Opinion of Robert E. Lee

[The Mikado]

He was a tragic figure, and would have been the greatest General after Washington, and a great President too, had he not sided with Virginia.  Still, he is one of the greatest Generals in American history, and must be recognized as such.  Despite his siding with the Confederacy, I have to call him a FF.

Skill as a military commander is something to be respected and even admired, even in generals for bad causes.  However, recognizing Lee's impressive abilities on the battlefield is not enough to qualify him for Freedom Fighter status.

Arlington National Cemetery is a very impressive piece of land, and it's appropriate that it's on Lee's property, considering the sheer number of patriotic young Americans (on both sides) he helped into an early grave.

[The Mikado]

anti-slavery secessionist general = freedom fighter.

All of the secessionists were fighting for slavery, SPC, whether or not they liked to admit it. Robert E. Lee, unlike many of the poor, ignorant conscripts he sent to their deaths, actually chose to fight for it though.

Don't act like the Union didn't have the draft, and at least in the political sense, it was the South fighting against political enslavement.

I don't pretend to not support conscription. When a country is threatened, then they should be able to draft their citizens to defend the country. And I don't buy this "political enslavement" garbage; politically enslaved to do what? Treat people as human-beings rather than property? And if you want to talk about political enslavement, the South did their part in pushing their pro-slavery policies on the north, through the Fugitive Slave Act, and things like the Crittenden and Corwin amendments.

What is the point of defending one's country if one already lives under a tyranny, one where the state can send you to die? They are politically enslaved to the United States government, thanks to the Union victory. I don't deny that the South pushed pro-slavery policies on the North (BTW, Lincoln was the one who sponsored the Corwin Amendment). However, apparently unbeknownst to you, by seceding, the South made it so the North wouldn't have to put up with political enslavement. Thus, an independent South meant that the Fugutive Slave Act wouldn't be enforced, and that the North wouldn't have to put up with the South's slavery anymore. Also, it is funny that you support the draft and at the same time object to the idea that humans are property, since apparently when someone can send you to a battlefield at your life's risk far away from your home, you can still own yourself. Good luck explaining that one.

Tyranny refers to the illegitimate, extralegal (ab)use of state power.  There's nothing tyrannical about a properly-ordered and maintained conscription.  I'll grant you that the Civil War-era conscription was a pretty ramshackle process and doesn't meet up to snuff, but conscription itself is neither good nor bad, it's a tool that can be used or not used when necessary.