History will be erased: Robert E. Lee will be exterminated at West Point

History is a bit like Otto von Bismarck’s famous line about sausages and laws, which, he said, no one should watch being made. Think of all the people you’ve seen in pictures and statues or on coins and currency. Think about figures that are busts or memorialized in books. Imagine the nation-builders and military conquerors.

Which of them is up to current purity standards? Think Roman emperors, British kings, Turkish sultans, Russian tsars, medieval popes, Mongolian khans, multinational generals, German kaisers, and more. Good luck. Perhaps an abstemious monk, long-lost Vestal virgin or a monk would pass the test. There aren’t many of them.

The problem is not just being born before the present rules were promulgated by Wokedom’s high priests. How many modern women and men can meet these standards and still survive scrutiny? Even Barack Obama, the president of the United States, was against gay marriage. A majority of California voters voted against gay marriage 14 years ago. This included many African Americans. Joe Biden was against busing in the past, an heresy that Kamala Harris, then-candidate for California, criticised. Do they need to be confined in cultural purgatory and kept out of the public eye, so that they can never be heard or seen again?

American history is being wiped out.

West Point says it intends A bust and portrait of Lee were removed. Streets and buildings that are named after him were renamed and a quote was added to a plaza. Apparently, evidence of the academy’s most celebrated graduate — second in his class with no demerits, appointed superintendent later in his career, and celebrated Civil War general who met many of his subordinates and adversaries while running the famed institution — will disappear. It will be like he has never existed.

George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent wave of protests created a political tsunami against past remembrances. It wasn’t just statues of Confederate leaders that were removed. The North’s commander, Ulysses S. GrantThe same fate was suffered by. A statue mural Of President George Washington were targeted. President Thomas Jefferson “Star Spangled Banner” Composer Francis Scott Key Also, they were deemed beyond the pale. It seems like it will only take a few more years before Congress renames Washington, D.C.

(I am not against any proposal to remove statues. Take one of these into consideration Vladimir Ilyich LeninHe was more responsible for the creation of the Soviet Union than anyone else, which killed and imprisoned tens to millions of people. Woodrow WilsonAlthough a prominent liberal, he was also a virulent racism.

Despite the fevered and hurried campaign — often punctuated with violence — there was a sound basis for reconsidering celebration of public figures from a different time and viewed differently by current residents. It was painful for many to tear down Monument Avenue in Richmond — the last publicly owned statue of a Confederate in the city was recently removed — but the state capital had changed dramatically over the last 130 years since the Lee monument was erected. Although I would have preferred that the statues be left alone, the explanations should place the men in a wider context. City residents were free to decide who to remember and how.

For names of roads and public buildings, symbols on state flags and bases, and for other items, my view is the same. These commemorations, which are often celebrations, need to reflect a broad consensus. They did so for the white majority for many decades, but not for growing African American and other minority populations.

Lee was likely to agree to the removal Civil War monuments. He was the symbol of “Lost Cause” Only his death made mythology possible through the efforts and contributions of others. After rejecting the idea that his soldiers should disperse to act in guerillas, he later used his enormous authority to promote reconciliation. He focused his efforts on education, and was the president of Washington College in Lexington (Virginia), a small college that was almost bankrupt. He did not write memoirs, and even opposed the celebration of Confederate battlefield heroes. When he was asked to be part of a group composed of ex-blue/gray officers, he agreed. Lee refused: “I think it wiser, moreover, not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”

However, the issue of names and other historical connections that are not well established should be treated as a completely different matter. John James Audubon (named after the famous birder and painter) was a slaveholder. The organization is being asked to change its name. Some bird names honoring Confederate soldiers are also being considered. The society’s Elizabeth Gray observed: “Although we have begun to address this part of our history, we have a lot more to unpack.” Attempting to eradicate everything everywhere with the slightest connection to something now out of favor — there was a lot of injustice in America and the world unconnected to slavery — is a mindless and wasteful exercise.

History in which Confederates played an important role, such as Lee’s, should also be preserved and explained. For instance, Arlington National Cemetery was placed on land inherited by Lee’s wife from her father, the adopted son of George Washington. (Burying dead was an act of war and personal attack by a Union general on Lee. Montgomery Meigs.)

Lee was born in Arlington as a child. It is worth recognizing the significance of his boyhood home. (The house was put on the market in 2021. did not mention Lee(A bizarre bow to political correctness. Washington and Lee University rejected a campaign to remove Lee from its name. (The school would have been destroyed if he had not accepted the presidency.

West Point is another example. Lee’s role as superintendent was both admirable and historic. His reputation as “The Superintendent” was unmatched. “Marble Man” His perfect zero in demerits was partly responsible. He was a great teacher, and he helped to educate future leaders of the Civil War. He was also a distinguished soldier during the Mexican-American War. He was the Civil War’s most distinguished general and its greatest tactician. His primary responsibility to protect Richmond from capture meant that he could not play a more strategic role.

Were his racial views retrograde by today’s standard? But then, many Northerners were also racists. Some northern states wouldn’t allow blacks the right to vote. Other states would not allow free blacks to live in their state. Abraham Lincoln supported sending freed slaves to Africa for many years. The Republican Party supported limiting slavery to the South, but not eliminating it.

Lee opposed secession but felt, like many southerners he was loyal to his state. His desire was not to make war on the North but to defend Virginia if it were attacked — as it was. He declined the offer of commanding the northern army. he wrote Gen. Winfield Scott: “Save in the defense of my native State, I never desire again to draw my sword.”

Lee made the very sensible argument to argue that political relationships are important. should be voluntary: “I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union.… Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me.” The New York Tribune’s Horace Greeley expressed similar sentiments, which were shared by many Americans.

Retroactively, the horrendous war cost added to their numbers. After the terrible 1864 Overland Campaign, during which Union casualties almost equaled the total number of Lee’s army, Sen. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts allowed: “If that scene could have been presented to me before the war, anxious as I was for the preservation of the Union, I should have said: ‘The cost is too great; erring sisters, go in peace.’” The dead cannot be resurrected. At least not on this side of Jesus’ Second Coming.

There is much in Lee’s life to study and admire beyond his wartime service: Dealing with the legacy of his father, “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, a Revolutionary War hero who squandered his family’s assets and fled overseas to avoid his creditors. He spent years in the U.S. Army’s spartan ranks with few promotions. Managing the estate of his improvident father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis (which was Lee’s chief connection to slavery, since he was an army officer, not a plantation owner). He rejected the idea that slavery was a positive thing and asked the Confederate government for help. arm slaves and emancipate Those who served in Confederate military.

Dual loyalties were a difficult challenge for him, something that most Americans cannot even imagine. He denied being a traitor and sought to leave the union, just like the other Confederates. All Revolutionary War combatants, including George Washington who wore a British outfit and fought for King George were also traitors. Their treason was not noticed because they were on the winning side. Washington might have been hanged if Britain had won.

Even though the sentiment may be shocking to some people, admiration and respect can be earned by even Confederate officers, despite their having fought for a slave nation. History and life are complicated. It is better to learn from the past than repeat it.

Doug Bandow was a former Special Advisor to President Ronald Reagan. He is also the author of several books. The Politics of Envy: Statism as Theology The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington.