The Washington Examiner’s editorial confidently asserting against the president’s speculation that, “No, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson aren’t next” ends with these words. “Trump asked how to draw the line between Robert E. Lee and George Washington. It’s a good question, and here’s the answer: Lee was being honored for fighting the wrong fight. Washington is honored, despite his wrongs, for fighting the good one.”
I would like respectfully to disagree. Lee was not being honored for fighting the wrong fight, but for fighting it honorably. It’s easy now to throw around words like “traitor,” but those who suffered most from his effectiveness as a general didn’t regard him as one or treat him as one. They understood that, like many others of his time, he regarded his country as Virginia first and the United States only secondarily, and that there was nothing dishonorable in that.
