Robert E. Lee, anticipating the event, in January, 1861, wrote:
"I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. 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."[[417]]
Three months later, in accepting the command of Virginia's army of defense, he said: "Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience and the aid of my fellow-citizens, I devote myself to the service of my native state."
Equally significant were the sentiments of the wife of this great Virginian. Writing to General Winfield Scott, May 5th, 1861, Mary Custis Lee said: "No honors can reconcile us to this fratricidal war which we would have laid down our lives freely to avert ... Oh! that you could command peace to our distracted country. Yours in sorrow and sadness."[[418]]
John Janney, on accepting the Presidency of the Virginia Convention, February 13th, 1861, said:
"Gentlemen, there is a flag ... which now floats over this Capitol on which there is a star representing this ancient commonwealth and my earnest prayer, in which I know every member of this body will cordially unite, is that it may remain there forever, provided always that its lustre is untarnished."
On the 23d of April, 1861, in notifying Robert E. Lee of his appointment as chief in command of Virginia's militia, he said:
"Virginia having taken her position, as far as the power of this Convention extends, we stand, animated by one impulse, governed by one desire and one determination—and that is, that she shall be defended; and that no spot of her soil shall be polluted by the foot of an invader."[[419]]
Matthew F. Maury writing on the 11th of May, 1861, said: "I grant them (certain of his Northern friends) sincere, but I cannot but lament in the depths of my heart and in excruciating agony that their delusion is such as to have already allowed the establishment of a military despotism."
Again he wrote: "All of us are of one mind, very cool, very determined, no desire for a conflict. We are on the defensive."[[420]]