is temporary? If I do not misinterpret the signs of the times, the day is near at hand when, by the mandate of a magnanimous people, the shackles will be stricken from the limbs of Virginia and her Southern Sisters, and there shall be given unto them "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." When that glorious day shall have arrived, I shall be happy to meet you and your fellow-patriots around the festive board, and on behalf of Virginia to offer a willing and hearty tribute of gratitude to the noble Conservative Democrats who set her free.

Respectfully, your ob't Serv't,

Alexander H. H. Stuart.

CHAPTER XXXI

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE AND MR. STUART AT THE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS IN 1868-LETTER TO

GENERAL ROSECRANS

IN NOVEMBER, 1868, the election took place for President and Vice-President of the United States. General U. S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax were nominated by the Republican party on May 19th, and on July 4th Governor Horatio Seymour and General Francis P. Blair were chosen as the nominees of the Democratic party. Great interest was felt in the result of the election, and the Democrats were hopeful of electing their candidates, as Governor Seymour was an exceedingly able man and possessed great popularity, especially in the State of New York. General W. S. Rosecrans was one of the active managers of his campaign, and the loyalty of the South to the Federal Government and its attitude toward the negroes were issues in the election.

General Robert E. Lee was spending the month of August at the White Sulphur Springs, and Mr. Stuart and General John Echols, who was then living in Lexington, Virginia, were also visitors there. General Lee while there received a letter from General Rosecrans requesting him to write a letter for publication stating the attitude of the Southern people toward the Federal Government and the enfranchisement of the negroes. It is a well-known fact that General Lee had persistently refused, after the war, to take any active part in politics. He had been a soldier all his life, and as he expressed it, not "a public man." He had no desire, or purpose to engage in political controversies, yet he was willing to aid in putting the truth about these subjects, before the people of the North and the West, and

to assure them that the South had accepted the changes wrought by the war and intended in good faith to abide by the result.

General Echols sought out Mr. Stuart and told him General Lee had asked him to turn over to him the letter of General Rosecrans with the request that he would prepare such an answer, as in his judgment was proper, as he (General Lee) was not a public man and had confidence in Mr. Stuart's judgment and experience in public affairs. Mr. Stuart at once prepared the following letter:

"Whatever opinions may have prevailed in the past with regard to African slavery or the right of a State to secede from the Union, we believe we express the almost unanimous judgment of the Southern people when we declare that they consider these questions were decided by the war, and that it is their intention in good faith to abide by that decision. At the close of the war, the Southern people laid down their arms and sought to resume their former relations to the government of the United States. Through their State Conventions, they abolished slavery and annulled their ordinances of secession; and they returned to their peaceful pursuits with a sincere purpose to fulfil all their duties. under the Constitution of the United States which they had sworn to support. If their action in these particulars had been met in a spirit of frankness and cordiality, we believe that, ere this, old irritations would have passed away, and the wounds inflicted by the war would have been, in a great measure, healed. As far as we are advised, the people of the South entertain no unfriendly feeling towards the government of the United States, but they complain that their rights under the Constitution are withheld from them in the administration thereof. The idea that the Southern people are hostile to the negroes and would oppress them, if it were in their power to do so, is entirely unfounded. They have grown up in our midst, and we have been accustomed from childhood to look upon them with kindness. The change in the relations of the two races has wrought no

change in our feelings towards them. They still constitute an important part of our laboring population. Without their labor, the lands of the South would be comparatively unproductive; without the employment which Southern agriculture affords, they would be destitute of the means of subsistence and become paupers, dependent upon public bounty. Self-interest, if there were no higher motive, would therefore prompt the whites of the South to extend to the negro care and protection.

"The important fact that the two races are, under existing circumstances, necessary to each other is gradually becoming apparent to both, and we believe that but for influences exerted to stir up the passions of the negroes, the relations of the two races would soon adjust themselves on a basis of mutual kindness and advantage.

"It is true that the people of the South, in common with a large majority of the people of the North and West, are, for obvious reasons, inflexibly opposed to any system of laws which would place the political power of the country in the hands of the negro race. But this opposition springs from no feeling of enmity, but from a deep-seated conviction that, at present, the negroes have neither the intelligence nor the other qualifications which are necessary to make them safe depositories of political power. They would inevitably become the victims of demagogues, who, for selfish purposes, would mislead them to the serious injury of the public.

"The great want of the South is peace. The people earnestly desire tranquillity and restoration of the Union. They deprecate disorder and excitement as the most serious obstacles to their prosperity. They ask a restoration of their rights under the Constitution. They desire relief from oppressive misrule. Above all, they would appeal to their countrymen for the re-establishment, in the Southern States of that which has been justly regarded as the birth-right of every American, the right of self-government. Establish these on a firm basis, and we can safely promise, on behalf of the Southern people, that they will faithfully obey the Constitution and laws of the United States, treat the negro

population with kindness and humanity, and fulfil every duty incumbent on peaceful citizens, loyal to the Constitution of their country."

Mr. Stuart took the letter to General Lee, and, after expressing his high appreciation of the honor he had done him by requesting him to prepare it, told General Lee he had written such a reply to General Rosecrans' letter as he thought appropriate, but that he hoped he would make such changes in it as he deemed proper, or discard it altogether if it did not meet with his approval. Mr. Stuart had, in the original draft, used the words "malign influence." General Lee read the paper carefully and then said: "Mr. Stuart, there is one word I would like to strike out, if you have no objection. You have used the word 'malign.' I think that is rather a harsh word," and smiling, he added: "I never did like adjectives."

The offending adjective was promptly stricken out and that was the only change made in the original draft.

General Lee and thirty-one other representative men from nine of the Southern States signed the letter and it was sent to General Rosecrans on August 26th, 1868. The letter was extensively published in the North and West, as well as in the South, and made a most favorable impression upon the public mind in favor of the Democratic candidate. Indeed, the effect was of such marked character that on September 6th, General Rosecrans wrote General Lee twice on the same day, enclosing a proposed program, which after conference with Mr. Samuel J. Tilden and Mr. John D. Van Buren, who was Governor Seymour's confidential friend, they thought it would be wise to pursue. He urged General Lee to have public meetings held in the Southern States to ratify, successively, "The White Sulphur Letter," at sufficient intervals to allow the public press to publish the proceedings of those meetings to the country.

As Mr. Stuart had prepared "The White Sulphur Letter" at General Lee's request, it was not unnatural that these