Lee Ware Standing Up to Virginia Dems
A Plea to Save Capitol Square Statues
A Plea to Save Capitol Square Statues
(Bacon’s Rebellion) - Delegate Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, delivered the following speech on the floor of the House of Delegates…
‘Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to a bill that will shortly come before us.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, please allow me to meditate with you as a student of history and, for over thirty years, a teacher of History to high school students of every complexion. I offer the following observations as a contribution to Black History Month.
My great-great grandfather was a Colonel in the 44th Massachusetts. He led troops in the War of 1861 in both North and South Carolina. After his service in the field, he became Military Advisor to the legislature of his home state.
That Union officer’s comrade and friend was Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who was the grandson and great-grandson of U.S. Presidents John Quincy Adams and John Adams, respectively. Charles Jr. served with distinction at Gettysburg, then was named Colonel of the fabled 5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry.
To add to the drama, Col. Adams’s father was Mr. Lincoln’s United States Minister to the United Kingdom, and he was instrumental in preventing Britain from siding with the Confederacy.
You see, then, that these men were opposed to Virginia in 1861.
Yet it was Charles Adams, Jr., who in 1907 was asked to give the Centennial Address of the birth of none other than Robert E. Lee at Washington & Lee University here in Lexington, Virginia.
Let us take to heart this great man’s pedigree as…
I pray he is successful, good, bad or ugly that is part of american history & nobody has the right to remove, erase, or discount our history!
After that man gave his pedigree, I am reminded of the response, "I don't believe I would have told that." Let's not hold his accident of birth against him.