Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1875-01-14
ROBERT E. LEE.

PERSONAL "REMINISCENCES, AN
ECDOrES, AND LETTERS OF
GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD
LEE. BY the Rev. J. WILLIAM
JONES, ID. D.. Chaplain of the Army
of Northern Virginia and of Wash
ington and Lee College. New York ::
D.Arpleton& Co. 1874. N. Y. World.
What an ineffable comfort it is to re-
view, even in our perfunctory newspa-
per fashion, such book as this, free
from the angry tempers and prejudices
of the past! What a pleasure to write
about Robert E. Lee freely and candid
ly, and in US genial spirit as we do
about CASTOR de Folk, or Bayard, or
Sir Philip Sydney! 1t is now more
than four years since the news came to
us thatGencral Lee was dead, and then,
as the author of this book reminds us
(p, COY, was said:
Every man is to be Judged, so far
as human Judgment may be passed
upon him at all, by the tenor of the
motives to which the main current of his
days has responded. Judged by this
standard, the career of Robert +. Lee
must command the deliberate admira-
tion even Of those who most earnestly
condemn the course upon which he de-
cided in the most solemn and impera-
tive crisis of his life. OF his genius
speak. To that the unanimous voice of
all the true and gallant men who fought
our long battle out with him and his
untiring army has borne abundant
witness. The events which evoked it
are still too near TO us, too many mel
ancholy memories still cluster about
the names If those prodigious battle
fields of Virginia. to make it natural or
possible for s. Northern pen to dwell
with complacency upon the strategic
resources, the inexhaustible patience.
the calm determination, of our most
il!us,rious antagonist But If the tes-
timonv of all honorable men who con-
tended against the great Southern Gen
eral agrees with the verdict Of all CON-
potcnt foreign critics in awarding to
him place among the most eminent
soldiers of history. the concord is not
less absolute of all who knew the man
in the private and personal aspects of
his life. as 10 his gentleness, his love of
justice. his truth, and his elevation of
soul"
If we said this then, and it cost no
effort to do SO, why should we hesitate
to speak more freely now, when the
grass has grown over that classic grave
at Lexington, and no tongue, save. per-
haps, those of some fossilized Bour-
bons Of anti-slavery radicalisn, with
holds its tribute 70 the character of the
great ''inhahitant below" IL Gener-
al Lee erred in the one momentous step
he took in 1861, most grievously did
he expiate it, for If ever man died of
broken heart. he did. If proof We're
wanting. in this book we have it. Not
that we have here or anywhere any the
least sign Of self-reproach. It is but
fair To concede this even from our point
of view. His was an honest conviction
that led him TO east his lot with Virginia.
and in doing so (as here we have the
evidenee), to relinquish the highest po-
sition and honor in his profession (p.
1881, and never for one moment does
he seem to have repented it. But the
"heart- break" was the hideous recol-
lection Of the miseries of fruitless war
however heroic, and the realization o.
the actual state of things around him
1t always seemed to US that there is nc
finer word-paintiug, at least in oul
American language, than that Of one