Lee Lee's prophetic quote worth repeating

[MajGenl.Meade]

I am willing to sacrifice every thing but honour for its preservation...
There is a school of thought that Lee did exactly that. I do not know that he had ever sworn allegiance to Virginia but he certainly took an oath to the United States. That he was free to resign his commission is not in doubt but resigning does not exonerate one from the oath itself, IMO

Secession is nothing but revolution
Yes, he's got that right and a revolution is.... an armed uprising against the legal government (whether one likes it or not, thinks it's good or evil, it is the legitimate NATIONAL government against which rebellion is raised).

Still a union that can only be maintained by swords & bayonets, & in which strife & civil war are to take the place of brotherly love & kindness, has no charm for me
But a disunion that can only be effected by swords and bayonets, etc. is just fine and dandy? And who fired first? Surely the course of honour would have been to disavow those secessionists and their revolution, no matte who they may be. Virginia took the active step of revolution which could "only be maintained by swords and bayonets". Rather quaint of Lee to forget rifles and cannon!

...save in her defence will draw my sword on none
Not one of Lee's better predictions, that! Two "invasions" of the north and eventual participation and overall responsibility for activity outside Virginia indicate either he changed his mind or didn't mean it in the first place.

To me, those are the words that indicate one of the south's weakest points - states' rights. The Confederacy was not a country but a collection of petty fiefdoms sometimes united in the face of a powerful enemy but rarely in agreement with each other or with their chosen chief executive. He (Davis) in turn with his "not one inch of ground" (which he was still chanting as he was hunted on the flight from Richmond) had no vision whatever that could overcome the feverish centrifugal nationalism of the southern states. People like Lee had not the vision to truly be part of one nation, indivisible - not until Meade gave him a good whoopin'.... then he got it. (Ducks and covers)

 

[Kenneth Almquist]

Still a union that can only be maintained by swords & bayonets, & in which strife & civil war are to take the place of brotherly love & kindness, has no charm for me
But a disunion that can only be effected by swords and bayonets, etc. is just fine and dandy? And who fired first? Surely the course of honour would have been to disavow those secessionists and their revolution, no matte who they may be. Virginia took the active step of revolution which could "only be maintained by swords and bayonets". Rather quaint of Lee to forget rifles and cannon!

Yes. When I read that sentence from Lee I was reminded of the Horace Greeley quote:

We hope never to live in a republic, whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets.​

Greeley thought that if some states asked to leave the Union, and sustained that request over time (a transitory desire to leave the Union didn't count), them the United States had a moral obligation to grant that request. It's quite a leap to go from that position to one of supporting armed rebellion.