By JUDE DOUGHERTY
As statues, monuments, and memorials tumble in Austin, Baltimore, Charlottesville, Durham, and other parts of the country, it may be fruitful to examine what the fuss is all about.
The public has been led to believe that the men for whom those monuments or plaques have been erected were bad men, who allegedly owned slaves or supported slavery as an institution. Often the truth is just the opposite, or complicated beyond common acknowledgment. We witness the ignorant and the barbarous, often with vicious intent, vandalizing public displays that have existed for decades without disturbance.
Pretended moral offense by the supposedly aggrieved is not self-validating. If one studied the events that led to the conflict between North and South, one would find that the issue was primarily “states’ rights,” not merely slavery. Study might lead one to appreciate valor in those who fought for the legitimate right of states to secede.
Major officers in the conflict were trained at the United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point. Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, Winfield Scott, and Jefferson Davis were all commissioned officers in the U.S. Army.
This essay will draw upon the Memoirs of Robert E. Lee: His Military and Personal History by A.L. Long and Recollection and Letters of General Robert E. Lee by his son, Capt. Lee. These I take to be primary sources for an insight into the character of this great man. The letters consulted were written before, during, and after the War Between the States.
Before we turn to the letters, we have this portrait of Lee from a fellow officer, Gen. Joseph E. Johnson: “We entered the Military Academy together as classmates. We had the same intimate associates who thought, as I did, that no other youth or man so united the qualities that win warm friendship and command high respect. For he was full of sympathy and kindness, genial and fond of conversation, and even fun, that made him the most agreeable of companions.”
At the rank of colonel, Lee was eventually to become commandant of the Academy, where he served from 1852-1855.
Turning to the letters, we find one addressed to a son which alone reveals his deep seated piety: “Be true, kind, and generous and pray earnestly to God to enable you to keep His Commandments, and walk in the same all the days of your life.”
Writing in December 1856, Lee said: “There are few in this enlightened age who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil.” With respect to the Southern blacks, he goes on to say, “Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melding of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy.” He was later to write, “I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than dissolution of the Union.”
When Texas seceded from the Union, Col. Lee of the Corps of Engineers was ordered to Washington by Gen. Winfield Scott, his commanding officer. At that time neither Virginia nor North Carolina had seceded, and given divided opinion among leaders in each state, it was not clear that they would leave the Union.
President Lincoln offered Lee command of Union forces in North Carolina. Lee, fearing that North Carolina would leave the Union, resigned his commission in the U.S. Army, lest he, in refusing to bear arms against his native state, would become a traitor to his country.
Eventually Virginia was drawn into the conflict, and Lee was obliged after 32 years of service to give up his commission as a U.S. Military Officer. On the eve of hostilities, this former superintendent of the United States Military Academy wrote to his sister, “I recognize no necessity for this state of things and would have foregone and pleaded to end the redress for grievances real or supposed, yet, in my own person, I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native state.”
“The whole South,” he wrote, “is in a state of revolution into which Virginia has been drawn. With all my devotion to the Union and feelings of loyalty and devotion as an American Citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home, I have therefore resigned my commission in the army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor service may never be needed.”
As a citizen, he later accepted command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
During the course of the War, Lee, following a directive of Jefferson Davis, wrote on August 13, 1863:
“The President of the Confederate States has in the name of the people appointed August 21st a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. A strict observance of the day is enjoined upon the officers and soldiers of this army. All military duties, except such as are absolutely necessary, will be suspended. The commanding officers of brigades and regiments are requested to cause divine services, suitable for the occasion, to be performed within their respective commands….God is our only refuge and our strength. Let us humble ourselves before Him.”
Upon surrendering, Lee wrote on April 10, 1865: “After years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources….I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend His blessing and protection.”
Some future historian may be prompted to compare antebellum slavery, North and South, to the welfare enslavement of subsequent generations. In any event, it does not make sense for one generation, Karl Barth notwithstanding, to hold one generation responsible for the deeds of another, perhaps several generations removed. One is tempted, but this is not the place, to compare the ruthless W.T. Sherman and his treatment of blacks with that of Robert E. Lee.
I have spoken of the deeds of Lee, but I must also say something about the character of Jefferson Davis as well, a Southern gentleman who performed in the interest of what he thought was a just cause. Davis was a Mexican War hero, a U.S. senator from Mississippi, and secretary of war (1853-1857) under President Franklin Pierce. Prior to the start of the war, Davis, like Lee, argued against secession and in more than one speech urged the preservation of the Union.
Although many think the War was primarily about slavery, the truth is, as Lincoln saw it, that the war was about the right of states to secede. Lincoln denied such a right and fought the war to preserve the Union. In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln assured the country that he had no desire to interfere with the institution of slavery where it already existed and that, in his opinion, he had no right to do so.
Contrary to Lincoln, Jefferson Davis believed that each state was sovereign and had a constitutional right to secede from the Union, but he recognized that the North would not permit it. He also knew that the Southern states did not have the military and other resources for a defensive war. Events proved him right.
What is one to conclude? Given the leftward bent of the media and its propensity to promote racial discord, these truths have not and are not likely to enter the public’s consciousness. The destruction of worthy monuments will continue.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress