The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-10
JUDGE STEER LAUDS LEE JuriSt Speaks at Emory
 Commencement. ALLEGIANCE TO HIS STATE
To Famed Chieftain Duty"
 Was a Sacred Word.
In Fervid Peroration, Judge Spec, Justifies Placing Statue of Lee Beside That of Washington
 In Capitol.

Oxford, Ga., June s.-Judge Emory Speer of Macon delivered this morning the annual commencement address at Elm ory College. His subject was the 'Life and Character of Robert E. Lee" and he gave a vivid and eloquent recital of the great soldiers career. dwelling upon Lees sublime self-poise and patience both in victory and defeat.
 Referring to Lees motives in entering the service of the Confederacy, Judge Speer said:
 "The time seems opportune for the American people to dispassionately inquire whether Robert E. Lee ever merited the reproduction even of the most ardent ad- vocate of our perpetual union.
 Loving our reunited country with all my heart. counting the long years have spent in it's service as my chiefest honor, I yet contend that rich as it is in military glory, brilliant though the roll of its he- roes, it can no longer afford to question the military and personal honor of Lee and his noble compatriots. America, with all her acknowledged power, cannot fall to appropriate that warlike renown which gleamed on the bayonets and blazed in the serried volleys of the soldiers of the South Nor do her greatest and her best longer question the one or put aside the other
 Lee Was a True Man.
 ITO the Constitution. as he understood it. 1t is demonstrable that Washington himself was not more devoted than Lee and his written and spoken words m that day of ungovernable passion portray in the clearest light his immovable aversion to djsunion.
 Why, then, it may be asked. did Lee draw his sword in maintenance of se- cession. which he declared revolution. which he pronounced anarchy, and which L. would infifnf h. told 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:
 If the Union is dissolved and the gov- ernment 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.
 Had No Alternative.
 .'To him what he had declared the revo- lution of secession had come. He was convinced that the union was In fact dissolved and the Government disrupted. He was dealing with no theory, but with an appalling fact. It is not necessary 10 the vindication of Lee to argue as some have done, that secession was consti- tutional remedy, nor that 1t was thus taught at West Point. If this is so, 1t made no impression upon him. We have seen that he did not believe 1t, nor Is it necessary to disprove the right of the Government to coerce a seeding State. He had as little belief in that as in seces- sion. But this much Is plain. he did be- lieve that the secession of the Southern States did in fact disrupt and dissolve the Union; that by revolution already accomplished, the Union of the fathers had already ceased to exist and hence forward that his allegiance was due to the State of his birth"
 His Place by Washington.
 In his peroration Judge Npeer referred inferentially to the proposal by the State of Virginia to place a statue of General Lee in Statuary Hall in the Capitol at Washington. In this connection, he said:
 Deny Lee a place by Washington! An. IS it sure. if in the awful hour when the invading columns approached Virginia's soil. the winds of the prophet had breath ed upon the dead that they might live, the defensive blade of Washington would not have gleamed beside the sword of Lee? Repel not, then, my country. the fervid love of thy sons who fought with Lee and of the children of their loins. Their prowess thou hast seen on the hills of Santiago; on the waters of Luzon. In thy need the children of Grant have been and are brethren in arms of the kinsmen of Lee. Officers of his thou hast called to thy service in highest place in peace and war His comrades and his kinsmen wear thy swords. With joy his sword. too, had leaped at thy command The flowers of spring with equal hand thou wilt henceforth strew on graves of all thy dead. Why, then. repeI his blame less name from thy t1nmortaIs scroll2 Then honor him. and in thy need on E vain. And woe to thy foe in press of bat tie when the soul of Lee shall fire their hearts and his bright sword shall point the charging colmns of thy sons"