NEW: I wrote about one of the greatest traitors the US has ever produced, a man who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Benedict Arnold: Robert E. Lee.
newrepublic.com/article/163557…
Robert E. Lee was a quisling who:
—Disavowed his oath of loyalty to the US
—Led a movement that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of US troops
—All so that he could no longer be American
—All so that he and other insurrections could continue/expand enslavement of Black Americans
Robert E. Lee's treason is there for all of us to see.
As Ulysses S. Grant wrote, Lee chose to lead a movement that was “one of the worst [causes] for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.”
And all of it fought to shatter the U.S.
And the idea that viewing Robert E. Lee as an anti-American traitor is a modern phenomenon couldn't be more wrong.
Lee was indicted by a federal grand jury for rank treason shortly after Appomattox—spared only because Grant intervened.
newrepublic.com/article/163557…
Even after the Civil War (and being indicted for treason) Robert E. Lee did nothing while white supremacist terrorists targeted Reconstruction governments.
He and other former Confederates "undermine[d] the government's policies"—and tried to prevent Black Americans from voting.
Yes, it’s fantastic news the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond is finally coming down.
Not least because this statue was such a watershed in Lost Cause mythologizing—and symbol of the American apartheid that followed.
New York Times obituary of Robert E. Lee, 1870:
Lee “cast his lot with traitors, and devote[d] his splendid talents to the execution of a wicked plot to tear asunder and ruin the Republic”.
archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.co…
Today is a fantastic day in the U.S.
April 20, 1861: Robert E. Lee resigns from the American military to begin his efforts to shatter the U.S.
April 21, 1861: Ulysses S. Grant writes, "There are but two parties now, Traitors and Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter.”
There’s a great, just irony in the fact that Robert E. Lee sided with the white supremacist traitors running his state into the ground, all in pursuit of cleaving apart the US… only to see his “beloved” Virginia cleaved apart as a result.
Couldn’t have happened to a worse guy.
“Down with the traitors / Up with the stars”
This reads like a third-grader who’s just come from a summer camp devoted to the Lost Cause.
Robert E. Lee 'went to great lengths to see [the people he personally enslaved] whipped and even ordered that their wounds be doused with salt water to increase their suffering.' washingtonpost.com/history/2021/0…
'There were eight colonels in the U.S. Army from Virginia at the time the state seceded. All West Pointers, seven remained loyal. Lee and only Lee chose treason, chose to try to destroy the United States.' nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…
'80 percent of all colonels from the South [remained loyal to the U.S. during the Civil War]. “Lee’s the outlier,” Seidule said. That may be because at that level of Army officers “no one benefited from slavery more than he did.”' washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
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