Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-01-20
fence Of right, whether In council hall or
tented held. a. to command the homage
and respect OF men.

But sfili their spirits walk aorosd."
And here tonight, here in the midst OF
those who knew and honored him IN life I:
here, may almost say, in tbis camp of old
soldiers who followed where he led from
Richmond to Appomsttox with courage so
heroic and devotion so true that the centu-
ries may be challenged to show their peers I;
here unseen, but not unfelt, the spirit OF
Lee walks amongst as, and for the moment
at least fills our hearts with somewhat Of
his own pure love Of gentleness and jus
tice and duty. ss consciously or not We re-
solve ss well as may be to initiate his great
example, though far, 20 far away.
TO ALL TIMES AND ALL rax WORLD.
The man whose fame and memory we
celebrate tonight! Though ours by birth.
he belongs not to our time. nor yet to us
alone, but TO all times aud to oil the world.
know that amongst those whom he an
tagonized there are men cast by nature in
so small mould. with minds 50 contract
ed and hearts so mean, that they are still
ready to cast stone at the memory Of the
rebel Lee. Thank God, there are few. IL
any such. in the ranks of the brave sol
diers who fought against him: But the
passions and prejudices which the war
of the long ago. The red rose and the
white bloom side by side on fields once
drenched with the blood of Lancaster and
York, and. though upon the return OF the
Stuart to the throne of his fathers the
graves of the Puritans were despoiled OF
their dead, and the bodies Of Pym and
Blake dragged from Westminster Abbey
and cast like RUBBISH into the church-yard
of st. Margaret, yet to-day, could one
produce but link OF the chain by which
Cromwelrs body was suspended from the
gibbet on Tyburn Hill, il were priced as q
precious relic worth thousand times its
weight in gold; for call him as men may,
rebel or lord protector, all England boasts
of his name, his genius, and his glory, and
her sons with equal pride trace their blood
from the dashing cavaliers who rode with
Essex and Prince Rupert at Edge Hill. and
the God-fearing men who marched to vic
tory with Cromwell at Marston Moor, or
followed Hampden to death and defeat at
Chalgrove.
Thus it is that the "a fashion of this world
passeth away" and the fashion of sense
less fanatics in the pulpit who have been
preaching crusade of hate in the place of
that dear Gospel of peace, which the
selfish politicians, who have panied the
ears and vexed the hearts of all true pa
triots with their hypocritical rantings
about "rebel brigadiers" and southern
traitor" and broken oaths"; the fashion
of miserable tricksters, who for their own
base ends have so long distorted truth
and lived on lies. Be sure all this shall
pass away and Americans everywhere ac-
cept the judgment the world has already
rendered: that of all who played their
parts on the great stage OF our great civil
war the greatest, the wisest. ard the best
was Robert Edward Lee. [Great applause
Thrice brevetted in Mexico-at Cerro
Gordo, at tCherubusco. and at tChapultepec--
he proved himself soldier with courage
as dauntless as Eey's, and always and
everywhere bore himself with dignity,
courtesy, and knightly chivalry, which
lose nothing by comparison with Sidney
or Bayard. He loved his old commander
on those glorious fields, he loved the dag
for which he had fought and bled, he loved
the Union itself with all its glorious asso-
Citations, and terrible struggle rent his
noble heart in twain when, after Lincoln's
proclamation had accomplished what the
appeals of her sister States hgd failed to
bring about and driven Virginia to seces-
sion, he was compelled to choose between
that Union and his native State.
THE WAY DUTY POINTED.
No one knew better than he the vast
power and resources Of the North; none
of the impending contest and the sacri-
fee which he would make in casting his
fortunes with the Sonth, for Arlington,
with all its sweet and cherished memories,
lay smiling in the beauty of the opening
spring. and he had but to reach forth his
hand and grasp the baton of supreme CONS
mand III the grand army which Lincoln
was marshaliing for the conflict; but he
needed not the voice OF friendship nor the
promptings of ambition. he heard not the
pleadings of self-interest, he hesitated
only long enough to decide which way
duty pointed, and deciding that his first
allegiance was due to his native state,
promptly drew his sword in her defence.
And
"Neyer hand waved sword from stain as free,
Nor purer sword led brayer band.
Nor braver bled for brighter land,
Nor brighter land had cause as grand,
Nor cause q chief like Lee."
And when after the most tremendous
conflict the world has ever witnessed that
brave band laid down its banners, heavy
laden with the weight of glory and worn
with fighting and weary with victory, yield
ed at last to hunger and want, and when that
bright land was darkened with the black
pail of despair and that grand cause crush
ed to earth by the weight of host in arms
well-nigh million strong, he returned that
sword to its scabbard as pure and stainless
as when it first flashed in the face OF the
foe.
This is neither the time nor the occa-
sion, were | competent for the task, by
close ANALYSIS of his character and deeds,
to approximate the place OF Lee In the
Pantheon of the great.
As soldier he must yield precedence 70
and Caesar. and Frederick, and
Napoleon, but he was nevertheless great
captain, and as an accomplished English
critic has written; " In strategy mighty. III
battle terrible, in adversely, as in pros
perity, hero, indeed"
The bloody battles before Richmond,
when like lion springing from his lair he
took the offensive, and hurting his army
like thunder-bolt on the legions OF Nc
Clellan he defeated him at Cold Harbor
and drove him TO refuge at Harrison's
Landing, proves the truth of this. Sharps-
burg proves IL, and that brilliant campaign
in which he outgeneralled Pope and shat
tering his forces at second Manassas
compelled him TO seek safety behind the
Of Washington proves it.
fredericksburg and Burnside bear witness
to its truth. Charlottesville and Hooker
It, and Gettysburg, immortal
now by the charge of Pckett's brave Vir-
ginians, twin brothers in yalor and repown
with the heroes who died Tor tneir cOun-
try at Thermopyl@ tells the same story.
The countless numbers of brave men who
fell under the flag of Grant from the
Wilderness to Petersburg proclaim it from
their soldier graves, and Appomattox's
trumpet tongue tells il 10 all the ages, for
there, in that Getbsemane Of sorrow, he
fate itself, aud plucking glory
from defeat taught the world by his own
example the truth of that august maxim
which had been the guide of his life, that
human virtue could equal human ca
amity."
LEE AND NAPOLEON.
When we read the story of Napoleon
fretting away his life at ST.. Helena. and
railing in impotept rage at the reverses OF
mis- fortune, we can but wish sometimes
hat he had put himself at the head Of the
Old Guard whom Cambronne led TO un-
dying fame at Waterloo, and perished on
hat fateful field, but where lives the man
who does not feel that the world would
have sustained an irreparsble loss had
Robert T.. Lee ridden along his lines at
and put an end to his grand
lie and sorrow there. a. in one single mo-
ment of pardonabie weakness be sug-
yested he could dol
When Gordon sent bis word that his old
corps had by mere attrition been redncedto
! FRAGILE he knew that the end he bad
ono foraeean had come and calling hia