Each state selects two individuals whom they believe are great historical personalities from their state to be included in the Statuary Hall inside the U.S. Capitol (shown). In 1909, Virginia chose the father of our country — George Washington — for one of the statues, and Robert E. Lee for the other one.
On Monday, Virginia’s liberal Governor Ralph Northam announced that the statue of Lee had been removed. “We should all be proud of this important step forward for our Commonwealth and our country. The Confederacy [Lee was the leading general in the Confederate Army] is a symbol of Virginia’s racist and divisive history and it is past time we tell our story with images of perseverance, diversity, and inclusion.”
Northam’s words are ironic, considering that it was about a year ago that he became embroiled in controversy when it was revealed that a photograph of him and another young man appeared in their medical school yearbook wearing “blackface,” and another in the robes of the terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan. It is not certain which was Northam, but either way, this was not the immature prank of a high-school student, but of two grown men in medical school.
But accusing liberals of hypocrisy on the race issue, like so many other issues, is much like saying grass is green.
While many black allies of the governor rushed to his defense in the aftermath of the revelations, with comments such as this from Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck: “We talk about forgiveness … because that’s who we are,” Lee is not offered any absolution.
In the case of Lee, there can be no forgiveness. On the contrary, his memory must be besmirched and the historical record of the man distorted to meet the agenda of the American Left, which is to paint America as a uniquely racist country in need of redemption.
A commission was created in Virginia to “study” what to do about the Lee statue. (This is a typical liberal ploy — a commission or a committee is hand-picked to reach a predetermined conclusion). It was not surprising, then, when the commission voted unanimously last week to take down the statue. They recommended replacing it with one honoring Barbara Rose Johns — who led a student walkout at Robert Russa Moton High School in 1951, protesting what she considered the overcrowded and inferior conditions of the all-black school as compared to a nearby white school.
Perhaps no state produced more of the Founding Fathers who gave us the constitutional republic that is the envy of the world, drawing immigrants from all across the globe, than Virginia. In addition to Washington and Lee, the state produced such great figures as Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. It is certainly a considerable drop-off from those truly great men to a politician such as Ralph Northam.
Typical of the biased reporting of the mainstream media, CBS News noted the “troubling symbolism” of the Lee statue and others, such as ones honoring Christopher Columbus. All of this is simply an attack upon the founding of the country, by attacking the Founders, and distorting American history. While Northam and others insist that the first slaves came to America in 1619, this is a gross distortion of the facts. The first Black Africans brought to Virginia in 1619 were slaves in Africa, but became indentured servants upon reaching Virginia, as slavery was illegal at that time. Some pirates wanted to sell them as slaves, but the Virginians made them indentured servants instead. Indentured servants were not slaves, but became free of the indenture (contract) after a period of a few years, and were given land. Some of those who arrived at Jamestown in 1619 eventually took on indentured servants of their own when they had fulfilled their labor contract. Slavery did not become legal in America for several more decades.
Another distortion of history used by those on the Left involved Lee himself. They charge that Lee was a “slave owner.” Actually, Lee inherited slaves from his father-in-law, along with the large debts of the estate. As soon as Lee could do so, he freed the slaves. Had he done so without first paying off his father-in-law’s debts, the slaves would have simply been sold at auction to someone else. Lee even wrote a letter from Texas, in the late 1850s, to his wife in Virginia that he prayed for the day that the institution of slavery would be erased from America.
Not only that, but after the Civil War, Lee took communion with a black man in his Episcopal Church, causing other members of the congregation to set aside their bigoted feelings and do the same.
Lee is certainly worthy of recognition in our nation’s Capitol, as are many other Virginians to whom we owe so much. But Ralph Northam is not one of them. Among Virginia politicians, he is a pygmy among giants. Not only did he either appear in blackface or wear a Klan uniform — insulting African-Americans — he is rabidly pro-abortion. Northam has even advocated for a form of abortion after delivery of a baby. Northam said during a 2019 radio interview, in discussing a pro-abortion bill in the Virginia legislature, “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
And this man — Ralph Northam — has the audacity to sit in judgment of a great man such as Robert E. Lee?
