The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-09-07
Ajthmond IIispattll.
4 High Tribute to the Character of
General Lee.

In long editorial article calling for q
subscription of 10000 to Washington
College by the friends and admirers Of
General Lee in England, the London Stan
dard Of August lNh speaks of him as fol-
lows:
There is 10 living fero-thcrc are few,
if any, among those whose names shine
with the purcst lustrc in history--whose
character has commanded so high a tribute
Of affection and admiration from their
friends, of respect and hpno- from their
I foes, as that Of General Lee. No life more
perfectly heroic, no reputation more un-
tarnishcd even by the minor blemishes
which arc not uncommonly found in union
with the highest hcroism, has ever been
connected with Il great national struggle
| No shade Of vanity or egotism, nothing oi
the self-will or pctulance so often charnc-
tcrstic of conscious genius, no tinge OF at
tcctation, no taint even of the pride almost
inseparablc from ordinary greatness OF
mind, which can endure everything but
humiliation, and regards submission as dis.
grace, alloy the simple grandeur Of the
! Virginian soldiers nature. \ picty with
out the slightest shadow Of PharisaiSm, a
| sense of duty TO which tho 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 citizen. A
/ family connection and the nearest living
, representative of the great champion OF
American independence, General Lee has
been the Washington Of the Confederate
war like Washington, man whom envy
dared not hate" but without even 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
"selhcss man and stainless gentleman u
ever lived no soldier ever set more adj
mirable example of the solderly virtues OF
honor, chivalric generosity, and manly
simplicity; no great man ever retired into
obscurity, after witnessing alike the ruin
ofhis cause and the destruction of his pri-
vate fortune, with more of Christian Pa
tiencc and mistaken iortitudc.
"Of his military achievements We need
not speak. 1t is enough to say that nearly
all his victories were Won against cnor-
nous odds, and that his four years defence
an example OF great results accomplished
with small means and at fearful disadvan-
tagc. What il is now more interesting to re-
member is the personal character Of the
man, as displayed in the various exigencies
of that trying struggle the simple honesty
and kindly feeling which prompted him to
console his soldiers as they rccOiicd from
the cannUn-crowncd heights of Gettysburg,
withthc assurance, "lt is all my fault :" the
unaffected Scii.dcprcciation which pro-
nounccd, when Stoncwall Jackson fell, "
would wish, for the sake OF our cause, that
| had been disabled rather than you;" the
christian chivalry, which no outrage conld
provoke To retaliation, which, after Eir-
yinia had been rendered a desert, with
held the army that invaded Pennsylvania
from innictug the most trivial injury on
person or property: which, when his own
estates had been plundered, ravaged and
conii>catcd, took care to protect the houses
and property of his enemies; the horror
Of useless blood.hed which withstoOd the
cry for rctribution excited by the murder
Of southern prisoners in 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 touching unscltiShneSs OF his
last words to his disbanding army, on the
sorrowiul 9th Of April, 81 have done my
best for you." But il was when all was
ovcr-whcn the chief of a great and long
victorious army was a private man and
paroled prisoncr-that the peculiar great.
! ness of General Lees nature shines out
! with uncquallcd brightness"