Letter to his Family

The Letter to his Family, in my view is a letter that is hoping and praying for the best.  They are praying that the states do not secede from the Union.  It is saying that the government that is in place right now, is not meant to make one state's rights different from another.  It is not trying to hurt anyone, it is only trying to help create a perfect union with a perfect government and sometimes you can not please every single person by doing that (Lee).  You have to do what is best for the majority and the majority is what is best for the Union.  Four states have already left and four more are most likely on their way (Lee).  They need to get everything back in order. Lee is saying that everybody needs to live by their principles, and go by their people.

A difference between Thoreaus beliefs and Lee's beliefs is that Thoreau does not like the government.  He is against every bit of it and believes that their should be no government (Thoreau).  Lee on the other hand is complementing the government in his letter because he is saying that the men worked so hard on the Constitution to try and make everything equal.  Another disagreement that Lee and Thoreau would have had was the fact of slavery.  Thoreau did not like slavery and wanted to abolish it (Harding).  He thought that the movement should be ended and that no man on earth should be a slave for another man.  Lee on the other hand was fighting for the south.  The south wanted slavery.  That is the reason they fought because they wanted slavery and the north did not.  Lee was fighting because he believed that slavery was needed for the south.  Therefore, the two sides would have gone back and forth on this for a long time.  Lee and Thoreau would have argued over this topic because Thoreau did not believe in slavery and Lee did.  In the end slavery did die so we could say that Thoreau won.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 13 Feb. 2012.


Lee, Robert E. “Letter to His Son.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 385. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.