Tim Kaine Wants To Erase Robert E. Lee
You can always count on Democrats to engage in vacuous virtue signaling, especially during Black History Month.
This year it’s Sen. Tim Kaine offering proof that attending Harvard Law School doesn’t automatically confer knowledge on students.
As our country struggles with immigration, election integrity and budget matters, Kaine is consumed with something else: He wants to strip Robert E. Lee’s name from the house the Civil War general owned with his wife until the Civil War.
If you’ve visited Arlington National Cemetery you’ve seen Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial. The stately mansion with the massive columns rests on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River. It was built between 1802 and 1818 for George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington. He built it as a family home and a memorial to honor his step-grandfather, George Washington.
Custis' daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married then-Lt. Robert E. Lee who was serving in the U.S. Army Engineers in 1831. They wed at Arlington House. Mrs. Lee lived there with her parents during much of Robert’s military service. In fact, all but one of the couple’s seven children were born in Arlington House.
When her father died in 1857, Mary inherited the home and Robert took a two-year leave of absence from the Army to renovate the mansion.
The federal government grabbed Arlington House during the Civil War but was forced to return it to the Lee family after a Supreme Court ruling in 1882 that said the seizure was illegal.
Eventually, the Lee family sold the home and the land, which contained a military cemetery, to the federal government. It is part of the National Park Service.
In 1955 Congress officially named the house the Custis-Lee Mansion as a permanent memorial to Robert E. Lee.
In 1972, another act of Congress named it Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial.
On its website, the National Park Service explains the Lee Memorial this way:
Arlington House is the nation’s memorial to Robert E. Lee. It honors him for specific reasons, including his role in promoting peace and reunion after the Civil War. In a larger sense it exists as a place of study and contemplation of the meaning of some of the most difficult aspects of American history: military service; sacrifice; citizenship; duty; loyalty; slavery and freedom.
Robert E. Lee is one of the most complex and controversial figures in American history. For generations, Americans have struggled over how to remember this complicated soldier, father, slaveholder, and educator. Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial is the only federally funded national memorial honoring a person who fought against the United States government. However, Arlington House is not a memorial honoring the Confederacy. Instead, the legislation that created the memorial honors Robert E. Lee for very specific reasons, most importantly for his role in promoting peace and reunionfollowing the American Civil War. Historical context is key to understanding the establishment of Arlington House as a national park unit and as a national memorial to Robert E. Lee.
Kudos to the National Park Service for this nuanced explanation of Robert E. Lee. Any student of American history - which Tim Kaine apparently is not - would be struck by the character of Robert E. Lee and the role this brilliant Virginian played in healing the nation after years of bloody fighting.
All Kaine sees is Confederate general and slave owner. There was so much more to this genius military tactician, graduate of West Point and scholar.
Erasing Lee’s name doesn’t change history. It just guarantees that future generations will be less likely to study this complex figure and understand this consequential Virginian’s view of duty and patriotism.
That would be a pity. But hey, it’s Black History Month and Kaine has to do something to appease his base.
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