Robert E. Lee’s Definition of a Gentleman

“The forbearing use of power not only forms a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.

The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly–the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light.

The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.”

Along with that just a few more I find applicable.

“There is no more dangerous experiment than attempting to be one thing before a man’s face and another behind his back.” -Robert E. Lee

make sure you are right, then go ahead – Davey Crockett

Given that, I was particularly appalled by this article on General Robert E. Lee and by many of the comments that followed from it. Whatever his personal virtues and abilities, he chose to betray his country (the United States) and lead the South in the defense of slavery. If you have read the accounts of the passage from Africa and the conditions that slaves lived under in the South, you know that this was an experience that is a holocaust in its own right.

I see almost no compassion for the people of African descent and I also see no compassion for the Northerners that he slaughtered in defense of this system in the article and in most of the comments that follow.

There were Southerners who fought for the North and there had certainly been decades of activities by the Abolitionists. It seems incredibly tragic that this man chose the wrong side of history and chose to defend a system of unspeakable horror and cruelty.

I cannot imagine that a single man who reads this site would want to be a slave — a condition that is the exact opposite of the kind of manly nobility that we are aspiring to.

Clearly, it would have been a far better thing to be the disheveled and whiskey-drinking General Grant holding up the coffin of Lincoln then General Lee.

Lastly, I can only assume that it was a moment of thoughtlessness, but did you really give away a book on a Confederate general on Election Day? On a day when it was likely that the first African-American man, a true hero in his own right, would be elected President?

I look forward to better.

Best,

Scott

I, too, disagreed with his advice about “reading novels” until giving it some deeper thought, and considering, as one poster so aptly pointed out, that, in Lee’s day and time, books were their TV, movies, internet, and nearly their sole entertainment and pastimes.

For a moment, let’s take the word “novel” and think of it as a symbolic word for anything that steals time that could be spent in a more educational vein, or vocationally useful pursuit. If one thinks of “novel” in that way, instead of mere useless paper and ink books, one can fully realize the intent of the statement.

Anything today, especially something done to excess, could fall under the above application of the word “novel”……too much TV, internet, cell phone babbling, pornography,….. you get the picture.

I believe what he was trying to say, and I believe this is something we can nearly all agree on, was not to waste precious time doing useless things, filling your mind with trash, etc., when that time could be put to better pursuits.

Just my 2cents…

John Wayne was a great man… and a personal hero of mine.

Never a more relevant quote from Marse Lee, especially in light of the ‘choice’ between Obama and McCain, Socialists both.