RESIGNATION OF COLONEL LEE.

421

seduced from his allegiance to his flag by the dazzling offers of the Virginia conspirators. So early as the 14th of April, he was informed by the Presi dent of the Virginia Convention that that body would, on the nomination of Governor Letcher, appoint him commander of all the military and naval forces of the Commonwealth.' When, on the 17th, the usurpers, through violence and fraud, passed an ordinance of secession, he said, in the common phrase of the men of easy political virtue, "I must go with my State;" and, on the 20th, in a letter addressed to General Scott, from his beautiful seat of "Arlington House," on Arlington Hights, opposite Washington a

a

1861.

Georgetown, he proffered the resignation of his commission in terms of wellfeigned reluctance. He then hastened to Richmond, and offered his services to the enemies of his country. He was received by the April 22, Convention with profound respect, for he was the representative of one of the most distinguished families of the State, and brought to the conspirators an intimate knowledge of General Scott's plans, and the details of the forces of the National Government, with which he had been fully intrusted. Alexander H. Stephens, Lieutenant Maury of the National

1 Richmond Correspondence of the Charleston Mercury.

2 This view of Arlington House, the seat of the late George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of Washington, and father-in-law of Colonel Lee, was drawn by the author in 1860.

The following is a copy of Colonel Lee's letter to General Scott:

"ARLINGTON HOUSE, 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 all the best years of my life and all the ability I possessed.

"During the whole of that time-more than a quarter of a century-I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors and the most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, General, have I been so much indebted as to yourself for uniform kindness and consideration, and it has always been my ardent desire to merit your approbation. I shall carry to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration, and your name and fame will always be dear to me.

"Save in defense of my native State, I never desire again to draw my sword. Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance of your happiness and prosperity, and believe me, most truly yours, "R. E. LEE.

"Lieutenant-General WINFIELD SCOTT, Commanding United States Army."

At that time, according to the correspondent of the Charleston Mercury, Lee knew that he was to be the General-in chief of the Virginia forces, and had necessarily resolved to draw his sword not only in defense of his native State, but against the National Government, whenever the conspirators should order him to do so.

422

LEE'S INDUCEMENTS TO BE LOYAL.

Observatory,' Governor Letcher, and others who were present, joined in the reception of Lee, standing. He was then greeted by the President, who made a brief speech, in which he announced to the Colonel that the Convention had, on that day, on the nomination of Governor Letcher, appointed him General-in-chief of the Commonwealth; to which the recipient replied in a few words, accepting the so-called honor. In time, Lee became the General-in-chief of all the armies in rebellion against his Government, at whose expense he had been educated, and whose bread he had eaten for more than thirty years.3

No man had stronger inducements to be a loyal citizen than Robert E. Lee. His ties of consanguinity and association with the founders of the Republic, and the common gratitude of a child toward a generous and loving foster-parent, should have made him hate treason in its most seductive forms, instead of embracing it in its most hideous aspect. He was a grandson of the "Lowland Beauty," spoken of by the biographer as the object of Washington's first love. He was a son of glorious "Legion Harry Lee," who used his sword gallantly in the old war for independence and the rights of man, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and especially in the Southern States, and who was the leader of an army to crush an insurrection. He was intimately associated with the Washington family, having married the daughter of an adopted son of the Father of his Country (George Washington Parke Custis); and his residence, “Arlington House," was filled with furniture, and plate, and china, and pictures, from Mount Vernon, the consecrated home of the patriot. It was one of the most desirable residences in the country. Around it spread out two hundred acres of lawn, and forest, and garden; and before it flowed the Potomac, beyond which, like a panorama, lay the cities of Washington and Georgetown.

A charming family made this home an earthly paradise. The writer had been a frequent guest there while the founder of Arlington House (Mr. Custis) was yet alive. He was there just before the serpent of secession beguiled the later master. It was his ideal of a home that should make the possessor grateful for the blessings, political and social, that flow from our beneficent Government, under which all rights are fully secured to every citiWar came and wrought great changes in the relations of men and things. The writer visited Arlington House again with two traveling companions (F. J. Dreer and Edwin Greble, of Philadelphia), not as a guest, but as an observer of events that sadden his heart while he makes the record. It was just before sunset on a beautiful day in early May, 1865, when the possessor of Arlington had been engaged for four years in endeavors to

zen.

