The Myth of the Kindly General Lee

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Underrated by Northerners, Overrated by Southerners.

His writings on slavery don't seem any more racist than Abraham Lincoln's, and his racial problems were societal problems.

True.  Most people forget, if they ever knew it, that abolitionists were but a fringe part of the Republican coalition.  For most Republicans, they just wanted to ensure that white workingmen didn't have to compete with blacks, be they slave or free,  either in the north or in the western territories.  Keeping down competition for jobs and land was also a factor in the nativist Know-Nothing Party becoming part of the Republican coalition as well.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Exactly. This is one of the few points on which I actually agree with Marx : in order to achieve a perfect society, one must first create a less bad society. It's not a matter of 'excusing' the moral failings of past generations, but rather of acknowledging that the process has to start somewhere, and attempts to achieve instantaneous revolution usually end in disaster.

I am not sure if a perfect society is even a good goal to have. Humans are imperfect. What is perfect for the overwhelming majority may be absolute tyranny for others.

The other part about starting from somewhere I believe is apt.

While Marx thought perfection could be achieved, our own constitution only calls for "a more perfect union".