Maggie's Farm

tell it, BD!

http://tinyurl.com/3cbtos

[excerpt]

''Even in defeat, Lee manifested a quiet Christian dignity. Though firmly believing the South had acted rightly, and that he had done right in defending his native state against hostile invasion, he was never heard to reproach his former enemies. In fact, on one occasion after the war, when he served as president of Washington College (later renamed Washington & Lee), he responded, “Sir, if you ever again presume to speak disrespectfully of General Grant in my presence, either you or I shall sever our connections with this university.” Also, after the war, at the Episcopalian church in Lexington, when a black member approached the table to receive Communion, Lee was the first to join the man, and thus set an example for the other members of Christian behavior.

Not bitter, but saddened, Lee lived out his final years striving to educate the young men of Virginia to serve the country God had placed them in. The defeat of the South had, he accurately foresaw, ended the days of strict construction of the Constitution, and ushered in the American empire. States’ rights had always been precious to Lee. Indeed, he had gone to war to defend Virginia, his native soil. He was not a traitor or terrorist, as some modern, historically ignorant and inept writers accuse, nor was he in favor of slavery. He had drawn his sword “only in defense of my native state.” To Lee, and to the South, had there been no invasion, there would have been no war. But the war came, and Lee, a reluctant secessionist, became more dedicated to the cause as the war progressed, once remarking, “No civilized nation within knowledge has ever carried on a war such as the United States has carried on against us.” This, of course, stood in stark contrast to the impeccable behavior of Lee’s army during the Gettysburg campaign, a result of strict orders issued by Lee, which forbid the soldiers from exercising vengeance on the Northern population, but to wait on Him “to Whom vengeance belonged.” During the cruel abuse of the South during Reconstruction, he privately remarked, “Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in my right hand.” Prophetically, he would write to the British Lord Acton in 1866, “The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all that have preceded it.” Two years later, he would mourn, “I grieve for posterity, for American principles and American liberty.” In our day and age, we are reaping the fruits of what was sown in Lee’s time.''

[end excerpt]