The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-02-04
that The cruel and

known as "hazing" has been abolished
from all respectable military schools and
organizations.
| regret to feel that am & victim to
a process quito as heaItless at the hands
OF your committee this evening, who nave
literally, at the eleventh hour, and at the
last minute thereof, bound me hand and
foot, bucked and gagged me, placed up
on me the well-remembered harrel-sklrt
and paraded me before the Camp under
the disguise OF a speaker, duly labelled
and set up in type as responding TO
toast.
| never witnessed even the ordinary Gull
1r..t undergoing his well-merited punish
ment in winter-quarters, doing double
duty or toting wood. without 1eenng
OF sympathy, nor did ever see a desert
er shot ITO death in the presence of the
brigade without rang of regret.
May l then beg of you little
tenderness of heart as I tell you that |
had rather be shot as 4 deserter than
atilct you with my crude. hasty and un-
digested thoughts upon the noble theme
to which I have been summoned. Be
cause, of all the subjects which can en-
gage our minds this day. the greatest
and best must he the Life. Character
and Memory of General Lee.
AS to his life and character it would
speak to you, his faithful followers and
friends, than if I undertook to narrate
your several family histories or tell you
your own fathers virtues. The pr-omi-
nent and ever-memorable facts of Cen
eral Lees life are stamped indellibly
upon your minds. and his military glo-
.ies are so fixed in the memories of ev-
cry veteran, that when the last trumpet
shall have been sounded, and the dead
u-hn sank
at his commanding, shall have all been
ouickened in the twinlklinS OF an eye,
they will arise from beneath the shade OF
Jacllson's beloved trees, on the tar SIDE
of the cold river. and take their old places
in the solid ranks where steel once Slist-
ened, ready to move at early dawn TO
meet the Judgment then to be passed
upon him who had so often ridden old
"Traveler' through their midst.
1 dare not. therefore, repeat the story
of his fame ito you who shared it in some
part on every field Of glory or in the
tented camp, or on the long march or in
the cherries biz ouac-
PRECIOUS AS EtlRTlH CAN GIVE:
Rather let me speak of him as I re-
member hin-a memory as precious as
earth can give-and lest pitch my key
too high. let me so back to my boyhood,s
happy days, when at school near Ar
llnETtON, l. uSel 10 see ~S'i'iiSh
Robert Lee ride over on his chestnut sor-
rel from Arlington to Seminary Hill, near
Alexandria, alone. quietly dlsmount, tie
his horse to the fence and enter the lit
tie. chapel, taking his seat near by me,
as Sunday after Sunday was his custom,
whenever he happened to be at home on
Through. At that time he was Lieutenant
Colonel Of the Second Cavalry. and a lit
Ito later he became Colonel Of the First,
as the following letter. shows:
Arlington, Washington City u. O..
April 20, 1861.
Honorable Simon Cameron, Secretary of
WAR.
..Sir,-I have the honor to tender resig-
nation Of my commission as Colonel OF
tho First Regiment Of Cavalry.
Every respectfully,
"Your obedient servant,
'.R. E. LEE,
Colonel First Cavalry.
The very next morning. just at day
break, as was checking my trunk, COM
ing South, at Alexandria, I brushed up
against mihtary-looking man. with
dark moalstaehe, but Otherwise clean
shaven face, getting his trunk
checked at the door q OF the same
baggage car. This was Colonel
Lee, and had I known at that moment
that he had just come from the presence
OF General Scott, who had prevailed
upon President Lincoln to tender to
Colonel Lee the command Of tine Active
ARMY OF tho United States and that da