Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Off-topic: I have mentioned several times that before becoming a JFK buff, I was a Civil War buff. And what is going on now- to eradicate all tributes to Confederate military leaders- is insane. 

Robert E. Lee freed his one slave before the Civil War broke out. And this black man had served as Lee's butler and was never abused. Then, Lee got his wife, Mary Ann Custis, to free all her slaves, and she owned hundreds. She inherited them from her wealthy father. Lee realized that war was coming, and he wanted to make it clear that he was not fighting to preserve slavery. 

Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln offered to pass a Constitutional amendment that would have forever banned the federal government from interfering with slavery in the South. He also explored options to deport free blacks, either sending them back to Africa or to a Caribbean island. When he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, it only applied to regions that were not in federal control- the Confederacy. Not only were states that remained loyal to the Union exempted from the proclamation, such as Maryland and Kentucky which had a lot of slaves, but even in Union-controlled areas of Confederate states, such as Tennessee, slavery was deemed to continue. The result was that not a single slave actually got freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

At the same time, Ulysses S. Grant owned 13 slaves, and he did NOT free them until he was forced to do so by the 13th amendment.

After the war, there was a lot of resentment in the South, and there were calls to form militia groups and guerrilla groups to continue fighting the feds. But, Robert E. Lee told them no, that the war was over, that we were one country again, that it was time to accept the outcome and reunite. Do you get it? Robert E. Lee, by word and example, led the way to national reconciliation and reunion. 

Lee spent the last 5 years of his life after the war as the President of Washington College, which, when he took over, was on the verge of collapse. He restored it. He saved it. Financially, and otherwise. And when he died in 1870, the regents of the college voted to change the name to Washington and Lee. 

So, what do the protesters want? Do they want Lee's name taken off? What about Washington's? He was a slave owner; a huge slave owner. He had one of the biggest slave-run plantations in Virginia. He never once in his life spoke of the wrongfulness of slavery or ever spoke of freeing his slaves. So, he gets to continue being sanctified? We're not going to tear down the Washington monument? We're not going to change the name of the U.S. capitol? Of the state of Washington? How about the Washington Redskins? 

And let's talk about war tactics. Robert E. Lee invaded the North twice, but he NEVER attacked civilians, abused civilians, or even stole from civilians. If he took food from a northern farm, he paid for it. He did not allow or tolerate the raping of Northern women. But, Northern armies in the South? Oh my God! The worst, of course, was Sherman, who encouraged it. Sherman's march through Georgia was a campaign of wanton terror. 

Shortly before he died, Robert E. Lee made his farewell tour of the South. The crowds that gathered for him were in tears. They loved him. And it was because...well... like Ella Fitzgerald sang, because he showed them the way. What is going on now is mad. Robert E. Lee was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.