Hope’s Foundation
General Robert E. Lee, one of the greatest of Americans, wrote the following words: “My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them, nor indisposed me to serve them; nor, in spite of failures, which I lament, of errors, which I now see and acknowledge, or of the present state of affairs, do I despair of the future. The march of Providence is so slow, and our desires so impatient, the work of progress is so immense, and our means of aiding it so feeble, the life of humanity so long, and that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave, and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”
It is believed that the general wrote these words during the last years of his life, when he felt compelled to bear a large measure of responsibility for the defeat of his beloved homeland. This burden was a heavy one to shoulder, and it was reflected on his face, which, writes Southern philosopher Richard Weaver, “took on a look of settled sadness.” Heartache for a lost dream and grief over the tremendous suffering left in the wake of war were certainly there, but bitterness, hatred, and surrender to despondency were not. To those who thought that there was no future worth living, General Lee responded that “human virtue must be equal to human calamity.” Hope remained very much alive in Leeʼs heart. Indeed, Weaver declares that Leeʼs cardinal message, that “history teaches us to hope,” is his final legacy to his countrymen, a testament that is “a profession of faith which for courage and spiritual hope deserves to rank with the noblest utterances.”
We live in a time when day-to-day events give powerful motive for despair about our beloved country, about its future as an independent nation, and about our future as a free and unique people. The fattening of the federal leviathan continues; internationalism as a political force still appears ascendant; an anti-American trade policy masquerading as “free trade” wreaks havoc on the foundations of our economic and political independence; we are awash in a flood of malodorous muck emanating from the Hollywood-New York entertainment axis; massive third-world immigration threatens to overwhelm the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of our land; our military grows weaker by the day; traitors are honored and loyal Americans mocked; and patriots make little visible headway despite many years of sacrifice and heroic effort. It is not an encouraging picture. Some would even say that our defeat is inevitable. Let us see if that impression can be justified.
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