...The Virginians who fought under his command shared these lofty motives. "I can contemplate," he said, "no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union — and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. However, a union that...

...country, her prosperity, her institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country...complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honour for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be ex1 Fitzhugh...

...possible disruption as the greatest of catastrophes. In another letter home from Texas, he wrote : "I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country...preservation. * * * Secession is nothing but revolution." That is just what it was. Of course, revolution is the last right of liberty: when everything else...

...him a sufficient guarantee for Virginia. On 23 January 1861 Lee wrote to his son, ' I can contemplate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. . . . Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil...

...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...complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honour for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before...

...the Union, and was opposed to secession both in theory and in practice. In January, 1861, he wrote, 'I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country...preservation. . . . Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation,...

...presented, we know that he took much the view that I have indicated above. 'Secession is anarchy.' 'I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country...evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice anything but honor for its preservation.' Then it came to the point where either honor or the Union...

...pride in my country, her prosperity and institutions . . I can anticipate no greater calamity for ' country than a dissolution of the Union. It would...sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation." Whatever may have been his opinion after the war actually began, General Lee certainly before the outbreak...

...country, her prosperity and institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union." Reading further from Lee's letter, Daniel revealed a basic feeling southerners had about the war, and...

...country, her prosperity and institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country...sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a recourse to force....