Lee and Grant At The White House

LEE AND GRANT AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Soon after Grant got elected president in 1868, Lee went to visit him at the White House.
The meeting lasted only ten minutes (or maybe just 5 minutes).
 Its always been a great mystery as to why the meeting ended so abruptly.
 My speculation is that the conversation went something like this:
 (Lee) Congratulation, Mr President.
I'm sure that if you are half as good a president as you were a general,
the country will make real progress under your leadership.

(Grant) Thank you, General Lee.
I owe it all to you.
It was you that made my election possible !!

(Lee)What?? What do you mean, Pres. Grant ??
(Grant) Well, when the war started, Lincoln offered to make you the top general of the Union armies, remember?
Well, you turned him down.
If you had accepted his offer, you would have led the Union armies to a quick and decisive victory, no doubt.
 And it would have been you who would be living in the White House right now, not me !!
 Yes, I owe it all to you, General Lee.

At this point Lee would have been visibly shaken.
He would have felt stung by Grant's candor or impertinence.
Lee would probably have forgotten whatever requests he had planned to make of Grant.
And due to the sudden feeling of indigestion that can come upon a man,
due to emotional stress, Lee would have bowed out of the meeting.
If I'm not mistaken, Lee and Grant never did meet again before Lee's premature death
 at 63 in 1870, just 2 years into Grant's presidency.

Yes, I'm guessing that Grant mouthed off at Lee's mistake
 in rejecting Lincoln's chance-of-a-lifetime offer !!
Up until recently I figured Grant just blurted out
 his words without thinking of what he was saying.
(If he did say those things.) But lately, I'm thinking maybe Grant knew very well what he was saying,
and that he said those things deliberately !!
For Grant was mad at Lee for supporting Grant's opponent in the recent election.
 Grant had been generous with Lee when the South surrendered at Appomatox.
He must have felt that Lee owed him. Also Grant defended Lee after the war.
When the radical Republicans called for the arrest of Lee as a traitor,
Grant threatened to resign as the top General of the armies.
In short Grant tried to help Lee.
So it must have stung Grant to hear that Lee worked
for the election of the Democratic candidate for president in 1868.
Yes, Grant's statement ("Its all because of you..") - if he did make it -
may well have come from a vindictive heart.
He may well have intended to sting Lee as much as he could.

And of course it's TRUE that an unbelievable amount of suffering resulted
from Lee's rejection of Lincoln's offer.
A war that could have been brought to an early end
 in 1863 or '64, instead dragged on til '65.
All because of Lee's misguided loyalty to the South.
 By trying to help Virginia, Lee brought more destruction
and near starvation to his beloved state !!
Also, because the South got beat so badly
and for so long, the exConfederates became more bitter than they had been.
 When you are beaten in a fight, it's natural for you to look for someone weaker
 than you -someone you can beat.
So that instead of you being a loser, you can claim to be a winner.
That's partly why the KKK was created.
Waging war against the blacks was a way to "forget" that the Confederacy had been whipped so bad by the Union armies.
Yes, the creation of the Klan may well have been avoided -
if only Lee had been brave enuff to accept Lincoln's offer,
and remain loyal to the Constitution !!
Like General George Thomas, who fought on the side of the Union,
 even though he was from Virginia.
 Lincoln called him, "My Virginian."

Getting back to Grant and Lee,
while Grant's candor may have come from a vindictive spirit,
he did have a point.
 He "wounded" Lee, but what does Proverbs 27.6 say??
"The wounds of a friend are faithful."
In short, Lee needed to hear just such candor.
And so we have to conclude that Grant was acting as a true friend
when he said those things - if he indeed did say them !!