Lee Was Lee's US Citizenship Restored Before He Died?

Did you even read the link you posted? What does it say about the question you asked?

It says: "In 1975, Lee's full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored by a joint congressional resolution effective June 13, 1865."
 
Did you even read the link you posted? What does it say about the question you asked?

It says: "In 1975, Lee's full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored by a joint congressional resolution effective June 13, 1865."
I am not sure that the question is answered. Did Lee ever lose his U.S. citizenship? I think the Archives confuses "citizenship" with "full rights of citizenship." If Lee had actually lost his "citizenship" he would have been subject to deportation.
 
I don't believe any of the rebels lost their citizenship because Lincoln never recognized the Confederacy as a separate nation. He considered it a section of the United States that was in rebellion. As Pat points out, the rights of citizenship were denied for a time. That was what Lee was requesting to be restored.
 
I would like to see evidence that he ever lost his citizenship.

President Ford Restores Robert E. Lee's Citizenship After 100 Years
http://www.burnpit.us/2011/08/president-ford-restores-robert-e-lees-citizenship-after-100-years

President Ford's remarks at the ceremony included these words:

"Lee's dedication to his native State of Virginia charted his course for the bitter Civil War years, causing him to reluctantly resign from a distinguished career in the United States Army and to serve as General of the Army of Northern Virginia. He, thus, forfeited his rights to U.S. citizenship.

Once the war was over, he firmly felt the wounds of the North and South must be bound up. He sought to show by example that the citizens of the South must dedicate their efforts to rebuilding that region of the country as a strong and vital part of the American Union.

In 1865, Robert E. Lee wrote to a former Confederate soldier concerning his signing the Oath of Allegiance, and I quote: "This war, being at an end, the Southern States having laid down their arms, and the questions at issue between them and the Northern States having been decided, I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony....

As a soldier, General Lee left his mark on military strategy. As a man, he stood as the symbol of valor and of duty. As an educator, he appealed to reason and learning to achieve understanding and to build a stronger nation. The course he chose after the war became a symbol to all those who had marched with him in the bitter years towards Appomattox.

General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride."
 
President Ford Restores Robert E. Lee's Citizenship After 100 Years
http://www.burnpit.us/2011/08/president-ford-restores-robert-e-lees-citizenship-after-100-years

President Ford's remarks at the ceremony included these words:

"Lee's dedication to his native State of Virginia charted his course for the bitter Civil War years, causing him to reluctantly resign from a distinguished career in the United States Army and to serve as General of the Army of Northern Virginia. He, thus, forfeited his rights to U.S. citizenship.

Once the war was over, he firmly felt the wounds of the North and South must be bound up. He sought to show by example that the citizens of the South must dedicate their efforts to rebuilding that region of the country as a strong and vital part of the American Union.

In 1865, Robert E. Lee wrote to a former Confederate soldier concerning his signing the Oath of Allegiance, and I quote: "This war, being at an end, the Southern States having laid down their arms, and the questions at issue between them and the Northern States having been decided, I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony....

As a soldier, General Lee left his mark on military strategy. As a man, he stood as the symbol of valor and of duty. As an educator, he appealed to reason and learning to achieve understanding and to build a stronger nation. The course he chose after the war became a symbol to all those who had marched with him in the bitter years towards Appomattox.

General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride."
If he really lost his citizenship under those circumstances, then so did many other Confederates. They would then have had to naturalize to regain citizenship. As far as I know none of them did. I don't believe they were ever thought of legally as non-citizens.
 
President Ford Restores Robert E. Lee's Citizenship After 100 Years
http://www.burnpit.us/2011/08/president-ford-restores-robert-e-lees-citizenship-after-100-years

President Ford's remarks at the ceremony included these words:

"Lee's dedication to his native State of Virginia charted his course for the bitter Civil War years, causing him to reluctantly resign from a distinguished career in the United States Army and to serve as General of the Army of Northern Virginia. He, thus, forfeited his rights to U.S. citizenship."

That sounds like an opinion vs. a fact.
 
President Ford Restores Robert E. Lee's Citizenship After 100 Years
http://www.burnpit.us/2011/08/president-ford-restores-robert-e-lees-citizenship-after-100-years

President Ford's remarks at the ceremony included these words:

"Lee's dedication to his native State of Virginia charted his course for the bitter Civil War years, causing him to reluctantly resign from a distinguished career in the United States Army and to serve as General of the Army of Northern Virginia. He, thus, forfeited his rights to U.S. citizenship.

Once the war was over, he firmly felt the wounds of the North and South must be bound up. He sought to show by example that the citizens of the South must dedicate their efforts to rebuilding that region of the country as a strong and vital part of the American Union.

In 1865, Robert E. Lee wrote to a former Confederate soldier concerning his signing the Oath of Allegiance, and I quote: "This war, being at an end, the Southern States having laid down their arms, and the questions at issue between them and the Northern States having been decided, I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony....

As a soldier, General Lee left his mark on military strategy. As a man, he stood as the symbol of valor and of duty. As an educator, he appealed to reason and learning to achieve understanding and to build a stronger nation. The course he chose after the war became a symbol to all those who had marched with him in the bitter years towards Appomattox.

General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride."

I don't recognize "Siggurdsson" as an authority.

Lee didn't lose his citizenship. He had lost the right to vote and the right to hold office due to the 14th Amendment. He still had all the other rights of citizenship.
 
A lot of newspapers reporting on Ford's speech echoed the line about restoring citizenship

He should have known better. He had a law degree :smile: Even in his day, even an US expat citizen denounced his/her citizenship to become a citizen of another land, he/she was still a legal US Citizen, unless a court decided that he/she was not. Sub "another land" with "Confederacy", and that was the law even then...
 
My thoughts exactly. I've never heard that he renounced his citizenship, or was stripped of it.

I just assumed he held dual citizenship, CSA, USA.
If he did he would have lost his citizenship by serving the Confederacy in war against us.........However since the US position was the Confederacy was never a legal entity that could have offered valid citizenship, he was neither a dual citizen nor served a foreign military against us..............
 
Gerry Ford was from Michigan. That says a lot.

He and General Lee would have agreed, this needs to go to bed. Unfortunately, neither could have conceived of the internet and so here we are.
 
He didn't have full rights of citizenship when he died, thus his citizenship was not restored (brought back to its original state) before he died.

That's the answer to the question.
 
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He didn't have full rights of citizenship when he died, thus his citizenship was not restored (brought back to its original state) before he died.

He never lost his citizenship so his citizenship wasn't restored. You can't restore what was never lost.

His full citizenship rights were restored. The only citizenship rights he did not have were the right to hold office and the right to vote, which were taken away by the 14th Amendment. He had every other right of citizenship.
 
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