“I have myself seen that most distinguished man, Charles Francis Adams, subjected in society to treatment which, if he had resented it, might have seriously imperilled the relations of the two countries.... But in this critical state of things, in and out of Parliament, Mr. Disraeli and Sir Stafford Northcote on one side, and the Duke of Argyll and Sir George Cornewall Lewis on the other, mainly contributed to keep this country neutral, and to save us from the serious mistake of taking part with the South.” Even Mr. Bryce, a most learned author, whose opinion in this matter has great weight, intimates that the seceding States legally may have been right.[1] [1] Bryce’s _American Commonwealth_, vol. i., pages 409 and _seq._ Yet Mr. Bryce’s whole work is in accordance with the theory he asserts at the beginning of chapter iv., vol. i., page 29: “The acceptance of the Constitution of 1789 made the American people a nation. It turned what had been a league of States into a Federal State by giving it a National Government with a direct authority over all citizens.” Lord Wolseley, in his article in _Macmillan’s Magazine_ on the life of Lee, extolling him as the greatest general of his age and the most perfect man,[2] informs us that each State possessed the right both historically and legally under the Constitution to leave the Union at its will. Apparently he did not know that January 23, 1861, Lee wrote to his son: “Secession is nothing but revolution.” “It” (the Constitution) “is intended for perpetual union, so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government not a compact, and which can only be dissolved by revolution or the assent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession.”[2] [2] General Long’s _Memoirs of Lee_, page 88. Possibly in time the North may be of the same opinion as to Lee’s transcendent ability as a general. No one doubts now his great soldierly attainments and the worth of his private character, but for the sake of the existence of our nation, may it never believe he fought for the right.