Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-07-05
A High Tribute to the Character Of General

In long editorial article calling for the
donations Of go. 900 to Washington College
by the friends and admirers of General Lee,
in England, the London Standard Of Au-
gust II speaks of him as follows:
There is no living hero-there are none,
if any, whose name shines with the purest
lustre in history-whose character has COM
manded so high a tribute Of affection and adj
miration from their friends, of respect and
honor from their foes. as that of General
Lee No life more perfectly heroic, no repu-
taton more untarnished even by the minor
blemishes which are not uncommonly found
in union with the highest heroism, has ever
been connected with great national strug-
gle. No shade Of vanity or egotism, nothing
of the self will or petulence SO often charac.
tcristic of conscious genius, no tlnge OF affec-
tation, no faint even of the pride almost IN
separablc from ordinary greatness OF mind,
| which can endure everything but humilita-
ton, and regards submission OF the Virgin
! ian soldiers nature.
| A piety without the slightest shadow of
Pharisaisln, sense Of duty to which the
sacrifice ofevery 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 fami-
| ly connection and the nearest living repre-
sentative of the great champion OF American
independence, General Lee has been the
| Washington Of the Confederate war /; like
Washington, a man 'whom envy did not
hate" but without even the one dark stain
of doubt, ifs.not Of dishonor, which the death
of Major Andre has left on the memory OF
his prototype. No more ''selfess man and
stainless gentleman" ever lived no soldier
ever set more admirable example Of the
soldierly virtues of honor, chiyalric generosi-
| ty, and manly simplicity /; no great man ev-
er retired into obscurity, after witnessing
alike the ruin Of his cause and the destruc-
ton of his private fortune, with more Of
Christian patience and mistaken fortitude
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 four years defence Of
Virginia has few parallels in history as an
example of great results accomplished with
small means and a fearful disadvantage.
VIII is now more interesting to remem-
her 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 con-
sole his soldiers as they recoiled from the
cannon crowned heights of Gettysburg, with
the assurance, cit is all my faults" the un-
affected self-depreciation which pronounced,
when Stonewall Jackson fell, Il could wish
for the sake Of our cause, that had beer
disabled rather than you;" the Christian
chivalry. which no outrage could provoke tc
retaliation; which, after Virginia had been
rendered a desert, withheld the army that
invaded Pennsylvania from inficting the
most trivial injury on person OF property
| which, when his own estates had been plum
| dered, ravished and confiscated took care te
protect the houses and property of his enc
mics; the horror of useless bloodshed which
withstood the cry for retribution excited by
the murder of Southern prisoners in colo
blood, and supported the resolve Of the
President that unless the actual murderers
were taken, no blood should be shed but on
the field of battle; the touching unselfsh-
ness OF his last words to his disbanding ar
N.Y. on the sc~-owfl oh Ct april A;. 81 hav,
done my best for you" But it was wher
all was over-when the chief of great and
long victorious army was private man and
paroled prisoner-that the peculiar great
ness of General Lees nature shines out with
unequaled brightness.