The National tribune., 1907-02-28

Washington for the South Somewhat
differently. Robert E. Lee between two
days surreptitiously discarded his uni
form. wroted his resignation to Gen.
Scott, whichi he arranged to have de-
livered when he should be safely away,
and without again seeing the chief who
had been exceeding kind to him, skur-
ried under cover of darkness across
the Potomacf and into the arms of the
Confederacy There was a story cur
rent in Washington that two colored
men living thGts claimed to have been
hired day OF two before Virginia Sc
ceded to row Lee across the river
whenever he gave the word. 1t was a
not very heroic chapter in the life Of
Mr.. Adams ., hero.
Tolerant Age.
The present is a polite and tolerant
age. Everybody now has chartered
right to express his opinion on every
subject under the sun, even If he
should publicly glorify treason and
apotheociZe its arch expositors; and it
Is expected that respectful and cour-
teous consideration will be accorded
any such views however paradoxical in
sentiment and even monstrous in doc
trfne they may be.
Nevertheless and NOTWITHSTANDING 1t
is difficult for an old Union soldier to
subdue his impulse to spring to the
charge when so plain and inviting d
defiance to controversy is thrust in his
face as these proselyte-like fulmina-
tions. by the strangely chosen orator Of
the Lee anniversary, against every prin-
ciple he has been schooled to hold rs
sacred and in defense of which he has
undergone the stress and shock of bat
tie, been baptised in its blood and per-
chance as a consequence has limDed
through forty succeeding years ola pill
grimage of endless pain and hopeless
misery. What wonder If his wounds
bleed afresh and smart to hear them
selves remembered" when treason is
extolled instead of being made odious,
when a Northern man and a former
Union soldier wakes eloquent, II also
a little tawdry in his rhetoric, over a
foeman who could only have accom-
plished the triumph of his cause by the
ruin of his country, and who employed
all his energies and exercised in the
highest degree his superior gifts to Sc
cure that triumph! And 1t is gall and
wormwood to the Union veteran to read
that as a crowning insult to loyal feel
ing this same idolator of Robert E. Lee
has proposed that statue to the rebel
chief be erected in the city of Wash
ington.
Shades Of Lincoln the Martyr. of
Grant the Magnanimous, of Stanton,
Seward, Sheridan, of all those great pa
triots who toiled so terribly that the
Nation might live and the flag be main
tanned unsullied, forbid such a desc
Grafton!
w. II. Shermnn's Course.
Just before the breaking out of the
rebellion there was a man in Baton
Rouge, La, enjoying a lucrative and
congenial position with salary of
$4,000 year. He was the President
of the Louisiana State Military Acad
emy Foreseeing just previous to the
assault on Sumter that war was newt
able, and being a man of courage and
of the most sensitive honor, he sent his
resignation to Gov. Thomas O'Moore,
with the following noble letter-the ac-
ton and sentiments expressed offering
an Illuminating contrast 10 the course
of Robert e. Lee under similar con-
ditions:"
Baton Rouge, La.
Sir: AS occupy a quas-military po-
sition under this State, 1 deem it prop
er to acquaint you that accepted such
a position when Louisiana was a State
in the Union, and when the motto Of
the Seminary was inserted in marble
over the main door: "By the liberality
of the Government of the United States
The Union, Esto Perpetua."
Recent events foreshadowed a great
change, and It becomes all men to
choose. If Louisiana withdraws from
the Federal Union, I prefer to main
tain my allegiance to the old Consti-
tuition as long as a fragment of it sur
wives, and my longer stay here would
be wrong in every sense of the word.
In that event, 1 beg you will send OF
appoint some authorized agent to take
charge of the arms and munitions of
war here belonging to the State, or di,
rect me what disposition shall be made
of than.
And, furthermore, as President of the
Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take
Immediate steps to relieve me, as Sup