Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1901-01-25
LEES BIRTHDAY
A Memory that Will Be
Cherished Forever.

i
the Richmond News on last Satur
Jan. 10Th, Gen. Robt. E. Lees birth
day:
Some day in the future an old. gray
tremulous man will close his dim ewes
for tie last time and fall into eud-
less rest-the last survivor of the
armies OF the Confederate States of
America. Of all the many thousands
who thronged the road to death and
battle-the strong and eager young
who gave their strength and the
morning Of their manhood for the vim.
dication of a principle and the de fence
OF country, this one will have lin
gered to totteriug feebleness aud de-
crepitude. He will have seen the
hosts of his comrades troop past BIN
into the beyond by regiments and
battalions for time then one by
ore,hete and there as they have be-
CO me few. 1t will be yeaIs hence
thirty or forty or maybe fifty or more,
for some veteran will pass his century
of life. None may know where or
who the lonely survivor will be nor
in what surrc no dings or conditions
his final sucreoder to the inexorable
power of death will be made. The
way In which he served will be to
those around him tradition. an old
history of an old time. Yet If in tho
last moments of this last of the Con-
federate there is any remnant OF
thought or memery, CLEAN OF light
will fash into the fading eye, a thrill
will stir the tired heart at the sound
or the recollection of the name OF
Robert E. Lee.
Ii was wise and just to write into
the statutes of this State that today
General Lees birthday-shall be a
holiday, a day set apart for doing
honor to a deathless memory and an
imperishable fame, for recalling the
splendid example of a high life.
That statute will never be repealed.
When the last man of the armies Lee
commanded has Bnsw swered the faint
but resistless call of the bugle blow
ing the reveille OF the new mornino
on yonder side of the Valley of the
Shadow, the name and fame of the
great leader will be growing broader
and shining more brightly. From
the darkness of disaster, from the
clouds of prejudice and hate, his rep
utation has risen and won the love
and admiration of the world. He
was one of the few men the world
has known, so great that he could
triumph over defeat and make failure
a glorious success--one of the few SO
massive and stately that mankind
disregarded what he did or what he
did not do in considering what he was
His life honored his State, his
country and humanity. His story is
an example and an inspiration, g
trumpet blast ringing throught his
tory down into all the time to come
a call to high manhood and pure life
and noble purpose He cannot be
studied too much. The more thor
oughly he is known the more glorious
he shines, the more strongly his
character impresses itself on the
mind and incites emulation. He
should be kept vividly before the
generations to como as an example
o. all that is best in our civilization
and highest in manhood.
The day set apart for sepcial hon
or to his memory should be regard
ed not only in every Southern State,
but in every State. The time il
coming fast when the people against
whom he led his armies will be a.
proud of him as his own veterans
are. will be proud to hold him ur
before their children and the world
as the type of the noblest manhood
OF America, as an illustration Of what
the country can produce.
The dim and tired eyes OF the las,
Of the veterans who followed him viii
see country in which the name O
Lee will be reverenced from on.
border to tho other, In which tn,
story Of his life will be taught to tn.
children of every section and class 81
model on which to frame their an
bitions towards which to strive.