The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-09-10
The Right of Secession General Lee
Who Educated our Officers

The Right of Secession General Lee
Who Educated our Officers
In an article upon the correspondence
which recently passed between General.
RospcsASs and General LEE and Others
the New York Tribune goes out OF Its way
to make the following low attack upon Gen
eral LEE:
"Rosecrans and Lee were alike educated
at West Point at the expense OF that union,
alike taking solemn oath OF tde!lty TO
that Union. That oath General Lee delibe-
rately broke, to plunge into rebellion Tor
which he at the time declared, in letter
to his sister, that there was no justification"
General LEE might well have held that
there was no good reason for the secession
Of Virginia from the Union, and yet, when
that secession had been accomplished so far
as to make it valid in his eyes, have drawn
his swcrd in defence of her rights. 1t was
the belief of our people that Virginia had
perfect right to secede from the Union. The
World attempts a defence of General LEE
in those words
"The southern doctrine of allegiance was
no doubt erroneous but it was nevertheless
very sincerely held. The theory Of MIR.
Calhoun had been set forth by that power
full reasoner with such acuteness and lnge-
nuity that it commanded the nearly uni
versal assent of the whole southern mind
and Of General Lee among the rest. by
that theory allegiance was due primarily to
the State, and only through it to the Fede-
raj Government. The citizen of Virginia
was made citizen of the United States by
the free action of Virginia in ratifying the
Constitution and it was claimed that she
had the same authority to unoose that she
originally had to bind. Now, as General
Lee believed this doctrine with all the SIN
cerity OF frank, manly nature, what was
his duty, as he understood it, when his
State came to secede? Clearly, to 60 with
his State, whatever his own private judg-
ment might be respecting the expediency
Of her act"
That is very we'll said. The doctrine of
our people in 1860 was that they owed allie
glance to the United States Government
only because the State of Virginia had COM
manded them to obey the laws of that CO.
vernment, and that when Virginia should
command them no longer to respect those
laws, they would still be bound to obey Vir-
ginia. But the World does Virginians
great injustice in supposing that they
learned this doctrine from Mr.. CALHOUN.
They always held it. The celebrated Vir-
ginia and Kentucky resolutions affirmed it
in the clearest language. Indeed, there
cannot well have been any period in the
history of the State when our people did
not as q mass believe in the right Of seces
sion. For when Virginia went into the
Union she went into ii upon the terms
written in the article of ratification, which
was adopted on the 25th Of June, 1888, and
has been republished in every copy of the
Code of Virginia which has appeared from
that day to this. Those terms were:
eve, the delegates of the people of Vir-
glnla, do, in the name and in
behalf of the people Of Virginia, declare
and make known that the powers granted
under the Constitution, being derived from
the people Of the United States, may be
resumed by them lchenSoerer the same shall
be perverted to their injury or oppres-
Sion," dc.
So that whatever might have been in
1860, or may be now, Mr.. GREELEY's
opinion, General LEE broke no oath when
he went into rebellion" against Black
hepublicanism. He simply did his duty.
We have no apprehensions as to what will
be the verdict of posterity upon this point.
The Tribune may read it in the unbounded
admiration Of General LEES character
which is felt and confessed by the intelli-
gent men of every nation in Christendom.
The power Of the sword has destroyed the
right of secession, as it had previously in
the history Of the werld destroyed many an
other cherished right. Virginia now has
no more right to secede from the Union than
Ireland has to secede from England, or
Hungary from Austria, or Crete from
Turkey, or Poland from Russia,
But the Tribune avers-as thousands Of
ats allies had often averred before-that
General LEE was educated at the expense
OF the Union. This is suggeStio falsi. 1t
Is true IN one sense. 1t is false 30 far az
the impression it was intended to convey is
concerned. General LEE was educated at
West Point because Virginia had paid for
his tuition, and was entitled to have him
educated there. No State could then enter
more cadets than she was entitled to, how
ever it may be now, when Radical Yankees
dlsown their own States and enter their
sons as from the southern States. And
what is true as to General LEE is true as
to all the other Confederate officers who
had been educated at West Point. We use
his name only for convenience sake. They
were all educated at the expense of their
own States. The charge is miserable one
at best. 1t smells of filthy lucre. But it
10 false to all intents and purposes, and it's
repetition can do no harm to the reputation
of the brave and gallant soldiers whose are
among
"The few, tn immortal names
That were not born to die"
l.