Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[84] and idolatry and imparted to them a general knowledge of the precepts of religion. Indeed, he is recorded as saying at that time that if he owned all the negroes of the South he would gladly yield them up for the preservation of the Union. In 1861 Lee hoped and prayed that the Temple of American Liberty might still stand in the majesty of its vast proportions, complete in all of its parts, each pillar representing with equal strength an American State. He sincerely hoped each State would pursue the path designated for it by the Constitution, as the planets revolve in well-defined orbits around the great central sun. He wrote from Texas in 1861 that he could not anticipate a greater calamity for the country than the dissolution of the Union, and that he was willing to sacrifice anything but honor for its preservation. And in another letter from Fort Mason, Texas, January, 1861, to Mrs. Lee, he says: “You see by a former letter that I received from Major Nicholl, Everett's Life of Washington you sent me, and enjoyed its perusal very much. How his spirit would be grieved could he see the wreck of his mighty labors! I will not, however, permit myself to believe, till all ground for hope is gone, that the work of his noble deeds will be destroyed, and that his precious advice and virtuous example will soon be forgotten by his countrymen. As far as I can judge from the papers, we are between a state of anarchy and civil war. May God avert from us both. I fear mankind for years will not be sufficiently Christianized to bear the absence of restraint and force. I see that four States have declared themselves out of the Union. Four more apparently will follow their example. Then if the border States are dragged into the gulf of revolution, one half of the country will be arrayed against the other, and I must try and be patient and wait the end, for I can do nothing to hasten or retard it.”

It was hard for Lee to give up his position in the army and separate himself from his army comrades and associations. He wrote in 1849, from Mobile, Ala.: “I have met many officers of the garrison who were with me in Mexico. You have often heard me say the cordiality and friendship in the army was the great attraction of the service. It is that, I believe, that has ”