The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-19


the Republican newspapers which advo
cate the reelection Of President McKin
ley. in long and elaborate editorial, at
tacks the right of Gen. Robert E. Lee
to appear in the Hall of Fame N tht
company of those who in various wall.
of life are considered to merit homo
from posterity as having shed lustre ant
glory upon the Republic. We reproduce
the Suns article in another column
and beg that our readers will peruse ii
with care.
Considering the relations of the New
York Sun to the Admins ratien, and is
right to be regarded as the chief news
paper exponent and mouthpiece Of the
Mckinley Administrator, its attack upon
the honor and memory of General Lee,
at time of acute political excl cement,
when the attitude Of the South toward
Republican carpetbag imperialism and
the criminal trusts is a matter of ex-
IRENE evaporation to the promoters Of
those things, must be ascribed to an
animus and design quite super-edit rial
in character. The assault is not mer. ly
upon the character Of a great man, so
pure. noble, and illusirious that the only
place for him in the Pantheon Of the
nations heroes, erected in the heart of
every American, is side by SD, with
Washington and Lincoln. but upon the
Southern people whose cause he es2ousei
at the greatest sacrifice that a citizen
Of this country was ever called upon to
make, in the performance of what he
conceived to be his imperative duty be-
fore Gcd and man. 1t breathes the men
and by 10 be used to revive the pande-
monium Of reconstruction days. 1t half
conccals the mailed fist of Hanna and
his kind shaken at the South in warn
ing Of what that section may expect
should the trusts and their politi al
agents succeed at the polls in Novem-
Der. o.f
Our Administration contemporary as
serts that the facts regarding the con-
duct of Robert E. Lee in leaving the
army and liz taking military s,rvice with
his native State, and, later, with the
Confederacy, were peculiarly fragrant"
He had been graduated from West Point,
and, as an army officer. had taken the
oath of allegiance to the United Sta;es
The Sun says:
in order to escape from that oath he re-
Eigned from the army on April 20, 1851.
Two DAYS later without waiting for acceptapce
(of his resignation) receiving dismissal from
the service in which he had been for a genera
lion, he was appointed by the Governor Of
Virginia to the chief command OF its insurrec-
tonary force, and the next day was publicly
invested with that command. He resigned in
the face of the enemy, and while still an officer
of the United States Army he forswore himself
by taking commasd of its enemies and thus be.
came destrter."
The son Of Light Horse Harry Lee a
forsworn man. disgraced soldier, and a
deserter! Surely the man or party ven
turing to bring such a direct charge of
infamy against Robert E. Lee needs to
The truth is that wien, on April 20, 1861,
he formally rendered his resignation
through General Scott, regretfully. and
with intense sorrow that his conception
OF duty forced him to break professional
and social ties which were very dear to
that his release from the army would be
granted Immediately. He was the soul of
truth, and when he wrote to his brother,
Sidney Smith Lee, in explanation of his |
conduct, that he was now a private citi- |
Len,'' 1t is evident that he knew or be- /!
ieved that his resignation had been ac- |
,epted. He did not desert; he left the |
lrmy because he could not consent to lead |
Il into the Southern States.
We shall not waste time in discussing |
he question of treason" To say that
nan may not absolve himself of an oath
If allegiance and exercise the highest
light of free men, which is revolution,
would be to argue that allegiance once
ue to State or monarch is forever due
nd cannot be changed or avoided. We
ave hoped and thought that the day
'as past when it should be necessary to
hrash over the old straw of the an
agonistic constitutional contentious which
ivided the South from the North and
rought on the war of secession. Let us
ispose Of that branch Of the subject as
hortly as may be.
The South believed. with practical unani-
,ity, that the Federal Union was a COM
act OF States from which each indi-
idual State had a right to withdraw at
III. The North, on the other hand, gen
rally regarded the Union as indissolu-
lie. and its component States to have
irrendered their sovereignty to II. when
ley accepted the Constitution. When the
ar broke out this was still an open CUES
on. II was decided by the war in favor
the Northern view. The South appealed
, arms and the verdict of battle went
zainst her. The doctrine of States rights.
,-cel'ed, fell to the ground, not upon the
,rinsic merits Of the proposition. not be-
lmse the North Was necessarily right in
s position. nor because the South had
zen convinced Of error. II fell before the
force majeure Of Grants
I'd Shcrman's men, guns, and resources
+ the Held and It had military and no
her kind OF funeral at Appomattox.
We must make a distinction between
VII wars as ordinarily they have occurred
history, where the struggle has been
tween factions occupying the same ter
tory, as iu the Wars Of the Roses, and ,
e contest between King Charles and the c
forces In England, and our
w war Of 1876. The latter was dis [
ictly territorial revolution. participated
b. practically all Of the Inhabitants OF |
large ard clearly defined division of /