New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-12-14
WHOLE NUMBER ll2l.

what he never expected, eulogy Upon the
character of General Lee in the Senate of the
United States, and that, too, within sight Of
the graves Of the victims of his rebellion
Hampton and Sydney died. not for human
slavery, but for liberty. This man, General
Lee, was, Of all others, the great sinner. He
had sinned against light and knowledge.
His revolutionary ancestry, his oath of
fealty as an officer Of the United States, his-
finished education and high abilities, all
forbade him thus to sin, and the en0rmity
of his crime could not be concealed by
decorating his grave with the flowers of
rhetoric. In aswortl, it was now proposed
that the Senate should gravely consider q
proposition to degrade the memories of the
patriotic dead Of Arlington, by removing
their bones to less hallowed ground, in ten
der consideration of the rights of q widow
of an arch rebel Of the most wicked rebel
lion in history.
Mr.. Scott said coupling together the
names of Thomas and Lee recalled an ut
terance Of Stephen A. Douglass, made at the
time those two generals resolved to tread IN
opposite paths, that at that time there were,
but two classes in the nation, patriots and
traitors. The patience with which the SEN
ate Of the United States had to-day listened.
to an eulOgy upon the chief cOnspiratOr in
an attempt to- tear down the government,
u
alleled magnanimity and mercy which had
characterized the treatment by the
government of those engaged . in the
rebellion. Had the subject of that eulogy
succeeded in his effort, where would the
American Senate now be sitting? By his
triumph slavery would have cast it's dark
shadow all over this land of freedom, from
To-day the doctrine of secession lay buried
beneath the bones of thousands who fell,
that their blood might seal the covenant OF
the nation. Yet, to-day, we behold the
spectacle of resurrectionist coming here
to drag the dead doctrine out from beneath
the bones Of the nation'smartyrs.
Mr.. Wiley characterized the resolution as
most insulting and shocking to the sense
of the Senate and country, as abhOrrent to
humanity. Though personally tenacious Of
the rights of individual members, he could
not vote to receive it.
Mr.. Sawyer said the Arlington estate, like
thousands of acres of property in the South,
had been forfeited and sold at public sale
for the non-payment of taxes, and bought
by the United States. In the absence OF any
memorial from Mrs. Lee he regarded the :
contemplated inquiry as utterly worthless,
as the facts he had stated were wellknOwn
and needed NO verificatiOn.
Mr.. salisbury disappr0ved of that part of
the resolution looking to the removal of the
graves from Arlington. He could not see
that the merits-of the cause in which Gen.
ezai Lee was engaged, were at all in the
controversy. He regarded the question as
one simply of the ability. Of Senator to,
exercise his right to introduce business.
Mr.. Nye said the unseemly haste in GER
tain quarters to restore traitors, to favor
could result in no good. The verdict of to-
day, and of posterity is, and will be, that
General Lee was traitor.
n~suv ~sAvrn Al
spoke of General Lee as the greatest traitor
Of the age, whose influence had carried into
the rebellion the flower of Southern youth.
Davis, the other great traitor, still lived
and in the light of recent events, it was not
unreasonable to expect an early move to-
make him President.
Mr.. Sumner desired that parliamentary
law should be administered upon the pres
ent occasion with the utmost rg0r, with the
view to a most summary disposition OF the
resolution. He had nothing to say Of Gen.
eral Lee, except that his name stood upon
the catalogue of those who had ilnbued
their hands in their. country's blood. He
was content to hand him over to the aveng-
ing pen of history.
of the sentiments of the political associates
of the Senator from Kentucky, as prefgur-
ing the policy they would establish
should they obtain power, policy
which was to take the old rebellion BY the
hand and to install it in high place Of
power. Could he make his voice heard
from Massachusetts to Louisiana. it would
be to warn his ellow-countrymen, especially
of the South, against that combination
which now showed its hand in the prOpO-
sition of the Senator from Kentucky.
He stated that he was present when
Secretary Stanton gave orders for the inter
ment of the dead bodies Of Union soldiers
at Arlington, and that Stanton stated at the
time that his purpose in selecting it was to
forever prohibit the reinstatement of the
Lee family there; that if they did come, that
they might encounter the ghosts of their
victims. He quoted the epitaph above the
grave Of Shakespeare, which he now pro-
posed to write above the grave of every one
Of our patriot dead:
"GOOd friend, for Jesus sake fOrbear
To dig the dust enclosed here;
Blessed be the man who spares these stOnes
And curst be he who moves my bones."
Mr.. McCreery stated that the resolution
was in no sense an embodiment of Demo
cratic sentiment, but had been submitted
upon his individual responsibility, without
consultation with his colleagues.
He then asked permission to withdraw
the resolution, which was refused, though
finally, permission to introduce it was also
refused