Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1865. Robert E. Lee gets no respect from Journal's editorial board

Gen. Robert E. Lee a southern gentleman?

Not to The Providence Journal.

"There is a desire on the part of not a few in the north to prove that Lee is less culpable than the other rebels and is even worthy of our admiration," the paper wrote in the days after Lee's surrender in April 1865. "In our judgment, Robert E. Lee is one of the most guilty and most reprehensible of all rebels. Just look at his career.

"He owes his education to the generosity of the United States government, and has used it in such a manner as to cost hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of property in his attempt to overthrow that government."

Journal files / AP photo

The Journal found no forgiveness in its heart for Gen. Robert E. Lee, shown here in his Confederate uniform.

Lee had caused more bloodshed and done more to prolong the war than any other man in the South, the paper argued. "He is far less worthy of forgiveness and respect than thousands of the honest, but ignorant and deluded privates in his now ruined army."