Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-14
THE 3. E. LEE STATUE
VIEWS OF soUTHERNERs AS TO
HEcENr.c CRITICISM.
A Comparison Between Lee and Wash
ington-Would Lee Have Wish
ed This Memoriale
To the Editor Of The Evening Starr

To the Editor Of The Evening Starr
As q paper having an extensive circula-
ton in both nothern and southern circles In
Washington, The Star viii doubtless accord
an opportunity for reply to a letter by MI.
w. c. Dodge on the much-discussed sub
ject of the proposed Lee statue, which let
ter appeared In recent issue Of The Star.
As to the general and specific charges In
the letter, of rebellion and treason, we
southerners and our ancesors have been ac-
customed to encountering such epithets ever
since the days of the rebel Washington and
those OF the rebel Cromwell. who were both
guilty Technically OF treason to their gov
eminent as represented by their king And
may add In passing that the gentlenan's
grouping Of such patriots as Lee and jeffer-
son Davis with Booth and Guiteau is about
as sane and logical as would be q classihca-
ton OF Grant and Abraham Lincoln with
such assassins as John Brown and Czol-
gosz.
According to the language Of the letter re-
ferred to, 1T is surprising that at this day.
nearly forty years after the war, and when
men on both sides and OF all parties were
urging that nothing should be done to dis
turb the friendly feeling that has grown up.
Virginia should think OF doing such an act
an act which, In the very nature OF things,
must tend to renew the feeling of bitterness.
1t might be asked why is it that this gen.
eral feeling OF friendliness would be any
more disturbed by the proposed action OF
virginia than by the action of various
northern states in placing in the Capitol the
statutes Of such leaders in the civil war as
kearney and others? Would it not be bet
ter. in fact, for both sides to act on the sug-
gestlon OF Lee himself. made after the war,
that we follow the example of the ancients,
who sought to obliterate as speedily as pos
slble, all traces of their civil conflicts, while
perpetuating In marble the memory of the
heroes or their foreign waTS9 fo IN
this we should have no monuments to civil
war leaders, either northern or southern.
The writer quoted hopes that Virginia will
yet select some other Of her great men to
represent her among the states in the ma
ttonal Capitol There is already in the
Statuary Hall, to represent her, a statue of
washington, originally voted In his honor
py her general assembly in 1888. Let US
see how his case compares with that of
Lee.
virginia is aware that Lee first took a
the Constitution, and afterward bore arms
AGAINST the federal government, just as
W asnington. as an army officer under
braddock. doubtless took the oath of al
iegiance to the king, and afterward took up
arms against him. (And if it be urged that
washington had never received his train
ing at military school of the British gov
eminent, ask, if he had would that have
caused him to side with the Tories as
against Virginia in her revo:tD Virginia
knows that Lee was reluctant to join the
movement lOT southern independence, Just
as Washington had long held back from ada
yocatfng American independence explicitly
deprecatingc the idea even after he had
taken command of the revolutionary armies
In the field. Virginia knows that Lee laid
himself open to the charge of stabbing his
mother, the Union,'' because he refused to
join with the invaders of the sacred soil of
his own mother Virginia, who had existed
long before the Union was heard Of and
with whose past name and fame that OF
his family was lnseparably linked-she
1r,,. r. Ill
had exposed himself to the charge of stab
bling his pseudo-mother. England. by re-
fusing to join with the assailants Of his
mother. Virginia. There is this difference,
however; that Lee sided with the older and
more venerable of the two claimants to
his allegiance Virginia and the Union).
while Washington sided with the younger
of the two Virginia and the British CROWN,
but each siding with his mother, Virginia,
for separation from the existing union.
Virginia knows all this. She knows. too,
brilliant sons SO pre-eminently deserving Of
this honor as these same Washington and
Lee. who for her sake and In her de-
Tense braved the name OF rebel and of
traitor. One succeeded and the other fail
ed: that is practically the only difference
between their cases. l have lived among
the Virginians many years. and I con-
fidently predict that the hope of the gen.
tleman will never be realized that Virginia
viii choose a substitute for her proposed
statue OF Lee. If her offer Of his effigy,
made by her in this era of protested recon
ciliation and good feeling, and in response
to the express invitation Of Congress to
herself and the other states to place there.
each, two statues of their own choice-if
this offer of hers be refused then there
will be left to represent her in the ma
tional statuary hall only the statue Of
Washington, voted. as I have stated, by
her legislature before the present govern
ment of the United States was formed.
And beside this figure will remain vacant
spot, from now to the utmost hour of the
republic, because she will refuse to stultify
herself by allowing others to decide for her
who among her many sons Is best fitted to
represent her in the national hail of fame
mute but eloquent witness forever to her
undying devotion to the memory Of the
man too great to be appreciated by the
present generation of partisans, and the
only one great enough to be placed there
by her as the peer of Washington.
L. T. EVERETT.
Lees Course Defended.
To the Editor of The Evening Star: