Hate groups like the neo-Nazi and white-supremacists on the far right and anti-fascist radicals like Antifa on the far left have made Confederate statues and monuments a trigger for racist protests in our nation.

Given the fact there are an estimated 718 Confederate statues and monuments across the nation - 300 alone are in the southern states of Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina - the rioting we saw in Charlottesville could just be the opening act to more violent clashes.It's time for voices of reason. A century and a half ago, a Virginian spoke some healing words following our country's four years of Civil War."I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony," he said.His name was Robert E. Lee, the person at the center of the Confederate statue debate. Politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio have done nothing to ease the tensions and their toxic words have only stoked more controversy. Mayor de Blasio is even considering the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus.We doubt that many of them know much about the men they are trashing.Take Robert E. Lee. His father, Light-horse Harry Lee, served as the Governor General of Virginia in addition to being an officer in the Revolutionary War. Robert's wife, Mary Custis Lee, was the great-granddaughter of First Lady Martha Washington.After graduating from West Point at the top of his class, Lee served the U.S. Army with distinction for 32 years.From 1862 till 1865, Lee was general of the Confederate Army, the reason for his current vilification. While Lee is well-known for his aggressive military tactics in the Civil War, his attempts to reunite the nation following the end of the war are being ignored.Dan McLaughlin, writing about Lee in the National Review, stated: "We should not be building new monuments to him, but if we fail to understand why the men of his day revered him, we are likelier to fail to understand who people revere today, and why. Tearing down statues of Lee today, he said, is less about understanding the past than it is a contest to divide the people of today's America, and see who holds more power."It should be noted that Lee didn't want to fight the Union and had strong feelings against slavery."There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil," he said.Before the war started, he gave this ominous warning: "There is a terrible war coming, and these young men who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen, but I tell you, I wish that I owned every slave in the South, for I would free them all to avoid this war."Lee's reason for joining the Confederacy was to defend his native state of Virginia. At that time in history, loyalty to individual states was as strong, or stronger, than to the federal government.In resigning his U.S. Army commission, Lee stated: "With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relative, my children, my home."Lee's views on slavery did not change after the South lost. Before his death in 1870, he wrote: "So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished."After the war, Confederate sympathizers urged him to encourage a guerrilla war, which would have lasted years but Lee rejected the idea and instead focused on reuniting the country.When asked by one woman what she should do with a Confederate flag after the war ended, Lee stated: "Fold it up and put it away."In another case, when a Confederate widow told Lee she was raising her sons to be Confederates, he responded: "Madam, don't bring up your sons to detest the United States government. Recollect that we form one country now. Abandon all local animosities, and make your sons Americans."From what we've read about Lee, he would have rejected attempts to erect a statue or monument in his honor. He did, however, understand the importance of preserving history."A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today," he stated.On another occasion, he said: "A land without memories is a people without liberty."The liberal left cheers when an uninformed mob tears down a Lee statue in the dark of night or when a left-wing California congresswoman like Maxine Waters calls members and supporters of the president of the United States "a bunch of scumbags."Political ideologues like Waters, Chuck Shumer and Nancy Pelosi, and members of hate groups, including Antifa, shouldn't be casting stones on Robert E. Lee when they are the ones filled with hatred and bigotry.By Jim Zbick |

tneditor@tnonline.com