When Trump officials removed Gen. Mark Milley’s portrait from the Pentagon, some leftists predictably took umbrage, declaring the move one more sign of the Trump administration’s heavy-handed governance.
Vice President JD Vance responded to that criticism on X: “Imagine having lived through the last 10 years—the desecration of Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Roosevelt, and even Lincoln—and then drawing the line at…Mark Milley.”
Vance is referring to the iconoclasm that swept the nation over the last decade, removing or desecrating place names, statues, and monuments honoring famous Americans from our past. Fort Bragg, for example, which was named for Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, is now Fort Liberty. More than 200 Confederate monuments and statues were removed from public spaces. In an extreme case of iconoclastic hatred, the century-old statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va., was removed, cut in pieces, and melted down into a “sludge of glowing bronze.”
“It is a brave statement for Vance to make and a brilliant cultural flank against those who have been uninterruptedly murdering historical truth throughout the post-Obama era,” William Sullivan writes in American Thinker, applauding Vance’s inclusion of Lee in his list of notables.
To not only defend Lee, as Vance implicitly did, but to praise his greatness, particularly his character, is nothing new. Winston Churchill called Lee “one of the noblest Americans who ever lived, and one of the greatest captains known to the annals of war.” One of several U.S. presidents who paid tribute to Lee, Franklin Roosevelt described him as “one of our greatest American Christians and one of our greatest American gentlemen.”
After President Dwight Eisenhower remarked at the 1960 Republican Convention that he kept four portraits in his office, including one of Lee, he received a letter taking him to task for praising the man who “was to devote his best efforts to the destruction of the United States Government.” Eisenhower took the time to write a generous and long response, noting:
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Two specific points might be added to Eisenhower’s statement considering today’s attacks on the Confederate general. First, Lee is constantly accused of rebelling against the United States. This accusation is just, but we should remember that less than a century earlier Americans broke ties with Great Britain through rebellion. Among the patriots fighting for that separation was “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee. With great pride, we remember those rebels and founding fathers as heroic.
Lee is also savaged for defending the institution of slavery. Though this was not Lee’s purpose in fighting the war – he chose to defend his native state of Virginia – this accusation is again just, for slavery was certainly one of the wedges separating North and South.
On the other hand, after the war ended Lee worked arduously, mostly by way of example, to reconcile North and South, chiefly while serving as president of Washington College, today’s Washington and Lee University.
In his “Robert E. Lee: A Biography,” Civil War historian Emory Thomas tells of an incident demonstrating this spirit of reconciliation. Soon after returning to Richmond, Va. from Appomattox, Lee was at a Sunday service at St. Paul’s Episcopalian Church when the pastor invited parishioners to receive communion. “A tall, well-dressed black man” rose, went to the front of the church, and knelt at the rail, shocking the congregation. They sat immobile and stunned until Robert E. Lee walked down the aisle and knelt at the rail near the black man.
Lee’s statues are gone, but the man is still here in our books of history, should we wish to rediscover him and his virtues.
Jeff Minick is a father of four and grandfather to many. A former history, literature, and Latin teacher, Jeff now writes prolifically for The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, and several other publications.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email culture@1819news.com. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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