Lee, Samuel Phillips, 1812-1897 to John Mercer Brooke
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02029.02 Author/Creator: Lee, Samuel Phillips, 1812-1897 Place Written: Cairo, Illinois Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 21 June 1865 Pagination: 1 p. ; 24.7 x 19.5 cm. Order a Copy
Written by Acting Rear Admiral Lee as Commander of the Mississippi Squadron to Brooke, a former Confederate naval officer seeking amnesty. References that the preceding page of this letter was a copy of the letter he sent to the president on his behalf. Says he would have lauded his abilities as a seaman, navigator, and hydrographer, but thought to dwell too much on them would be a cause of complaint against him. Claims that "I have felt that if I had not been sent out of the country in the fall of 1860 that I might have helped to save some of my honest Navy friends who were so cruelly misled and sacrificed by unprincipled politicians, who only cared for 'me and my nigger' before any and every white man without a Slave - & that is just all they meant by their 'States Rights' - which, with Slavery, I hope are gone for ever!" Asks where mutual friends are now. "What a happy thing it is to be together again as countrymen & Friends - and what a country to be proud of…." Brooke eventually settled in Lexington, Va., and married Sandy Pendleton's widow. Written while aboard the USS "Tempest."
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