...hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities,...

...letter to his son dated January 2jd, 1861 (see General Long's " Memoirs," page 88), General Lee says : " Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of...broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for ' perpetual union,' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government,...

...evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. . . . Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of...it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederation at will. It was intended for " perpetual union, "so expressed in the preamble,' — Lee...

...metaphysics — nourished no delusion as to an early and easy triumph. " Secession," as he wrote to his son, "is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution...broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is idle to talk of secession." But he also believed that his permanent allegiance was due to Virginia...

...Revolution," he declared in commenting on the action of the cotton states in withdrawing from the Union. "The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so...broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for perpetual Union, so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government,...

...far from his prewar belief that the authors of the Constitution would not have expended so much labor "if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will," and that the Constitution was intended for " 'perpetual union.' " Even Douglas Freeman admitted that...

...moral and political evil." Until the day Virginia left the Union he had also spoken against secession. "The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so...labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation," he wrote in January 1861, "if it was intended to be broken up by every member of the [Union] at will....

...moral and political evil." Until the day Virginia left the Union he had also spoken against secession. "The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so...labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation," he wrote in January 1861, "if it was intended to be broken up by every member of the [Union] at will....

...Texas, on January 23, 1861, General Lee had said: "The framers of our Constitution •would never have exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many safeguards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the confederacy at will....

...either. So it wasn't easy for him to join the Confederate cause. In a letter to his son, Lee wrote: Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities,...