Hillsdale College. Frederick Douglass Archives

Lee surrenders, 9 April 1865. “He was a foe without hate, a friend without treachery, a soldier without cruelty, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public official without vices, a private citizen without wrong, a neighbor without reproach, a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was Caesar without ambition, Frederick without tyranny, Napoleon without selfishness, and Washington without his reward.” (Painting by Thmas Nast, 1895, Wikimedia Commons)

Robert E. Lee and the Fashionable Urge to Hide from History

7 July 2019 Comments 2 Comments

Youthful encounter

“Who’s that man on the horse?” I asked my father at the age of about seven. “That’s Robert E. Lee,” my Dad said.

“Who was he?” … “He led the South in the Civil War.”

He gave me a book for young people which I still have. Illustrated Minute Biographies: 150 Fascinating Life-stories of Famous People, from the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day, Dramatized with Portraits and Scenes from Their Lives, by Willam A. DeWitt. It’s still available and inexpensive. It’s far out of date now, but still a fine read for the young.…