Lee Lee and Reconstruction

[Copperhead-mi]

I didn't know that Grant had dined at the White House with Douglass, although I knew he had received him there. The American Experience documentary about Teddy Roosevelt claimed he was the first when he dined with Booker T. Washington.

According to William S. McFeely's Frederick Douglass (pg.277), Grant held a dinner at the White House for the commissioners who had just returned from Santo Domingo in an attempt to save a treaty that would annex the island for colonization. Douglass who was one of the commissioners, supported Grant and the treaty but was not invited to the dinner. Horace Greeley, as a presidential candidate, publicly chastised Grant as a hypocrite in regards to Douglass and other Blacks.

 

[wausaubob]

According to William S. McFeely's Frederick Douglass (pg.277), Grant held a dinner at the White House for the commissioners who had just returned from Santo Domingo in an attempt to save a treaty that would annex the island for colonization. Douglass who was one of the commissioners, supported Grant and the treaty but was not invited to the dinner. Horace Greeley, as a presidential candidate, publicly chastised Grant as a hypocrite in regards to Douglass and other Blacks.

Let me check in Chernow's book, because I think there is more to the story.

 

[Drew]

Well, poster Cash started this thread and asked for very specific parameters. I tried to respect that.

Now, we've got Ron Chernow and Frederick Douglass in here. Oh, well.

 

[wausaubob]

Its in Chernow at page 718-719. (With footnotes.) I was inaccurate, but not incorrect. The commissioners went to the White House and Grant invited them to dinner spontaneously, like he did with Mosby. Douglass was invited to report separately and there was a reporter there to take notes. I hate this distraction from Cash's thread.

 

[wausaubob]

Which is why the entire diversion should be stricken.

 

[Drew]

Which is why the entire diversion should be stricken.

I agree. Maybe a moderator will be along shortly and delete your posts.

 

[cash]

This thread is not about Grant and Douglass. Thank you.

 

[cash]

This thread answers another poster's claim that Lee "did everything in his power." to aid Reconstruction.

In her book, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War, Professor Elizabeth Varon wrote, "Lee did not wish for the restoration of slavery, but he did hope to turn back the clock to an imagined era of racial order and deference, in which those whites in power recognized the incapacity of blacks for citizenship -- a time before, as he saw it, abolitionism had brought the pall of racial malaise to the South and had imbued blacks with false hopes." [p. 202]

Later, she wrote, "Lee, who, along with two dozen former Confederate generals and politicians, had recently endorsed a treatise, the 'White Sulphur Manifesto,' which condemned the military bill and called anew for 'restoration,' considered Grant's election a tragedy." [p. 246]

 

[wausaubob]

Later, she wrote, "Lee, who, along with two dozen former Confederate generals and politicians, had recently endorsed a treatise, the 'White Sulphur Manifesto,' which condemned the military bill and called anew for 'restoration,' considered Grant's election a tragedy." [p. 246][/QUOTE] Does she provide a source for that?
I have seen a few of her presentations on youtube. Formidable comes to mind as an apt adjective.

 

[Drew]

I have seen a few of her presentations on youtube. Formidable comes to mind as an apt adjective.

She's a federal bureaucrat, not a trained historian. Still, she doesn't do to General Lee what others are claiming.

 

[cash]

Does she provide a source for that?
I have seen a few of her presentations on youtube. Formidable comes to mind as an apt adjective.

Yes, Professor Varon cites a letter from Lee to his cousin.

 

[wausaubob]

Yes, Professor Varon cites a letter from Lee to his cousin.

That seems personal as much as political. Sort of, how did this barbarian "new army" guy ever defeat my army? Only logistical and numerical advantages!
Sad.

 

[Drew]

This thread answers another poster's claim that Lee "did everything in his power." to aid Reconstruction.

In her book, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War, Professor Elizabeth Varon wrote, "Lee did not wish for the restoration of slavery, but he did hope to turn back the clock to an imagined era of racial order and deference, in which those whites in power recognized the incapacity of blacks for citizenship -- a time before, as he saw it, abolitionism had brought the pall of racial malaise to the South and had imbued blacks with false hopes." [p. 202]

Later, she wrote, "Lee, who, along with two dozen former Confederate generals and politicians, had recently endorsed a treatise, the 'White Sulphur Manifesto,' which condemned the military bill and called anew for 'restoration,' considered Grant's election a tragedy." [p. 246]

Sorry, I didn't realize we'd switched college professors in evidence against General Lee.

Did Professor Varon address the condition of African Americans in the North? Or, was this ignored in condemnation of the South? Serious question.

 

[cash]

Sorry, I didn't realize we'd switched college professors in evidence against General Lee.

Did Professor Varon address the condition of African Americans in the North? Or, was this ignored in condemnation of the South? Serious question.

This thread is about Lee during Reconstruction, not black folks in the North. Thank you.

 

[Drew]

This thread is about Lee during Reconstruction, not black folks in the North. Thank you.

I'm fine with that. Which work are you using against Robert Lee? You started with Elizabeth Brown Pryor.

I'm pretty well sure that didn't work out and now you've another? Please be clear. From whom did the indictment come?

 

[cash]

Professor Varon wrote, "For Lee the peace was an opportunity for the country to restore the equilibrium between the North and South, and between the federal government and the states; to restore the best men of the South to positions of political leadership; and to restore the virtues of the founding era. 'As long as virtue was dominant in the Republic, so long was the happiness of the people secure,' he wrote nostalgically to a fellow Confederate veteran in the fall of 1865. As Lee encountered Northern hostility and resistance to this interpretation of the war's meaning, he dug in his heels and became more entrenched ideologically. No longer was he willing, after the war as he had been on the eve of secession, to decry Southern extremism as well as Northern. Lee had come to firmly believe that 'THE ONLY DIFFICULTY IN THE WAY OF AN AMICABLE ADJUSTMENT WAS WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,' as he stridently put it to Sir John Dahlberg Acton, a pro-Confederate British politician and historian, in December 1866. Lee symbolized a South committed to peace, but unbowed and unrepentant, and determined to protect itself against Northern interference." [p. 256]

 

[Drew]

Aha, another one. The first "scholarly" attack on the late General didn't work out, so now we've another. Varon, or Pryor?

I asked the OP to support his assertion in post #21 that Robert Lee's students at Washington College formed a Ku Klux Klan group and that Lee was not terribly concerned.

I'd like to see a source to back this up, before I address this second attempt on Robert E. Lee's reputation.

***Edited**"

 

[cash]

Aha, another one. The first "scholarly" attack on the late General didn't work out, so now we've another. Varon, or Pryor?

I asked the OP to support his assertion in post #21 that Robert Lee's students at Washington College formed a Ku Klux Klan group and that Lee was not terribly concerned.

I'd like to see a source to back this up, before I address this second attempt on Robert E. Lee's reputation.

Then again, I've been told not to hold my breath. That's probably pretty good advice
There was no request for support. Edited by Matt McKeon

 

[Drew]

There was no request for support. .

Go back and look at my post at #22? You still haven't answered.

Edited by Matt McKeon. Avoid personal remarks please

 

[cash]

Falsehoods? Go back and look at my post at #22? You still haven't answered.

Weakness of scholarship. or character?

There was no request there, only a statement. Do you not know the difference?

Certainly weakness of something to call that assertion a request for a source.