The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-29
ANDREWS ON LEE.

President e. Benjamin Andrews, OF
Brown University, delivered a lecture
on Robert E. Lee at Florence. Ala, last
Thursday. The lecture was held under
the auspices of the Ladies' Memorial
association, and was for the benefit of
the Confederate Monument association.
This is the same lecture that Presi-
dent Andrews delivered in Chicago
some months ago, and which created
such a furore because of the very ia
vorable view he took of Lees charac-
ter. The part of the lecture to which
such exception was taken was this:
General Lee had the faith of the
crusader: his letters would make a
guide to holiness. He was always a
soldier-never impure in thought or act,
never Drofane or obscene. He did not
touch the cup, as did Grant, Hooker or
Phil Sheridan, and when he lost a fight
it was never said of him that the de-
feat was due to a habit which makes
mems heads into muddles. He was
never oUtgeneraled by Grant in all the
campaign from Rappahannock to
James river. never trapped and
never caught mapping. 1 fail TO
find in the books any such mas
terful generalship as this hero
showed. holding that slim gray line,
half starved, with no prospect of adj
ditions. and fighting when his army
was too hungry to stand and the rifles
were only useful as clubs. His courage
was sublime. He was as great as Gus
tavus Adolphus. or Napoleon, or We'll
lington, or Won MOltke. His cause was
not the lost cause so much as is sup
posed. 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 su-
preme court, is in exact accordance
with his claims on the point.
1T was not until the federal army
stood almost at the very doors of Rich
mond that General Lee was sent to the
front. Heretofore he had been but half
kindly regarded, but when he took
command of that i'll disciplined. i'll arm
ed and ragged army he was hailed a
savior. He outwitted Mcclellan,
whipped two armies much larger than
his own, stopped the advance on Rich
mond, drove back the Union army
saved Richmond and was famous in a
day. The world had never seen such
generalshiD. and the world was as
founded 81 1t.
Lee successfully defeated, outgener-
aled and routed the best generals that
Washington could send against him,
and it was not until the immortal
Grant, with the finest army of veterans
that the world has ever seen, took the
field against him that Lees marvellous
accomplishments received a check
Even against Grant, Lee fought as
probably no other general ever fought,
and against odds that would have
driven Napoleon to despair.
1T was a great death struggle when
Grant faced Lee. and Lee then knew
that his was a hopeless struggle. He
kept that thin, gray line of ragged,
hungry men growing thinner and
hungrier each day, together. His
courage, his wonderful presence and
strong personality kept that little band
of tattered and emaciated men in bat
tie array, and fought to the last ditch,
surrendering only when he realized that
it would be murder to keep up the
The reference to Grant, Hooker and
Sheridan is ungracious, and it was this
more than the praise of Lee that Offend
ed so many. This lecture, especially as
it is being delivered in the south. will
almost certainly call forth many com
ments.