Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee was the commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia whose decision to fight for his state rather than the Union is a paradigm case of local loyalty overriding universal principle.

Lee's decision — declining Lincoln's offer to lead the Union Army because he could not raise his hand against Virginia — illustrates the communitarian argument that membership in a particular community can create obligations that override impartial moral principles, a point Sandel uses to challenge purely universalist ethics.