Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1867-07-11
MISCELLANY Y.
A High Tribute to the Character Of
General Lee.

In long editorial article calling for the do
nation Of 10000 to Washington College, by
the friends and admirers Of General Lee in
England, the London STANDARD" Of August
II speaks of him as follows;
There is no living hero-thcre are none, If
any. whose name shines with tho purest lustre
in history-whose character has commanded
so high a tribute of affection and admiration
from their friends, of respect and honor from
their foes, as that Of General Lee. No life more
perfectly heroic, no noreputation more untarnlSh-
ed even by the minor blemishes which are not
uncommonly found in union with the highest
heroisn, has ever been connected with great
national struggle. No shade Of vanity or ego
tism, nothing of the self will or petulence so
often charactcristicof conscious genius, no tinge
of affection, 10 taint even Of the pride almost
inseparable from ordinary greatness Of mind,
which can endure everything but humiliation,
and regards submission as disgrace, alloy the
simple grandeur of the Virgiuian soldiers ma
ture.
A piety without Tho slightest shadow OF
Pharisaism, a sense of duty to which the sacri-
fec Of every personal feeling and interest ap-
pearsa matter of course, have marked his whole
course and guided his every public act, wheth-
er as soldier or as a citizen. A fa7 con-
nection and the nearest living representative OF
the great champion Of American independence,
General Lee has been the Washington Of the
Confederate war; Ike Washington, man
"whom envy did 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 "seliless
man and stainless gentleman" ever lived; no
soldier ever set more admirable example OF
the solderly virtues Of honor, chiraiFic gcnsr-
oSity, and manly simplicity; no great man
ever retired into obscurity, after witnessing a.
like the ruin Of his cause and the destruction
of his private fortune, with more Of Christian
patienco and mistaken fortitudc.
OF his military achievements we need not
speak. II 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 re-
suits accomplished with small means and
fearful disadvantage.
Wha. is now more interesting TO remember
Is the personal character Of the man, as display
o5 in the various exgencies of that trying strug-
Gle: the simple honesty and kindly feeling
which prompted him to console his soldiers as
they rccoiled from the cannon-crowncd heights
Of Gettysburg, with the assurance, at is all
my fault :" the unaffected self-depreciation
nronounced. when Stoncwall jackson fell, al
could wish, for tho sake Of our cause, that |
had been disabled rather than you the Chris
tian chivalry. which no outrage could provoke
to retaliation which, after Virginia had been
rendered desert, withheld the army that in
yaded Pennsylvania from inficting the most
trivial injury on person or property which,
when his own estates had been plundered, raw
aged and confscated, took care 10 protect the
houses and property of bis enemies 'he hor-
ror Of useless bloodshed which withstood the
CIV for re.ributiou excited by the murder oi
Southern prisoners in cold blood, and support
ed the resolve Of the President that unless the
actual ,nurdcrers were taken, no blood should
be shed but on the 6eld Of battle ; the touching
rnseIssbpszs Of his last words to his disband-
inc army, on the sOnowful 9th Of April, 81
have done my best for you" BUTT was when
ali was o7er-wLen the chief of great and
long victorious army was a private man and a
paroled prisoner-that the peculiar greatness
Of General Lees nature shines out with une-
qualIed brightness.