The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-12-31
GEN. r. E. LEE.
What President Andrews Said About Hin
in Chicago.

What President Andrews Said About Him
in Chicago.
CHICAGO, ILL.,, Tuesday.-Presi-
dent E. Benjamin Andrews ora alton
on Gen. Robert r. Lee at Central
Music Hall, which has created such
sensation in Grand Army circles,
was not deemed of such Importance
and significance at the time, and,
consequently, attracted compare
lively little attention, but since then
the feeling has grown that Gen. Lee
was unduly praised at the expense
of the fame of Gen. Grant and other
great Union Generals.
Among other things, President
Andrews said of Lee: "He had the
faith of the crusader; his letters
would make guide to holiness. He
was always a soldier-never impure
in thought or act, never profane or
obscene. He did not touch the cup,
as did Grant, Hooker or Phil Sheri-
dan, and when he lost fight it was
never said of him that the defeat
was due to a habit which makes
mems heads into muddles. He was
never outgeneraled by Grant in all
the campaigns from the Rappahan-
mock to James River, never trapped
and never caught mapping. fail to
find in the books any such master
full generalship as this hero showed,
holding that slim gray line, half
starved, with no prospect of addi-
tions, and fighting when his army was
too hungry to stand and the rifles
were only useful as clubs. His cour-
age was sublime. He was as great as
Gustavus Adolphus, or Napoleon, or
Wellington, or Won Moltke. His
cause was not the lost cause so much
as is supposed. All that was good
in his cause has been grated into
our laws and our Constitution.
"The doctrine of States rights, as
now interpreted by the Supreme
Court, is in exact accordance with
his claims on the point. Gen. Lee
lost at Gettysburg because the Fed
eral troops had received new mo-
tor of tremendous strength, whose
power no one knew-Gen. Hancock.
He lost also because Meade's men
were fighting on Union sOil-almost
within hearing distance of the
prayers of their wives and children
for victory. They were at their
hearth-stones. Men are tigers when
wives and families are the inspira-
ton in war.
ut was not until the Federal army
stood almost at the very doors of
Richmond that Gen. Lee was sent
to the front. Heretofore he had
been but half kindly regarded, but
when he took command of that ill
disciplined, alarmed and ragged
army he was hailed a savior. He
outwitted Mcclellan, whipped two
armies much larger than his own,
stopped the advance on Richmond,
drove back the Union army, saved
Richmond and was famous in day.
The world had never seen such gen
eralship, and the world was as
founded at it.
Lee successfully defeated, out
generated and routed the best Cen
erals that Washington could send
immortal Grant, with the finest
army of veterans that the world has
ever seen, took the field against him
that Lees marvellous accomplish
ments received check. Even
against Grant, Lee fought as probably
no other General ever fought, and
against odds that would have driven
Napoleon to despair.
ut was a great death struggle
when Grant faced Lee, and Lee then
knew that his was hopeless strug
gle. He kept that thin, gray line of
ragged, hungry men, growing thin
ner and hungrier each day, together.
His courage, his wonderful presence
and strong personality kept that lit
tie band of tattered and emaciated
men in battle array, and fought to
the last ditch, surrendering only
when he realized that it would be
murder to keep up the struggle.
"Gen. Lees cause is not lost. All
that is good of it remains, all that
was bad has been wiped out. Our
country is better and grander to day,
because the relations of several
States to the Union have been in
telligently defined, and perhaps we
owe at least that much to Gen.
Robert f. Lee aud the cause he
f,,,rrI,A f,Y ~