Destroying Veteran's Memorials

Unless you have been hiding under the couch you likely haven't missed the masked, snot nosed antifa haters who want to change America's history by destroying every mention and monument related to the Confederacy and the famous veteran's who fought faithfully and gallantly for the Southern cause. The high value target for these dung eating protesters are the statutes and memorials of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. But what is sad is that these destroyers know nothing about the man nor history.

The anti-confederate destruction just did not materialize overnight. It was just given a boost by the hatred of the violent left of President Trump. In fact, Jim Dean, managing editor of Veterans Today, wrote this in 2011: "The anti-Confederate smear campaign is becoming recognized for what it always was, a political campaign to denigrate Southern heritage. The ignorance of this was on the scale of your left arm not liking your right arm and then beginning a process of eventual amputation. But this would include a period of cigarette burning and razor slashing to get the process rolling."

And while these anti-military, anti-America punks want Confederate statutes destroyed, they say nothing of the five statutes of the murderous Vladimir Lenin located across the United States.

President William McKinley, on 14 December 1898 gave a speech in which he said in part "every soldier’s grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor… And the time has now come… when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers…The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in the year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.”

McKinley's speech led to later legislation, in the Congressional Act of 9 March 1906 becoming Public Law - "Authorized the furnishing of headstones for the graves of Confederates who died, primarily in Union prison camps and were buried in Federal cemeteries." This act formally reaffirmed Confederate soldiers as military combatants with legal standing. It granted recognition to deceased Confederate soldiers commensurate with the status of deceased Union soldiers. Robert E. Lee (b. 19 January 1807, d. 12 October 1870) was married to George Washington's granddaughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis. He served with future General (and war nemesis) and President U.S. Grant during the Mexican-American war where he was credited with several victories gained from his battlefield reconnaissance of Mexican positions finding avenues of attack for the U.S. Army. He was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec.

Lee was also very torn about the prospect of the South leaving the Union. His wife's grandfather George Washington was a huge influence on him. Lee and the Confederate States broke away from the Union not because of the slavery issue, but because of an increasingly powerful federal government contrary to the what the founding fathers envisioned for these united States. He believed that ultimately, states rights trumped the federal government and chose to lead the Southern army. He believed slavery was a great evil and his wife broke the law by teaching slaves to read and write. The fact that Lee was not credited with speaking out about slavery, is not key, since soldiers and especially Generals, even back then were supposed to be apolitical. After the Civil War he worked with Andrew Johnson's program of reconstruction. He became very popular with the northern states and the Barracks at West Point were named in his honor in 1962.

General Lee was a great man who served this country his entire life in some form or other. His memorials are now being called a blight. No American military veteran should be treated as such. People keep yelling, "You can't change history." Sadly you can. This is no better than book burnings. The Islamic extremist-terrorist group ISIS tried rewriting history by destroying historical artifacts. Is that really who we want to emulate? As they tear down this "blight" keep these few historical facts in your mind. No military veteran and highly decorated war hero should ever be treated as such. This is not Iraq and that is not a statue of Saddam Hussein.

Lee's estate, Arlington, near Washington DC, was his home and while away fighting the war, the federal government demanded that Lee himself pay his taxes in person (so they could capture him no doubt). He sent his wife but the money was not accepted from a woman. When he could not pay the taxes, the government began burying dead Union soldiers on his land. Then the U.S Government confiscated the property. In 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Arlington had been taken without due process and ordered it returned to the Lee family. Robert E. Lee's son Curtis Lee sold it back to the U.S. Government where it became what is known as now,... Arlington National Cemetery, and the government is still burying people there today. I wonder if the confederate haters knew this they would want Arlington National Cemetery destroyed.....just like ISIS did to cemeteries of World War II allied soldiers buried in North Africa.

So, I'll leave you with a little lighter tone,....