and as robert e lee had said about actually when the armies were up here. lee said we've got to stop grant before he gets to the james river. there's the james river. grant said if he gets to the james river, it's going to be a siege and then it will only be a matter of time. and from the time grant got to the james river. in mid-june of 18 for it was a matter of time for the confederacy although a lot more time than union voters would have wished. okay, we are out of time. so thank you for your attention and i'll see y'all on wednesday. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. all right. so without further ado i will very happily introduce our author this evening beau. breslin all right without further ado i will very happily introduce our author this evening, beau breslin is the

and as robert e lee had said about actually when the armies were up here. lee said we've got to stop grant before he gets to the james river. there's the james river. grant said if he gets to the james river, it's going to be a siege and then it will only be a matter of time. and from the time grant got to the james river. in mid-june of 18 for it was a matter of time for the confederacy although a lot more time than union voters would have wished. okay, we are out of time. so thank you for your attention and i'll see y'all on wednesday. all right. so without further ado i will very happily introduce our author this evening beau. breslin is the joseph c. palom mountain junior chair in government and the former dean of the faculty vice president for academic affairs at skidmore college up in saratoga springs, new york. he holds a phd in constitutional thoughts from the university of pennsylvania. he is the author of the communitarian constitution. from words to worlds exploring constitutional functionality which was part of the john hopkins series in constitu

on the orange and alexandria, there is a problem that robert e. lee has his army deployed and heavily dug in just south of the rapid around orange courthouse. that is a problem. you are going to have to do something about that if you are grand. we are going to follow the line of the orange and alexandria. what you are going to have to do is turn loose of the railroad, cut your supply away from your supply line for a while. that is very dangerous. usually, grant would do that. if granted had the army that he'd had with him in mississippi, he would have done that. he knew them, near the officers and how they worked. not being familiar with the army at the potomac, he didn't want to take that risk. so that's not an option. of course, you could go up the peninsula, the way mcclellan did following these estuaries. and we have seen that grant is sending a minor expedition to futility here. he didn't want to go to futility, but they did. there are problems with this, and in fact, lincoln almost would not tolerate the main union force in virginia going down t

to the stone mountain memorial in georgia that separates want to celebrate the death davis and robert e. leears earlier could be on the founders role adding that robert e. lee was her idol and years before her death in 1931 her brother george was simultaneously an officer of "the new york times" company and the leader of the chapter of the sons of the confederate veterans there's a lot of names and in the new york chapter of the sons of the confederate veterans and his mother was pro- confederacy in proslavery and process session and acted in support of those movements. he was his father's brother because he dropped the surname levy according to the family tree from seven years ago he was a store owner and prominent leader of the small jewish community and during the more organized the unit according to family letters and historians and then to identify two males and three females 65 and 45 and 23 bertha who came from germany as a teenager might have been horrified by the experience of witnessing and being served by human chattel but instead she fully embrace the barbaric practice and became

hundreds of white nationalists descended on charlottesville, virginia to defend the monuments of robert e. lee. that marks the beginnings of 24 hour violent clashes with protesters. one person was killed. others beaten and bloody. [inaudible] [noise] >> after the unlawful assembly was declared. it was literally manifested. it felt like we won. i heard this loud bang. [noise] one car got pushed into the intersection. another car got pushed in right behind it. it was just utter chaos. >> it is hard to imagine that such a big moment, had to be in this little space. but that is common in america. these big moments and little spaces. >> absolutely. this is what we learn. all of these small spaces have set the stage for huge explosions. >> the battle in charlottesville seem to be over a single statue. and it is a battle that has been repeated in cities across the country. but more than 1500 monuments to the confederacy remain. honoring those who fought and died to keep black america, like my ancestors, in bondage. so i drove down there to learn for myself just how deep these roots are buried. i'm lo

