with the Confederate States," placed
"the whole military force of the Commonwealth under the control
and direction of the Confederate States, upon the same basis and
footing as if said Commonwealth were now a member of said
Confederacy."

Without waiting for the decision of the people on the question of
secession, the national flag was removed from the public buildings,
and the Confederate flag was raised. All the property of the
General Government was seized and, by an article in the agreement
with the Confederate commissioner, was in due time to be turned
over to the Montgomery government. In short, the State Government
of Virginia proceeded in its mad career of hostility to the Union,
without the slightest regard to the future decision of the people
on the important issue which in form had been submitted to them.
They evidently intended to make a rejection of the Disunion ordinance
impossible. For their own honor, the man who contrived and guided
these proceedings would better have adopted the bold precedent of
those States which refused altogether to submit the ordinance to
popular vote.

It ought not to escape notice that General Robert E. Lee is not
entitled to the defense so often made for him, that in joining the
Disunion movement he followed the voice of his State. General Lee
resigned his commission in the army of the Union and assumed command
of Confederate troops, long before Virginia had voted upon the
ordinance of secession. He gave the influence of his eminent name
to the schemes of those who, by every agency, _fas aut nefas_, were
determined to hurl Virginia into secession. The very fact that
General Lee had assumed command of the troops in Virginia was a
powerful incentive with many to vote against the Union. Jefferson
Davis had anticipated and measured the full force of the effect
which would be produced upon Virginians by General Lee's identification
with the Confederate cause. Whether or not there be ground for
making General Lee the subject of exceptional censure, there is
surely none for excusing him as one who reluctantly obeyed the
voice of his State. If he had remained in the national army until
the people of Virginia voted on the ordinance of secession, the
strength of the Union cause in his State would have been greater.
If he had chosen, as a citizen of Virginia, to stand by the Union
until his State decided against him, secession might have been
defeated. It is fair that his ac