When reading this, one must remember the time it was written in.
Robert E. Lee’s Opinion Regarding Slavery
This letter was written by Lee in response to a speech given by then President Pierce.
Robert E. Lee letter dated December 27, 1856:
I was much pleased the with President’s message. His views of the systematic and progressive efforts of certain people at the North to interfere with and change the domestic institutions of the South are truthfully and faithfully expressed. The consequences of their plans and purposes are also clearly set forth. These people must be aware that their object is both unlawful and foreign to them and to their duty, and that this institution, for which they are irresponsible and non-accountable, can only be changed by them through the agency of a civil and servile war. There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. The doctrines and miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day. Although the abolitionist must know this, must know that he has neither the right not the power of operating, except by moral means; that to benefit the slave he must not excite angry feelings in the master; that, although he may not approve the mode by which Providence accomplishes its purpose, the results will be the same; and that the reason he gives for interference in matters he has no concern with, holds good for every kind of interference with our neighbor, -still, I fear he will persevere in his evil course. . . . Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom have always proved the most intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?
Here are some words by an old blogging buddy of mine; Bill More:” really puts in perspective what took place on the first day of the liberation of Europe. The video is graphic and shows what both sides of this front were subject to. It also shows the quiet beauty of the area today.
Anger and hate and conflict settle so little. The song “The tide is turning” is a song of hope; that the tide is turning. The world however doesn’t seem to be getting the message. We don’t seem to be any closer to living in peace and harmony today as we were on the day – 6th June 1944.
Our old enemies are now our allies. Americans are a very forgiving people. We saw evil and we stepped up to stop it. After we defeated the aggressors, we stepped in and rebuild what was destroyed… in France, in Italy, in Germany, in Japan, in South Korea. Yet the world looks at us as aggressors and some call us Imperialists. Had we wanted, as the victors, we could have lived up to the accusations that some are calling us today. We didn’t! We spent our resources and energies and those of our people to make life better for those who were caught up in war.
Well, hopefully, with so many in the world wanting freedom from the tyranny they live under, hopefully the tide is turning and the hope for peace and freedom will be the norm rather than the exception.”
And here is how this event would be reported today.
If D-Day Had Been Reported On Today
by William A. Mayer
Tragic French Offensive Stalled on Beaches (Normandy, France – June 6, 1944) – Pandemonium, shock and sheer terror predominate today’s eventsin Europe.
In an as yet unfolding apparent fiasco, Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower’s troops got a rude awakening this morning at Omaha Beach here in Normandy.
Due to insufficient planning and lack of a workable entrance strategy, soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry as well as Army Rangers are now bogged down and sustaining heavy casualties inflicted on them by dug-in insurgent positions located 170 feet above them on cliffs overlooking the beaches which now resemble blood soaked killing fields at the time of this mid-morning filing.
Bodies, parts of bodies, and blood are the order of the day here, the screams of the dying and the stillness of the dead mingle in testament to this terrible event.
Morale can only be described as extremely poor–in some companies all the officers have been either killed or incapacitated,leaving only poorly trained privates to fend for themselves.
Things appear to be going so poorly that Lt. General Omar Bradley has been rumored to be considering breaking off the attack entirely. As we go to press embattled U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s spokesman has not made himself available for comment at all, fueling fires that something has gone disastrously awry.
The government at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is in a distinct lock-down mode and the Vice President’s location is presently and officially undisclosed.
Whether the second in command should have gone into hiding during such a crisis will have to be answered at some future time, but many agree it does not send a good signal.
Miles behind the beaches and adding to the chaos, U.S. Naval gunships have inflicted many friendly fire casualties, as huge high explosive projectiles rain death and destruction on unsuspecting Allied positions. The lack of training of Naval gunners has been called into question numerous times before and today’s demonstration seems to underlie those concerns.
At Utah Beach the situation is also grim, elements of the 82nd and 101st Airborne seemed to be in disarray as they missed their primary drop zones behind the area believed to comprise the militant’s front lines. Errant paratroopers have been hung up in trees, breaking arms and legs, rendering themselves easy targets for those defending this territory.
On the beach front itself the landing area was missed,catapulting U.S. forces nearly 2,000 yards South of the intended coordinates, thus placing them that much farther away from the German insurgents and unable to direct covering fire or materially add to the operation.
