From Mrs. Lee, in the Winter of Secession

[trice]

Here is a letter from Robert E. Lee's wife to her friend Mrs. Stiles.

At the time this letter is written, several states have already seceded, the Confederacy is forming a government in Montgomery, Fts. Sumter and Pickens are both under siege, and Robert E. Lee is in Texas where US troops are about to be surrounded and threatened.

In the midst of all that, I like to take note of Mrs. lee's attitude towards the Union. I have added emphasis in the form of blue italics to more easily show what I am referring to. Where I felt the sentiment particularly important, i noted it this way: bold blue italics. Too bad the Americans who felt this way could not somehow have come to the front and halted this movement in its tracks.
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Letter from Mary Custis Lee to Mrs. William Henry Stiles

Arlington February 9th 1861

I only this evening my dear friend received your letter written on the 5th of January. Where could it have been all this time? Not intercepted I hope by the Secessionists. You directed it to Alex[andri]a whereas we have changed our Post Office now to Arlington near Washington DC. I am so much obliged to you for thinking of me in these troubled times, tho I have thought much of you & yours & a few days since had determined to write to you to know if you could approve of all these riotous proceedings. Has all love & pride in their Country died at the South? That they are willing to tear her in pieces & some even to exult to see her glorious flag trailing in the dust. It should rather have drawn tears from their eyes. We have lived & fought & prospered under this flag for so many years & tho the South has suffered much from the meddling of Northern fanatics, yet do they expect to fare better now; are there no rights & privileges but those of negro slavery? You by your situation are removed from any active interference, whereas we in the border states are so much annoyed that our slaves have become almost useless. In our own family we have lost numbers how have been decoyed off, & after my Father's death we were preserved from an outbreak excited by two abolitionists who were constantly over here (as we learned afterwards, one of whom I am happy to say is now in the penitentiary for 14 years) we were preserved I say by the special mercy of God. The Tribune & New York Times published the most villainous attacks upon my husband by name & upon my Father's memory in language I would not pollute my lips by repeating, & yet after all these wrongs-- would lay down my life could I save our "Union." What is the use of a government combined as ours is of so many parts. The Union of which forms its strength & power if any one part has the right for any wrong real or imaginary of withdrawing its aid &throwing the whole into confusion as Carolina who refuses all overtures for peace & imagines the world will admire her independence, whereas they laugh at her folly, which is perfectly suicidal-- you know my feelings are all linked with the South & you will bear with me in the expression of my opinion, but while there are many of the Northern politicians who deserve no better fate than to be hung as high as Haman, believe me that those who have been foremost in this Revolution will deserve & meet with the reprobation of the world either North or South, for having destroyed the most glorious Confederacy that ever existed. You have lived abroad, you have known many excellent people at the North & all your sympathies & feelings cannot be confined to your state to the exclusion of the country-- The Almighty may intend to punish us for our National pride. I pray now that He will preserve us from Civil War. We can never boast again as a Nation unless all could be restored-- Believe me my dear friend whatever may happen you & yours will be always dear to my heart & at least our love & association will be unbroken. I only wish the other Southern States had left Carolina alone & the government had let her alone & she would now have been tired of her sovereignty. She has been restless & anxious to show her independence for many years & it would have been well for her to try the experiment alone-- Mr. Lee is in Texas deeply grieved at the state of things. Custis is here with us in his absence & goes over daily to his office. He denies to be most kindly remembered to you & all his friends in Savannah. You have yet the advantage of me. I have only one grandson Rooney's boy called Robert Edward & I haven't seen him since he was 3 weeks old. Rooney is such a busy farmer he thinks he cannot leave home. Mildred is at boarding school in Winchester & Rob at the University. I do not know if I have written to you since they both became communicants a subject of great joy to me. Mary Annie & Agnes have been with me all the winter tho Mary is now making a little visit in Washington to her Aunt Mrs. S[idney] S[mith] Lee.
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Regards,
Tim

[OpnDownfall]

Very perceptive letter, more than many another contemporaneous viewer, she does make a distinction between SC and the rest of the south.
Mrs Lee, however, does accept that the south's secession was provoked by northern politicians, if not the north, itself.

[trice]

Originally Posted by OpnDownfall

Very perceptive letter, more than many another contemporaneous viewer, she does make a distinction between SC and the rest of the south.
Mrs Lee, however, does accept that the south's secession was provoked by northern politicians, if not the north, itself.

Most Southerners felt they had been provoked, to one degree or another. Most Northerners probably thought that was nonsense. But Mrs. Lee seems to have felt exactly what her husband felt, that the provocation did not justify the act of secession.

Regards,
Tim

[whitworth]

It is a rather interesting letter. I wonder if Robert E. Lee ever said anything to his wife, after her family's estate at Arlington, was lost.