White supremacists and counter protesters clash in Charlottesville

[Rev. Rye]

Didn't robert e lee have the same views about blacks and slavery as Lincoln?

His views on slavery were pretty complicated, disliking its effect on white people, but considering it a necessary evil for the slaves themselves, and hoping for a divine end to slavery. Personally, I'd like to keep the statue up, but put a plaque on the base bringing up the basic paradox of the man's career: he did not care for slavery, but because Virginia seceded from the Union, he ended up heading the army of a nation that existed solely to perpetuate slavery (earlier in this thread, I posted three separate passages of the Confederate Constitution that explicitly protected the right to enslave black people), and he fought valiantly for a vile cause.

To quote Douglas Freeman in his biography of Lee: "Lee, in short, was only acquainted with slavery at its best, and he judged it accordingly. At the same time, he was under no illusion regarding the aims of the Abolitionists or the effect of their agitation"