While Grant was thus striving to reënter the army, Lee was having a
struggle of a very different sort. Summoned from his distant post in
Texas, where only an occasional rumble of the coming tempest reached
his ears, he suddenly found himself in the center of the storm which
threatened to wreck the Republic. In the far South seven states had
already seceded; in Washington, Congressmen, Senators, and members
of the Cabinet were abandoning their posts; in the army and navy his
friends were daily tendering their resignations; and his own state,
divided between love for the Union and sympathy with its neighbors, was
hovering on the brink of secession.
The issue in Lee's mind was not the existence of slavery. He had long
been in favor of emancipation, and Virginia had more than once come
so close to abolishing slavery by law that its disappearance from her
borders was practically assured within a very short period. All his own
slaves he had long since freed and he was gradually emancipating his
father-in-law's, according to the directions of Mr. Custis's will. But
the right of each state to govern itself without interference from the
Federal Government seemed to Lee essential to the freedom of the people.
He recognized, however, that secession was revolution and, calmly and
conscientiously examining the question, he concluded that, if force were
used to compel any state to remain in the Union, resistance would
be justifiable. Most Virginians reached this decision impulsively,
light-heartedly, defiantly or vindictively, and more or less angrily,
according to their temperaments and the spirit of the times, but not so
Lee. He unaffectedly prayed God for guidance in the struggle between his
patriotism and his devotion to a principle which he deemed essential to
liberty and justice. He loved his country as only a man in close touch
with its history and with a deep reverence for its great founder,
Washington, could love it; he had fought for its flag; he wore its
uniform; he had been educated at its expense; and General Scott, the
Commander of the army, a devoted Union man, was his warm personal
friend. Patriotism, personal pride, loyalty and even gratitude,
therefore, urged him toward the support of the Union, and only his
adherence to a principle and the claims of his kinsmen and friends
forbade.
For a time Virginia resisted every effort to induce her to cast her lot
with the Confederacy. Indeed she actually voted against secession when
the question was first presented. But when Fort Sumter resisted attack
on April 12, 1861, and the President called upon the various states
to furnish troops to enforce the national authority, practically all
affection for the Union disappeared and by a decisive vote Virginia
determined to uphold the Southern cause.
At that crisis President Lincoln made a strong effort to induce Lee to
support the Union, for he actually offered him the command of the United
States Army which was about to take the field. The full force of this
remarkable tribute to his professional skill was not lost upon Lee.
He had devoted his whole life to the army, and to be a successor of
Washington in the command of that army meant more to him than perhaps
to any other soldier in the land. Certainly, if he had consulted his own
ambition or been influenced by any but the most unselfish motives, he
would have accepted the call as the highest honor in the gift of the
nation. But to do so he would have been obliged to surrender his private
principles and desert his native state, and it is impossible to imagine
that a man of his character would, even for an instant, consider such
a course. Gravely and sadly he declined the mighty office, and two days
later he tendered his resignation from the service he had honored for
almost six and thirty years.
For this and his subsequent action Lee has been called a traitor and
severely criticized for well-nigh fifty years. But, when a nation has
been divided against itself upon a great issue of government, millions
upon one side and millions upon the other, and half a century has
intervened, it is high time that justice be given to the man who did
what he thought right and honorably fought for a principle which he
could have surrendered only at the expense of his conscience and his
honor. Lee was a traitor to the United States in the same sense that
Washington was a traitor to England. No more and no less. England takes
pride to-day in having given Washington to the world. Americans deprive
their country of one of her claims to greatness when they fail to honor
the character and the genius of Robert Lee.
It was in a letter to his old commander, Scott, that Lee announced his
momentous decision, and its tone well indicated what the parting cost
him.
"Arlington, Va., April 20, 1861.
"General:
"Since my interview with you on the 18th inst., I have felt that I ought
not longer to retain my commission in the army. I, therefore, tender my
resignation, which I request you will recommend for acceptance. It
would have been presented at once but for the struggle it has cost me to
separate myself from a service to which I have devoted the best years
of my life and all the ability I possessed. During the whole of that
time...I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors and
a most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, General, have
I been as much indebted as to yourself for uniform kindness and
consideration.... Save in the defense of my native State, I never desire
again to draw my sword."
Lee was fully aware of the serious nature of the conflict in which
the country was about to engage. Americans were to be pitted against
Americans and he knew what that meant. Wise men, both North and South,
were prophesying that the war would not last more than ninety days,
and foolish ones were bragging of their own powers and questioning the
courage of their opponents, quite oblivious of the adage that when Greek
meets Greek there comes a tug of war. But Lee did not concern himself
with such childish exhibitions of judgment and temper.
"Do not put your faith in rumors of adjustment," he wrote his wife
before serious fighting had begun. "I see no prospect of it. It cannot
be while passions on both sides are so infuriated. MAKE YOUR PLANS FOR
SEVERAL YEARS OF WAR. I agree with you that the inflammatory articles
in the papers do us much harm. I object particularly to those in the
Southern papers, as I wish them to take a firm, dignified course,
free from bravado and boasting. The times are indeed calamitous. The
brightness of God's countenance seems turned from us. It may not always
be so dark and He may in time pardon our sins and take us under his
protection."
Up to this time his son Custis, who had graduated first in his class
at West Point, was still in the service of the United States as a
lieutenant in the Engineers and of him Lee wrote to his wife in the same
comradely spirit that he had always shown toward his boys. "Tell Custis
he must consult his own judgment, reason and conscience, as to the
course he may take. The present is a momentous question which every man
must settle for himself, and upon principle. I do not wish him to be
guided by my wishes or example. If I have done wrong let him do better."
Virginia was not slow in recognizing that she had within her borders the
soldiers whom the chief general of the United States described as
the greatest military genius in America, and within three days of his
resignation from the old army, Lee was tendered the command of all the
Virginia troops. Convinced that the brunt of the heavy fighting would
fall on his native state, to whose defense he had dedicated his sword,
he accepted the offer and thus there came to the aid of the Confederacy
one of the few really great commanders that the world has ever seen.