Washington (CNN) White House chief of staff John Kelly spoke to the "good" and "not so good" parts of US history on Monday, speaking highly of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and attributing the origin of the American Civil War to a "lack of an ability to compromise."

Kelly described history as "evolving," and said it is "dangerous" to not be cognizant of it, when asked about the removal of historical but controversial statues commemorating Confederate figures during an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."

"There will be, 100 or 200 years from now, people that criticize us for what we do, and I guess they'll tear down, you know, statues of people that we revere today," Kelly told Laura Ingraham. "It's dangerous, I think. ... It's just very, very dangerous and it shows you what, how much of a lack of appreciation of history and what history is."

The White House chief of staff called Lee "an honorable man" who chose duty to his state over loyalty to a federal government.

"It was always loyalty to state first back in those days," Kelly said. "Now, it's different today."

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