The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-10-27
LEE mEHoRIAI AssocaAT1lroa.,.
no the Surviving Gaficers and aof.
ssfcrs or she Confeacsase
Arrssv. 81.

The last sad rites are over, and all that
was mortal of our beloved and llonurel
chieftain, General ReBRRT EDWARD LEE, has
been committed to the grave. It Is. nov
only LETT us TO dlscharga the duty so sacred to
surviving affection, sof building and deco
rating bis tomb. Admiration for bis greet
qualities and fame, may prompt others to
raise the lofty column and imposing statue;
but love for his person, reverence for his
virtues, and regard for his memory, die
tate to his comrades In arms, rs their first
care, to properly enshrine his remains. B
After General Lee assumed the presi-
fiency of Washington College, his earliest
work was the erection of chapel on the
College grounds. Beneath that chaste and
massive structure in the room designed for
a library, and adjoining the Office flied with
mementoes Of hin last unselfish, earnest
iabors, his ashes now repose. And there,
IN the temple reared by himself, at the
home of his adoption, will be his fitting,
and we believe, his enduring restinp-piace.
We hold this conviction because his re-
mains now rest in the spot chosen BY those
who alone had right to decide, because
this spot would most likely have been M.
proved by the illustrious dead himself
had his seiEforgetting mind ever dwelt
for moment on such question: be-
cause it holds his memory aIoof from
the possible COMMUNICATIONS Of party
politics J; because it accords with the
custom observed by the great Fathers
and servants of the State, all of whom pre-
ferred transformations resting-places and
because his tomb here will be really more
his exemplary life in perpetuating the good
influence Of the college of Washington and
Lee throughout the South. We therefore
invite his brethren and followers in the
momentous struggle, which has made his
ntme and their own immortal, to unite in
constructing here MAUsoLEUM worthy the
foremost man of all his time. On the day
succeeding the death Of Gen. LEE, the Con-
federate soldiers who escorted the body
from his residence to the Chapel met and
resolved at once to form a Memorial Asso-
citation; and at an adjourned meeting on
the 10Th OF October, when the funeral obse-
quies were concluded, they adopted plan
Of organization. An Executive Committee,
n President and Yice-Presidents for the
Southern States have been appointed, and
the Association will soon be regularly in
corporated. In order that the poorest in
our ranks may be enabled to Join upon
an equal footing with all others in the
pious work in view, it has been determined
that any Confederate soldier may become a
member OF the Association upon the pa :
ment of one dollar. and that the names of
all the members shall be enrolled in suiGa-
bic books to be preserved in the Memorial
Chapel. 1t is not proposed to limit sub
scriptions to the small sum already named,
nor to confine them to soldiers nor do our
wishes and purposes stop with the Mauso-
lelIm. Contributions will be gladly re-
ceived from friends everywhere and of all
classes. who will, under proper regulations,
be inscribed as honorary members; and
when n sufficient fund shall have been Sc
cured, it is contemplated TO erect special
monument in connection with the tomb.
Fellow-soldiers, we invoke you by the
common memories ofthe past to be prompt
and earnest in the noble undertaking to
which you are now invited. In the quiet
church-yard of Lexington Lieutenant-Gen-
eral Stonewall" jackson lies inferred |;
and now his great commander sleeps near
at hand. What holier spot can there be to
us than the common home of these grand
representative men? What more fitting
monument for the GREAT ARMY itself Of
which LEE was the head, the pride and
glory, than one raised here by its survivors
perpetuating alike the memory of his and
their own great deeds, the enduring wit
ness at once of their devotion and Of his
heroic qualities as q man, his virtues as a
patriot, and his sraces as a Shristian the
remembrance of which will indeed outliye
the marble and the bronze which human
art may fashion in his honor. Ill. ai z.sss.i
...-.. w. n. PENDLEToN, s1i
late Chief Artillery A. u. Va,
...... ..... < Chairman Of Elk. Come.