Editing Robert E. Lee (section)

==Postbellum life==
[[File:Levin C. Handy - General Robert E. Lee in May 1869.jpg|thumb|left|Lee in 1869 (photo by [[Levin Corbin Handy|Levin C. Handy]])]]
{{external media |width = 210px |float = right |headerimage= |video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?66914-1/robert-e-lee-biography ''Booknotes'' interview with Emory Thomas on ''Robert E. Lee: A Biography'', September 10, 1995], [[C-SPAN]]}}

After the war, Lee was not arrested or punished (although he was indicted),<ref name=":5">{{YouTube|1=hOTK_dvNzf8&t=4m|2=The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case against an American Icon}}, lecture given by historian John Reeves at the [[U.S. National Archives and Records Administration]] on June 13, 2018</ref> but he did lose the right to vote as well as some property. Lee's prewar family home, the [[Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|Custis-Lee Mansion]], was seized by Union forces during the war and turned into [[Arlington National Cemetery]], and his family was not compensated until more than a decade after his death.<ref>In December 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court returned the property to Lee's son because it had been confiscated without due process of law. In 1883, the government paid the Lee family US$150,000 ({{Inflation|US|150000|1883|fmt=eq}}). {{cite web|access-date=May 20, 2008|url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/History/Facts/ArlingtonHouse.aspx|title=Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|publisher=[[Arlington National Cemetery]]|id=(Official website)}}</ref>

In 1866, Lee counseled Southerners not to resume fighting, which prompted Grant to say that Lee was "setting an example of forced acquiescence so grudging and pernicious in its effects as to be hardly realized".<ref name=serwer>{{cite news|last1=Serwer|first1=Adam|title=The Myth of the Kindly General Lee|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/|access-date=August 27, 2017|work=The Atlantic|date=June 2017}}</ref> Lee joined with Democrats in opposing the [[Radical Republicans]], who demanded punitive measures against the South, distrusted the South's commitment to the abolition of slavery, and, indeed, distrusted the region's loyalty to the United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|pp=265–294}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|1997|pp=380–392}}.</ref> Lee supported a system of free public schools for black people but opposed allowing them to vote: "My own opinion is that, at this time, they [black Southerners] cannot vote intelligently, and that giving them the [vote] would lead to a great deal of demagogism, and lead to embarrassments in various ways."<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|p=268}}.</ref> [[Emory Thomas]] says Lee had become a suffering Christ-like icon for ex-Confederates. President Grant invited him to the White House in 1869, and he went. Nationally, Lee became an icon of reconciliation between the white people of the North and South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the national fabric.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|1997|pp=391–392, 416}}.</ref>

[[File:Robert E Lee with his Generals, 1869.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Lee and his Confederate officers in their first meeting since Appomattox, August 1869]]

Lee hoped to retire to a farm of his own, but he was too much a regional symbol to live in obscurity. From April to June 1865, he and his family resided in Richmond at the [[Stewart-Lee House]].<ref name=VAnom>{{cite web|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-0064_Stewart-Lee_House_1972_Final_Nomination.pdf|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Stewart-Lee House|author=Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff|date=October 1971|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=December 31, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927041441/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-0064_Stewart-Lee_House_1972_Final_Nomination.pdf|archive-date=September 27, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> He accepted an offer to serve as the president of Washington College (now [[Washington and Lee University]]) in [[Lexington, Virginia]], and served from October 1865 until his death. The trustees used his famous name in large-scale fund-raising appeals and Lee transformed Washington College into a leading Southern college, expanding its offerings significantly, adding programs in commerce and journalism, and incorporating the [[Washington and Lee University School of Law|Lexington Law School]]. Lee was well liked by the students, which enabled him to announce an "[[honor system]]" like that of West Point, explaining that "we have but one rule here, and it is that every student be a [[Gentleman#Robert E. Lee|gentleman]]". To speed up national reconciliation, Lee recruited students from the North and made certain they were well treated on campus and in town.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|1997|pp=374–402}}.</ref>

Several glowing appraisals of Lee's tenure as college president have survived, depicting the dignity and respect he commanded among all. Previously, most students had been obliged to occupy the campus dormitories, while only the most mature were allowed to live off-campus. Lee quickly reversed this rule, requiring most students to board off-campus, and allowing only the most mature to live in the dorms as a mark of privilege; the results of this policy were considered a success. A typical account by a professor there states that "the students fairly worshipped him, and deeply dreaded his displeasure; yet so kind, affable, and gentle was he toward them that all loved to approach him.&nbsp;... No student would have dared to violate General Lee's expressed wish or appeal."<ref>{{cite book|first=Franklin Lafayette|last=Riley|title=General Robert E. Lee After Appomattox|url=https://archive.org/details/generalrobertel01rilegoog|year=1922|publisher=Macmillan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/generalrobertel01rilegoog/page/n52 18]–19}}</ref>

While at Washington College, Lee told a colleague that the greatest mistake of his life was taking a military education.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/lee-transcript/|title=Robert E. Lee on American Experience complete transcript|publisher=Corporation for Public Broadcasting|access-date=June 11, 2014|archive-date=July 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714150213/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/lee-transcript/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He also defended his father in a biographical sketch.<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|pp=16–17}}.</ref>

===President Johnson's amnesty pardons===
[[File:Robert E Lee's Amnesty Oath 1865.gif|thumb|Oath of [[amnesty]] submitted by Lee in 1865]]

On May 29, 1865, President [[Andrew Johnson]] issued a Proclamation of [[Amnesty]] and [[Pardon]] to persons who had participated in the [[rebellion]] against the United States. There were fourteen excepted classes, though, and members of those classes had to make special application to the president. Lee sent an application to Grant and wrote to President Johnson on June 13, 1865:

