Part 74 (2/2)

”Most important. I am summoned to Richmond by the Governor in obedience to a resolution of the Legislature.”

Mrs. Marshall advanced on the dusty, young messenger, her eyes aflame with anger.

”How dare you enter this house unannounced, sir?”

The boy did not answer. He turned away with a smile. She repented her words immediately. They had sounded undignified, if not positively rude.

But she had been so sure that Blair could not fail. This call from Richmond, coming in the moment of crisis, drove her to desperation. She looked at Blair helplessly and he rallied to the attack with renewed determination.

”A Nation is calling you. The Union your fathers created is calling you, Colonel Lee!”

Lee's figure stiffened the least bit, though his words were uttered in the friendliest tones.

”Virginia is also calling me, Mr. Blair. Your own State of Maryland has not seceded. For that reason you cannot feel this tragedy as I feel it.

Put yourself in my place. I ask you the question, is not the command of a State that of a mother to a child? We are citizens of the State, not of the Union. There is no such thing as citizens.h.i.+p in the Union. We vote only as citizens of a State. We enlist as soldiers by States. I was sent to West Point as a cadet by the State of Virginia. Even President Lincoln's proclamation calling for volunteers to coerce a State, revolutionary as it is, is addressed, not to individual men, but to the States. He must call on each to furnish her quota of soldiers--”

”Yet the call is to every citizen of the Nation!”

Lee's hand was raised in a gesture of imperious affirmation.

”There is no such thing as citizens.h.i.+p of the Nation! We don't pay taxes to the Nation. We may yet become a Nation. We are as yet a Union of Sovereign States. Virginia has refused to furnish the troops called for by the President and has withdrawn from the Union. She reserved in her vote to enter, the right to withdraw. I am a Virginian. What is my duty?”

”To fight for the Union, Robert--always!” Mrs. Marshall answered.

”I love the Union, my dear sister, my heart aches at the thought of its division--”

He turned sharply to Blair.

”But is not the South to-day in taking her stand for the rights of the State a.s.serting a principle as vital as the Union itself? All the great minds of the North have recognized that these rights are fundamental to our life. Bancroft declares that the State is the guardian of the security and happiness of the individual. Hamilton declares that, if the States shall lose their powers, the people will be robbed of their liberties. George Clinton says that the States are our _only_ security for the liberties of the people against a centralized tyranny. These rights once surrendered, and I solemnly warn you, my friend, that your children and mine may live to see in Was.h.i.+ngton a centralized power that will dare to say what you shall eat, what you shall drink, and what you shall wear!”

Blair laughed incredulously.

”Surely it's a far cry to that, Colonel--”

”I'm not so sure, Mr. Blair. And the cry from Virginia rings through my heart. I see her in mortal peril. My father was three times Governor of the Commonwealth. Virginia gave America the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence. She gave us something greater. She gave us George Was.h.i.+ngton, a Southern slaveholder, whose iron will alone carried our despairing people through ten years of hopeless revolution and won at last our right to live. Madison wrote the Const.i.tution. John Marshall of Virginia, as Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, established its power on the foundations of Justice and Law. Jefferson doubled our area in the Louisiana Territory. Scott and Taylor extended it to the Pacific Ocean from Oregon to the Gulf of California. Virginia in the generosity of her great heart gave the Northwest to the Union and forbade the extension of slavery within it--”

Blair leaped to make a point.

”Surely these proud recollections, of her gifts to the Union should form bonds too strong to be broken!”

”So say I, sir! Surely they should place the people of all sections under obligations too deep to permit the invasion of her sacred soil!

Can I stand by as her loyal son and see this invasion begun? I regret that Virginia has withdrawn. But the deed is done. Her people through their Governor and their Legislature call me--command me to come to her defense. They may be wrong. They may be blinded by pa.s.sion. They are still my people, my neighbors, my friends, my children--and I cannot--”

He drew a deep breath and rose to his full height.

”_I will not draw my sword against them!_”

”Glory to G.o.d!” the messenger exulted.

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