memorials including $1000 to the enormous stone memorial in georgia that celebrates jefferson davis, robert e leehis mother who died 16 years earlier could be on the founder's role adding in a letter that robert e lee was her idol. the years before her death in 1931, the brother george was simultaneously an officer of the new york times company a leader of the new york chapter of the sons of the confederate veterans. there are a lot of names here. the publisher was a leader at the new york chapter. his mother was pro- confederacy, proslavery, pro- succession enacted and supported those movements. he was her father's brother and his name was john mayer. he dropped the surname leavy according to a family tree compiled some seven years ago. the mayor was a storm owner and prominent leader of the community and during the war organized a home guard unit according to family members and historians. the separate slave schedule lifted. identified is two males 70 and 26. two female 65, 45 and 23. bertha who came from germany as a teenager may have been horrified by the experience of witnessing and being se

that comes through that he could have for instance asked robert e lee robert lee was wearing his dress sword. he could have asked lee to surrender his sword as part of surrender. he didn't because he did not want to humiliate the league he of course, you will know the story provided very generous terms. the officers could keep their sidearms in their horses. the armies were the soldiers were paroled. the confederate soldiers was starving grant immediately issued orders to for 25,000 rations to be provided, but i think what's so remarkable about grants behavior. is that here at this supremely happy moment for him in the soldiers. he doesn't allow, you know any gloating or celebration to take place, you know, no 100 gun salutes or anything like that. in fact his wife. julia had urged him after the fall of richmond the confederate capital julia had urg, to go in as the conquering hero which i think many and other generals would gladly have done and grand turn to julia and said no julia. i can't do that. don't you realize how bitter defeat already is for these people without my lording it

conditions of people's lives and that's not to say that taking down at 60 foot tall statue of robert e, lee or making juneteenth a federal holiday is going to suddenly erase the racial wealth gap, but it does they are things that help us understand the sort of ecosystem of ideas and stories and narratives that shape american history and help us more effectively understand the way that certain communities have been disproportionately harmed through their history. so i began in new orleans and i was thinking about my home town i thinking about having grew up growing up in a place. that was once the busiest slave market in the country and realizing that i didn't understand the history of this city in any way that was commensurate with the impact that it had on my city on my state or my country. and so i kind of began looking around and thinking about what my old professor walter johnson a historian at harvard said he said in his book so by soul about the history of the slave trade in new orleans, he's like the whole is memorial to slavery? it's in the roads and slave people paved. it's in the

material change, but he is very much not supported in this initially and it takes until general robert e. lee starts advocating for it around february 1865 january 1865. very late in the war that any attempts are made to use enslaved people as soldiers up to this point. in slavers have been and the confederacy has been thinking of manpower for black soldiers and and black people solely through labor. they are impressing free black men. they're impressing enslaved black men, but only to work on fortifications only to work in the capacity that has historically been accorded to them which as property to be used at the will of in slavers first and the state second. on the other hand the united states and and black men as well are looking at manpower not just as a means of labor and as fighting power, but power as men that the presence in the armed services of a nation affords legitimacy and citizenship to a degree that hadn't been possible for the majority of black americans to this point. so the idea of manpower i think is twofold for black americans. and so i think this is very appropriate them

go back to your commands and talk about what you will do to robert e. lee. and that should be the mindset that the president has in our nato allies have. >> specifically showing up at the willard down the street in his shabby uniform and they wanted to give them the worst room in the hotel and thought it was grant, and then he goes to the reception and make sure they could hear him and hear from the great man that was one of the most inspiring figures in american history. we have russia in a major threat growing from china. how do we balance those two. is there any zero-sum aspect of how we are prepared to deal with china versus how we deal with containing russia? >> china is a much graver threat . russia is a declining power and has been for a long time. its economy is barely two thirds the size of italy and italy is not going getting buster's. and it was never terribly integrated into the world economy and now it is even less so. in its military, despite major investments over the last 15 years, his proven incapable of beating ukrainian military, much less

