General Lee and the culture wars

                                                                                                            Gen. Robert E. Lee poses on the back porch of the Lee house in Richmond, Virginia, in 1865. (Mathew B. Brady / AP Photo)

The culture wars of the past decade have challenged America’s understanding of history.

There has been a sustained push to rename schools, parks, roads, cities and counties that celebrated the name of any historical figure deemed unworthy by today’s woke standards. This unprecedented frenzy has made us rethink the legacies of many historical figures — and what should constitute immortality.

There are two kinds of immortality. There is the immortality of fame. History is replete with examples of men and women whose deeds and lives are widely remembered — and in some cases broadly cherished. Shakespeare wrote of this immortality in “Henry V” when the king promises such to those who might win the Battle of Agincourt.

But there is a rarer kind of immortality — one of not only fame but of influence, with continuing power and presence. The effect of some men and women continues unabated well beyond their deaths. Their names not only live on, but the memory of their deeds and character has the ability to influence and inspire the lives of generations who come after them.

Sir Francis Drake was the greatest of English sailors and has long been considered the founder of the British navy. Drake is credited with establishing the ethos that resulted in the subsequent centuries of British naval success. So important is Drake’s legacy that the Royal Naval Barracks at Plymouth is to this day named HMS Drake. This ensures that every sailor who serves in the British navy will come under Drake’s continuing influence.

One American who has achieved this immortality of influence is Robert E. Lee. Lee’s battlefield prowess and leadership abilities brought him lasting fame, but it was his contributions as an educator, an agent of postwar reconciliation and a man of sterling character that have given Lee an immortality of influence.

Eschewing financially lucrative offers after the war, Lee assumed the presidency of war-ravaged Washington College (renamed Washington & Lee University after his death) and dedicated his remaining years to rebuilding the college, reconciling the postwar nation, and imparting to his students an abiding commitment to personal integrity and Christian faith.

This selfless dedication in his final years raised Lee’s legacy above the controversies of slavery and the Civil War. Lee’s legacy is firmly rooted in his exemplary character, and it has continued to influence subsequent generations of Americans.

Speaking at the centennial of Lee’s birth in 1907, Bostonian Charles Francis Adams, a distinguished former Union army officer, spoke movingly of Lee’s legacy. After covering Lee’s remarkable military career, Adams turned to his post-war achievement, “For as the gates closed on the old occupation, they opened on the new. And it was an occupation through which he gave to his country, North and South, a priceless gift.” While enumerating the various educational reforms instituted by Lee, Adams concluded, “The most marked feature of his educational career was, however, the moral influence he exerted on the student body.”

Adams recognized Lee’s continuing influence in closing his address with these words,

“Whom shall we consecrate and set apart as one of our sacred men? Sacred; that all men may see him, be reminded of him, and, by new example, be taught what is real worth in man. Whom do you wish to resemble? Him you set on a high column, that all men looking at it, may be continually apprised of the duty expected from them.”

President Dwight Eisenhower was challenged to defend his hanging of Lee’s portrait in the Oval Office. He responded with a lengthy defense of Lee.

“Lee was, in my estimation,” Eisenhower said, “one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. … Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith to God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history. … To the degree that present day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.”

In recent years, academia’s stampede into wokeness has sought to cancel Lee’s legacy. The rabid refusal to view history through any lens other than race would see Lee as fatally flawed and worthy only of outright rejection. Although Lee condemned slavery as a “moral and political evil,” this revisionist mindset refuses to acknowledge either his character or his postwar contributions.

Yet, on a more sanguine note, there are encouraging signs nationally that the wokeness craze is subsiding. Anti-DEI initiatives appear to be gaining strength. Recently, the Trump administration announced the renaming of U.S. Army Fort Robert E. Lee.

Americans await the outcome of these culture wars. But, in the meantime, we can affirm that the immortality of Lee’s influence is based on virtues that are eternal, and therein lies the assurance that his influence will continue.

Garland S. Tucker III is the retired chairman/CEO of Triangle Capital Corporation and author of “Conservative Heroes: Fourteen Leaders Who Shaped America – Jefferson to Reagan” (ISI Books) and “The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge and the 1924 Election” (Emerald Books).