{{Blockquote|Being excluded from the provisions of amnesty & pardon contained in the proclamation of the 29th Ulto; I hereby apply for the benefits, & full restoration of all rights & privileges extended to those included in its terms. I graduated at the Mil. Academy at West Point in June 1829. Resigned from the U.S. Army April '61. Was a General in the Confederate Army, & included in the surrender of the Army of N. Virginia 9 April '65.<ref name="archives.gov">{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/piece-lee.html |title=General Robert E. Lee's Parole and Citizenship |publisher=United States National Archives |date=August 5, 1975 |access-date=October 15, 2010}}</ref>}}

On October 2, 1865, the same day that Lee was inaugurated as president of Washington College, he signed his Amnesty Oath, thereby complying fully with the provision of Johnson's proclamation. Lee was not pardoned, nor was his citizenship restored.<ref name="archives.gov" />

Three years later, on December 25, 1868, Johnson proclaimed a second amnesty which removed previous exceptions, such as the one that affected Lee.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-179-granting-full-pardon-and-amnesty-for-the-offense-treason-against-the|title=Proclamation 179 – Granting Full Pardon and Amnesty for the Offense of Treason Against the United States During the Late Civil War|publisher=The American Presidency Project|access-date=July 12, 2019}}</ref>

===Postwar politics===
Lee, who had opposed secession and remained mostly indifferent to politics before the Civil War, supported President [[Andrew Johnson]]'s plan of Presidential [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] that took effect in 1865–66. However, he opposed the Congressional Republican program that took effect in 1867. In February 1866, he was called to testify before the [[United States Congress Joint Committee on Reconstruction|Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction]] in Washington, where he expressed support for Johnson's plans for quick restoration of the former Confederate states, and argued that restoration should return, as far as possible, to the ''[[status quo ante bellum|status quo ante]]'' in the Southern states' governments (with the exception of slavery).<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|p=265}}.</ref>

[[File:Robert E Lee Edward Caledon Bruce 1865.jpeg|thumb|upright|left|''Robert E. Lee'', oil on canvas, [[Edward Caledon Bruce]], 1865. [[Virginia Historical Society]]]]

Lee told the committee that "every one with whom I associate expresses kind feelings towards the freedmen. They wish to see them get on in the world, and particularly to take up some occupation for a living, and to turn their hands to some work." and that "Where I am, and have been, the people have exhibited a willingness that the blacks should be educated, and&nbsp;... that it would be better for the blacks and for the whites". However, when he was asked "General, you are very competent to judge of the capacity of black men for acquiring knowledge: I want your opinion on that capacity, as compared with the capacity of white men?" Lee replied "I do not think that he is as capable of acquiring knowledge as the white man is." Lee forthrightly opposed allowing blacks to vote: "My own opinion is that, at this time, they [black Southerners] cannot vote intelligently, and that giving them the [vote] would lead to a great deal of demagogism, and lead to embarrassments in various ways."<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|pp=267–268}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Robert_E_Lee_s_Testimony_before_Congress_February_17_1866| title = Robert E. Lee's Testimony before Congress (February 17, 1866)}}</ref>

In an interview in May 1866, Lee said: "The Radical party are likely to do a great deal of harm, for we wish now for good feeling to grow up between North and South, and the President, Mr. Johnson, has been doing much to strengthen the feeling in favor of the Union among us. The relations between the Negroes and the whites were friendly formerly, and would remain so if legislation be not passed in favor of the blacks, in a way that will only do them harm."<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1934|p=301}}.</ref>

In 1868, Lee's ally [[Alexander H. H. Stuart]] drafted a public letter of endorsement for the [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party's]] [[1868 United States presidential election|presidential campaign]], in which [[Horatio Seymour]] ran against Lee's old foe Republican Grant. Lee signed it along with thirty-one other ex-Confederates. The Democratic campaign, eager to publicize the endorsement, published the statement widely in newspapers.<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1934|pp=375–377}}.</ref> Their letter claimed paternalistic concern for the welfare of freed Southern blacks, stating that "The idea that the Southern people are hostile to the negroes and would oppress them, if it were in their power to do so, is entirely unfounded. They have grown up in our midst, and we have been accustomed from childhood to look upon them with kindness."<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1934|pp=375–376}}.</ref> However, it also called for the restoration of white political rule, arguing that "It is true that the people of the South, in common with a large majority of the people of the North and West, are, for obvious reasons, inflexibly opposed to any system of laws that would place the political power of the country in the hands of the negro race. But this opposition springs from no feeling of enmity, but from a deep-seated conviction that, at present, the negroes have neither the intelligence nor the other qualifications which are necessary to make them safe depositories of political power."<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1934|p=376}}.</ref>

In his public statements and private correspondence, Lee argued that a tone of reconciliation and patience would further the interests of white Southerners better than hotheaded antagonism to federal authority or the use of violence. Lee repeatedly expelled white students from Washington College for violent attacks on local black men, and publicly urged obedience to the authorities and respect for law and order.<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|pp=258–263}}.</ref> He privately chastised fellow ex-Confederates such as Davis and [[Jubal Early]] for their frequent, angry responses to perceived Northern insults, writing in private to them as he had written to a magazine editor in 1865, that "It should be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay passion, give full scope to reason and to every kindly feeling. By doing this and encouraging our citizens to engage in the duties of life with all their heart and mind, with a determination not to be turned aside by thoughts of the past and fears of the future, our country will not only be restored in material prosperity, but will be advanced in science, in virtue and in religion."<ref>{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|pp=275–277}}.</ref>