The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-10
EMORY SPEER SPEAKS
ON THE LIFE OF LEE
Literary Address Delivered at Emory College
Commencement


metrical in form, with finely shaped
head on a pair of broad shoulders
The wedding at historic Arlington was
witnessed by a happy assemblage OF
fair women and brave men from TWO
states, and from the capital OF all the
states. A contemporary chronicler de-
clares that the stately mansion never
held a happier assembage.
when the COMMUNICATIVE Gen.
Winfield Scott, was in 1886 entrusted
with our small but most efficient army
intended for the reduction of the City
of Mexico Robert L. Lee, captain OF
engineers. was selected by that impos-
ing and magnificent officer as a mem
Der of his personal staff. Here the sol
diery genius of Lee was afforded its
first great opportunity. Time forbids
that l should enlarge upon his aston
ishing display of military resourcetul-
ness and his heroic courage in that
memora BILE campaign. SO protound
was the impression he made on his
veteran commanders that years after
ward Gen. Scott exclaimed to Gen
Preston of Kentucky: 1 tell you that
if l were on my deathbed tomorrow,
and the President of the United states
should tell me that great battle was
to be fought for the liberty OF slaV-
cry of the country and ask my judge
ment as 10 the dDllll9 Vi a NOliiliit'ii7
der | would say, with my dying
breath, let him be Robert E. Lee
THE Mexican War over, with sew
eral brevets for distinguished service,
he came home and took part in con-
structing defensive works for Balti-
more harbor, served for three years
as SUPERINTENDENT of the United States
Military Academy, and two new regi-
ments of cavalry having in 1855 been
authorized by act of Congress, Capt.
and Brevet Col r. f.. Lee of the en-
gineers was promoted to be lieutenant
colonel of the Second Regiment. This
was mis- command at the outbreak of
hostilities between the Northern and
Southern states.
we have now reached the period In
the life of this great American gen
eral where the current of history swept
him swiftly to the foremost place
among the military leaders of all the
English speaking races. 1t is uniVer-
sally known that general in chief
of the Confederate armies, Lee at once
achieved the most illustrious rank in
the profession of arms and was sub
jected by some of his opponents to that
fierce and for long implacable censure
which invariably marks the most tu-
rious manifestations of human passion,
a great civil war.
1.-The time seems opportune for the
American people to dispassonately in
quire whether Robert e. Lee ever mer-
tied the Reproduction even of the most
ardent advocate of our perpetual I'm
ion Loving our reunited country with
all my heart, counting the long years l
have spent in it's service as my chief
est honor, / yet contend that rich as
ii is in military glory, brilliant though
the deadroll of its heroes it can no
longer afford to question the military
Z ! L. IL
noble compatriots. America with all
her acknowledged power cannot fail
to appropriate that warlike renown
which cleaned on the bayonets, and
blazed in the serried vo1leys of the sol
diers of the South. Nor do her great
est and her best longer question the
one or put aside the other.
I'm the Memoirs of Gen. Grant, that
great soldier declares that his fierce
foemen were as sincere in their devo-
ton to the cause for which they fought
as were his own gallant armies to the
flag of the Union. And of the soldiers
of the South. our soldier president of
to-day has declared that they have the
most hearty faith in the justice of their
cause and that he is but poor Amer
lean whose veins do not thrill with
pride as he reads of the deeds of des-
perate prowess done by the Confed-
crate armies And if those incompara-
Bile armies were sternly fighting for
their conviction of right, and if the
nation should thrill with the story of
their valor, what of their hero chief
tain
Nor nobler man hath less of blame
Nor blameless man hath purer name
Nor purer name hath grander fame
Nor Lee"
ITO the constitution as he under
stood it, it is demonstrab BILE that Wash
ington himself was not more devoted
than Lee, and his written and spoken
words in that day of ungovernable
passion portray in the clearest light
his immovable aversion to disunion.
On Jan. Is, 1861. to the wife to whom
his heart was open, he wrote of Wash
ington, How his spirit would be
grieved could he see the wreck of his
mighty labors. 1 will not, however,
permit muself to believe, until all
grounds of hope are gone, that the
fruit of his noble deeds will be de-
stroyed and that his precious advice
and virtuous example will so soon be
forgotten
"On the same day, of the impending
catastrophe, he wrote to his son: I can
anticipate no greater calamity for the
I country than a dissolution of the
Union. 1t would be an accumulation
of all the evils we complain of, and I
am Wiling 10 sacrifice everything but
honor for its preservation. Secession
4 is nothing but revolution The fraln-
ers of our constitution never exhaust
ed so much labor, wisdom and for
bearance in its formation and sur
rounded II with so many safeguards
and securities if it was intended to be
/ broken by every member of the Con-
] federacy at will. 1t is intended for
/ the perpetual union. which can only
be dissolved by revolution or the con-
sent of the people in convention as
sembled.
, why. then, it may be asked. did Lee
| drew his sword in maintenance of Sc
cession. which he declared revolu-
ton, which he pronounces anarchy.
and which he foresaw and declared
would int1ict untold calamities upon
the people, which only the mercy of
God could avert. The reply is that he
did no such thing. His purpose is
declared in the letter to his son al
ready quoted: If the Union is dissolv-
ed and the government disrupted. I
shall return to my native state and
share the miseries of my people. and
save in defense will draw my sword on
none To him, what he had declared
the revolution of secession had come
He was convinced that the Union was
i'm fact dissolved and the government
in fact disrupted. He was dealing with
no theory, but with an appalling fact
II is not necessary to the Vindication
OF Lee, to argue as some have done
that secession was constitutional