Decided to travel by car for Christmas.Once the door is closed, it is a world of its own.The path is chosen by oneself, the scenery is changed, and the outside world is thrown by the speed for a short distance.This gives people the illusion that as long as they don't take the initiative to enter this world, they can never enter it.Therefore, this time feels the most free to touch. I went to Washington, the capital of the United States.I've been to this place a few times, but never walked into Arlington National Cemetery.It's a place that's often seen on TV and in movies.The most impressive one was a year ago.A mentally ill man shot and killed two guards at the Capitol, and they are buried in this cemetery.I remember that there was a black guard among them, and his wife was a dignified Chinese.Therefore, at the memorial service, their black-skinned daughter suddenly called her grandma, aunt, and aunt in pure Chinese during the series of addresses at the beginning of the eulogy.

Arlington National Cemetery is an honorary burial place in the United States, but not a high-level cemetery for officials. Therefore, an ordinary soldier who died on the battlefield must be able to rest here, but the official rank as high as the president often has no share.The exception among presidents was John Kennedy, who, because he was assassinated in his own post, was agreed to be considered a dead soldier.His younger brother, Robert Kennedy, was buried next to him in the same condition.Their tombstones are extremely simple.Robert Kennedy's tombstone is just a white cross less than two feet high.Based on this line of reasoning, it is not difficult to understand why the largest cemetery in this cemetery, which is patrolled by soldiers day and night according to strict etiquette, is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Although Arlington National Cemetery is very difficult to enter, there are still many eligible people who choose to rest in their hometown.The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the most solemn treatment here, is where an unidentified American soldier was selected and buried here in each of several wars.Unknown soldiers buried in a Vietnam Veteran cemetery have been suspected by a family of being their own flesh and blood.Decades after soldiers were buried here, the family was finally able to use genetic technology, which was not available before, to identify their relatives last year and take him back to their hometown.So, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, the graves of Vietnam Veterans are still empty.

Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial are only separated by a river and connected by a bridge.We came to this famous tourist destination for another reason.It is the land of Arlington itself, which has a story with twists and turns that attracts us. This piece of land with an area of ​​1,100 acres (equivalent to more than 6,500 Chinese acres) was not the property of the US federal government at the beginning.Not only is it a private property, but it also uncommonly involves the families of two prominent American historical figures.Today, that story is condensed into a single building that stands at the vantage point of Arlington National Cemetery.This is the old two-story house known today as the Arlington House.It was built by a young man named Cusdis.

Who is Cusdis?He lost his father at a young age and was raised by his maternal grandmother and step-grandfather.His step-grandfather was George Washington, the first president of the United States.Cusdis grew up with a wide range of interests, not only being a visionary farmer, but also dabbling in painting and drama. In 1802, he began building the Arlington House on the land his father had bought during his lifetime.Choosing to build a house on the top of this mountain is really a vision.From here you can overlook the very center of Washington and the famous Potomac River.The hills below the mountain are continuous and covered with lush forests.Although the house is not big, the designer is very famous.His name is George Heidfeld, and he is an important participant in the overall planning and construction of Washington, the capital of the United States.The house took almost fifteen years to complete.

During the construction of Arlington House, Custis married and had a daughter, their only child.After the house was completed, the family of three finally moved here happily.At this time, their daughter Mary was in her teens.They started a romantic life in a picturesque scenery.Among their frequent guests were Mrs Cusdis's cousin and her son.The boy and Mary often played together, and finally made a childhood sweetheart story.The hero of this love story is another important figure in American history, Robert Lee, the Confederate commander in the Civil War. The wedding took place in this Arlington house in the cool spring and summer of 1831 in Washington.General Lee was then a young lieutenant, just two years out of West Point.For the next thirty years, he served in the Union Army.In these thirty years, he has had no major ups and downs.He is well-educated, has his own stable ideals and values, and has always been respected by his colleagues.Entirely by his own efforts, he became a general of the Union Army.

During the thirty years of their marriage, General Li and his wife often lived in the barracks temporarily as needed by the military.But as far as their home is concerned, it is this Arlington house. It was in this house that they gave birth to their six children.This is a harmonious family.In addition to General Lee's family of eight, Mrs. Lee's parents, the Cusdiss, lived with them all the time.It seems that more than a hundred years ago, grandparents and grandchildren living together were also the ideal model of American families.For three generations and ten people, this is really not a big house.Today, when we visit the Arlington house, we can still feel the crampedness of the year.

The property rights of the entire Arlington have always been retained by General Lee's father-in-law.Until his death in 1857, he left a will and left the property rights of Arlington to his wife.He knew that his wife would die soon, so he added an inheritance. After his wife died, this inheritance would belong to his favorite grandson, the eldest son of General Li.In addition to the surname, the first name of Americans can be very long.These two Arlington property owners have one thing in common, that is, they both have a proud name before their surnames, George Washington.This is a memorial to their family and the great pioneers of America.

The death of the father-in-law was a major change in the family.As executor and breadwinner of the family, Robert Lee must immediately invest in his father-in-law's farm estate while improving the family's financial situation.The old Arlington home was also in need of major repairs after three decades of loads.Housework was urgent, and General Li immediately asked for leave from the army, preparing to concentrate on completing the transition of family affairs between two generations.He did not return to his post with the Union Army until 1860.He was a general in the Union Army and had served here for thirty years. He never dreamed that he would face a great change in his military career and his whole life.

In the turbulent years, even a person who is as stable as a rock, once involved in the great vortex of history, can only spin and drift with it, losing his foundation.Just when Robert E. Lee returned to the Union Army, the only violent turmoil in the history of the United States began.The North and South are divided, and a civil war is imminent. General Lee was a southerner, but based on his own moral philosophy, he had always opposed slavery.Slavery was legal in his native Virginia.However, when General Grant, the later commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, the president of the United States after the war, and now printed on the fifty-dollar bill, had not freed his own slaves, General Lee had already freed all the slaves of his family.General Lee also never agreed with the idea of ​​secession in the South. He loved the United States established by his father and uncles.However, he also disapproved of the North's use of force to resolve the South's demands for secession, based on a moral standpoint.

But the middle power in Virginia, which had been mediating peace, was unsuccessful. President Lincoln decided to draft the army, and war was inevitable.The last few southern states also left angrily because they opposed Lincoln's decision to attack the South.It was April 17, 1861, and news reached Arlington that Virginia had joined the secessionist faction of the South.Robert Lee felt a pain of being torn apart.This is the cruel reality before General Lee: the army he has served for 30 years is going to attack the elders in his hometown.He is a general who is loyal to his army.However, he does not think that this war has moral basis and legitimacy. In this Arlington house, Robert Lee struggled for three days. Here, three days later, he made the biggest decision of his life.General Lee decided to surrender his commission to the Union Army.Two days later, on April 22, 1861, Robert E. Lee left Arlington to join the Confederate Army, which was being formed.He knew very well in his heart that he had abandoned the status and honor of the senior general of the federal army established over the past 30 years. He knew that the South was almost starting from scratch in terms of armaments, and he knew that his future was dangerous.Perhaps, because of this, no matter whether it is the South or the North, no one doubts that General Li's choice is based on the moral responsibility in his heart. When he walked out of the house and rode down the mountain, it was the time when the mountains were full of spring flowers.It was the last time he saw the stunning sights of Arlington.Later, he once wrote to his nephew that Arlington was "the place in the world that I love most and that I am most attached to." Robert Lee never had a chance to return to Arlington after that.A month after he left, it was raining on Mount Arlington, and news came from time to time that the federal army intended to occupy the house.Mrs. Li and her family also hurriedly evacuated. What happened to Arlington after that can be seen in the exhibition hall of the National Cemetery today.There is a huge photo, glowing with the colors of history.Pictured is the 1861 Arlington House.On the steps in front of the house, there were scattered federal soldiers.They took pictures with their guns, and their expressions clearly stated that they wanted to leave a commemoration of the federal army's occupation of the rebel leader's private house. Therefore, the next Arlington house is the headquarters of the federal army.While some items from the home were safely moved to storage, others, including even the relics of the family's patriarch, President George Washington, were scattered and lost in the chaos. The biggest impact of war on a country is the destruction of the original system and contract.War is an extraordinary state.Under the pretext of the extraordinary situation, some "laws" that would not be released under normal conditions will come out under the banner of "law in time of war".One of the most basic mutual contracts in the United States is the absolute protection of private property.However, during the war, a large number of "Arlington phenomena" appeared.This is obviously contrary to the minimum law since the founding of the United States.In front of the people with a deeply rooted legal culture, the federal government has to give an explanation.Thus, a "law in time of war" came into being. This "wartime law" stipulates that all original legal owners of private land occupied by the federal army must come to pay property taxes in person, otherwise, they will be treated as usual illegal tax resistance.In other words, sending money, sending checks, and bank transfers are all not counted, and people must come.At that time Arlington can be said to be a typical example of this type of situation.In addition to the difficulty of getting to pay taxes on time during the war, the owners of Arlington also had a safety issue.As high-ranking military generals and family members of the enemy during the war, they had no idea whether they would be arrested for rebellion if they went to the federal area.Therefore, the owner of Arlington did not go to pay taxes in accordance with the "law in time of war", and Arlington was confiscated. This result can be said to be the purpose of establishing this "Jesus in War".However, the confiscated Arlington is not yet the federal government's natural possession.According to the relevant laws of the United States, such confiscated property must enter the auction market for public auction to determine its value and a new round of owners.Thus, Arlington was auctioned off during the war.As a result, the federal government at that time had tampered with it, so that in this auction, only the federal government "exclusively" came to bid.After going through these "legal procedures", Arlington finally "legally" fell into the hands of the federal government.Although in this process, we still see that the legal culture of the United States is playing a certain role. In other places, only a circular order is required to confiscate enemy property, so there is no need to go through all these troubles. Arlington has changed hands from the federal government, and the new owner can do what he wants with it.This is still a barracks—you can imagine what it would be like to be stationed in a wartime army.Arlington not only has a house, but also a large estate.However, trees are cut down in large numbers. In 1864, when Mrs. Lee finally found the opportunity to walk into Arlington for the first time after the war, the old home she saw was beyond recognition, and at least nearly 200 acres were opened up to become the cemetery of fallen soldiers. In 1865, the war ended with the defeat of the South and the victory of the Union Army.General Lee surrendered to General Grant on behalf of the Confederate Army.But until his death, he never received a pardon from the federal government, that is to say, he never took off his hat for life. After the war, with the efforts of all parties, the United States finally reached a consensus quickly despite the twists and turns, that is, it must quickly bring the country back to the contract state in an all-round way.As a result, the United States resumed the normal legal order before the war.However, how to deal with the fait accompli formed during the extraordinary period of the war? In 1882, Arlington's legal heir, Robert Lee's eldest son, went to court to sue the federal government for embezzling private property without due process.The court ruled against the federal government and ordered the federal government to surrender Arlington.Arlington must be returned to its original owner. The federal government executed a court order returning the Arlington property to the Lee family.Also, given that Arlington has become a de facto Confederate cemetery, there are already several hundred graves dotting the various hillsides.Therefore, the federal government negotiated with the Li family and proposed to buy Arlington for US$150,000, which was considered a huge sum of money at the time.The Li family accepted the deal, and the federal government officially became the legal owner of Arlington. In 1933, it was handed over to the National Park Department for management. became the Arlington National Cemetery we see today. Twenty years have passed since Arlington was encroached upon by the court.The federal president has also changed several times.A country that has come out of a tragic civil war, the government can have countless excuses to continue to occupy this land.For example, this is a fait accompli of war; for example, the behavior at that time was in line with the "jus in bello"; for example, it was a matter of Lincoln's time, and the dynasty has changed now; for example, this is enemy property, which can be treated as an exception ;For example, this was twenty years ago, and we should look forward; For example, Arlington has in fact become a federal military cemetery, and it is impossible to return to a private estate, etc., etc. However, if the law can be trampled once without being corrected, there is no guarantee that it will not be trampled a second time or a third time.If you approve the first illegal deprivation, there is no guarantee that the second illegal deprivation will not occur in the future.If the law loses its credibility, the country may fall into chaos at any time, and the citizens' homes will not be guaranteed at least. Because of this, at the commanding heights of today's Arlington National Park, the Department of National Parks has preserved the Arlington House and set up a memorial inside.The memorial hall restores the original life of General Lee's family in the Arlington house as much as possible.The voluntary guides told people from all over the country tirelessly telling such a real story of Arlington's changes.