# Lines on Gen. Robert Edward Lee

Published 18 May 1916.
Si veris magna paratur Fama bonis, et se successu nuda remoto Inspicitur virtus, quicquid laudamus in ullo Majorum, ortuna fuit.
Whilst martial echoes o’er the wave resound, And Europe’s gore incarnadines the ground; Today no foreign hero we bemoan, But count the glowing virtues of our own! illustrious LEE! around whose honour’d name Entwines a patriot’s and a Christian’s fame; With whose just praise admiring nations ring, And whom repenting foes contritely sing! When first our land fraternal fury bore, And Sumter’s guns alarm’d the anxious shore; When Faction’s reign ancestral rights o’erthrew, And sunder’d States a mutual hatred knew; Then clash’d contending chiefs of kindred line, In flesh to suffer and in fame to shine. But o’er them all, majestic in his might, Rose LEE, unrivall’d, to sublimest height: With torturing choice defy’d opposing Fate, And shunn’d Temptation for his native State! Thus Washington his monarch’s rule o’erturned When young Columbia with rebellion burn’d. And what in Washington the world reveres, In LEE with equal magnitude appears. Our nation’s Father, crown’d with vict’ry bays, Enjoys a loving land’s eternal praise: Let, then, our hearts with equal rev’rence greet His proud successor, rising o’er defeat! Around his greatness pour disheart’ning woes, But still he tow’rs above his conquering foes. Silence! ye jackal herd that vainly blame Th’ unspotted leader by a traitor’s name. If such was LEE, let blushing Justice mourn, And trait’rous Liberty endure our scorn! As Philopoemen once sublimely strove, And earn’d declining Hellas’ thankful love; So followed LEE the purest patriot’s part, And wak’d the worship of the grateful heart: The South her soul in body’d form discerns; The North from LEE a nobler freedom learns! Attend! ye sons of Albion’s ancient race, Whate’er your country, and whate’er your place; LEE’S valiant deeds, though dear to Southern song, To all our Saxon strain as well belong, Courage like his the parent Island won, And led an Empire past the setting sun; To realms unknown our laws and language bore, Rais’d England’s banner on the desert shore; Crush’d the proud rival, and subdued the sea For ages past, and aeons yet to be! From Scotia’s hilly bounds the paean rolls, And Afric’s distant Cape great LEE extols; The sainted soul and manly mien combine To grace Britannia’s and Virginia's line As dullards now in thoughtless fervour prate Of shameful peace, and sing th’ unmanly State; As churls their piping reprobations shriek, And damn the heroes that protect the weak; Let LEE’S brave shade the timid throng accost, And give them back the manhood they have lost! What kindlier spirit, breathing from on high, Can teach us how to live and how to die?
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1937, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 86 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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