storms which preceded it, is the struggle of federalism against centralization, the desperate resistance of states feeling themselves menaced in their right of self-government, and on the eve of being absorbed into a Unitarian power. The duel becoming envenomed, everything coming to hand was converted into a weapon. The question of slavery, which should have had, and would have had, a happy termination, with the aid of time and mutual concessions, offered to the fanatic partisans of abolition in America and elsewhere too tempting an opportunity for them to neglect making use of it.

To seek to establish a strong centralization in the United States was less excusable than in any other country whatever. There were no dangerous neighbours; nothing in local institutions shackled individual liberty; military, civil, and commercial liberty, in fact, existed everywhere. Only the thirst to exclude their adversaries from power, stained with the name of slave-traders, but whose true wrong was that of being sincere conservatives, little disposed to allow themselves to be invaded by the radical ideas. so much in favour in the North, set fire to the train.

Slavery was to disappear; but it is to be regretted that, by enveloping in the same ruin all that the South contained of conservative and respectable elements, that half of the Union was devoted to destruction, which was a counterpoise to the political fanaticism, financial corruption, and impassioned love of change so developed in the North. This country of the Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lees, Munroes, Madisons-this nursery of statesmen, where the social life allowed men to prepare themselves to guide their fellow-creatures-is to-day represented in congress by illiterate negroes—a crying anomaly which the North would not permit as regards itself, but which it has imposed on the conquered South!

In spite of all the faults with which it can be reproached, the work of bygone generations which obeyed the Washingtons, Adamses, and Hamiltons, has left grand and beautiful traces. It

knew how to ally a wise love of liberty with respect for the past. It remains to be seen whether the actual régime, where only mediocrities and characters often wanting in honour predominate, will leave to future generations a testimony which shall cause them to forget, in spite of the deficiences which have had such sad consequences, the Act of Independence, and the wise institutions which emanated from the founders of the American Union.

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF THE LEE FAMILY.-GENERAL LEE'S EARLY CAMPAIGNS.-HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE FEDERAL ARMY.

THE character of a man is always best explained and understood when one knows something of his origin. He often resumes and accumulates in his person the most remarkable qualities of his ancestors. In General Lee we shall discover more than one trait of the members of his family. The Lees of Virginia spring from an old English family, whose patrimonial estates were situated in Essex. In 1192, we find a Lionel Lee at the head of a company of gentlemen, accompanying Richard Cœur de Lion in the third crusade. He so distinguished himself at the Siege of Saint Jean d'Acre, that, on his return, King Richard created him Earl of Lichfield, and gave him the property of Ditchley, a name which subsequently was borne by one of the Lees' estates in Virginia. The armour which Lionel wore in the Holy Land can still be seen in the Tower of London.

In 1542, Richard Lee entered Scotland with the Earl of Surrey. Two members of the family were at that time Knights of the Garter, and their banners, with the Lees' arms above, are suspended in St. George's Chapel at Windsor.

Under Elizabeth, Sir Henry Lee was a Knight of the Garter. The title of Earl of Lichfield was still in the Lee family in 1674. Richard Lee, the seventh son of Sir Robert Lee, of Hullcott, and younger brother of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, came to Virginia in the reign of Charles I. as secretary to the colony.

After an absence in England, he returned to settle for good in the country. Altogether royalist, like all his family, he did not wait for the end of the English Commonwealth to proclaim Charles II. The rest of his days were given up to the care of his vast estates, and the direction of the affairs of the colony.

Thomas Lee, grandson of Richard, was President of the Colonial Council, and Governor of Virginia, the first man of American birth named to this post by the English Government. Three of his sons played a remarkable part in the War of Independence: Richard Henry Lee, one of the best orators and debaters in the United States Congress; Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the signatories to the Act of Independence; and Arthur Lee, who represented, in France and elsewhere, the colonial insurgents.

General Henry Lee, the contemporary and friend of Washington, father of General R. E. Lee, was grandson of a brother of President Lee. He took service in 1776. He took service in 1776. After having valiantly and brilliantly fought under the eyes of Washington, he went, in 1781, with his regiment of light cavalry, become celebrated by its exploits, to join General Green's corps in the Carolinas.

There he rendered great service in the series of operations which led to the surrender of the English army under Lord Cornwallis. The memoirs left by him on his campaign are remarkable. He was a man of well-cultivated mind, as is proved by some admirable letters addressed to one of his sons, very energetic, brilliant in conversation, having in a very high degree the mens aqua in arduis. Become Governor of Virginia and member of congress, he pronounced the funeral oration of Washington. He died himself in 1818.

It was at Stratford, in the county of Westmoreland (Virginia), that Robert Edward Lee, the third son of the preceding, was born. Before passing to the accidental events of Robert Lee's public life, let us stop a moment to contemplate the old dwelling where he first saw the light, on January 19th, 1807. Those old walls,

mute and sad witnesses of the past, attract us, not only because they saw the birth of an illustrious man, but also because they recall to us a state of society which exists no longer, and of which they are one of the last remaining monuments.

Stratford House was originally built by Richard Lee, the first of the name who came to America. It was destroyed by a fire in the beginning of the eighteenth century, in the time of Thomas Lee. A member of the council-royal, Thomas Lee was much beloved; as soon as the disaster was known, contributions flowed in on all sides from persons desirous to testify to him their esteem. Queen Caroline herself wished to contribute, and wrote Lee an autograph letter. The mansion rapidly rose again; the bricks of which it was built, the wainscoting, and furniture all came from England. Goodly dwellings like this had at that time their reasonable purpose. Lost in the depths of the country, they served as a refuge and place of assembly for all the members of the family.

The eldest son succeeded the father, and the representative of the family continued to reside there from generation to generation. These times exist no longer; and the love of the hearth and family recollections have disappeared with them.

Lee was deeply imbued with these sentiments of former times; he loved the old country-houses of old Virginian families, simpleminded and honourable folks, attached, like himself, to the soil of Virginia.

Stratford, the old home of the Lees, situated on a hillock which rises on the left bank of the Potomac, is a building sufficiently large. The estate is well wooded. Oaks, cedars, and maple-trees abound there. In the interior, the distribution of the rooms, the style of the wainscot and mouldings, the appearance of the halls and corridors, all remind us of the times of powdered perriwigs and silk stockings. It was here that, after the War of Independence, General Henry Lee retired to live. Three generations of Lees had lived here, leading a large-hearted and hospitable existence.