by G E Barr

Created on: January 06, 2010

Henry Lee, also known as Light Horse Harry served his country under George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War.  There is no doubt that his son, Robert E. Lee, grew up with a very special appreciation of, and loyalty to his country. Unfortunately, Henry Lee made the mistake of supporting someone other than Thomas Jefferson during his bid for the presidency and it forever effected his political and social standing.  Henry Lee learned a hard lesson and it effected his family, as well.

Robert E. Lee was a man of principle and one would be hard pressed to find a man more loyal in history.  Robert E. Lee had been steeped in loyalty and it was his mother who raised him to be the gentleman that he was. 

As well, unlike Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee was not a machine of war.  He had other skills and a broad, classical intellect.  He was a thinking man, in the highest regard of that definition.

Robert E. Lee was no Napoleon.  He was no rebel.  He was no mercenary.  He was a general in the Confederate Army, who turned down the offer to join Lincoln and the Union.  Further, he did not declare war against the United States.  A president and a Union Army declared war on the South.  The way our Treason Law is written, civil war within the United States is not treason.  There is a reason for that and if you read the Constitution, the reason is clear.

Robert E. Lee did not commit treason and therefore could not have been tried as a traitor. 

The American Civil War, was a war of political philosophy.  A difference of opinion between two sectors of a country, which threatened to tear the country in half and the only solution was war.  It is the same principle when two people argue and cannot reach a middle ground.  A common ground.  An agreement.

Fight or flight.  There could be no flight.

Further, while it has been stated that the American Civil War was not fought to free slaves, but keep a country together; had the South never brought African slaves to this country, the war probably never would have occurred.

There has to be proof of intent, in order to take someone to trial for treason.  Treason was not the intent of Robert E. Lee.  In fact his intent was quite the opposite. 

Robert E. Lee was a racist, white general.  A member of a class of people who'd lived like royalty in a country where that is not allowed and in fact denied as a right.  One does not have the right to live as royalty in the United States.  It is forbidden.

And that's why we had a Civil War. 

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