Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-01-19
EULOGIZES GEN. LEE.
COL. GEORGE WAYNE ANDERsoN's
ADDRESS TO THE SONS.
LIFE OF THE GREAT COMMANDER,
The Orator, In Magnificent Adj
dress, Reviews the Career and
the Great Southern Leader.

K. Il. Lee Camp, Sons OF Veterans, held
their annual celebration last night In
honor OF the birthday OF General Robert
L. Lee. The exercises, held in Lee Camp
Hail. were of a most interesting char
acter, The feature OF the evening was
a magnificent address by Colonel George
! Wayne Anderson on the Life and Char
acter Of General Lee" A large audience
was in attendance. many ladies being
among the gathering. and the strictest
attention was paid the speaker, whose
eloquent and patriotic remarks ELECTED
frequent outbursts OF applause.
The assemblage. was raped 10 order
by Commander Minetree Folkes who, in
a few remarks introduced Colonel Ander-
son.
COLONEL ANDERSON'S ADDRESS.
Colonel Anderson began:
| Il thank you most heartily for your
cordial greeting. and for the honor Of
being invited TO address you on this oc-
| casion.
II only regret that in the limited time
proper for me to occupy tonight, 1t is
difficult to speak fifty of the life. char
acter, and services of Robert Edward
Lee. That noble theme is itself enough
l think, to inspire the humblest spirit
| in all the land, and enough to inhame
the sublimest genius OF creation.
81 do not wish to speak in hyperbole;
| will not deal IN vain and foolish nero
worship; but / will deal Justly; and,
when / find n man who is in truth
hero, 1 shall doff my cap and loose my
| tongue to give him praise. The theme
| and the occasion are one. This assembly
| is here tonight BECAUSE and emily be-
cause, Robert Edward Lee has lived. 1t
is well that once year we should re-
| count the glories of his splendid name.
| Monuments are reared that, by their
mute, yet everlasting. witness each gene
! ration may be taught the virtues that
/ command the veneration of mankind
! And so, by high enactment Of our be-
loved State. the day we celebrate has
| been fifty set apart as a monument to
him she is proud to call her son.
BEHOLD A MAN.
ut were enough to say, that Virginia
celebrates to-day the birth OF her great
son-the immortal Robert Lee Yet net
Virginia only. the South and that heroic
people. welded and moulded in the fire
of war, this day proclaim to all the
| world, Behold. a man. Our chief; our
exemplarl With him we wiled to live
or die, and with him we will to stand
or fall in all the future of our story
when a stain shall be justly placed
upon his bright blade; when a smirch
may be fastened upon his pure character;
when dishonor may cling to his noble
name, in the truthful story of the world
then, and not until then. will the South
and her people bow the head and grid
the loins in sackcloth and in. ashes. That
| fv,-.
The truth is mighty to prevail; and the
| truth Is yet TO come. He who is truth
will, in His own good time, by means of
this character, stamp the truth, the i'm
| pershable truth, UPON the history Of the
| world. We shall be wanting, my friends,
| in the duty we owe our State IL we fail
| to press home the lessons Of this life
| So far as weak humanity may be perfect,
| this life must needs be called a perfect
i life. From the day of his birth, i'm 1907,
until he sought rest upon the bosom of
his mother State. in 1870. man has yet to
hear of his first unworthy deed"
| Colonel Anderson, at some length. told
of the early life OF the great General;
of his graduation from West Point. and
subsequent service in the Mexican war,
and traced him down through the years
! to the early cos. OF him, then. he said:
HE WAS A VIRGINIAN.
1.-THE great war between the States was
| the theatre upon which our illustrious
subject displayed his highest genius and
the wondrous perfection of his character.
In all his acts he must be judged as a
Virgnian; imbued with her spirit. and
representing her ideas. Bone of Nir-
| ginia's bone, and flesh of her flesh, his
convictions were as immovable as her
everlasting hills, and his motives as
pure as her laughing waters. Therefore,
| in the hour OF her great peril, when the
| bitter cup was pressed to her unwilling
| lips; when fate decreed a choice between
| war upon one side or the other, against
| what she believed to be right, or for what
she had taught and believed from the
| foundation of the republic, his spirit
was wrung with all the pain that af-
ficted her, and strained with her be-
| tween certain revolution and the keep
ing of the great Union Virginia had, by
sacrifice, made possible. Never since
| the Athenians abandoned city and coun-
try has history recorded so noble.
so generous and so glorious a choice as
| Virginia made, and Robert Lee chose
with her.
what monstrous mockery, then, to
| charge him with treason, and violated
oaths Shall a man be forced, in a great
| revolution, with right and wrong. per-
haps, on both sides, TO raise his hand
| against his sons? Shall he smite the
gray head of his sire and seek to drain
| his brothers life? Shall he, in a great
constitutional debate, begun in the re-
pubics cradle, but now submitted to
| the sword lay waste his mother State
| and despoil his chidrens heritage?
What if he had been educated at the
Military Academy; did not his State
claim that he had been educated at her
| expense, and that he was hers? But,
| law apart, did he not face q great revo-
luton which set aside all provisions
made for perfect peace? Was he to stick
| in the bark, and shut his heart to the
glorious truth that. no greater love hath
man than this that a man lay down his
| life for his friend? l trow not"
LIKE UNTO WASHINGTON.
"Man never heard of revolution except
| men were called upon TO choose. As well
| set down as traitors to be scorned the
| barons of Runnymede, the contending
| forces of York and Lancaster, or Wash
ington and our Revolutionary sires. De-
| feated In the contest, the victor may. II
| he choose. cry Traitor REBEL But
| if there is at bottom any great issue,
| constitutional or other. provided only II Is
! real. such names are harmless. one
| cannot be at once a foresworn traitor
| and a glorious patriot, and yet l say
INTO YOU that If Robert f.. Lee was a
| defeated traitor, George Washington was
| "a successful one fhe moral question is
| the same.
.'NIy friends. every act every word-nay,