The Washington bee., 1907-02-02
RABBI ELKIN breaches A SER

RABBI ELKIN breaches A SER
MON ON GENERAL LEE.
From the Alexandra Daily Town Talk
At the temple last Friday evening
Rabbi Elkin took for his subject the
life of Robert Z. Lee in connection with
some episodes from the life of Jacob.
Speaking of the conflict of the States
in connection with the meeting OF ia
cob and Esau, he said:
"Thc ancients tell us that Jacob pre-
pared himself in three-fold manner
to meet Esau. He bethought himself
of gifts to placate his brother, then he
resorted TO prayer, and if these two
would not help, then in the last resort,
he would wage war as did Abraham
for Lot Robert E. Lee lived through
all these compromises which were
made to settle the great question of
slavery. No question of matter and
moment was ever settled till it was
settled correctly and these compromises
on the slavery issue only STAYED off the
inevitable conflict. There are those who
tell us that the conflict would have
come without the problem of slavery.
The Cavalier of the South and the
Puritan of the North are tempera-
ments entirely different and would have
come to blows just as they did in Eng
land of old. Even If it be true that
history repeats itself Yet let us not
forget that the same problem is today
before the American people and the
stock in trade for the newspaper car
toonist is the Brownsville tragedy We
have the spectacle presented of a SEN
ator telling us that this great republic
is on he eve of race conflict
In the solution of this question, on
the anniversary of this character sans
peur ct sans reproche, we may profit
ably ask ourselves how would this war
rior who bore the brunt of the battle
for the South, have answered this ques-
ton? Would he have approved of the
cartoonist day in and day out, using
a simple act of justice as a means to
earn bread and butter and indirectly
to goad the passions of the people?
Would he have approved of a Senator
criticising the President for an act
which would have been cOnsummated
had the soldiers been white instead OF
black? Would the great Southerner
have joined with those who see in a
simple act of justice political material
and thunder, which can be used against
one who has shown himself on vari-
Gus occasions a friend of the black
man? Lee as a soldier accepted the
arbitrament of war and the central
question settled by the titanic struggle
would not have been obscured in his
lucid and clear mind by the side issues
which today are engendered by the liv-
ing together of the two races. Besides
Lee was a peace-loving man. His wife
wrote that he shed tears of blood when
duty compelled him to draw the sword
for his beloved Virginia. Who can cal
culate the great good which he did
for a reconstructed South when under
his presidency of Washington and Lee
University there were sent out eight
hundred young men who, by their cul-
ture and education lit up the dark
places?
Fitting it is that his monument III
the Crescent City should be the place
where peace and love meet each other;
where colored nurse and little babe and
romping child flock as if they knew
themselves to be at peace under the
benign gaze of him who was greater
N peace than IN war.
"'With angels and with men he wres-
tied and conquered AS general Lee
NAV be open to criticism in consequence
of his magnanimity to take upon him
self the blame belonging to officers who
did the best they could with the in
ferior material which a poorer South
afforded but as "a man of peace there
can be but one verdict He who makes
two blades of grass grow where before
there was one. is a public benefactor.
| What shall be said in eulogy Of one
l who prefers to greater emolument,
which might have been his, the praise
OF whole people would rise up and call
him by that most honored Of Jewish
titles, Rabbit eacher?"