is this a part of the reason why maybe robert e lee so remembered while somebody like grant isn't i would i would say yes. i mean it is surprising that until recently now some of this has started to really change. there's been a new a renewed interest in grant so you might have seen the documentary about him. he's had new biographies the idea that right. why are we not focusing more on somebody like grant when lee becomes again heralded and celebrated so much. so some of these great. these are great questions all let's let's keep moving. i'm gonna come back to some of them as we go along. i want to also mention that not only are there going to be heroes, but there's gonna be mentioned davis but another general who's confederate general who's actually becomes a scapegoat for everything that went wrong, especially especially at gettysburg is james longstreet. that's jl. so this is where again like i said the contradictions come in. he is seen as somebody who is a traitor. he challengedly. he purposely was slow at gettysburg. he also becomes a republican which is going to be a unforgivable s

ah, general robert e. lee surrendered to general ulysses s grant at appa maddox. and a few months later, the 13th constitutional amendment ended slavery. nearly 4000000 of the south's 9000000 inhabitants had been enslaved. and at last, they were free of their chains. for plantation owners, this revolution was unbearable. ah, slave owners were of course, oh, terrified by the end of slavery, they were terrified economically that they would lose their very cheap labor force . but there were also terrified that african american people would start to demand arrived. so citizenship in 1865, a handful of confederate veterans of scottish descent decided to create a secret society in the town of pulaski, tennessee. it was originally designed to be a fraternal order. it was designed as a jo, it was literally design for a bunch of guys to have a reason to hang out, drink beer, and as they gary each other, they were young, man, they were bored. they lived a small town called to laskey, tennessee, and they decide to form a little secret society. the veterans initially wanted t

rishaad: for more, i am joined by hong kong legislative council member robert e. leeho also represents more than a hundred stockbrokers and global investment management firms, what are you hearing on the ground about the situation in hong kong and its future as a financial hub? robert: thanks for having me. i think the local financial services community is going a challenging time. we are dealing with the last beer years, social unrest as well as the pandemic, as well as geopolitical tensions. rising inflation. there are a lot of factors at play here. for the industry, i think there is still hope for optimism as china and its financial and capital markets continue to open up and reform. i think the industry is holding out to participate in that growth. certainly, we are experiencing a lot of challenges. and we also see that some of the traditional broker-dealers, there is more closing down this year compared to the same period last year. i think the solution is a shift to may be doing more wealth management and asset management? rishaad: you did meet with the incoming

. >> the cemetery, former home of robert e. leed quarter master of the army buried his son in lee's wife's rose garden, as a reminder. it was turned into a beautiful memorial for those who have fought and died for this country. >> tomi lahren, your thoughts this memorial day. >> tomi: i'm so glad we here on fox news are paying tribute to those who paid the ultimate price and gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. i hope young people still realize significance of memorial day and aring taught about the significance of memorial day. it is not just a day off school or day to barbecue, it means something more. i hope all americans will look to this and realize this is why we stand for the flag and anthem and pay respects to those who have given so much for our country. i hope this is taught and remembered everyday. >> part of the significance of the tomb of the unknown soldier, is recognition of how many have laid down their lives. including my great, great uncle, he fought in the american expidition force in world war i. he is b

i was a senior then at robert e lee high school in midland, texas, and i was sitting in a classroom when we learned that the president had been killed. i remember feeling as if a blanket had been thrown over our school suffocating all the usual sounds of chair scrapings and classroom chatter. people cried the horror was so sudden and so unimaginable. i went home for lunch that day and i remember my parents sadness and like most american families. we spent the next few days watching television. i remember it as a terrible blow almost too much to bear. a sudden reminder at a very young age of how fragile life truly is. now we've experienced another one of those days in our national life a day. so horrifying that it'll be permanently seared in the hearts and memories of of all of us who witnessed it. i was on my way to meet with senator ted kennedy. when a secret service agent told me that a plane had just hit the world trade center. we thought it was an accident at first, but as we approached capital hill the secret service said that another plane had hit this hit the second tower. we knew

