Office of the Commander
Army of Northern Virginia,
Sons of Confederate Veterans
September 10th, 2021
For Immediate Release,
Despite overwhelming support to keep the General Robert E. Lee memorial on Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue standing where it has stood for more than 130 years, we have just witnessed with both anger and sadness its desecration and removal by frenzied radicals and opportunistic politicians. Their loud, unreasoned voices demanding diversity and equity disguise their hatred not just for General Lee and other symbols of the South, but for the entirety of American and Western civilization and heritage.
Richmond, once the Capital of the South, is now a decaying city. It is now run by those little people who hate and despise her history. Their solution is to attempt to abolish and completely re-write that history, and so destroy any continuity and the inheritance of millions of Virginians. The insane leftists in charge have thrown all reason out the window. Along with that, the Virginia Supreme Court has tossed by the wayside the Constitution. Where else in this great nation can one sign a contract but then renege on it years later. Yet, one gets to keep the property in direct contradiction to that contract? Is Virginia the only state where legal contracts are unenforceable? Are all contracts unenforceable or just the ones that offend the current tyrants in power?
This situation should remind us of another time in history when the Constitution of the United States was overthrown by tyranny. At that moment General Lee was forced to choose between his home state and an oppressive government bent on empire and on subjugating the states in the American South. It would have been easier for General Lee to lead a tyrant's army to destroy property and the rights of the people. Instead, he made the noblest of decisions when he chose to defend his beloved State of Virginia, which had reserved specifically for itself the right to secede when it originally joined the Federal union. Lee, prior to offering his services to the newly-independent Commonwealth of Virginia, had formally resigned from the United States Army. In reluctantly agreeing to serve his native state he committed no treason, rather he rose to protect the people's God-given rights and liberties granted them and otherwise affirmed by the Constitution of the United States.
Much in the spirit of General Robert E. Lee's “Proclamation to the People of Maryland,” we support our brothers’ and sisters’ right to defend their history and property. Like “Marse Robert” we choose to stand for our history and for our inheritance, against the rising tide of lunacy and tyranny.
Proclamation to the People of Maryland
To the People of Maryland:
Headquarters Army N. Virginia
Near Fredericktown, 8th September, 1862
It is right that you should know the purpose that brought the Army under my command within the limits of your State, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves.
The People of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a Commonwealth, allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political and commercial ties.
They have seen with profound indignation their sister State deprived of every right, and reduced to the condition of a conquered Province.
Under the pretense of supporting the Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions, your citizens have been arrested and imprisoned upon no charge, and contrary to all forms of law; the faithful and manly protest against this outrage made by the venerable and illustrious Marylanders to whom in better days, no citizens appealed for right in vain, was treated with scorn and contempt; the government of your chief city has been usurped by armed strangers; your legislature has been dissolved by the unlawful arrest of its members; freedom of the press and of speech, of the Federal Executive, and citizens ordered to be tried by a military commission for what they may dare to speak.
Believing that the People of Maryland possessed a spirit too lofty to submit to such a government, the people of the south have long wished to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you to again enjoy the inalienable rights of free men, and restore independence and sovereignty to your State.
In obedience to this wish, our Army has come among you, and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which you have been despoiled.
This, Citizens of Maryland, is our mission, so far as you are concerned. No constraint upon your free will is intended, no intimidation is allowed.
Within the limits of this Army, at least, Marylanders shall once more enjoy their ancient freedom of thought and speech.
We know no enemies among you, and will protect all of every opinion. It is for you to decide your destiny, freely and without constraint.
This army will respect your choice whatever it may be, and while the Southern people will rejoice to welcome you to your natural position among them, they will only welcome you when you come of your own free will.
R. E. Lee,
General Commanding.
The truth is that General Robert E. Lee's noble and unselfish record contradicts the lies of the radical left.
It is past the time for ordinary folks to support respect for all Americans of all backgrounds and to stand against those who would commit what amounts to cultural genocide against those they deem different from themselves.
Lastly, we thank President Donald Trump for his brave defense of America's greatest general, as he also condemns the desecration of the Robert E. Lee memorial at Richmond's Monument Avenue.
R. Kevin Stone
Commander
Army of Northern Virginia, Sons of Confederate Veterans.
“His (Robert E. Lee’s) deeds will be remembered; and when the monument we build shall have crumbled into dust, his virtues will still live, a high model for the imitation of generations yet unborn.”
– President Jefferson Davis, C.S.A., Richmond Dispatch, November 4, 1870
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