Is dissent truely the highest from of Patriotism or was Robert E. Lee a traitor ?

Question

What founding father said "Dissent is the truest from of Patriotism ?

Great answers keep them coming.

Super man your answer is the longest but it's the most disorganized and self serving of the lot. Spend less time ranting and more time on point. As for if I would vote for you running for president at this point no. Your credibility is shot with me. I don't like opprotunists or pimps pimping themself out.

Superman cutting and pasting is about as credible as weapons of mass destruction.

Answer 1

Thomas Jefferson said it. Arkansas senator William Fulbright called dissent a higher form of patriotism and an act of faith. Unfortunately, for some, history is written by the victors. To many radical republicans of the time, Lee was regarded as a traitor. I don't think Grant did. He was extremely gracious to Lee at Appomattox and was generous in his surrender terms. Lee did what he thought was right. He was offered the command of the Union Army by Lincoln at the beginning of the war. However, he was a Virginian first and foremost. If you are a lover of lost causes then you have to love Robert E. Lee. He knew the side he chose had little chance for victory. The Civil War was won in the Union factories, not on the battlefield. Lee was a truly honorable and decent man, he was just loyal to the wrong side.

Answer 2

Thomas Jefferson

By definition Lee was a traitor to the United States. The same as Jefferson, Washington and the other Revolutionaries were traitors to England. There is a difference between dissent and revolution. It is perfectly okay to engage in both should you desire, however dissent will generally not get you thrown into the stockade unless it is somehow treasonous or against the law. If the south had won the war Lee would have still been a traitor to the United States, but not a traitor in the eyes of the new government which would have emerged as a result.

Answer 3

Militaristic dissent, I feel, is a bit different than political dissent. I don't know all of the circumstances of the beginning of the Civil War as well as I used to in grade and high school, but I don't think Robert E. Lee can be truely considered a patriot.

The real problem with discussing the Civil War, from a historic perspective, is that many of the reasons the south seceeded from the Union were wrong (most notably slavery) and that taints and historic review.

Answer 4

Yes, Robert E. Lee was considered a traitor. However, he was a man who fought for what he believed in. We should give him credit for that. If the outcome of the US Civil War was reversed, General Lee would have been a patriot and a hero. Dissent is truely the highest form of patriotism if the democratic system works as it should.

Answer 5

To much of the early US Southern states, the issue of state's rights had not yet been settled. When the Southern states ceceded from the Union, Lee acted on a strong feeling of patriotism toward his state of Virginia. To him, as well as many others, his loyalty was first owed to the state, and only secondarliy to the Union.

Since the Union won, to write the history, we say that the root reason behind the war was slavery, but, at the time, slavery was only one of the state's rights issues.

To those that immediatly typed in "traitor," I feel I must once again remind them that George Washington, etal would have been considered a traitor if King George's army won that war.

Answer 6

The right to dissent from our government is undoubetly our greatest right. Our right to dissent is strongly protected in the First Amendment and is further empowered by our right to vote for whoever we want.

Honestly, Lee was a traitor because he was aiding the enemy of the Union during a time of war. Look at the constitution for what defines Treason.

Answer 7

Robert E. Lee was a traitor. There is a difference in dissent and fighting in a war against the USA.

Answer 8

Jefferson.

And it is the highest form of patriotism in a democracy where the system works best when it is challenged to think differently. So challenging the status quo is good for the country- therefore patriotic.

Answer 9

That was attributed to Thomas Jefferson but you're speaking of two entirely different things

Dissent IS Patriotism, but RL Lee lived at a time when loyalty to states was as great if not greater than to the Union.

"I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than the dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation."

Col. Robert E. Lee, U.S.A. in a letter to his son Custis, January 23, 1861

"I shall carry with me to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration, & your name & fame will always be dear to me. Save in the defense of my native State, I never desire again to draw my sword."

Robert E. Lee to General Winfield Scott,
Resigning his commission with the US Army.

Lee was Winfield Scott's choice to serve as field commander of the Union army, but when a state convention voted to secede, he resigned from the U.S. army, announcing to his sister that he could not "raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children. Save in defense of my native state, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword."

Anyone calling Lee a Traitor is simply ignorant of history or the importance of the "State" during the ear in which he lived. If Lee was in fact a traitor, then why wasn't he tried and hung? The fact is that the South seceded from the Union, and then attacked Fort Sumpter, which they believed to be part of their soverign soil.

Rightly or wrongly, they left the Union and no one has every completely provide proof that they didn't have the right to secede. Before Lincoln took office, seven states declared their secession from the Union, and established a Southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan, whose term ended on March 3, 1861. And although Buchanan asserted, "The South has no right to secede," he also claimed "but I have no power to prevent them."

Assuming they had such a right, as a member of a soverign nation, could Lee be called a traitor? I think not. The fact is NONE of the Confederate military of political leaders were ever convicted of treason, not even Jefferson Davis.

Oh, and BTW, Law professer Jim Lindgren of The Volokh Conspiracy has traced the possible origin of this saying back as far as the 11 November 1984 obituary of pacifist activist Dorothy Hewitt Hutchinson in the Philadelphia Inquirer, quoting a 1965 interview. The direct quote there is: "Dissent from public policy can be the highest form of patriotism," she said in an interview in 1965. "I don't think democracy can survive without it, even though you may be crucified by it at times."

Answer 10

Both.

The quote is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but he never actually said it. Howard Zinn said it a few years ago:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/a/146858.htm

Lee took up arms against the United States, levying war against them. That's treason. Article III, Section 3.