Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-07-05
High Tribute to the Character OF Gen.

Lee.
I In long editorial article calling for the
donation of 100000 to Washington Col
lege, by the friends and admirers of Gen.
Lee in England, the London Standard of
August 18th, 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 tribute OF affection and
admiration from their friends, of respect
and honor from their foes, as that of Gen.
Lee. No life more perfectly heroic, no
reputation more untarnished even by the
minor blemishes which are not uncommon
" found in union with the highest hero
ism. has ever been connected with a great
national struggle. No shade of vanity Or
eeotism, nothing of the sefwill or petu-
lence so often characteristic of conscious
genius, no tinge of affection, no faint even
of the pride almost inseparable for ordinary
greatness as mind, which can endure every
thing but humiliation, and regards submls-
sion as disgrace, alloy the simple grandeur
of the Virginian soldiers nature.
A piety without the slightest shadow OF
Pharisaism, a sense of duty to which the
sacrifice of every personal feeling and inter
est appears matter of course, have marked
his whole course and guided his every
public act, whether as soldier or CIT
izen. 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 did not hate, " but With
ont even the one dark stain OF doubt, II
not of dishonor. which the death OF MAJOR
Andre has left on the memory OF his proto-
type. No more "selhess man and stainless
gentleman ever lived no soldier ever set
a more admirable example of the soldlerly
virtues of homo chivalric generosity, and
manly simplicity; no great man ever re-
tired into obscurity, after witnessing alike
the ruin of his cause and the destruction OF
his private fortune, with more OF Christian
patience and mistaken tOrtltude.
OF his military achievements we need not
speak. 1t 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 fearful disadvantage.
What is now more interesting to remem-
Der is the personal character OF the man,
as displayed in the various exigenc1es of
that irving struggle; the simple honesty
and kindly feeling which prompted him to
console his soldiers as they recoiled from
the cannon-crov ned heights Of Gettysburg,
with the assurance, cit is all my fault )"
the unaffected self-depreciation which pro
nounced, when Stonewall Jackson fell, 81
could wish, for the sake of our cause. that
had been disabled rather than you > the
Christian chlvalry, which no outrage could
provoke to retaliation which, after Vlr-
ginia had been rendered desert, with
held 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
and property of his enemies the horror
of useless bloodshed which withstood the
cry for retribution excited by the murder
Of Southern prisoners in cold 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 unselfshness Of his
last words to his disbanding army, on the
sorrowful 9th of April, 81 have done my
best for YOU" But it was when all WAS
over-when the chief of a great and long
victorious army was private man and a
paroled prisoner-that the peculiar great
ness of General Lees nature shines out
with unequalied brightness.