I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. — Robert E. Lee

My Take – Lee was a patriot.  He devoted his life to the service of his country and his state.  When his loyalty to his state came into conflict with his loyalty to the Constitution, it must have been wrenching.  I’ve read that the question as to whether he would stay with the Union or help in its rending kept him up day and night.  Ultimately, Lee chose his duty to his family and his state over his oath to the nation.  He foresaw the calamity that was coming, and I fear that his words mean as much now as they did then.

Our nation is stretched to the breaking point in so many ways.  Our coffers are empty and rotten.  Our people are divided.  Our executive and legislature merely pick at the bones of the last centuries prosperity and squabble like vultures over a corpse.  Our elections have become spiteful and counterproductive.  Even our courts, the last hope for keeping that which is right and dropping that which is wrong, have become political tools that protect one party or the other.

Something must change, but the way in which that change may come frightens me.  My hope is that we will learn from the mistakes of our history rather than repeat them.