Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/230

 222 Southern Historical Society Papers.

States. I think it will be apparent that so far as secession before the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was concerned, its immediate practical effect was to establish two governments instead of one, to execute substantially the same laws.

The secession of the cotton States was known, in the language of that day, as ''secession per se*^ and it found small favor in the border slave States, especially as we shall see in Virginia. Conceding that the States had the right to secede, it was generally regarded as a right which should only be exercised for a grave cause, and it was not easy for the people of those States to perceive a grave reason for secession which was followed by a re-enactment by the seceders of the whole body of the laws of the Union from which they had seceded.

LEE ON SECESSION.

It is of this secession that General Lee wrote from Fort Mason, Texas, on the 23d of January. 1861. He says :

North, as you say. I feel the aggression, and am willing to take every proper step for redress. It is the principle I contend for, not individual or private benefit. As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and her institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than the dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it were intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for perpetual union, so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government (not a compact) which can only be dissolved by revolu- tion, or by the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and all the other patriots of the Revolution. Still an Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charms for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved and the gov-
 * The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the