No man had stronger inducements to be a loyal citizen than Robert E. Lee. His ties of consanguinity and association with the founders of the Republic, and the common gratitude of a child toward a generous and loving foster-parent, should have made him hate treason in its most seductive forms, instead of embracing it in its most hideous aspect. He was a grandson of the “Lowland beauty,” spoken of by the biographer as the object of Washington's first love. He was a son of glorious “Legion Harry Lee,” who used his sword gallantly in the old war for independence and the rights of man, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and especially in the Southern States, and who was the leader of an army to crush an insurrection.4 He was intimately associated with the Washington family, having married the daughter of an adopted son of the Father of his Country (George Washington Parke Custis); and his residence, “Arlington House,” was filled with furniture, and plate, and china, and pictures, from Mount Vernon, the consecrated home of the patriot. It was one of the most desirable residences in the country. Around it spread out two hundred acres of lawn, and forest, and garden; and before it flowed the Potomac, beyond which, like a panorama, lay the cities of Washington and Georgetown.
A charming family made this home an earthly paradise. The writer had been a frequent guest there while, the founder of Arlington House (Mr. Custis) was yet alive. He was there just before the serpent of secession beguiled the later master. It was his ideal of a home that should make the possessor grateful for the blessings, political and social, that flow from our beneficent Government, under which all rights are fully secured to every citizen. War came and wrought great changes in the relations of men and things. The writer visited Arlington House again with two traveling companions (F. J. Dreer and Edwin Greble, of Philadelphia), not as a guest, but as an observer of events that sadden his heart while he makes the record. It was just before sunset on a beautiful day in early May, 1865, when the possessor of Arlington5 had been engaged for four years in endeavors to