The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-05-06

Soui A4o Lee 81 IL, was deep INJURY
which he felt to be meant and designed
AL true constitutional government. which
could induce him, standing in the
position he did, and loyal, true and
honorable in every fibre Of his being, to
abandon the service which he had
honored and loved. The letter bears
date January 1e, 1861, and was written
from Fort Mason, near San Antonio, in
Texas. 1t was addressed to young
lady, n relative of his, for whom ho had
great affection, and passages of it were
written as message to her father. AL
luding to the homes of two families of
friends, he said:
often, and hope some day to SEQ them
again. may have the opportunity soon,
for if the Union is dissolved, shall re-
turn to Virginia to share tho fortune of
my people. But before so great Gala
NIFTY betalls the country, hope 81! ho-
norable means of maintaining the Con-
stitution and the equal rights of the
people will be first exhausted. Tell
your father he must not allow Maryland
to be tackled on to South Carolina before
the just demands of the South have been
fairly presented to the North and rejected.
Then, if the rights guaranteed by the
1 SOhoSltut1OA Alo och2otk ubt ua0 tue ClIl-
| zens of one portion of the country are
granted privileges not extended to the
| other We can, with clear conscience,
| separate. am for maintaining NIL our
| rights, not for abandoning all for the
sake Of one. Our national rights liberty
at home and security abroad, our lands,
navy, forts, dock-yards, arsenals and in
stitutions of every kind. 1t will result
in war, I know-ferce, bloody war. But
30 will secession, for it is revolution and
war at last, and cannot be otherwise, and
| we might as we'll look Mt it in its true
character. There is long message, A,
for your father, and grave ono, which
had not intended to put in my letter to
you; but 1t is O subject on which my Sc
rious thoughts often turn, for as nm Ame-
rican citizen, I prize my Government
and country highly, and there is no sacri-
| flee am not willing to make for their
preservation, save that of honor. I trust
there is wisdom and patriotism enough
| in the country to save them, for I cannot
anticipate SO great q calamity to the ma
ton as the dissolution of the Union"
Alas! alas! that the hand which wrote
those touching, anxious words was not
| near enough to the helm to avert the
| shipwreok! Alas! alas! that no voice
should have been lifted in the lnnd
potent enough to bid the whirlwind
stay! Who lacked the wisdom-who
lacked the patriotism that Lee invoked,
it is not for me, in this place, Mt least, to
say. If they existed, they were dumb
| and helpless, and the whirlwind came.
But hive read enough to you to show
| the stuff of which some men were made
whom they call ''rebels"-enough to
show that they who fought, at last, against
the Union, were not always they who
loved it least, or would least willingly
have died to save it,
Mr.. Wallis concluded with touching
reference, not to the fame of Lee rs it
attracts the adrniration of mankind, not
to the qualities which enemies md
friends equally venerate, but to the deep
abiding hold which he keeps in all hearts
where he dwells as Il household word and
IN abiding memory. This precious love
is nowhere more deeply felt than in our
State, but it has been nowhere SO exQui-
sitely presented as in this discourse, and
all hearts will rejoice in it's lofty appre-
citation. His story and his memory are
| linked with all the hopes and triumphs,
the exultation and despair which mndo IL
century OF those four bitter, bloody, tor
| turing years. He was to us the incarna-
| ton Of his causc-of what was noblest
in it. and knightliest and best.
Whatever of perplexity beset his path
before he chose it, he knew no doubts
when 1t WAS chosen. Ho followed where
it led him, knowing no step backward
Along with it, through victory and defeat,
our sympnthies and prayers went with
him. Around him gathered the fresh,
valiant manhood Of our State, and many
brave young heart that ceased to beat
beside him, drew him hut closer to the
bleeding hearts in all our saddened
homes. These are the ties that bind him
to us. These are tho memories that
troop around us here tonight, of
the tar-of hero, belonging to the world
and history, but memories Of our hero
ours-the man that wore the gray. Not
i'll the valley where he sleeps, not among
the fields he made immortal. lives he. or
will he live, in fonder recollection than
where Calvert planted freedom.
And fur and nenr, through vale and
hill,
Are faces that attest the same
The proud heart flashing through the
eyes
| At sound of his loved name.
And when they tell us. as they do,
thoso wiser, better brethren of ours-and
tell the world to make it history-that
this, our Southern civilization, is half
barbarism. we may be pardoncd if we
answer: Behold its product and its
| representative! "Of thorna men do not
gather figs, nor Of abramble-bush gather
| h. ID r