to get acquainted with them.

LEE—Do you think I'd be kept from doing my duty by a pack of bullies and cowards? Go back and hide behind your cannon. You'll need more than those to protect you if you meddle again.

(BUCK and his friends skulk out.)

SCENE III

Banquet Hall of the Palace, City of Mexico, after its conquest by the American forces. Officers sitting around the table.

Characters

WILCOX—Well, I must say I'm thankful it's all over and I do hope it isn't long before we can get back to God's own country. Furthermore, I for one am thankful enough to be sitting here enjoying myself.

SCOTT—I am inclined to believe that if it had not been for one Captain Robert E. Lee, you and I would still be fighting those slippery Mexicans.

PIERCE—Yes, I have the utmost confidence in the skill and judgment of Captain Lee.

TWIGGS—His gallantry and good conduct deserve the highest praise.

WILCOX—(Rising and raising his glass.) Gentlemen, I wish to propose a toast that I know you will all drink heartily. I propose the health of the Captain of Engineers who found a way for our army into the city. Gentlemen, (Raising his glass again) the health of Captain Robert E. Lee!

(All the officers rise at once and lift their glasses. Then look around for LEE.)

WILCOX—Why he isn't here. What can be the matter.

MAGRUDER—I'll go and fetch him.

SCOTT—You might know Lee would be first in the battle and last at a banquet.

TWIGGS—I thought all of the crowd were here.

SCOTT—They are all here but Lee. Evidently we were all too much interested in our food to notice anything else. Let's sing a song to welcome him. (They sing two stanzas of "Yankee Doodle.")

TWIGGS—Here comes Magruder alone. (MAGRUDER enters.) Why, what's the matter? Couldn't you find him?

MAGRUDER—Oh, I found him all right, but that was all the good it did me.

SCOTT—Is he ill?

MAGRUDER—If he is, I wish I had the same thing the matter with me. He's suffering from a sense of duty.

TWIGGS—You don't have to worry then.

WILCOX—Tell us all about it.

MAGRUDER—You might as well sit down first because he isn't coming. (They all sit down but MAGRUDER.) You see I found him in a little room in a corner of the palace hard at work on a map. I asked him why he wasn't at the banquet and he said he was too busy. I told him it was just drudgery and to let some one else do it, but he looked up at me with that mild, calm gaze we all know so well and said, "No, I'm just doing my duty."

Act II

SCENE I

General Scott's office, Washington, April 18, 1861.

Characters

SCOTT—The nation is in a terrible condition.

LEE—As far as I can judge from the papers we are between a state of anarchy and civil war. May God avert from us both!

I see that four States have declared themselves out of the Union. Four more apparently will follow their example. Then if the border States are dragged into the gulf of revolution, one half of the country will be arrayed against the other.

I must try to be patient and wait the end, for I can do nothing to hasten or retard it.

SCOTT—I don't quite see why conditions have become so serious.

LEE—The position of the two sections which they hold to each other has been brought about by the politicians of the country. The great masses of the people, if they understood the real question would avoid it. I believe that it is an unnecessary condition of affairs and might have been avoided, if forbearance and wisdom had been practised on both sides.

SCOTT—Which side do you think is more to blame?

LEE—The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the act of the North. I feel the aggression and am willing to take every proper step for redress. It is the principle I contend for, not individual or private interest. As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity, and her institutions. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for this country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. Still a Union that can be maintained only by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind.

SCOTT—But do you think slavery is just?

LEE—If all the slaves of the South were mine, I would surrender them all without a struggle to avert this war.

SCOTT—Then your sympathies are with the North?

LEE—Though opposed to secession and war, I can take no part in an invasion of the Southern States.

SCOTT—But surely you could not desert the United States army?

LEE—I deeply regret being obliged to separate myself from the service to which I have devoted the best years of my life and all the ability I possessed.

SCOTT—But I have been given to understand that in case you remained loyal, you would be given a very exalted command.

LEE—Yes, Blair has just been talking to me in regard to the matter, but no consideration on earth could induce me to act a part however gratifying to me, which could be construed into disregard of, or faithlessness to the Commonwealth. If I am compelled to resign I cannot consult my own feelings in the matter. Virginia is my country, her will I obey, however lamentable the fate to which it may subject me. 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 her defence, will draw my sword no more.

SCENE II

Convention of Virginia, Richmond, April 23, 1861.

Characters

JANNEY—In the name of the people of our native State, here represented, I bid you a cordial and heartfelt welcome to this hall, in which we may almost hear the echoes of the voices of the statesmen, the soldiers, and the sages of bygone days who have borne your name and whose blood now flows in your veins. We met in the month of February last charged with the solemn duty of protecting the rights, the honor, and the interests of the people of this commonwealth. We differed for a time as to the best means of accomplishing that object, but there never was at any moment a shade of difference among us as to the great object itself; and now, Virginia having taken her position, 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 on her soil shall be polluted by the foot of an invader.

When the necessity of having a leader for our forces became apparent, all hearts and all eyes turned to the old county of Westmoreland. We knew how prolific she had been in other days of heroes and statesmen; we knew she had given birth to the Father of his country, to