Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-30

as duty required with less parade imam EURO
pean generals of division; wearing no SWORD,
attended by no staff than the immediate occa-
sion demanded and chatting with comrade
OF visitor with simple courtesy which nad
in it no shade OF cOndescenslon: only on one
occasion does he seem to have been ACQUIRED
with the slightest regard to military display
or personal dignity; and that, chaIactefisti-
cally, was the last occasion on when ne wore
the Confederate nniform-the occasion OF ms
interview with Gen. Grant on the 9th OF April.
1865. After the war he retired without word
into privacy and obscurity. RUINED by the
seizure and destruction OF his properly, Wnlch
Mcclellan protected, and which his successors
gave up to ravage and pillage, the late com
mander-in-chief of the southern armies accept
ed the presidency of a Virginia college, and
devoted himself as simply and earnestly TO It's
duties as if he had never filled higher sta
ton or performed more exciting functions.
Well aware of the Jealous temper OF the party
dominant in the North, and anxious, above
all things, to avoid exasperating that temper
against his conquered countrymen, he care
fully abstained from appearing in any public
ceremony OF taking any overt part in politi-
cal questions. His influence has been exerted
quietly but steadily in one direction, with
Single view to restore harmony and good will
between the two sections and to reconcile the
oppressed sOutherners to the Union from
which he fought so gallantlyt to free them. lie
discountenanced all regretful longings after
the lost vision of southern independence; al!
demonstrations in honor of ''the conquered
banner" and has encouraged the South to
seek the restoration Of her material prosperj-
ty and the satisfaction OF her national feelings
in frank acceptance of the result OF the war
and loyal adhesion to the Federal bond. 1t
was characteristic and worthy of the man that
he was among the first to sue for formal par
don from President Johnson; not for any adj
vantage which he personally could obtain
thence, but to set the example of submission
to his comrades in arms and reconcile them
to humiliation without which the conquer
Ors refused them that restitution to civil
rights necessary to any effort to retrieve their
own or their countrY's fortunes. Truer great
ness, a loftier nature, spirit more unselfsh
q character purer, more chlvalrOus
the world has rarely, if ever, known. Of
stainless life and deep religious feeling, yet
free from all faint of cant and fanaticism and
as dear and congenial to the Cavalier Stuart
as to the Puritan Stonewal1 Jackson; unam-
duty; devoted to his cause, yet never moved
by his feelings beyond the line prescribed by
his Judgments never provoked by Just resent
ment to punish WantOn cruelty by reprisalS
which would have given a character Of need
less savagery to the War-bOth North and
South owe a deep debt of gratitude to him,
and the time will come when both will be
equally proud of him. And we'll they may,
for his character and his life afford COM
plete answer to the reproaches commonly cast
on money grubbing, mechanical America
A country which has given birth to men like
him, and those who followed him, may look
the chivalry of Europe in the face without
shame; for the fatherlapds of Sidney and of
Bayard never produced nOb1er soldier, gen
tleman and Christian than Gen. Robert E. Lee.