Casualties at day’s end are nothing short of horrific; at least 8,000 and possibly as many as 9,000 were wounded in the haphazardly coordinated attack, which seems to have no unifying purpose or intent. Of this number at least 3,000 have been estimated as having been killed, making June 6th by far, the worst single day of the war which has dragged on now–with no exit strategy in sight–as the American economy still struggles to recover from Herbert Hoover’s depression and its 25% unemployment.
Military spending has skyrocketed the national debt into uncharted regions, lending another cause for concern. When and if the current hostilities finally end it may take generations for the huge debt to be repaid.
On the planning end of things, experts wonder privately if enough troops were committed to the initial offensive and whether at least another 100,000 troops should have been added to the force structure before such an audacious undertaking. Communication problems also have made their presence felt making that an area for further investigation by the appropriate governmental committees.
On the home front, questions and concern have been voiced. A telephone poll has shown dwindling support for the wheel-chair bound Commander In Chief, which might indicate a further erosion of support for his now three year-old global war.
Of course, the President’s precarious health has always been a question. He has just recently recovered from pneumonia and speculation persists whether or not he has sufficient stamina to properly sustain the war effort. This remains a topic of furious discussion among those questioning his competency.
Today’s costly and chaotic landing compounds the President’s already large credibility problem.
More darkly, this phase of the war, commencing less than six months before the next general election, gives some the impression that Roosevelt may be using this offensive simply as a means to securere-election in the fall.
Underlining the less than effective Allied attack, German casualties–most of them innocent and hapless conscripts–seem not to be as severe as would be imagined. A German minister who requested anonymity stated categorically that “the aggressors were being driven back into the sea amidst heavy casualties, the German people seek no wider war.”
“The news couldn’t be better,” Adolph Hitler said when he wasfirst informed of the D-Day assault earlier this afternoon.
“As long as they were in Britain we couldn’t get at them. Now we have them where we can destroy them.”
German minister Goebbels had been told of the Allied airborne landings at 0400 hours.
“Thank God, at last,” he said. “This is the final round.”
Talk about a ticket I would vote for. Here is a historical message brought to you by The Hillbilly.
A graduate of West Point, A.P. Hill served in the U.S. Army in the antebellum period, fighting in the Mexican War and in the Seminole Wars. On the eve of the Civil War, he resigned his commission to fight for his home state of Virginia. Known as “Little Powell,” Hill rose through the ranks to command of the famous “Light Division.” He rescued Lee’s Army at Sharpsburg, resplendent in a red battle shirt. Among the most promising of Lee’s commanders, serious illness prevented him from reaching his full potential. Nevertheless, Powell was killed a week before Appomattox, in command of one-third of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Both Lee and Jackson called for A.P. Hill with their dying breaths.
Robert E. Lee returned to Richmond as a paroled prisoner of war, and submitted with the utmost composure to an altered destiny. He devoted the rest of his life to setting an example of conduct for other thousands of ex-Confederates. He refused a number of offers which would have secured substantial means for his family. Instead, he assumed the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, and his reputation revitalized the school after the war. Lee’s enormous wartime prestige, both in the North and South, and the devotion inspired by his unconscious symbolism of the “Lost Cause” made his a legendary figure even before his death. He died on October 12 1870, of heart disease which had plagued him since the spring of 1863, at Lexington, Va. and is buried there. Somehow, his application for restoration of citizenship was mislaid, and it was not until the 1970’s that it was found and granted.
Born in 1790, John Tyler was our 10th President. He took office in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died. And he has two living grandchildren!
Not great-great-great-grandchildren. Their dad was Tyler’s son.
How is this possible? The Tyler men have a habit of having kids very late in life. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, one President Tyler’s 15 kids, was born in 1853. He fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler in 1928.
Rule #1 for all conservatives ought to be this: Never let the left frame the debate or define the terms. They have created a political climate that insures leftward drift over more than two centuries. This drift was noted by former editor of National Review John O' Sullivan who coined O'Sullivan's First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing. Where did the inevitable leftward drift begin? Sherman s … Read More
Last testament of Flashman's creator -George MacDonald Fraser- […] POLITICAL CORRECTNESS… is about denial, usually in the weasel circumlocutory jargon which distorts and evades, and seldom stands up to honest analysis. It comes in many guises, some of them so effective that PC can be difficult to detect. The silly euphemisms, apparently harmless, but f … Read More
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