er services against the
Confederacy, and that it would but make her more of an alien in
Richmond than ever she had been before. But she was desperately poor,
so she accepted the position and for eight years filled it
efficiently. When she came in contact with old friends from time to
time in a business way, they were politely cold, and in her diary she
writes:

"I live, as entirely distinct from the citizens as if I were
plague-stricken. Rarely, very rarely, is our door-bell ever rung by
any but a pauper or those desiring my service." She adds: "September,
1875, my Mother was taken from me by death. We had not friends enough
to be pall-bearers."

When Grant had been succeeded by Hayes as President of the United
States, the one-time Spy was obliged to ask for his aid:

"I am hounded down"--she wrote to his private Secretary. "I never,
never was so bitterly persecuted; ask the President to protect me from
this unwarranted, unmerited, and unprecedented persecution."

From her own point of view, and from that of those who fought for the
abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union, Betty Van
Lew's persecution was indeed "unwarranted and unmerited." But there
was another side to the matter. Elizabeth Van Lew, although the child
of a Northern mother, was also the daughter of John Van Lew, one of
Richmond's foremost citizens. The loyalty of the Southerners to the
Confederacy and to one another, from their viewpoint, was
praiseworthy, and there is every reason why they should have shunned
one of Richmond's daughters, who not only approved the cause of the
hated Yankees, but who aided the Union generals in their determination
to sweep "On to Richmond, to the defeat of the Confederacy."

What to one was loyalty, to the other was treason--what to the Spy was
a point of honor, to her old friends was her open and lasting
disgrace, and never can the two viewpoints be welded into one, despite
the symbol of Union which floats over North and South, making the
United States of America one and "indivisible, now and forever!"

Betty Van Lew remained postmistress of Richmond for eight years, then
she was removed, and there were black years of poverty and loneliness
for her, as she had not laid by a dollar for a day of want, but had
given lavishly to all in need, especially to the negroes. She was not
able to sell her valuable but unproductive real estate, and was
reduced to actual need. "I tell you really and solemnly," she