Dominion Review
Editorial by the Founder
Dear friends, it comes a time in life when a man must choose sides. I found that true for myself in 1859 when our great founding came into being. I found it again in the election of 1866 when I was convinced to run as your President. Now at this date, it comes the time again. I have deeply considered the role of a former President to keep silent as the new finds their path, but events of these past few years have caused in me such great turmoil and worry that I can no longer keep silent. Thus it is that I found this newsprint named after my country the Dominion of Virginia and do create a thing with which good men may print their honest views about the world that goes on around us.
As I sit to my front porch at Arlington, I am forced with some few tears to watch the sleepy town of Washington just over the horizon. Yes, it is true. They remain our cousins to this great land and yet they remain an enemy as they have provided proof many times over. I should not need to recount them for the reader, but facts are certain. This great and fertile land was invaded in 1859 for reasons still unclear to any and all. Let there be no doubt that President Buchanan of the U.S. felt need to show strength such was his many other failings, yet all do know that it was merely a ploy to shoulder away the rights of these many states and peoples such that our neighbor just over the hill might be paramount. Providence proved to us all that such a thing was misguided and we were rewarded with a country of our own. We remain still and should ever be vigilant.
And yet, my friends, what have we gained? Some few colonies? An alliance with Mexico to the south? A New England free and clear to choose their own path? Yes, these are all fine accomplishments and as your President for three terms, I worked many hours and sleepless nights to make them so. Yet I am gone from office since 1879 and in these past ten years, I wonder what those efforts meant. I held many high hopes for my Vice President that followed after me as your leader, but President Pierre Taylor proved not up to the task in carrying forward the vision of our great nation. I could not support a man such as that, who was and remains, a coward. That is a strong word, but true. I can no longer hold my tongue. Further to that, his administration caused yet another crises with our cousins to the north and made the election of Cadmus Breckenridge inevitable. While I did admire his implacable nature in the face of looming war, I could not shake the thought that he was unfit for the office I held after Presidents Davis and Stephens. My friends, we deserve better than this.
It is said that the great Benjamin Franklin once quipped, “It is a republic...if you can keep it.” He referred to the founding of the United States of America. No less could be said of our journey and what has been achieved or conceivably lost if we do not heed this advice. The Confederate States of America should find pride in what has been done and yet we now see the threats of dual devils. Satan arrives in the hands of both populists and anarchists and it cannot be allowed. You may look the world over and see the filthy work of this beast done. There are so-called communists to our south in Cuba. A rise once more of Jacobin revivalists in France. Anarchists make war upon Italy and destroy that fine country. All in the name of freedom which we know all too well. We fought for nothing less and gained it. Should we choose to forgo it now?
Within these last ten years, the rise of both populists and anarchists is such that our own Senate is ruled by the former and the lower House finding near parity between these fire brands and our Whig party. May we say that we have lost sight? Why was the war fought and won if not to keep ourselves free? Twice over, in fact, we have won only to find ourselves now listless and prey to too liberal sensibilities. I would be the first to say that I did not care for our habits of slavery, and yet what was one to do? I would have preferred a gradual lessening of such restrictions on another peoples and advocated for such when your President. Yet many states disagreed and as my charter called for, I could not force the matter. It is, or was, ingrained within our Constitution. Instead, the current President Ambrose Pettigrew forced through Congress and signed into law the destruction of what we have known as life for these last many years.
Believing in Providence, I pray for these souls that are now thrown to the wilderness without the proper training or ability that other good men find. I hold no doubt that they will persevere for they too are children of faith, yet they must now weather the great storm of this changed world and who will be their keeper? President Pettigrew that caused their misfortune? The populist Congress that cares for them not? The good men and women from all over our great nation forced to greet a new reality? It was a thing done poorly and we are like to reap the lack of benefits of such for many years to come.
And now brings me to a thing most painful. I am forced, and begin this periodical for such purpose, to go against a man that I once loved. No finer General did I find in those days when it all meant our life or death. No man could be considered more Christian than he. And yet, he falls into the ranks of these populists and I know not why? Thomas Jackson is a good man, let it be said. With that, it remains that I cannot support his run for the Presidency of this nation in our coming election. We fought together and both know the perils of war. Yet his changed nature does give me pause.
A crises brews to the east with great powers the world over looking on. In our own country, a truce made with our northern cousins is due to lapse within the year. I do not advocate for war in either case, but we must have a President willing and capable of acting should it need be so. General Jackson was once a fighting man. A believer in God and Providence. Now I see him take to the field of battle in another sense. Embracing our populist sensibilities, he speaks of no war, and more of peace with our northern cousins. It is understood that our nation wishes no more struggle, but as is seen the world over, people wish to be free. And freedom is not kept in the hand for no one to see. It is fought for and gained. General Jackson should know that. His masterful campaign upon the peninsula proves such.
I am an old man now. I served when we were unioned and I served when we were made free. In all my time in office, whether General or President, my aim was to always serve the better good of our country. Mine of Virginia and all else that makes this nation great from Texas all the way to Maryland and Missouri. Our northern cousins are not content with their lot, and why should they be? A loss in war is a loss in pride. General Jackson should know this as he runs for my former office as should those that succeeded me. Presidents Taylor, Breckenridge and our current President Pettigrew have trod the path of lesser men. For the respect I still hold for Jackson, I hope that he will not be swayed anymore by these populists. He will not and never would hold to anarchy, but it rises within our ranks.
I begin this newsprint so that good men will hold a voice in our coming elections and will continue to speak to the issues of our day. I do so with caution, as I have always been a private man. Yet when one does not speak, poor things may happen. I hope that our writers remain true to the vision and that each reader finds courage to stand up and say no to this wave of populist sentiment and anarchist disruption in our daily life. It has gone on now too long. Our free Confederacy is real...if we may keep it.
- Robert Edward Lee is the founder of Dominion Review. Former three term President of the Confederate States of America and General of the Armies from 1859 to 1879.