Propriety without Principle: The Cautionary Tale of Robert E. Lee (John F. Doherty, 8/07/24, Public Discourse)
Many critics of Lee respond that these good qualities would magnify rather than forgive the evil of his decision to turn against the Union. But Guelzo’s critique is more subtle: Lee’s flaw was that his good qualities were only superficial, not real virtues. He called slavery “evil,” but he never said more, nor was he an abolitionist. Although he never owned slaves, he became executor of his father-in-law’s estate after his death, willingly taking charge of its enslaved population. These people were to be freed within five years, according to the dead man’s will. But when the difficulty of the task wore on Lee, and three slaves tried to escape, in frustration he ordered them to be whipped—with exceptional violence—then sold farther south, never to see their families again.
Lee strove to be responsible, but probably more out of shame for his irresponsible father than from devotion to the good. He aimed for “perfection,” as Guelzo says, and fell into perfectionism—achieving the appearance of virtue rather than its substance. This faux nobility of character was reflected in the unapproachable, statuesque coldness of his manner, unintentionally implied in the epithet “the marble man” that contemporary admirers gave him.
Lee was also not especially religious. He was not confirmed in the Episcopal Church until age forty-six, when his young daughters were. He sat on vestries of Episcopalian parishes, but he rarely spoke of God, except amid the exceptionally fearsome dangers of the war. When he became president of Washington (later Washington and Lee) College, he built a chapel for it, but did not appoint a chaplain; he also limited public religious activity to occasional, closely monitored prayer meetings.
All told, it is hard to pinpoint any moral principle that guided Lee’s life.