The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-20
No name hath risen, or ever shall rise, Like the name of Robert Lee.

On the 1yth day or January, loot- ninety-nine years ago today-there was born on the Potomac, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Robert Edward Lee, the spotless hero of all the centuries pr time, whose memory we honor our selves in revering and whose splendid example to mankind we show to all men, but more especially to the young, as worthy of imitation.
 Tt is meet and proper that on each recurring anniversary of this great mans birth the youths of our country should assemble in their school houses and the men in their deliberatiye halls and have recounted to them his ex- celiencies of character. which made Robert E. Lee the most resplendant ng- ure in the history of the world.
 T fully agree with MT. Cleveland when he said that 1t was immaterlai whether or no the story of Washington and the cherry tree." published Tn the school books, was true or not, the great lesson that it taught to the young to tell the truth under all circumstances and conditions had made thousands and thousands of truthful men. This, am quite sure, must be true. and 1T so' what splendid results have we not right to expect from the example or stainless life set to all men by the Christian gentleman whose anniversary we celebrate today. He was the em- bodiment of truth, modesty, courtesy, chivalry and honor.
 Tt is impossible for the human mind to associate Lee with anything false or little. As soon as we think or him' instantly the air clears of It's vapors of wrong and seihshness and in one minds eye we see a wonderfully beautiful character, in whose presence it would be humiliating to think Of, much less to do. an unworthy act.
 Tt is not expected, in the brief time I will detain you. that I should present you with even the outlines of this su- premely noble character or narratei to you the incidents of his life. Writers with gifted pens have told us or his spotIess life from the cradle to the grave; orators of sublime eloquenee have recounted his virtues In glowing language which will live as long as our language shall last, while poets have sung his praises in immortal song which fills the soul with melody.
 '''Ah, Muse! You dare not claim 4 nobler man than he,
 Nor nobler man hath less or blame, Nor blameless man hath purer name Nor purer name hath grander 1ame Nor fame-another Lee.
 "If ''tis only noble to be good then | General Lee deservedly ranks at the head of all the noble men benefeeni Providence has given to the world. to teach their fellow mortals how to live that their memory may be treasured with affection.
 tracing his ancestry back through long line of brave men and pure wo- men he was by birth a nobleman and a gentleman. He not only did nothing to tarnish the noble name he bore, but by devotion to duty, which he declared was the sublimest word in our lam guage, he left that name to posterity enriched by a reputation for magma nimity, for modesty, for justice, for gentIeness and for goodness by the side of which all others grow pale. He felt in his heart the truth of those words of Shakespeare, who easily reigns supreme in the Kingdom of poetry and at whose playing nature listening stood. and wondered at the work herself had made that
 '.The purest treasure mortal times af- ford,
 Is spotiess reputation; that away,
 Men are but gilded loam or painted
 clay"
 Robert E. Lee was not only great in all the ways of peace, but he was great in war and yet he was such beau tifully rounded character that we sell | dom think of him as the great military chieftain he must assuredly was. His Farewell Address to his soldiers al Appomattox is a classic in the sim plicity and beauty, and yet we seldom think of him as an, orator Let me ask you to read and memorize it. HIS | writer of the first rank and yet we do not think of hin as an author. During his life the lime light of the world was thrown full up | on him and revealed no defect Th( 1 passing years have but increased tho reverence of mankind for his nobility | of soul, for the grandeur of his char acter and enshrined his memory in un failing love. He was great in every [ way and in everything he did, but es pecially great in those qualities anc virtues which elevate men above thu animals and move them towards th' angels. I will not attempt to defn' true greatness to you, for l should fai in some important particular. and finC myself in the condition of old Poloniu' | in attempting to define the madness O Hamlet, when he said to define tru' madness. What ist but to be nothing else but mad; so to define greatness what is 1t but to be simply great?
 Robert k. Lee possessed in a super lative degree all those noble. grant and lovable qualities which men admir- and therefore we call him great. H was as great as Caesar without his Elm pire, as great as Napoleon without hi glory and as great as Washington without his success.
 The frightful carnage of battl was congenial pleasure to the 'subal tern of Corsica'-that marvellous chir of destiny-and he could sleep quietl to the music. of the cannons deadl roar, while to Lee 1t brought sorrow for though a soldier born and bred hi heart was as tender as that of wo man, he took no pleasure in inflictin pain and fought only for justice an right and from the highest sense O duty the battles of his country.
 Like Cardinal Wolsey General Le
 was fashioned to much honor froI his cradle He was always good an pure in word and deed He was de votedely attached to his mother whic has been the marked characteristic c all very great men. As boy he gay promise of the magnificent manhood h
 afterwards developed. When onl 'I eleven years of age, owing to the ab sence of his elder brothers, responsi biIities as head of the family devolve
 upon him and he, bore them like