Robert E. Lee was a deeply troubled patriot with a lot of class. What a sad thing that the industrial northern states ever sought to impose punitive and unconstitutional trade restrictions on the southern states. The War Between the States was avoidable; the constitutional alternative was to let the Southern states secede and form their own nation, The Confederate States of America. The United States started out as a confederation under The Articles of Confederation, so this concept was not unknown at the time. As signatories to the Constitution of the United States of America, state legislatures had the power to withdraw their approval and secede. President Lincoln had in mind the preservation of the Union, but he preserved the borders of the Union while destroying the spirit of it and the Constitution itself.