New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-04-09
Compliment to Gen. Lee.

FROM the LOhdon Daiy telegraph
At Lexington, In the State Of Virginia, is col
lege which bears the name of the most illustrioul
citizen ever born in the Old Dominion, fertile al
that pleasant land has been in heroes; nor could
George Washington himself have wished that the
college erected in his honor would have for ,presi
dent worthier chief than the one who quietly en-
tered upon his duties just a fortnight ago. The
new president is still in the prime of manhood
though already his hair and beard are grey, ht
has been long accustomed to command; ne il
for months amid the woods of Virginia, and ha!
crossed the Rappahannock northward at the head
of victorious army; he has been proven alike BY
good and evil fortune, and, whether when threat
his sword to d Federal captain, he has evel
borne himself as beseemed man borr
alike by ancestry. and by nature, The
descendant sof &c Light Horse Harry" has
DOTTED the grey uniform for the garb of a
peaceful professor nor can we own that the
change is a degradation, ever for Robert Lee
There is difference in this mode Of action, but nc
alteration in the object, which is simply to render
the best service he can to his native State. To
that single aim he has never once been unfaithful
and he will still pursue it, we may rest assured
with the old high enthusiasm tempered by eau
tious brain. Throughout the war nothing was
more remarkable than Lees personal influence
in the manner in which he impressed every one
who approached him. That men, with Jackson's
purity and earnestness or with the debonndire
and graceful valor of Stuart, should appreciate the
illustrious qualities Of their leaders, was only
natural; but even the humbest soldiers in the
ranks felt, though they might not have been able
to express, the moral power which Lee exerted.
The war was, in all conscience, sanguinary enough
but there would have been very carnival of car.
mage, derilish outbreak of all mems fercest pas.
slons, had the Southern leader been of different
temper. q 8.hHEl zoe .f. DIP s
Calamity as the Confederates fought, we must
never forget their armies were composed of some
what questionable raw material that the volun-
teers with all the instinct of bravery which seldom
deserts dominant class, had likewise many of the
vices which are inevitably engendered by the pos.
session of arbitrary power. Accustomed to the
unchecked license OF authority, the shareholders
might perchance have been ready enough to give
the war a character of internecne hatred; and il
was emnently due to Robert E. Lee that the cour
teses and humanties of civilized warfare were, OF
the whole, observed The gentle nature of the
man never degenerated into weakness; with higt
hand he could restrain excuses, and admirablJ
did he exercise his power There are no pnrei
pages in the history of the civil war than those
which relate to his invasion ofMaryand and Penn
syyania, at a time when the temper of the South
ern people was sorely tried, r...,,
| Such qualities as he displayed could not fail, il
the long run, to win the regard Of a manly ans
affectionate people; and while we find that he wa!
loved like father by all those who shared his i'm
mediate perils, we have not yet forgotten tina
marching home through Richmond, they burs
into splendid shout of enthusiasm as they recog
nized gravely contemplating them from cur
tanned window, the familiar form and face o
4 Robert e. Lee
| THE old order changes, giving place to7new
and God fulfs himself in many ways" To teaci
4 young lads their classics and mathematics ma,
seem but poor occupation for one whose wor(
| WAS lately the supreme law for hundred thou
sand fighting men and yet there need be no sens
| of humiliation involved in the deliberate accept
ance of such employment. The new order is tina
of peace. For a time the finest thing that Lee
could do was to set an example of valor and vir
| tue to the whole manhood of the South; but no
less pure is the glory of one who, by honest an
patient labor, prepares the young for that longe
| conflict which fills the whole length and breadt
| of human life. H.=a