The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-11-05
Wickha1n Monument.


Thursday last was observed in Rich
mond as the day designated for unveil- /
ing the monument in capitol square to
the memory of Gen. VIM. c.. Wickham. /
About &c, 900 people were present. The
address on the occasion was delivered by
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, in which he dis
cussed the doctrine of secession and de-
Tended it, and in the course of his re
marks spoke in apologize terms OF to
the political association of Gen. Wick
ham, after the war. 1t ought to have
been known to Gen. Lee, that the State
Convention which met in Richmond IN
1861. was composed largely of Union
members - that the election for rep
resentatives to that body Indicated an
overwhelming majority against seces-
sion of the popular vote, and that the
vote for President in 1860 emphasized
the opposition of Virginia to secession
Bell and Everett, and Douglas and John
son, receiving two votes to Breckenridge
and Lanes one. 1t was not until Virgin
la was called upon to furnish her proper
ton of rs, 900 United States troops to in
wade South Carolina, that the Conven>
ton and the people of the State mani
tested disposition to follow the example
of South Carolina. 1t was to resist inya
sion of the South, and not to endorse the
doctrine of secession that the Convention
finally decided to withdraw the State
/ l.. IL IL. 4
votion to his native State, and not to
approve secession, that Gen. Wickham,
like Gen Robt E. Lee, offered his servi>
ces to Virginia. TWAS a painful ordeal
to which both Gen. Wickham and Gen.
r. E. Lee were subjected, to decide
between their affection and devotion to
Virginia and their allegiance to the Uni
ted States Neither of them believed in
the right of secession, but both of them
were loyal in their affection to the moth
er State, and surrendered their convlc-
tions of political principle upon the alter
of devotion to Virginia. Gen. Wickham
in his lifetime, never apologized for his
political Identification after the war, and
it was not in place for Gen. Fitzhugh
Lee to speak in apologize terms in de-
livering an address commemorative of
his character and his services. Had Gen.
Wickham's courage and fidelity to prin-
ciple, as manifested in his political align
ment, been initiated by other Confederate
soldiers who believed as he did, Virginia
would have been saved from much angry
contention and been placed twenty years
in advance of her present condition in
material development and prosperity
They followed prejudice and passion
Gen. Wickhain reason and judgment,
and felt that he had done nothing that
called for apology or explanation. He
was cast in a heroic mould-his moral
courage was as sublime as his physical
courage was daring, and he dared to do
what he believed to be his duty to his
State when the emergency arose for her
defense-not asking whether she was
right or wrong-and he dared to express
his political convictions and act upon
them, when it required equal moral and
physical courage to do so. When history
shall have passed its verdict upon the
character of Gen. Wickham, in all the
relations of life where he was called to
act, it will place him among the great
men of his time-a man who despised ex-
pedients and subterfuges involving the
compromise Of principle, and who had
the courage to proclaim from the houses
tops his convictions of duty, even in the
face of the unthinking and passion ridden
rabble There was no more heroic mani
festation in his life, than when he re-
fused to follow the lead of the weak and
time serving, dominated by passion and
feeling, in the policy of obstruting the
Federal government and its laws, andin-
stigating hostile sentiment against Ma
tional authority. He saw plainly what
was the true policy of the State then, and
had the manhood to announce it, al
though it subjected him to the censure
and abuse of many who had not the
courage to follow where he led either in
war or in peace. When the flag of Vir>
ginia was furled and it's bloody folds laid
to rest, he recognized his allegiance to
the National emblem and disposed his
action and conduct to it-rising superior
to the gospel of hate, and reaching to a
higher plane than housing demagogues
and insiduous time servers ever dared
to aspire-his knightly crest cleaning in
the forefront of duty, as he understood
it, as it had lowered in the advance in the
surgng shock of battle. No truer or
drawer spirit ever stirred humanity than
that which directed the military and po-
litical course of Gen. Wickham, and no
manlier man ever devoted his services to
party, State or country than he above
whose remains towers the marble shaft,
erected to perpetuate his virtues and his
achievements
The Crusaders in the days of sRichard
of the Lion Heart, never had a knight
iier leader, and the tears of a mother
State never moistened the tomb of
more loyal son.
We have five railroads to the Pacific
coast-the Northern Pacific, the Union
Pacific, the Central Pacific, the Texas
Pacific and the Southern Pacific. All
these roads were donated public lands
to assist in their completion, without
which they could not have been con-
structed. AS a result, where there were
nothing but wild waste and desert, with
no taxable resources, and no avenues of
trade and travel, there are now thriving
states and territories, and all the at
fractions and accomplishments of civil
zation and progress. We have the
States of North and South Dakota, Col
orado, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Wash
ington, Montana, and the territories of
Utah, New Mexico and Arizona-all of
them organized as a result of the cons
struction of the railroads except Utah,
peopled by Mormons, and New Mexico,
by Mexicans. Railroads interlace and
unite all their communities, and thrift
and prosperity mark the progress of
each one of them Notwithstanding