Des Arc citizen., 1866-10-13
.gh Tribute to the Character of
 If General Ice.

| In long. editorial article calliug for a subscription of fl0,000 to Washing ton College by the friends and admir- CTS Of General Lee in England, the London Standard of August 17th l speaks of him as follows:
 1 There is no living hero-there arc few, if any. among those whose names shine with the purest lustre in history whose character has commanded so high tribute of affection and admira- tion from their friends. of respect and honor from their foes, as that of Gen
 eral Lee. No life more perfectly he- | rolc, no reputation more perfectly clear, no reputation more untarnished even by the minor blemishes which are not uncommonly found in union with the highest heroism, has ever been con- nected with great national struggle. No shade of vanity or egotism, nothing
 of the self will or petulance so often characteristic of conscious genius. no tinge of affectation, no taiflt even of the pride almost inseparable from ordinary
 greatness of mind, which can endure everything but humiliation, and re- gards submission as disgrace. alloy the. simple grandeur of the Virginia sol dier's nature. A piety without the slightest show of Pharisaism; q sense of duty to which the sacrifice of every personal feeling and interest appears matter of course, have marked his whole course and guided his every public act, whether as a soldier or. as, a citizen. A family connection and the nearest living rep resentative of the great champion of American Independence, General Lee has been the Washington of the Con- federate war; like Washington, man "whom envy dared not hate" but with
 out the one dark stain of doubt. if not
 of dishonor, which the death of Major Andre has left on the memory of his prototype. No more 'sselfess man and stainless gentleman ever lived ;; no soldier ever set a more admirable example to the soldierly virtues of honor, chivalric generosity and manly simplicity: no great man ever retired into obscurity, after witnessing alike the ruin of his cause and the dcstruc- ton of his private fortune. with more of Christian patience and unshaken fortitudc.
 Of his military achievements we need not speak. It is enough to say that nearly all his victories were won against enormous odds. and that his fonr ' ,iarss defense of Virginia had but few parallels in history as an example
 of great results accomplished with small means and at a fearful disadvan-
 tage. Nha. is more interesting to re- member is the personal character of the man, as displayed in the various
 exigencics of that trying struggle the
 simple honesty and Kindly feeling
 which prompted him to console his
 soldiers as they recoiled from the can-
 non-crowned mouth at Gettysbnrg,
 with the assurance, ~Itis all my fault ;"
 the unaffected seif-depreciation. which.
 he pronounced when Stonewall Jack
 son fell: :: T could wish. for the sake
 of our cause, that had been disabled
 rather than YOU; ;'' tie Christian chiv-
 airy, which no outrage could provoke
 to retaliation, which. after Virginia
 had been reduced to a desert. withheld
 the army that invaded Pennsylvania
 from inficting the most trivial injury
 on person or property;, which, when
 his own estates had been plundered,
 ravaged and confiscated, took care to
 protect the houses of his enemies; the
 horror ofAuscless .bloodshed which
 withstood the cry for rctribution exci-
 ted by the murder of Southern prison
 CTS ill cold blood, and supported the
 resolve of. the President, that unless
 the actual murdcrcrs were taken no blood should be shed but on the field of battle. the toGching unsclfisbness of his last words to his disbanding army, on the sorrowful 9th of ApriI.
 Il have done my best for you." But it was when all was ovcr--when the chief of great and long victorious army was q private man and a paroled prison-that the peculiar greatness of Gen. Lees nature shines out with un- eqtialed brightness. A