The record-union., 1898-03-10
GENERAL FITzHUGH Lee.
A TYPICAL AMERICAN WHO
HAS PLENTY OF SAND"
His Family Famous in American
History-Eis Own Career Bril-
liant and Brave-Our Interests
in Cuba Safe in His Hands.

| Our nation has always been special
! ly favored in having at critical pc
riods a man in authority who was
equal to the emergency. The Cuban
situation provocative of apprehension
as it has been, would occasion a vast
deal more concern were it not that we
! have as our representative in Havana
magnificent type of American man
hood in the person of Consul-General
Fifth Ugh Lee. His distinguished an
cestry, his brilliant record as a soldier
and his mastery administration at the
Cuban Capital make him conspicuous
as a man among men.
A TYPICAL AMERICAN.
General Fitzhugh Lee of Virginia,
United States Consul-General at Ha-
vana, Cuba, is the man of the hour. 1t
is not that the hour and the place
have ade the man, but simply that
We have a conspicuous example of the
right man in the right place. Great
| opportunities come only to those who
are great without them.
FitZhugh Lee is a man with a splen
did past on record, and a grand future
| in sight. To-day he wears the three
fold distinction of being an honored for
| 1i4NA @~Cl4lCQCieltN a i1CillOSidl anu III
holder of an highly important and re-
sponsible office under a Republican ad-
ministration-and this at the admins
tration's express request, at a time
when the general rule has been prompt
acceptance of the resignation of DEM
ocratic incumbents of paying offices.
/ General Lees resignation had been on
file at Washington several months al
ready, when, last November, he came
home and reported in person to Presi-
dent Mckinley. Yet he went back to
Havana with the seal of office still in
his possession, and fortified by the cor
dial concentrations of the President, who
had received stacks of letters from rep
resentative men in all parts of the
cuontry fayoring the retention of Gen
eral Lee at the post which he already
occupied with marked distinction.
It was in April, 1896, that President
/ Cleveland, impatient at the apathy of
Consul General Williams in cases af-
fecting the rights of American citizens
lin Cuba, and confronted with the GER
tainty that Congress would have to
insist upon some radical policy tend
ing TO check the widely criticised meth
DDS of Weyler in Cuba, appointed Gen.
eral Lee to the hazardous position.
Every one remembers how, at the
| time the country was fairly thrilled
at the selection of this representative
American soldier to stand for human
liberty and justice on that unhappy
isle. AS yet he was untried in foreign
consular diplomacy; but from the mo-
ment he entered upon mis- duties he
gave abundant evidence of his posses
sion of good sense, tact, courtesy and
practical fitness for the task Then
the case of the Inflated DR.. Ruiz gave
him occasion to show a firm hand in
conducting the investigation in the face
of the almost savage opposition Of
Weyler's organized inquisitors. 1t
was generally understood even then
that Lee had urged the dispatching of
a United States man of war to Cuban
waters; and his manly protest. II can
not and Will not stand another Ruiz
murder" was applauded throughout
the country year ago.
The events Of the past few months
and weeks in Cuba, and the mastery
part that General Lee has played there
in are matters Of contemporaneous his
tory from day to day. Our Consul
General is no jingo. He is an Amer
lean soldier. born and bred-brave. low
al, patriotic, keenly sensitive to every
point of honor personal or national.
Because he is this he inspires at once
the confidence of the conservatives and
the enthusiasm of the jingoes A char
| actegistlc expression was that of L. y.
Sigsbee, brother of the Names com
nlander who, commenting on the dis
aster at Havana last week, said:
There is a man down there looking
after the interests of this country who
cannot be blinded. He has more sand
than anybody l know of. and if there's
anything treacherous in this explosion
Wen know Of it without delay The
man l mean is General Fftz Lee"
BLOOD WILL TELL.
II is not absolutely essential that a
| distinguished American should have a
grandfather. But when one happens to
De a Lee of Virginia, and his grand
father was Light Horse Harry Lee of
the revolution. 1t is eminintly proper
that his ancestry should be taken into
account. Blood willard does-teIl
Sydney Smith Lee (born 1902. died
1S69), the father of Fitzhugh Lee, was
the third son of General Henry Lee
Uight Horse Harry and Anne Hill
Carter, his second wife. He was grad
uated from the Naval Academy. and an
pointed midshipman in 1920. promoted
Lieutenant in 1928. Commander in
1880, and resigned on April 2S, 1861. TO
join the Confederacy His public SER
vice Of more than thirty years in the
United States Navy, including Perry's
Japan expedition and the Mexican
War is we'll known. He was the fa-
vorite brother of General Robert F.
Lee, who called him by the pet nick
name Of Rose"
Fitzhugh Lee. our own "Fitz" was
the eldest son Of Captain sydney Smith
Lee and his wife, Anna Maria Mason
! and was born at Clermont, Fairfax
County, Va. on November 10. 1880 He
entered the West Point Military Acad-
emy at sixteen. was graduated in July,
1886. at the head of his class in horse
manship, and was appointed Second
! Lieutenant in the famous old Second
Cavalry. which regiment furnished 50
| many officers afterward distinguished
in the civil war. His first duty was in
drilling raw recruits at the Carlisle
Barracks, Pa. Then he was sent 10 the
Western frontier, and became an In
dian fighter in Texas under Major Earl
Van Dorm.
In one encounter Lieutenant Lee re-
ceived an arrow wound between the
ribs that came very near costing his
life, On another occasion he grappled
with big Indian in a hand-to- hand
| combat, threw his antagonist to the
or. q nd :,