The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-11-28
LEE IN THE PANTHEON.

An interesting ueUdlc 10 On bCt"COh
the New York Sun and an influential
part of the Southern press as to wheth-
er the name of Robert E. Lee should
be inscribed in the American Temple
of Fame The Sun says that such an
honor is too great for it, notwithstand-
ing Lees genius as a commander In
the field and the nobility OF his private
life The reason given by our new
York contemporary is that Lee was
deserter from the United States army.
"At time it says, when the nag
and the Government Lee had sworn
to defend honestly and faithfully
against their enemies or opponents
whomsoever' were in sore need of the
most loyal obedience to their oaths by
officers of the army, he wrote to Gen
eral Scott to tender my resignation,
which 1 request you will recommend
for acceptance Two days later. with
out waiting for such acceptance or re-
ceiving dismissal from the service IN
which he had been for a generation, he
was appointed by the Governor or Vlr-
ginia to the chief command of its IN
surrectionary forces, and the next day
was publicly invested with that COM
mand. He resigned in face OF the enc
my. and while still an officer OF the
United States army he forswore him
self by taking command of it's enemies,
and thus became a deserter.
AS might have been expected, the
answers from the South lack nothing
in spirit or vigor. One writer urges
that Lee, under the old state sover-
eighty doctrine, owed first allegiance
to his state, an argument which Is not
quite convincing in view of the fact
that his oath of allegiance as an offl-
Ger of the army did not reserve any
thing in favor of Virginia but COM
mitted him to the broadcast national
LOYALTY. The Richmond Times argues
that Lees greatness is so transcendent
that no honor can be done his name
by inscribing it Gin two-penny show
gallery along with a number Of no.
bodies that people have to ask about
to know that they ever lived. When
Cato was asked why his statue did not
appear in the gallery of the statues OF
Romans thought at the same time tic
be immortal, he answered in substance
that he wished it to be noted that his
statue was not there. The Southern
people have that feeling about this in
cident. Secure in his Immortality
looming up upon the worlds horizon
as a colossus around whose knees
Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas
masquerade as pigmies, how can Il
be of any consequence to General Lees
memory whether his name does or doe:
not appear in a collection of name.
that will be totally forgotten wher
mothers are teaching their sons a
their knees that If they would be mer
to command the esteem and reverence,
of their fellow men they should Sc
Robert E. Lee before them as the ex
ample to imitate?"
In this controversy both sides go to,
far both in blame and panegyric. Thu
ethics of Lees course in 1861 may b,
in dispute, but that fact does not les
sen his self-evident fame-though O
course his Immortality is not such as t
shame the Immortality of Grant, VIII
outgeneralled him in war. The title O
any American who stood in the from
rank OF high calling to a niche in tn
Temple of Fame goes without the say
!. ing; and after all, that title is no
} much lessened by a defect here an
J there in the moral processes Of whic
he won it. Englishmen honor Crom
we'll now, who was the Lee of his time
and they also honor Washington, VIII
had once taken an oath of allegiance t
: King George 1t seems as il American
, might as fairly honor Lee for his grea
, qualities, forgetting those that wer
, weak. 1t is a boon they must crav
) for all the other men who are to
deified in the American Pantheon, S
; why not grant it to the American gen
! eral whose sword, if drawn withou
: honor?