Charlottesville to Palmyra: the road is short

‘In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any Country.’ So wrote the great Confederate General Robert E. Lee a few years before the outbreak of the American Civil war in a letter to his wife. It is a trite observation that the average American is poorly educated but my suggestion to those in Charlottesville who would remove Lee’s statue is that they study the history of their own nation more carefully.

By analogy I can see arguments being made, for example, against the Catholic Church. I would disagree with them, but I can accept that there is at least a case to answer. But then point to Alexander Borgia or the Inquisition, not Mother Theresa. Likewise, when it comes to the Civil War, do not impugn perhaps the greatest American that ever lived and certainly by far the most attractive character of that particular conflict.