Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-10-19

uenStiy tIoWucu WIZ" P'"f'e " w.
classes; the doors, windows, balconie
aud available roofs of houses we're al
occupied, and such dense mass o
spectators for near mile has neve
been. and perhaps never will be, seen il
Memphis. At reasonable estimate tn
procession contained from eight TO min
thousand people, and there were at leas
three times as many spectators. Silence
prevailed in the vast multitude, and lii
tie was heard save The solemn notes o
the bands. All were impressed with tn
solemnity of the occasion and the grea
lesson taught-above ALL that man, how
ever brave, fortunate and exalted, mus
die and 60 to his long bourne.
AT COURT SQUARE.
The procession filed into Court Square
near one o'clock, and the coffin was de
posted in the rear of General Jackson
monument, The stand erected for thu
day was draped in deep mourning, ant
overhung by portraits of Lee, Jackson
and Price.
Mayor johnson introduced Rev. DR.
Wheat, Rector of st. Lazarus, who ap
peared in full canonicals of the Episco
pal church, and performed a brief bu
beautiful funeral service.
A dirge was then played by Professor
Handwerker's band.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR.
Mayor johnson rose and said;
Nv friends and fellow citizens: If
was competent to address you on the
present occasion, and feel that | am
not, my feelings would not allow me te
do so. | have, therefore, the honor to
introduce to You one who knew well he
whose death we are this day commemo-
rating and who will tell you of the great
hero, the sincere Christian and the gal
liant soldier who has just passed from
our midst. / will now introduce to you
Hon. Landon c. Haynes, the orator on
this occasion.
GRAFTON BY HON. LAyDoN E. HAYNES.
Hon. Landon C. Haynes then came
forward and delivered the following ora
ton, which was listened to with the most
marked attention throughout.
Mr.. Mayor. les and Gentlemen:
With unaffected diffidence, surrounded
as | am by so many gentlemen emit
tied by distinction to the place which
has been assigned to me, l rise to re-
spond to what seems TO be the public
desire, and to address you for mo.
ment upon the event which has shrouded
great people. in mourning, and
which now fills their homes, from the
cottages Of the poor to the palaces OF the
rich, with the gloom of profound sadness
and sorrow.
A great American hero and Christian
has fallen, whose name made the name
of his country renowned in every other
nation in the civilized world. General
Robert Z. Lee is no more AT Lexing-
ton. Virginia, on the 18th of October,
1870, he gently laid down his life and
quietly gave up his soul to the all.merci-
full God who made it, to dwell for ever
more in the companionship of the blessed
dead, on the shores of the life to come.
Called to address this vast and sorrow
ing audience on a notice so short as that
which has been given me, | cannot at
tempt any elaborate history of General
Lees public life, nor any studied eulogy
upon the attributes of his great charac-
ter and personal virtues. Indeed, such
an undertaking would not only demand
the highest intellectual endowments, but
the most ample time and means for pro-
found reflection, preparation and inves-
tigation; while nature now interposes to
forbid the effort at this early moment OF
the public bereavement.
Gen. Lee was descended from a long
line of noble ancestors, men of conspicu-
GUS public spirit, distinguished talents
and accomplishments, eminent services,
and historic renown in England and
America. He not only rivalled them in
refined manners, and in all that comes
from gentle blood, but in military ge-
MUS, in capacity for labor, in vigor OF
execution, in unfaltering energy, in
sleepless vigilance, in power of military
combination and ability to direct the
movements of great armies in the field;
he was, perhaps, superior to the most re-
nowned among his forefathers, and aug
mented the greatness of their names with
the greatness Of his own.
1t has been beautifully said that
"Those who have ancestral honors.
a swnx ea ekotr hi
Are like the stars in the ocean seen;
That were'not there. but for
Their bright originals In heaven"
When the great and pure soul of him
whom we mourn to-day assumed its
place among its " originals " in heaven,
it was to reappear in the ocean of the
worlds memory, there TO shine brighter
than the brightest of its sires.
General Lee was born in Westmore-
land county, Virginia, in 1907, on the
banks of the Potomac, where nature and
fortune conspired to bestow on him
every endowment and advantage which
promised distinction in public, and
felicity in private life.
The valley Of the magnificent river on
whose banks ne played in his boyhood,
which, in its sources, rushes through the
gorges Of the Blue Ridge, where it frets
on its shoals like the noble horse that
champs his foaming bit, and from thence
bounds away into the broad Chesapeake
and loses its waters in the sea-embraced
the hattle-felds Of his fame and was the
theater on which, as commander Of the
Army Of Northern Virginia, he won for
himself and for his troops immortal re-
nown. The place Of his birth and boy
hood, washed by rivers, penetrated by
iulets, diversified by hills and valleys,
adorned with forests Of pine and cedar,
the birthplace of Washington, Monroe
and Richard Henry Lee, and within the
lines of the great army which he oom-
manded, furnished scenes to thrill, and
well calculated TO inspire the heart Of
the grand hero, even in the last hours Of
his fife, with mingled feelings Of Joy and
sadness.
Such scenes can meyer be fsrgottsn
The feelinga they inspire are TOO deep
to be temporary; too powerful in their
influences on the spiritual nature that
receives them to vanish. A thousand
swifter than the light,
gather into pictures Of beauty and sub
Unity in the soul, and when they stand
revealed by the light Of memory to that
inner eye" even in the last hours Of
life they sometimes mitigate the mlse-