1 See note 3, page 394.

5

2 Richmond Enquirer, April 24, 1861.

3 He was graduated at West Point Military Academy in June, 1825.

4 The Whisky Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania.

5 The Arlington estate was not the actual property of Colonel Lee. The late Mr. Custis, by his Will, left it to his daughter, Mrs. Lee, during her life, when it was to become the property of her eldest son, who also became a general in the army in rebellion against his Government. The property, therefore, was not liable to confiscation. It came into the possession of the Government when it was sold to liquidate a claim for unpaid taxes. The grounds near the mansion were dedicated by the Government as the resting-place of the remains of soldiers, a few of whom belonged to the Confederate Army. Among them were the remains of a large number of colored soldiers. The whole number of graves at that time was a little more than seven thousand.

On another part of the estate was a freedman's village, containing about one hundred neat dwellings, a church, and a school-house. There were residing the families of freedmen who were mostly employed on the Government

ARLINGTON HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.

423 destroy his Government, and to build upon its ruins a hideous empire founded upon human slavery. How altered the aspect! The mighty oaks of the fine old forest in the rear of the mansion had disappeared, and strewn thickly over the gently undulating ground, and shaded by a few of the smaller trees that the ax had spared, were the green graves of seven thousand of our countrymen-many of them of the flower of the youth of the Republic-who had died on the battle-field, in the camp, or in the hospital. It was a vast cemetery, belonging to the National Government, having long graveled lanes among the graves. Even in the garden, and along the crown of the green slope in front of the mansion, were seen little hillocks, covering the remains of officers. In the midst of this garner of the ghastly fruits of the treason of Lee and his associates-fruits that had been literally laid at his door-were the beautiful white marble monuments erected to the memory of the venerable Custis and his life-companion-the founders of "Arlington House" and the parents of Lee's wife. On that of the former we read the sweet words of Jesus, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Then we thought of Belle Island, in the James River, which we had just visited, and of the hundreds of our starved countrymen held there as prisoners in the blistering summer's sun and the freezing winter's storm, into whose piteous faces, where every lineament was a tale of unutterable suffering vainly pleading in mute eloquence for mercy, Robert E. Lee might have looked any hour of the day with his field-glass from the rear gallery of his elegant brick mansion on Franklin Street, in Richmond. It seemed almost as if there was a voice in the air, saying, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay.'

991

While army and navy officers were abandoning their flag, it was painfully evident to the President and his Cabinet that Washington City was full of resident traitors, who were ready to assist in its seizure. Many of the District militia, who had been enrolled for the defense of the Government, were known to be disloyal; and when, on the 18th of April, word came to some guests-true men-at Willard's Hotel, that a large body of Virginians were to seize Harper's Ferry and its munitions of war, and the rolling stock of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, that evening, and, during the night, make a descent upon the Capital, while secessionists in Washington were to rise in rebellion, set fire to barns and other combustible buildings, and, in the confusion and terror that conflagration would produce, join the invaders, and make the seizure of the President and his Cabinet, the archives of the Government, and public buildings an easy task, it seemed as if the prophecy of Walker, at Montgomery, was about to be fulfilled.

3

It was one of those

farms in the neighborhood. A greater portion of the one thousand acres of the Arlington estate was then under excellent cultivation as such farms. The village originated in an order from the Secretary of War, directing the then commandant at Arlington to supply the aged negroes on the estate with subsistence. Mr. Custis, in his Will, directed that his slaves should all be set free five years after his decease, which occurred in October, 1857. It is said that when Colonel Lee abandoned his home and his flag to make war on his Government, he took with him all the slaves excepting the aged and infirm. The writer saw some of the latter whom he had known when Mr. Custis was master of Arlington House. Among these was Ephraim, the butler: Daniel, the coachman; and “Aunt Eleanor," who was the nurse of Mrs. Lee in her infancy. These were all over seventy years of age, and were well cared for by their true friends, the officers of the Government.

1 St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, xii. 19.

The regular Army oath was administered to these troops by Adjutant-General Thomas, when many refused to take it, and were dismissed. Some of these, then ready to betray the Government into the hands of its enemies, afterward joined the ranks of the insurgents.

