...deciding which side he should fight on. He wrote to his sister, "With all my devotion to the Union ... I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my...hand against my relatives, my children, my home." Lee decided to fight with the Confederate army. In 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave...

...yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native state. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling...my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the army, and save in defense of my native state — with...

...57 DredScottf. Sandford (1857), 19 Howard 393. 58 Thus on April ¿o, 1861, he wrote to his sister: "With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling...my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defence of my native state ... I hope...

...yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native State. "With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling...my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the...

...Marshall he expressed his love for the Union and his loyalty as an American citizen, but, he said, "I have not been able to make up my mind to raise...hand against my relatives, my children, my home." Had he accepted Blair's tentative offer, he would have had to do just that. He added that he hoped...

...accept appointment under the new government. He wrote Anne Marshall, his sister, about one of them: "I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home."24 From earliest times in Western civilization, the cardinal principle of honor was familial...

...command of a Union army, but he declined the appointment, electing to cast his lot with his native state. "With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen," Lee explained in a letter to his sister, "I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand...

...aloud. ln my own person, l had to meet the question whether l should take part against my native state. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty as an American citizen, l have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives,...

...years. Lincoln offered him command of the Union forces, but as Lee explained in letters to his family, "With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling...hand against my relatives, my children, my home." Mary Custis Lee, who became a fiercely loyal secessionist, wished to stay and defend the home against...

...as well as his opposition to slavery and secession. "With all my devotion to the Union," he wrote, "I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home...If the Union is dissolved, and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and...