorance. Thank you

Reply
Aug 27, 2017 16:23:54   #
Snoopy
 
Dewey Dee wrote:
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]
Note the date... br br © Copyright 1999 The Washi... (show quote)



Dear Dewey Dee:

Unfortunately the winners of a war get to write their own history.

Very little of the content of your article has been taught in the United States.

You have to DIG for the real story.

Snoopy

Reply
Aug 27, 2017 16:38:19   #
iFrank Loc: San Antonio
 
Dewey Dee wrote:
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]
Note the date... br br © Copyright 1999 The Washi... (show quote)


They're on the verge of voting on changing anything that has Robert E. Lee on it. Also the statues of what might seem offensive here in San Antonio, if we leave it up to the city council they will probably remove the lot of all. If they leave it up to the voters, we will probably keep all the same, but the office dwellers will be seeing the end result- tourist money and political correctness. Thanks for the post,... Frank.

Reply
Aug 27, 2017 17:38:50   #
Ricktloml
 
Dewey Dee wrote:
Note the date...

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation,
African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public
schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people --
black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a
traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond
by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new
park.

My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery,
came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect
on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times
searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the
Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in
learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried
at Arlington.

Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was
born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with
his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George
Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained
at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had
died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two
of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his
wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero
and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which
the Union meant as much as it did for his.

But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13
states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political
autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went
to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring
to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil
War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union
forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After
much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and
became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which
at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free
blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was
morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding
was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late
father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was
not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the
country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to
take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to
those slave states that had left the Union.

Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by
these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his
disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest
later." The "rest" came after the war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who
clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the
1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to
admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family,
former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the
fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is
officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin
Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained
glass in the Washington Cathedral.

It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he
fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in
the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living
institution where he spent his final five years. There the
much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the
president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands
as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months
before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was
a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."

I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early
in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation
are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a
lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for
anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including
Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American
University in Washington, D.C.]
Note the date... br br © Copyright 1999 The Washi... (show quote)


I would be willing to bet that very few people are aware of this part of history, and keeping people ignorant in order to foment discord and violence is the order of the day

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Aug 29, 2017 23:55:20   #
goch1
 

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