Robert E. Lee – from “Letter to his Family”

"Letter to his son" is a letter Robert E. Lee wrote to his son during the time of slavery and the Civil War. A line that stuck out to me was "As far as I can judge by the papers, we are between a state of anarchy and civil war. May God avert both of these evils from us!"(Lee). I think this follows Thoreau's theory that you should do what you believe is right even if it is considered wrong. Lee wanted all of this to just go away. Slavery was a huge issue at the time, and Thoreau was actually a abolitionist. I think he felt so strongly about this because he felt so strongly about civil disobedience. Slavery was to controlling. I think that both Emerson and Thoreau just wanted equality and freedom. Transcendentalism was all about equality and freedom(Quinn). I believe that Emerson and Thoreau were right in saying they were for equality because I agree with them. At this time in history not many people, especially in the South did not stand up for anything, and this is why our country fell to pieces and we were engaged in a great Civil War. It is disgusting that people think that it would ever be okay for people to enslave others just by the color of their skin, it is actually disgusting that people would enslave people for any reason. I think more people should of agreed with these intelligent men Emerson and Thoreau. They knew our country was created to by equal. A lot of the things our founding fathers did were unconstitutional. I think more men like Emerson and Thoreau should of wrote our constitution and then maybe we would not of had all the problems we did when our country was beginning. Slavery completely goes against the theories of Emerson and Thoreau. It was complete and utter disgusting inequality, to go as far as to beat and enslave people. Something was seriously wrong with people who thought this was okay.

Lee, Robert E. "Letter to My Son." Weblog post. Wikispaces. 23 Jan. 1861. Web. Feb. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)