3 See page 839.

424

PREPARATIONS TO DEFEND THE CAPITAL.

moments upon which have hung the fate of empires. Happily, the men at Willard's at that time, to whom the startling message came, comprehended the magnitude of the danger and had nerve to meet it. They assembled in secret all the loyal guests in that house, and, forming them into committees, sent them to the other hotels to seek out guests there who were known to be true, and invite them to a meeting in a church on F Street, in the rear of Willard's,' that evening. A large number assembled at the appointed hour. They took a solemn oath of fidelity to the old flag, and signed a pledge to do every thing in their power in defense of the Capital, and to be ready for action at a moment's warning, when called by General Scott. Cassius M. Clay, the distinguished Kentuckian, was among them. He was appointed their leader, and thus was formed the notable CASSIUS M. CLAY BATTALION, composed of some of the noblest and most distinguished men in the country, in honor, wealth, and social position. They chose efficient officers; and all that night they patroled the streets of the city to guard against incendiaries, and prevent the assembling of the secessionists. Another party, commanded by General Lane, of Kansas, went quietly to the "White House "-the Presidential mansion-to act as a body-guard to his Excellency. They made the great East Room their quarters, where they remained until the danger was passed. The principal passages of the Treasury building were guarded by howitzers. The Pennsylvanians, as we have observed, occupied the Halls of Congress, in the Capitol; and General Scott took measures to make that building a well garrisoned citadel. Thither stores and munitions of war were carried, and in it howitzers were planted; and behind the massive walls of that magnificent structure, with a few hundred men as defenders, the President and his Cabinet and the archives of the nation would have been safe until the thousands of the men of the loyal North, then aroused and moving, could reach and rescue them.

CASSIUS M. CLAY.

Although the President and his Cabinet were not actually compelled to take refuge in the well-guarded Capitol, yet for several days after the affair in Baltimore, and the interruption of communication with the Free-labor States, they and the General-in-chief were virtually prisoners at the seat of Government. Soldiers from the Gulf States and others below the Roanoke, with those of Virginia, were pressing eagerly toward the Capital, while the Minute-men of Maryland and the secessionists of Washington were barely restrained from action by the Pennsylvanians and the Cassius M. Clay Battalion, until the speedy arrival of other troops from the North gave absolute present security to the Government.

1 This church had lately been attached to Willard's Hotel for the purpose of a concert-room, and was the hall in which the Peace Convention assembled a few weeks before. See page 236.

THE CAPITAL IN DANGER.

425

a April 19, 1861.

The massacre in the streets of Baltimore," and the dangers that threatened the isolated Capital, produced the most intense anxiety and excitement throughout the Free-labor States, while the conspirators and insurgents were jubilant, because they regarded the stand taken by the secessionists of that city as a sure promise of the active

and effective co-operation of all Marylanders in the work of seizing the Capital. That massacre seemed to the loyal people as an imperative call to patriotic duty, and like one of the repetitions of history. It was on the 19th of April, 1775, that the blood of the citizen soldiery of Massachusetts, the

1 This is the great room in the Presidential mansion in which the attendants upon the public receptions of the President are assembled. It is so called, because it is in the extreme eastern portion of the White House. It is an elegantly finished and furnished room.

2 The glorious conduct of Maryland," said the Richmond Enquirer, "decides the contest at hand. With a generous bravery, worthy of her ancient renown, she has thrown herself into the pathway of the enemy, and made of her body a shield for the South. She stands forth in our day the leader of the Southern cause. . . . The heart of all Maryland responds to the action of Baltimore, and that nursery of fine regiments, instead of being the camping-ground of the enemy, preparing to rush upon the South, will speedily become the camping-ground of the South, preparing to cross the line of Mason and Dixon. . . . To have gained Maryland is to have gained a host. It insures Washington City, and the ignominious expulsion of Lincoln from the White House. It transfers the line of battle from the Potomac to the Pennsylvania border. It proclaims to the North that the South is a unit against them, henceforth and forever. It gives us the entire waters of the Chesapeake. It runs up the Southern seaboard to the mouth of the Delaware. It rounds out the fairest domain on the globe for the Southern Confederation."

In a speech at Atlanta, in Georgia, on the 30th of April, when on his return to Montgomery from his mission to Richmond, Alexander H. Stephens said:-" As I told you when I addressed you a few days ago, Lincoln may bring his seventy-five thousand soldiers against us; but seven times seventy-five thousand men can never conquer us. We have now Maryland and Virginia and all the Border States with us. We have ten millions of people with us, heart and hand, to defend us to the death. We can call out a million of people if need be; and when they are cut down, we can call out another, and still another, until the last man of the South finds a bloody grave, rather than submit to their foul dictation. But a triumphant victory and independence, with an unparalleled career of glory, prosperity, and progress await us in the future. God is on our side, and who shall be against us? None but His Omnipotent hand can defeat us in this struggle." And so this conspirator went from place to place, deceiving the people with false hopes, arousing their baser passions, and precipitating them into the gulf of a horrid rebellion, to endure woes unutterable.