Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Should Robert E. Lee Have Been Tried for Treason?

Facebook is not the best vehicle for this type of discussion. I defend Lee ONLY to the extent of saying that he should not have tried for treason. Reasons 1) General Grant said no. That in itself is good enough for me. Grant was THERE ...during those years between the end of the war and Lee's death in 1870. We have the luxury of looking back over almost 150 years. Grant didn't have that luxury.2) Trying Lee and possibly hanging him would have made him a martyr. In my opinion, this would have it far worse than the cult of Lee that arose amongst our Neo-Confederates. The Lost Cause would have been a lot more lost if Lee had become a martyr to the lost South. 3) In his second innaugral Mr. Lincoln spoke eloquently of binding up the nation's wounds with "malice toward none and charity for all." Given that purpose and who can argue with it, the prosecution of Lee would have made things much worse. 4) I have read all of the in print biographies of Lee and he was not an evil man. He was a tragic figure on the wrong side of history and you can argue that he made the wrong choice and it's easy to say that but we weren't there. He was a blatant racist by today's standards, but so was Lincoln. I can criticize Lee with the best of you, but I simply say it would have been a mistake for the country to prosecute him for treason.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. There is no point.

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