Lee was a Union man until the state seceded. Jackson was rather a Ritchie when a Calhoun democrat. He held on to the Union like Genl. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I 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 labor, wisdom and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for 'perpetual union' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. If the union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none. This memorandum is written in the handwriting of General Thomas H. Williamson and is reproduced with the spelling, etc., unchanged. It also must have been written after Jones wrote his Reminiscences, published in 1876.