Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-05-01
From the London Daily Telegraph.
Robert L. Lee.

At Lexington, in the State of Virginia,
there is College which bears the name of
the most illustrious citizen ever born in the
"Old Dominion" fertile as that pleasant
land has been in heroes; nor could George
Washington himself have wished that the
college erected in his honor should have
for President wolthier chief than the one
who quietly entered upon his duties Just
fortnight ago. The new President is still
in the prime of manhood, though already
his hair and beard are gray; he has been
long accustomed to command; he is famil-
lar with hardships as with fame-has slept
for months amid the woods of Virginia,
and has crossed the Rappahannock North
ward at the head of victorious army; he
has been proved alike by good and evil
fortune, and whether when threatening the
Federal capital, or when surrendering his
sword to Federal Captain, he has ever
borne himself as beseemed q man noble
alike 10y an ancestry and by nature. The
descendant cf Light Horse Harry" has
dotfed the gray uniform for the garb of a
peaceful professor nor can we own that
change is degradation, even to Robert
Lee,
There is u difference in the mode of ac-
tlon, but nc alteration in the object, which
Is simply to render the best service he can
has never once been unfaithful and he
will still pursue it, we may rest assured,
with the old high enthusiasm, tempered by
cautious brain. Throughout the war
nothing was moro remarkable than Lees
personal lnfiuence-the manner in which
he impressed every one who approached
him. That men with Jackson's purity
and earnestness, or with the debonnaire
and graceful valor of Stuart, should ap-
preclate the illustrious qualities of their
Leaders, was only natural but even the
humblest 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 carnage, q devilish outbreak of
all mems tiercest passions, had the South
ern leader been of different temper Gal
lantly as the Confederates fought, we must
never forget that their armies were often
composed of somewhat questionable raw
material that the volunteers, with all the
instinct OF bravery which seldom deserts a
dominant class, had likewise many of the
vices which are invariably engendered by
the possession of arbitrary and lawleSs
power. Accustomed to the unchecked
license of authority, the Shareholders might
perchance have been ready enough to give
the war character of internecine hatred
and it was eminently due TO Robert Lee
that the courtesies and humanities of
civilized warfare were, on the whole, OBJ
served. The gentle nature of the man
never degenerated into weakness with
high hand he could restrain excesses, and
admirably did he exercise his power
There are no purer pages in the history of
the civil war, than those which relate to
his invasion of Maryland and Pennsyl-
vania, at time when the temper of the
Southern people was sorely tried. Such
qualities as he displayed could not fail, in
a long run, to win the regard of manly
and atfectionate people and while we find
that he was loved like father by all those
who shared his immediate perils, we have
not yet forgotten that when the victorious
veterans of the North were marching home
through Richmond, they burst into a
splendid shout of enthusiasm as they
recognized, gravely contemplating them
from curtained window, the familiar form
and face of Robert Lee.