The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-04-16
BISHOP DUDLEY,S TRIBUTE TO
GENERAL LEE.

ThOmdS U. Dudley. a native OF Rich
mond, Va, and Bishop of the Episco-
pal Diocese of Kentucky. made the ad-
dress before the Hamilton Club, il be-
ing "Appomattox Day." His theme was
ROBERT Edward Lee. and a felici-
tous, appropriate, delightful address it
was. 1t vas worthy of the greatest
military genius of America. and did
honor to the South and the speaker. 1t
is not long, less than two columns of
the Messenger. but it is full of inter-
est and pays fitting homage to the
knightliest, noblest hero. as we have
held for thirty ear or more, in all the
annals. He was as pure. as noble and
as spotless as he was great in war.
We ave SO often written Of him in
these columns that we are not about to
engage in a formal eulogy or to make
long extracts from the eloquent eccle-
~siastic, but to make a quotation or two
as to the estimate of Lee not by men
of the South. and to cite what we have
given before from the opinions of Eng
lish soldiers. Bishop Dudley quotes
from Vice President Roosevelt's Life
of Thomas II. Benton" one of the
sage as to Genera Lee. 1t is credita-
BILE to his perception. and candor. He
says this:
The world has never seen better SOL
dierS than those who followed Lee; and
their leader will undoubtedly rank as,
without an exception. the very great
est of all the great captains that Eng
lish speaking peoples have brought
forth-and this although the last and
chief of his antagonists may himself
claim to stand as the full equal of
Marlborough and Wellington.
Another opinion given by the Bishop
is from Colonel Henderson. the Brit
ish soldier who wrote the Life of
Stonewall Jackson" and who is at 1.-The
head of the great military college," He
declares that the five greatest generals
of the English-speaking race are Well
fngton, Marlborough. Washington, Lee
and Stonewall Jackson. I do not
know that I give the names in the ord
er in which he has placed them. but I
do remember that he expressed aston
ishment hat three of these men were
born in old Virginia"
We stop quoting to say here hat
there are soldiers and civilians who be-
lieve Lieutenant General Bedford For
rest, of Tennessee, the greatest mill
tary genius of the great war" Among
these was General Joseph E. Johnston
himself one of the very foremost mill
49, IT
so expressed himself to General Brad
ley T. Johnson. as is set forth in the
latter's very interesting work on the
former.
Colonel Chesney, of the British army,
thirty years ago ranked above all 9TH
erS of his countrymen as a military
writer and authority. In a paper in
Blackwood's Magazine he said Lee was
one of three greatest soldiers of the
English-speaking race" the others be-
ing Marlborough and Wellington. The
late head of the British army, General
Lord Wolseley within a few years gave
it as his opinion that Lee was a greater
commander tina wellington. He was
so far superior to all northern soldiers
that there is really no fair grounds for
command of the armies of the United
States if he would accept the place. He
declined and came to the south to share
consequences with his people having
but little hope of success. Bishop Dud-
ley says:
"D@o L;- T%@@, - - 5000 -~ 1~---
that his political opinions were of the
f~ederalists school: that his conception
of the course suggested by Southern
leaders was that it was madness. He
recognized to the full h necessary in
equally of the contest between the
north and the south. and also that such
contest, long and devastating, was as
sure and as necessary as it's inequality.
He loved the flag he had borne with an
ecstasy of devotion. and vet. with such
absolute recognition of the difficulties
to be met and of the probability of de-
feat in the undertaking to be begun,
with grief that was speeches. for the
evil days on which his country had fall
len, he wendell his way across h
bridge to the land that gave him birth,
looked with sadness upon the beauti-
full home on the banks of the river that
had sheltered his manhood's
happiness n came to Richmond to
offer his sword to the newborn Con-
f~ederacy."
One more quotation that illustrates
the grandeur. the nobility. the exalted
manhood of the immortal Lee:
But 1 turn away for a few moments
that we may think of Lee the citizen,
the college president. the humble
minded Christian gentleman. 1 love
to think Of him, the great captain, as
he refused h offer which came from
New York in the DAYS Immediately
after his surrender and the establish
ment of peace. that he should go there
with enormous salary to be the head
of an insurance company.
NO is his Dor L will tarry
here in poverty. that'I may. if possible,
help to build up the state and the peo-
pie in which and among whom I was
born"
Who would not revere. honor and love
such character as that. pure and gen
tie. self-contained and yet sorrowing.