like, all right, let's take robert e. lee off the horse and put on someone else who is a better model. but i think, as you put, it that nobody is perfect. even if you found a person who was perfect they would be privy to anyone who sees them. so, i think it's time to think more creatively about monuments rather than struggle to keep to a model that has really worked for us. >> i should ask our host here, how much more time do we have? i know that we're running up against the end here. can i ask one more question? let me see if there's anything else from -- >> we have some time, so no rush. >> let me ask you at least one more question here. you don't class over the complicated cases where you have, let's say, statues of columbus and which italian americans draw a lot of pride but native americans see him as a catalyst for genocide. you talk about the minneapolis poem best at you as an example. how do you negotiate these discussions where groups, marginalized groups, we clearly don't want to honor racists. different if a great

and the famous duel between ulysses s grant and robert e lee. the big showdown between in each case the best general that each side had i think this campaign has been more misunderstood and misinterpreted than maybe any

then in 1861, during the civil war, the union army seized the grounds from members of robert e. lee's family and his wife who was washington's granddaughter. the first military burial here was held three years later. today's holiday traces its roots to what is know as decoration day. the gun, according to historians, one month after the civil war when a group of former slaves in south carolina placed flowers on the graves of union soldiers. this cemetery is now the resting place for more than 400,000 service members who dedicated their lives to our country. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm william brangham. join us online and here again tomorrow night. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide services to people can communicate and connect. we offer a variety of plans and a customer service team can find one that fits you. visit consumer cellular. tv. >> the kendeda fund -- committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful wo

especially now today on the action in may, june, and the famous duel between ulysses s grant and robert e. lee. the big showdown between

cause the associated press to report that you would think that he was dixie born, a sudden of robert e. lee, the man -- the reason i bring this up, is not to suggest that kennedy was by any means racist, or that he was philosophically opposed to the civil rights movement. the reason i bring it up, it's a pointed out there is little in the senate records to consent to -- being hammered great -- perhaps it was unfair to say of him some critics say that the senate, playing the title of his own book, that in the senate he -- but a profile in cowardice. it is fair to say, has one story and did say, that he had a profile in caution, in moderation. kennedy figured this was essentially if he would ever -- when he endeavor to do, and what he did with great success was to capture the broad center of american politics. as one historian critical of kennedy has put, it quote, the liberals, are reconciled by his aspirations. which he closed in their vocabulary. conservatives took note of his deeds, which rarely challenge their opinions or interests. so, in spite his senatorial career, the cell that -- th

that lincoln then, as part of this new birth of freedom, publicly announces that, two days after robert e. lee surrenders, is noteworthy because it means he is shifting away from a rather moderate position on reconstruction to a much more radical position. and frederick douglass said that i was in that audience that day, april 11th, 1865, and i was disappointed in the scope of the recommendation for black voting rights, because it was so limited, just to the veterans of the armed forces and the very intelligent. but we should've recognized, and many of my abolitionist friends were also disappointed, but we should recognize that that was an extremely important speech, because abraham lincoln learned his statesmanship in the school of rail splitting. to split a rail, you take a wedge. you insert the thin edge of the wedge into the log and you drive a home with a big hammer, a maul. we should've known that, once abraham lincoln inserted the thin edge of the wedge publicly, that you could count on him to drive home the thick end of the wedge. there was one gentleman in the audience who did appreci

moneys should go up are sort of just replacing the person on the horse like all right, let's take robert e lee off the horse and put on somebody else. that's a better model, but i think as you quoted that nobody's perfect. you can't any even if you found a perfect person that person wouldn't represent at every single person who might look at them. so i think it's time to think creatively about monuments rather than struggling to keep to a model that really hasn't worked for us and i should ask our host here. how much more time do we have? i know that they were running up against the the end here. can i ask one more question? let me see if there's anything else from we have some time so no, right. so let me ask you this one more question here. i mean you don't gloss over this sort of complicated cases where you have let's say statues of columbus in which italian americans draw a lot of pride, but native americans sort of see him as a catalyst for genocide and you talk about the minneapolis columbus statutes an example that how do you negotiate these discussions where we're different groups? i m