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Chapter 16: return to Richmond.-President of Washington College.--death and Burial.
Personally it was a great relief to
General Lee to be transferred to domestic life and the company of his wife and children.
For forty years, including his cadetship, he had been a soldier whose movements and duties were directed by others; now he was independent of all war departments and military orders.
He was a private citizen for the first time during his manhood, and would not be disturbed as long as he observed his parole and the laws in force wherever he might reside.
He had denounced the assassination of
Mr. Lincoln as a crime previously unknown to the country, and one that must be deprecated by every American; and when
President Johnson proclaimed his policy of May 29th, in the restoration of peace, he applied on June 13th to be embraced within its provisions, and tendered his allegiance to the only government in existence, under whose flag he must resume the duties of citizenship.
He cited to his friends the example of
Washington, who fought against the
French in the service of the
King of
Great Britain, and then with the
French against the
English, under the orders of the Continental Congress. “If you intend to reside in this country,” he wrote a friend in New Orleans, “and wish to do your part in the restoration of your State and in the
Government of the country, which I think is the duty of every citizen to do, I know of no objection to your taking the amnesty oath.”
In the same month he was indicted by the
United States grand jury, with
Mr. Davis and others, for treason.
With a clear conscience, he made up his mind, he said, “to let ”
