"We are not contending," wrote Washington in 1774, "against paying the
duty of three pence per pound on tea as burdensome, no, it is the right
only that we have all along disputed."[422]
"It is the principle," wrote Lee in 1861, "I contend for, not individual
or private benefit."[423]
Such were some of the predominant characteristics of the people whom
President Lincoln's proclamation called to war. In the conflict thus
joined between the Federal Government and the Southern Confederacy, the
people of Virginia took a stand, predetermined by the beliefs and
avowals of successive generations, and impelled by an unswerving
idealism found their supreme incentive to action in their determination
to maintain the integrity of principle.
-----
Footnote 417:
_Memoirs of Robert E. Lee_, Long, p. 88.
Footnote 418:
See letter from Mrs. R. E. Lee to General Winfield Scott, in _Life of
Robert E. Lee_, Fitzhugh Lee, p. 93.
Footnote 419:
_Journal of Virginia Convention_, 1861, pp. 9 and 187.
Footnote 420:
_Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury_, Corbin, p. 96.
Footnote 421:
_School History of the United States_, Jones, p. 239.
Footnote 422:
_History of the United States_, Bancroft, Vol. 4, p. 29.
Footnote 423:
_Memoirs of Robert E. Lee_, Long, p. 88.
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