There is another current push in Arkansas to purge Robert E. Lee’s birthday from being a State holiday as it was originally intended by the Arkansas Legislature. This time the agitation is being administered by first term Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson. Has Robert E. Lee committed some sort of crime since his birthday was designated as a State holiday in 1943 or could it be that the winds of political correctness (mind control) are gaining strength once again after a brief slumber between legislative sessions? For those low-information elected officials who are desiring this holiday purge, I will first offer some exemplary facts of the Lee family.
All the members of the Lee family of Virginia are descended from Richard Lee, a member of a baronial family in Nordley Regis, Coton Hall, Shropshire, England, which remarkably still stands today. He came to America in the year 1640. The Lee family gained prominence with Thomas Lee, the grandson of Richard Lee, who became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1723. He was later appointed to the Governor’s Council, which was the upper house of this assembly. In 1749, he became the de facto governor of Virginia, but he died the following year, before King George II could officially appoint him governor.
Thomas Lee and his wife Hannah Harrison Ludwell, had eight children, and many of them gained prominence in Virginia politics.
- Thomas Ludwell Lee was a member of the Virginia Delegates and was editor of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776 that influenced America’s Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
- Richard Henry Lee was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and also authored the Tenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights. He was chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress, later as its president, and served as an original US senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792.
- Francis Lightfoot Lee was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation, was chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress and served as a Virginia State Senator.
- William and Arthur Lee served as agents to the Continental Congress during the American Revolution and also as European diplomats to Spain, Russia, and Austria.
- Henry Lee II was son to Henry Lee I, Thomas Lee’s brother. Henry Lee II was a prominent member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and was also a Virginia State Senator.
His son was the famous Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee III, who was a cavalry general under George Washington during the American Revolution. After the war, he served as delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress and later at the Virginia ratification convention for the US Constitution. Afterward, he served as Virginia’s governor and later as a US Congressman. It was Henry Lee III who eulogized George Washington at this funeral with these famous words: “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Even future president John Adams of Massachusetts exclaimed in 1779, “The family of Lee has more men of merit in it than any other family!”
Henry Lee III and his wife, Matilda Ludwell Lee, had three children before she died prematurely. One of them was Henry Lee IV who wrote speeches for Vice President John C. Calhoun. Henry Lee III later married Anne Hill Carter who was the great-granddaughter of Virginia colonial governor Alexander Spotswood. They had six children. One of the more famous was Sydney Smith Lee, who was an American naval officer and served during the Mexican War at Veracruz. He later became commandant of the US Naval Academy until 1861, when he resigned the day Virginia seceded. During his Confederate service, he became chief of the Confederate Navy’s Bureau of Orders and Detail until the end of the war.
The most famous son of Henry Lee III and the most well-known member of the Lee family of all was Robert Edward Lee. He was born January 19, 1807 at the Lee family estate at Stratford Hall, Virginia. Robert received an appointment from Secretary of War John C. Calhoun to enter West Point in 1825 and graduated in 1829, second in his class without receiving a single demerit. After graduation, he married Mary Custis, the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. They were married at Arlington House, which became their home. It was a gift to them from her parents and was built by her father, George Washington Parke Custis, who was George Washington’s step-grandson. Lee became a combat engineer while serving in the US military and helped engineer the construction of Fort Pulaski in Georgia and Fortress Monroe in Virginia. He later distinguished himself at Veracruz in 1847 in the Mexican War.
In 1852, Major Lee became the superintendent of West Point Military Academy until 1855, when he received a promotion to colonel in the Second Cavalry Regiment in Texas, which protected settlers from attacks by Apache and Comanche Indians. He resigned his commission in the US military when his native State of Virginia lawfully seceded from the American Union in 1861 and tendered his services to the Confederate government.
In a nutshell, the Lee family took pride in their role in the building of America, beginning in colonial days until the secession of Virginia. They fought in its wars as high-ranking officers, held such political offices as representatives in the Virginia House of Burgesses, governors, US congressmen, US senators, Virginia State senators, diplomats, signers of the Declaration of Independence, delegates to the US Constitution Conventions, and they played a leading role in instituting the Bill of Rights, particularly the Tenth Amendment. They were the epitome of American greatness that was instilled with liberty by way of limited government and State sovereignty. Indeed, Virginia was the State of States and the State of statesmen.
I ask the readers. Can any current elected official (federal, State, or local) claim the same virtues of the Lee family? Can they even claim a fraction of what this American clan has contributed to the principles of limited government as set forth in the three cornerstones of American liberty which are The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of 1787, and the Bill of Rights? Notwithstanding, there are elected officials who serve at all levels of government in Arkansas who wish to eradicate Robert E. Lee’s holiday which was given in his honor by a previous Arkansas legislative assembly and who will not be satisfied until they succeed at turning us into a socio-Marxist state.
When they choose to dishonor Robert E. Lee, they are also discrediting his family, as well as disgracing the principles of government upon which this nation was founded. Many of those who testified in favor of expunging Lee’s holiday during the 2015 legislative session resorted to smear tactics which has become the norm in American politics. They falsely testified that Robert E. Lee led an insurrection against the US government in order to keep blacks enslaved. His detractors also referred to him as a rebel and traitor who did not honor his oath to the US Constitution.
These are bald-faced lies! There was no insurrection due to the fact that the ordinance of secession is guaranteed in the US Constitution per the Tenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights. Secession is a reserved right which means the several States possessed this power both before and after the Constitution’s ratification. Let us not forget that it was Robert’s great-uncle, Richard Henry Lee, who authored the Tenth Amendment! Also, the several States created the Constitution which in turn created the federal government. Therefore, if the federal government had no power to make war on a State, how could it be called insurrectionary? Simply stated, one can only rebel against lawful authority and the lawful authority is the US Constitution and NOT the federal government.
It is also false to assert that Robert E. Lee fought a war in order to perpetuate the institution of slavery. It was not necessary to fight a war to keep this right which was codified in the US Constitution no less than four times, nor was it necessary to fight a war to keep any other constitutional right such as the right of secession. Lee’s oath was to the US Constitution and valid only as long as his native State of Virginia consensually remained in the Union.
To put it bluntly, Robert E. Lee was not attempting to destroy constitutional government. He instead drew his sword in order to preserve the principles of constitutional government as handed down to us by the Founding Fathers and in which his family played a huge role in creating. If indeed our elected officials one day choose not to honor this great American by discontinuing his holiday, then they should also refuse to celebrate the 4th of July or honor the names of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, et al on Presidents’ Day, for they also helped establish these same principles of constitutional government that Robert E. Lee defended.
Loy Mauch 1-17-16
The Anti-Federalist 