The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-11-19
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Saturday Morning. Meyamhe=ann, ,sa! sas!ee e.

Thc Lato survivors' Meeting.
At the recent meeting of the survivors,
in this city: the following officers we're
elected: -ir
Psesident- General Wade Hampton.
Vice Presidents r. 81. AndersonS
Gen. JOB. iKershaw, Gen. s. MCGOWAN,
GEN. M. Q. Butler, Gen. Arthur Mani
gault, Maj. It. G. Barker.
Secrekdt:i-Col. A. G. Haskell.
IEeasurer-Capt. w. X. Bnchman.
Euecutive Board-Col. Edward McCra-
dy, Col. J. McCutchen, Gen. Ellison
Capers, Col. W. H Wallace, Gen. james
Conner, Col. J. n. Rion, Col. G. Irvine
Wake
The following memorial paper, re-
rpecting Gen. r. e. Lee, was submitted
by Gen. J. B. Kershaw-a SOLDIERS tri-
butte to SOLDIER:
It is meet that we recall on this oc-
casion the memory of our revered chief
tain. Gen. Robert E. Lee, and to lny
upon his tomb our poor tribute to his
greatness and his worth, amid the votive
offerings of our oountrymen ut the
shrine of the patriot and hero. When
re approach the truly grand and breathe
the atmosphere Of that which is sublime,
either in the moral or physical world,
the heart of MAN is stilled-the spirit is
awed md hunbled by the presence of
the Infinite, manifested in the works OF
His hands, or in tie diviner emanations
of His own supernal nature and image,
sometimes vouchsafed to the denizens of
earth. Thus it is when we stand by the
newiy-made grave and contemplate the
person, the character and the career of
Robert e. Lee. We feel tho inadequacy
of our limited powers either rightly to
conceive the virtues of the dead, or to
embody'in language such conceptions as
our capacities enable US to enjoy. We
would withdraw into the deeper reoesses
of our own nature, the silent regions of
unutterable emotions, those borders of
the spirit land where we catch the echoes
of the infinite world beyond, there to
commune in the stiffness of our own
hearts. Yet it is fitting that we, his
friends and comrades in the past, who
shared his triumphs aud his reverses, his
joys aud his sorrows, his hopes and his
despair, should wreathe around his
honored name and memory our garlands
of love and praise. fresh and unfading
hearts, embalming for the generations
of the iilustrious citizen, hero and pa
triot.
His was q nature so perfect, that, like
dhe icicle, it defies analysis or compari-
son. It presented a fullness, COM
plcteness, grandeur of development
that offered nothing to censure, and left
nothing to desire. Neither the expe-
rience Of the living, nor the portraitures
saf history offered its prototype or par
.allel. Our great countryman, Washing
ton, furnishes in some of his character
istics, as also in the analogies of his
career, O resemblance as that between
star and star, but they differed rs zone
star differeth from another star in
glory" His form, his face, his voice,
his bearing God-like in beauty, power
and grace, distinguished him from all
other men. He certainly was made but
"a little lower than the angels" and
now he has crossed the river to be with
them, whittier the flower of his noble
army had gone before, whittier we, too,
shall follow, if faithful sontinels, as one
by one we are relieved from duty hero
victor band. Thele Q are men, cast in SO
high q mould, 80 peculiarly and cmi-
nently favored by God, as to be rather
fitted for that better life than this. They
are the great examplars; the beacon
lights, TINT guide the race onward and
upward. Think of that illustrious
throng-.he Confederate dead-in the
world of light and liberty! How many
such men-''heroes in history" find
there place most fitting among the
highest and the brightest? Yet even
among these. how towers tho lofty spirit
of Robert e Lee When we consider
the moral grandeur of the man, even his
magnificent achievements in the field Of
arms cease to astoDish us, aud we lose
ourselves in the contemplation of his
nobility Of soul. What was his life for
the last five years but constant martyr
dom of the spirit-a daily dying for 'ts9
TO teach us to labor, to suffer, to endure,
60 wait patiently for our redemption, to
abide faithfully by the inevitable, to
bow'to the will of God. Who can esti-
mate what he felt, what he endured, in
those five years of agony. for his tor
tured countrymen? What wonder his
craat laert broke at lost? His duty