Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-06-06
Lees views on slavery.


which the fanatical and unconstitutional
agitation of the Abolition party had driven
many strong minds in the south. He regarded
slavery as an evil which the south had in
herited and must be left to mitigate. and, it
possible, extirpate by wise and gradual
measures. He, if any man of that time, was
capable of weighing with calmness the duty
of the hour. With him the only question
then, as at every moment of his spotless life.
was to find out which way duty pointed.
Against the urgent solicitations of Gen.
Scott, in defiance of the temptlngS OF am
bition-for the evidence is complete that the
command of the United States army was Of
fered to HMM manifest sacrifice of all his
pecuniary interests, he determined that duty
babe him side with his beloved Virginia. de
laid down his commission and solemnly de-
c1ared his purpose never to draw his sword
save in behalf of his native state. The orator
then carried his audience with him through
the battles of the late war in which Gen
Lees army participated. In the attack on
Cheat Mountain he laid his plans with skill
and vigor but the attack ended with failure
and modification. The verdict of the gen
eral public on him at this time, the winter OF
1862, might have been summed up in the his
torian's judgment of Galba. who "by com
mon consent would have been deemed fit to
command had he never commanded"
After Gen. Johnston's retirement from Sc
we're wounds, Lee assumed command OF the
Army of Northern Virginia. The loss OF
Richmond at any time would probably have
been fatal to the Confederacy, and this fact
will explain and justify in Lees conduct
many apparent violations of sound principles
of war. The various movements and the re-
sultant battles by which he sought to effect
this object-the protection of Richmond
were sketched with bold hand. His cam
paigns against Mcclellan and Mcdowell
raised him in the minds of friend and foe to
the full stature of a great and daring leader.
The advance to the Rapidan. the invasion OF
Maryland and the battle of Sharpsburg were
outlined. Here Lee, said the orator, gave the
supreme proof of a greatness of soul as much
above depression under reverses as elatlon IN
success.
In such moments the army feel the lofty
genius of their leaders. They acknowledge
his royal right to command. They recognize
their proud privilege to follow and obey. Te
such leaders only is it given to form heroic
soldiers. Such were the ragged, half starved
men in gray who stood with Lee at Sharps
burg. 1t is the vision of some such moment
perhaps that our sculptor, Mercie, has caught
with his eye of genius and fixed in imperish-
able bronze. The general has ridden up. it
seems to me. in some pause Of battle, to the
swelling crest of the front line, and, while the
eyes of the soldiers are fastened on him ir
keen expectancy, but unwavering trust, tie
great leader-silent and alone with his dread
responsibilities scanning, with calm ano
penetrating glance. the shifting phases and
chances of the stricken field.
A Commanding Figure.
Such is the commanding figure which will
presently be unveiled to your view; dull indeed
must be the imagination that does not hence
forth people this plain with invisible hosts and
compass Lee about. now and forever, with
the love and devotion of embattled ranks OF
heroic men in gray. The campaign of 1863
with the battles of Observation-Disclosures
in the orators opinion will rank with Blen
helm, Austerlitz, and jena as model battle
and Fredericksburg, resulting in forcing
the Union army behind the Rappahannock, l.
next reviewed. Gettysburg and Grants cam
paign in 1854, in which he steadily beat back
Lee, who crossed his path and confronted him
at every turn, bring the orator up to the
evacuation of Richmond. when nothing re-
manned to the Army of Northern Virginia. but
its stainless honor. its unbroken courage.
In the last solemn scenes, continued Col.
Anderson, when strong men, losing all self
control, broke down and sobbed like child
rem, Lee stood forth as great as in the days of
victory and triumph. No disaster crushed
his spirit; no extremity of danger RULED his
bearing. He looked the stubborn facts
calmly in the face, and when no military re-
source remained, when he recognized the
impossibillty of making another march or
fighting another battle he bowed his head in
submission to that power which makes and
unmakes nations The surrender OF the frag.
ments of the Army of Northern Virginia
closed the imperishable record of his military
life. What a catastrophel What a moving
and pathetic contrast!
---tSS,.- belief in it rests upon the unanimous
testimonv 1f the men who lived and acted
with him. among WnSm nothing is more COM
mon than the declaration mat Lee was the
purest and best man of action ksS s..
history has recorded. In his whole life, laid
bare to the gaze of the world, the least friend.
ly criticism has never discovered one single
deviation from the narrow path of rectitude
and honor What was strained eulOgy when
MontesGuieu said of another great soldier
Turenne, that His life was hymn in praise
of humanity is, if applied to Lee, the Ian
guage of sober truth. No man can consider
his life without feeling of renewed hope anc
trust in mankind.
On the one side, complete and dazzling tri-
umph after q long succession of humlllatlne
disasters; on the other, absolute ruin and de-
feat-a crown of thornS for that peerless
army which hitherto had known only the
victor's laurel. But the magnanimity of the
conqueror, not less than the fortitude of the
vanquished. shone out on the solemn scene
and softened its tragic outlines of fate and
doom. The moderation and good sense of the
northern people, breathing the large and gen.
erous air of our western world, quickly re.
sponded to Grants example, and though the
north was afterward betrayed into fanatica.
IN v,..-. VI eAueo, on 1mUre than one great
subject all tho fercer passions of bloody
civil war were rapidly extinguished.
There was to be no Poland, no Ireland in
America. When the Hollywood pyramid was
rising over the Confederate dead soon after
the close Of the contest some one suggested
for the Insertion for classic verse which
may be rendered. '"They died for their
county-their country persisted with them"
81
Far different were the thoughts of Lee. He
had drawn his sword in obedience only to the
dictates of duty and honor. But, facing the
duty of the honr, Lee saw now that the ques-
ton submitted to the great arbitrament of
war had been finally answered. He recog-
nized that the unity of the American people
had been irrevocably established. He felt
that it would be impiety and crime to dis
honor by petty strife of factions that pure and
unselfsh struggle for constitutional rights
which, while a single hope remained, had
been Loyalty fought out by great armies, led
by heroic captains and sustained by the
patriotic sacrifices of noble and resolute
people.
The Reunited Country.
He therefore promptly counselled his old
soldiers to look upon the great country thus
reunited by blood and iron as their own, and
to live and labor for its honor and welfare.
His own conduct was in accord with these
teachings. Day by day his example illustrated
what his manly words declared. that 'Hu-
man virtue should be equal to human ca
lamity." After a brief reference to the re-
mainder of Lees life, passed in the dis.
charge of his duties as president of Washing
ton college, the orator ended his address as
follows
AS the people saw him fulfilling these mod
est, but noble, functions; as they saw him
with antique simplicity putting aside every
temptation to use his great fame for vulgar
gain; as they saw him in self respecting con.
tentment with the frugal earnings of his per-
sonal labor, refusing every offer of pecuniary
assistance; as they realized his unselfish de.
votion of all that remained of strength and
life to the nurture of the southern youth in
knowledge and morals, new conviction of
his wisdom and virtue gathered force and
spread abroad into all lands.
The failure of the righteous cause fol
which he fought denied him that eminence OF
civil station in which his great qualities in
their happy mixture might well have afforded
parallel to the strength and the modera-
ton of Washington. But what failure could
obscure that moral perfection which places
him as easily by the side of the best men that
have ever lived, as his heroic actions make
him the peer of the greatest.
There are men whose influence on mankind
neither worldly success nor worldly failur