Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-10-11
ROBT. E. LEES CHARACTER.
[Dr. H. NJ. Field in the New York Evangelist.
(Conclu1ed from last aceek.)

DR. H. NJ. Field in the New York Evangelist.
(Concluded from last aceek.)
This sympathy for the suffering showed
itself, not in any public act so much as a
more private and delicate Office which i'm
posed upon him a very heavy burden--0ne
that he might have declined, but the taking
| of which showed the man. He had an I'M
limited correspondence. Letters poured in
upon him by the hundred and the thousand,
They came from all parts of the South, not
! only from his old companions in arms, but
from those he had never seen or heard Of:
Every mother that had lost a son in the war
felt that she had the right to pour her sor-
row into the ear OF one who was not lnSen-
sible to her grief. Families left in utter
poverty appealed to him for aid. Most men
would have shrunk from labor so great as
that of answering these letters. Not so
General Lee. He read them, not only pa
tiently, as a man performs disagreeable
duty, but with tender interest, and so far
as possible returned the kindestOf answers.
If he had little money to give he could at
least give sympathy, and to his old soldiers
and their wives and children it was more
than money to know that they had place
in that great heart.
/ While thus ministering to his stricken
people there is one public benefit which he
rendered that ought never to be forgotten.
Though the war was over he Still stood in
public relations in which he could render
an Unreasonable service to the whole
country. There are no crises in nations
life more perilous than those following
civil war. The peace that comes after it is
peace only in name if the passions of the
war still live. After our great struggle
the South was full Of intlammable materi-
ais The fires were but smouldering in
ashes, and might break out at any moment
and rage with destructive fury. If the
spirit of some had had full swing the pas
sions of the civil war would have been not
only perpetuated but increased, and have
gone down as an inheritance of bitterness
from generation to generation This stor-
troll. He had no official position, civil or
military. But he was the representative
of the Lost Cause. He had led the south
ern armies to battle, and he still had the
unbounded confidence of millions, and it
was his attitude and his words of concili-
alton that did more than anything else to
still the angry tempest that the war had
chieftan-so calm in defeat, so ready to
bear the burden of his people-that sooth-
ed their anger and their pride, and made
the old soldiers of the Confederacy feel
that they could accept what had been ac-
cepted by their leader, and that as he had
set the example it was no unworthy sacri-
fee for them to become loyal supporters
of the restored American Union. 1t is
therefore not too much to say that it is
owing in great measure to General Lee
that the civil war has not left a lasting divi-
sion between the North and the South, and
that they form to-day one united country.
These are grateful memories to be recall
ed, now that he who was so mighty in war
and so gentle in peace has passed beyond
the reach of praise OF blame. Do you tell
me he was "an enemy" and that by as
much as we love our country we ought to
hate it.: ''enemies' But there are no enc
mics among the dead. When the grave
closes over those with whom we have been
at strife we can drop our hatreds and Judge
of them without passion, and even kindly,
as we wish those who come after us to
judge of us. In few years all the con-
4 temporaries of General Lee will be dead
and gone; the great soldiers that fought
with him and that fought against him, will
alike have passed to the grave; and then
perhaps there will be a nearer approach of
feeling between friend and foes
| "Ah, yes, say some who admit his great
ness as a soldier and leader, ''if it were not
for his ambition that stopped not at the
ruin of his countryp' Such is the fatal ac-
cuSatiOn
| Caesar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.''
But was that ambition in him which was
patriotism in us? How is it that zoe who
were upborne for four years by passion
for our country, that stopped at no sacri-
fees, cannot understand that other men of
the same race and blood could be inspired
with the same passion for what they look
ed upon as their country, and fight for it
with the same heroic devotion that We
fought for ours? They, as we'll as we,
were fighting for an idea-we for union
and they for Independence cause which
was as sacred to them as ours to us. Is it
that what was patriotism on the one side
was only ambition on the other? No; it
was not disappointed ambition that cut
short that life; it was not the humiliation
of pride; but a wound that struck far
deeper. One who watched by him in those
long night hours tells me that he died of a
broken heart This is the most touching
aspect of the great warriors death; that he
did not fall on the field of battle, either in
the hour of defeat or of victory but in
silent grief for sufferings which he could not
relieve. There is something infinitely pa
thetic in the way that he entered into the
condition Of whole people, and gave his
last strength to comfort those who were
fallen and cast down. 1t was this constant
strain of hand and brain and heart that
finally snapped the strings of life; so that
the last view of him as he passes out of our
sight is one of unspeakable sadness. The
dignity is preserved, but it is the dignity of
woe. 1t is the same tall and stately form
|
but bowed with sorrow not his own In
Fthis mournful ma jesty, silent with grief
beyond words, this great figure passes into
history.
There we leave him to the judgment of
another generation, that standing affair
off, may see some things more clearly than
we. When the historian of future ages
comes to write the history of the great re-
public he will give the first place to that
war Of the Revolution by Which our coun-
try gained its independence and took its
place among the nations of the earth; and
the second to the late civil war, which,
begun for separation, ended in closer and
consolidated Union. That was the last
act in the great drama of our nations life,
in which history cannot forget the part
that was borne by him whose silent form
lies within this sepulchrc.
AS took a last look at the sarcophagus
| observed that it bore no epitaph, no
words of praise were carved upon the
stone; only name,
ROBERT EDWARD LEE,
with the two dates,
BORN JANUARY 10, 1907;
DIED OCTOBER II, 1870.
That is all, but it is enough; all the rest
may be left to the calm, eternal Judgment
of history. Il. M. F.