Letter to Robert Lee Blog

The Letter Robert E. Lee writes to his son describes his opinions of the War and the South. He talks of his feeling of the succeeding states and how he believes that the Southern states have been wronged by the North. Robert E. Lee was one of the South's best generals throughout the Civil War. In the end he eventually had to surrender to the Northern General Ulysses Grant. Robert Lee attended West Point College which made him an incredible leader in the art of war and strategy. "Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war ate to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me" (Lee 385). This passage from his letter to his son shoes his disliking of the Union and their ideas of trying to control the people with government laws that say it is illegal to have slaves. This idea of the government controlling the people and their decisions are ideas that Thoreau and Emerson did not agree with they believed in the people making decision and that the government should not but into to such affairs of the people. "The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will"(Lee 385). Robert E Lee was angry with the founders of our nation and the people interrupting the laws because he believed them to be making new rules that the founders of our great nation did not talk about in the Constitution. Lee believes that it is okay that they secede because there is no law against them and that the people of the past do not understand the time they are now living in. The letter of Robert E Lee shows his feelings against the Union and the government similar to the feeling of both Thoreau and Emerson who were anti-government control over the people.

Lee, Robert."Letter to His Sone" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.385. Print.