New-York tribune., 1870-10-20
UpU TER,S MEMORY

".
If il natural and fitting that those who
fought long and well under the late Robert
f. Lee, even in a cause so indefensible az that
of Human Slavery, should strew flowers on
his new made grave. No generous mlnd Will
object to this. Confederate Virginia Is pas
sionatey proud of her most illustriOus name:
why not allow her respectfully and modestly
TO say So We see nothing in tho hOnOrs paid
TO the memory of Lee by his late associates
in desperate, protracted struggle, which
should incite or would justify animadverslon.
And. as to the sub-Ofiicial who undertook to
display the United States flag at half-mast on
n Federal custom-hOuse in sympathy with the
feelings of those associates, he probably knew
no better, and has been sufficiently rebuked
for his error.
But holding meetings in Northern cities to
honor the memory of the dead leader of the
Confederate hosts seems to us, to speak softly,
unwise and mischievous. 1t tends to revive
recollections that are happily fading from the
general mind, and to infiame differences that
were better wholly effaced and forgotten. No
one need be told that Gen. Lees private life was
exemplary, nor that those who knew and loved
him best esteemed him living and honor him
dead as a man and Christian. The pub
lie cannot help understanding that the honors
here paid to his memory would never have
been proffered had he closed his career as he
began it-a loyal, faithful soldier of the Union.
Is it well to incite such reaectionsY With
great respect for the attitude and bearing OF
Gen. Lee ever since as well as prior to his
Confederate career, we think not.
At all events, be careful that Truth is not
fouted in doing honor to the memory OF one
whose renown has cost our country at least
Billion of National Debt and the lives of One
Hundred Thousand of her noblest sons.
A writer in The Age (Philadelphia) who
seems to be Gen. Cadwallader, after an en-
phatic but not indiscriminate laudation of
Gen. Lees military genius, says:
at Il aim to-day to criticse nor to broach po-
tical questions but to pay tribute OF respect and
honor to a great man, who fought fairly and noby on
took sincerely believing 1t to be- according to
his light the side to which patriotism and honor sum
moned him. There are too many men in the world who
wfully go wrong from base and veDal and selfish mo
tves Let he charitable to the brave and good who,
il they err human judgment ia allibe the
circumstances OF their position difficult and the path OF
duty which they wish to follow, not to their eyes,
clearly discernible."
Now, we will not say that Gen. Lee did
not feel obliged to obey the call of Virginia
in preference to that of the Union: but We do
surely know, from his own unequiyOcal testi-
mony, that he did not believe that Virginia or
her Southern sisters had adequate reason for
resisting and seeking to subvert the authority
of that Union. He obeyeG her summons, be-
cause he thought she had paramount claim
to his allegiance and not because he deemed
her constrained by intOlerable wrongs to break
e. .l, ha
much He said this lin substance) in letter
to his sister, long since published.
Gen. Lee was educated for a soldier at the
expense not of Virginia, but the Union. He
could not have been so educated without TAX
ing stringent oath of unqualified fidelity to
that UniOn-an oath OF perpetual obligation.
Had he presented himself at West Point, and
said, when the oath was rendered, 81 take
" this with the distinct understanding that, if
"Virginia shall ever call me to fight against
" the Union, | shall hold myself not only at
"lberty but under obligation to do so,' his
proffer must have been rejected and he turned
away uninstructed. But he took the oath "a
it was prOpOunded, without ayowed reserva-
ton, and afterward, as official head of the Mill
tary Academy, administered or caused il to be
administered to others. That he should have
felt constrained thereafter, in defiance of his
own conviction that she should not have
seeded, to follow Virginia into the bloody
abyss of secession and treason, seems to us a
mournful instance of human imperfecton and
frailty, which no loyal soldier of the Union
(Which Gen. Cadwallader, we presume, claims
to be) should have brought into public view
without deeply lamenting if not pointedly re-
proving it..