The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1870-11-02
ADDRESS OF REV. DIR. PALMER,

DELIVERED IN NEW ORLEANS, AT
THE 81. CHARLES THEATRE, ON
THE DEATH OF Il L. LEE.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.-I should
have been tetter pleased had I been
permitted to sit simple listener 70
the tribute paid to the immortal chief
tain, who now reposes in death, by the
speaker who has just taken his seat.
The nature of my calling so for sepa-
rates me from public life tha- l am
scarcely competent for the Office of al
luding to the elements which natural
ly gather around his career. When in
formed that other artists would draw
the picture of the warrior and the hero
/ yielded a cheerful compliance, in the
belief that nothing was left but to des-
crihe the Christian and the man. You
are entirely familiar with the early life
of him over whose grave you this
night shed tears. His academic career
at West Point, brilliant with such
names as General Joseph Z. Johnston;
his seizure of the highest honors, long
apprenticeship in that institution, ar
abrupt ascension in the Mexican war
from obscurity to fame-all are too
firmly stamped in the minds of his ad-
mirers to require even an allusion.
| You are too familiar to need q repe-
tition from my lips of that great men,
tai and spiritual struggle passed not
one night, but many, when abandond-
ing the service in which lie had gath
cred SO much Of honor and reputation,
to lay his heart upon the altar of his
native State, and swear to live in hel
defence.
1t wonld be somewhat singular sub
f ject of speculation to discover how il
is that national character SO often re-
ma,kably expresses itself in the single
individuals who are born as represen,
tatves of a class. 1t is wonderful, 70,
it has been the remark of ages, how
the great are born in clnsters-s0me,
times, indeed, one star shining viii
solitary splendor in the, armament
above, but generally gathered in CRANE
f considerations, filling the sky with glo
7 ry. What is that combination of in,
tiuences, partly intellectual but some
what more moral, which should make
particular country productive of mer
t great over all others on earth and tt
ri all ages of time /?
Ancient Greece, with her indentet
coast, inviting maritime adventures
from her earlist period, was the moth
er of heroes in war, ofpoets in song
of sculptors and artists, and stands NJ
!, after the lapse of centuries, the educa
tor of mankind, living in the gran
deur of her works, and in tic immor
} tai productions of minds which modern
, civilization with all its cultivation ant
refinement and science never surpassed
and scarcely equalled.
And why in the three hundred years
of American history it should be giver
: to the Old Dominion to be the giant
mother, not only Of States, but of til,
men by whom States and empires az,
formed, it might be curious were it pos
= sible for us to inquire. Unquestiona
E bly,, Mr.. President, there is in thi
= problem the element of race, for he il
blind to all the truths Of history, to al
the revelations of the past, who doe
s not recognize a select race as we re
: cognize select individual of race, t,
make all history; but pretermitting al
sbeculatioBs of that sort, when Virgin
ia untolds the scroll of her immorra
f sons-not because illustrions men di,
not precede him gathering in constel
lations and clusters, but because thu
> name shines out through those con
Il stellations and clusters in all it's peer
S less grandeur we read the name o
h George Washington. Applause.
p And then, Mr.. President, after tn
, interval of three-quarters of century
u when your jealous eye has range,
e down the record and traced the name
e that history will never let die, 20
come to the name-the only name i
all the.annals of American history tina
. can be named in the perilous connec
q tion--of Robert E. Lee. fApplause.
o The second Washington. Applause.
Well may old Virginia be proud of he
twin sons. Applause. Born almos
a century apart, but shining like thos
q binary stars which open their glory an
u shed their splendor on the darkness {
) the world. Sir, it is not an ariitice {
'e rhetoric which suggests this parable
" between two great. names in America
), history; for the suggestion spring
Il spontaneously to every mind, and me
s. scarcely speak of him without think
,e ing of a mysterious connection tha
I, binds two together.
- They were alike in the pressage {
y their early history-the history of the
! boyhood. Both earnest, grave, stud
% ous-both alike in that peculiar purit
- which belongs only to a noble boy, an
y which makes him a brave and nobl
;. man, filling the page of a history spo1
y, - less until closed in leath-alike in thu
20 20 commanding presence which seen
!, TO be the signature of Heaven some
Is times placed on great soul when
NJ =, that soul is given a fit dwelling plac,
u alike in that noble carriage and con
II handing Notwithstanding mes
20 merc influence, and hidden powe
- which could not be depressed upon a
~ who came within it's charm; alike i
- the remarkable combination and syn
- metry of their intellectual attribute
" all brought up to the same equal leve
u, no facility of the mind over lappin
~ AZ any othcr-all so equal, so we'll deve
:, oped, the Judgment, the reason, tt
u memory, the fancy, that You are a
" most disposed to deny them grcatnes
o. o. because no single attribute of the min
~ was projected upon itself just as oil
jects appear sometimes smaller to ii
- eye from the exact symmetry an
a. beauty of their proportions-alik
;,s above all in that soul greatness, TIL