The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-04-18

greater than before, who maintained
for four long years the unequal strug-
gle. with overwhelming odds, for the
principle that he had been taught.
that his supreme allegiance was duo
to Virginia, his mother State.
II speak of Robert Edward Leo, the
peerless citizen in defeat, from whose
lips no word Of murmur ever came;
whose pen never wrote one line Of
self-defense; who, when he had offer
ed his sword to the conqueror too
noble to accept it, went his way to
the poverty and obscurity OF the COM
ing years, content if he might be use
full in the training Of Virginian boys
into a noble manhood.
II speak of Robert Edward Lee,
whose body rests among the hills Of
the Virginia he loved so we'll; whose
splendid image looks down from
towering height upon the city he
labored so hard to defend; whose
grave is in the heart of his country
| men and whose fame is sounded
louder and louder every year from the
trumpet of the wise and good through
out the wide world.
"Read his letters to his sons and
learn that his political opinions were
of the Federalist school; that his con-
ception of the course suggested by
Southern leaders was that it was mad
ness. He recognized to tho full the
necessary inequality Of the contest
between the North and 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 yet, with such abso-
lutte recognition Of the difficulties to
be met and OF the probability Of
defeat in the undertaking to be begun,
with grief that was speechless for the
evil days on which his country had
fallen, he wended his way across the
bridge to the land that gave him
birth, looked with sadness upon the
beautiful home on the bank, OF the
river that had sheltered his young
mauhood's happiness and came to
Richmond to offer his sword to the
newborn Confederacy. Why? / re-
peat, why?
"Can any man affirm, with possible
acceptance by his own intelligence OF
another's, that selfshness, self-seek.
ing, the thought of possible self
Advancement, had aught to do with
producing such a decisione Yes,
have been startled to hear but recent
ly the suggestion made by man
whom l esteem to be good and true
that because Lees property was ir
Virginia he had been led to 60 thither
In reply, | asked if he knew that be
fore he offered his resignation Of hi:
commission in the United State:
army Lee was offered the supreme
command Of the armies of the United
States? l affirm that to be true upor
testimony Of the late John A. Camp
bell, of Alabama. then a Justice O
the Supreme Court Of the United
States. With my own ears l hearc
him say it in a. gathering of citizen!
in Baltimore the day after Genera
Lees death.
Il am not capable, were this th'
time or place, for critical considera
tion Of his strategic powers, as proved
by his campaigns, but dare say this
on the authority of the militar.
critics of the world, of this country
and of other countries. Let me reae
you the words of a man, an American
statesman and soldier, = man TO
whose election to the second place il
the Government of the nation some o
US have been proud to cast our bal
lots. Vice-President Theodore Roose
velt, in his Life OF Thomas H. Ben
ton, says (American Statesman Series
page Ss):
".The world has never known bet
! ter soldiers than those who followed
Lee: and their leader will undoubtedl,