The Real Robert E. Lee

 

Dated

I was disappointed to hear of the demands of a group of Washington & Lee law students to ban the flying of the Confederate battle flag and denounce one of their school’s namesakes, General Robert E. Lee, as “dishonorable and racist.” This latest controversy appears to be yet another example of the double standard and prejudice against anything “Confederate.” Why, for instance, is there outrage against Lee, but not George Washington, one of the wealthiest slaveowners of his time?

Why is there outrage against the Confederate flag, which flew over slavery for four years, but not the American flag, which flew over slavery for eighty years? I would like to right the multitude of wrongs which have been perpetrated against Lee’s legacy in particular and Confederate history in general. Hopefully, these truths will provide an appreciation of the complexity of the issues, principles, and participants in the “Civil War.”

First, Lee deplored slavery, describing it as a “moral and political evil” in a letter to his wife, Mary Anna. Lee told her that they should give “the final abolition of human slavery…the aid of our prayers and all justifiable means in our power,” praying for “the mild and melting influence of Christianity” over “the storm and tempest of fiery controversy” driving America to disunion.

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