By Sarah Becker ©2018 Robert E. Lee, the Marble Model West Point classmates called Virginia-born Robert E. Lee the Marble Model, the Marble Man. He was nicknamed such probably for reason of heritage; his statuesque quality, dignity and bravura. Lee entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1825, mostly because it was free. “We beg leave to recommend to your personal consideration Mr. Robert Edward Lee, a son of the late General Henry Lee of Virginia, as an applicant for admission to the Military Academy at West Point,” the Congressional signers wrote. “The assurances which we have received of the talents and attainments of this young gentleman, apart from the regard we feel for the military services of his deceased father, induce us to hope…for the admission.” A plebe cum cadet staff sergeant, Lee was born January 19, 1807, the fifth child of overspent Revolutionary War hero General Henry “Light-horse Harry” Lee and his second wife Ann Hill Carter. Robert E. did not live the “legendary Victorian virtue” as “celebrated in a thousand marble statues across the South.” His sense of Duty did not include the South’s “terrible hardening of the heart.” Lee emancipated his in-laws’ slaves on December 29, 1862; approximately three months after President Abraham Lincoln’s September 23 Emancipation Proclamation was published in draft. The Emancipation Proclamation became law on January 1, 1863. “Know all men by these presents, that I, Robert E. Lee, executor of the last will and testament of George W.P. Custis deceased, acting by and under authority and direction of the provision of the said will, do hereby manumit, emancipate and forever set free from slavery the following named slaves.” “[Lee’s] specialty was finishing up,” Alexandria school teacher Benjamin Hallowell said of young Robert’s studies. “He imparted a finish and…
By 1812 Virginia’s political dynasty was well entrenched. Democratic-Republican President James Madison, who succeeded Democratic-Republican President Thomas Jefferson, was preparing for re-election. Madison’s Secretary of State James Monroe was also Democratic-Republican. Treachery dominated the high seas, the 1806 Monroe-Pinckney Treaty failed and American sailors remained in peril. England and Napoleon’s France were at war. “To go to war with England and not France divides the Republicans, and arms the Federalists with new matter,” President James Madison wrote on May 25, 1812. “To go to war against both presents a thousand difficulties.” America declared war, Mr. Madison’s war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. For army Major General, later Federalist Congressman Henry “Light-horse Harry” Lee the War of 1812 was deja vu. Henry Lee—born in Leesylvania, Virginia in 1756—was commissioned to serve but did not. British impressment was not his issue. National unity was. Like George Washington Lee—a Virginia dragoon in the Continental Army—understood the complexities of war. He “placed professionalism above regional ties” and favored a strong central union. Without a federal union, Lee felt commercial states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware would “become ‘tributary disunited provinces’ of warring European nations.” In 1814 Massachusetts Governor Caleb Strong “went so far as to seek a separate peace.” “I went up to Alexa[ndria] to an Election of a Representative,” retired President George Washington wrote on April 24, 1799. Washington voted for Federalist Henry Lee. “Light-horse Harry” Lee was a Princeton College graduate who served under General Washington in the Revolutionary War, then—as Virginia Governor—mustered with President Washington to suppress Pennsylvania’s Whiskey Insurrection in 1794. It was US Representative Lee who, upon Washington’s death proclaimed him “first in war, first in peace…” Unlike George Washington Lee’s political career was not wholly successful. Lee resented Jefferson’s rampant ambition. He also…