Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1909-11-17
MEMORIAL TO GEN. LEE AT
W. l.. u.

President Taft struck o respol
sive chord last Wednesday in b
address in Richmond when in til
course of a patriotic speech b
warmly endorsed the establishment
by the whole people of a lastin
memorial to General Robert e. LIE
at Washington and Lee University
the institution to which the illus
trious military chieftain gave tn
closing days of his eventful life
The President said:
I'VE have now reached the poin
where we can look back without pre-
JUDGE and without partisan passion
to the events of the Civil War. The
North has come to admire to the
full the heroes of the South, and the
South admires to the full the heroes
of the North There is a monument
in Quebec to commemorate the great
struggle on the Plains OF Abraham.
On one side there appears the name
Of the French general, Montcalm,
and on the other that of the Eng
lishman, Wolfe. 1t is the acme of
that which we ought to reach. At
my own alma mater, Yale Universi-
ty, there is an association, o: which
l am member, whose object is to
erect memorial, not to the North
ern students who fell in the war.
and not to the Southern students
who fell IN that conflict, but me-
mortal TO the Yale men who died in |
the Civil War.
And so venture to express the
hope that the project suggested by
my predecessor, Theodore Roose-
welt, may with equal fitness be ap
proved by me-that there should be
erected by the people of the whole
country great memorial in honor
OF General Robert E. Lee, and that
it should take the form that he would
have valued the most highly, the es-
adjustment of great school of en-
gineering at Washington and Lee :
University. l have deep sympa-
thy with that movement, and desire
70 aid itin every way in my power.
The full meaning of this endorse q
ment will more readily be III derstood Il
when it is recalled that President b
Taft had spent the greater portion Z
OF the day in visiting historic scenes
in Richmond. He had stood in the "
hall of the House OF Delegates, the c,
White House of the Corfederacy: m
had spent short time in Hollywood e
beside the tombs of President Mon LII
-10" &c
roe, President Tyler and President -
Davis; had gazed upon the monu- TO
nent erected to the memory of the err
'nly President OF the Confederacy; gr
lad breathed the atmosphere of old %
St. Johns church and stood by the ~
historic pew in which Patrick Hen Ct,
y made his famous speech; and had tn,
iewed other places no less noted un
Dr. their connection with history in so'
IS making. Under the spell of Pc
Gel
1ese influences President Taft gave frs
tterance to bis endorsement of the use
ee memorial at Washington and
ee University. For
twill be recalled that President \
oosevelt, in letter to the commit h ~U
@ in charge Of arrangements in cas-
ashington City for the centennial DC;
LIBERATION of the birth of General tito
re. in January, 1907, expressed ias st
regret at being unable to be YER
eseht on that occasion. In clos som
M
2 his letter President Roosevelt som
the establishment of witt
rmanent memorial to General Lee in h
the following utterance: we
81, cove
l hope you will take advantage INN
the one hundredth anniversary gon'
General Lees birth by appealing ;.; ~
aii our people, IN every section Hot
his country, to commemorate his M
and deeds by the establishment dive
some great representative educa- Vi AZ
1al institution of the South, of a ,re !
manent memorial that will serve getti
youth of the coming years, as been
in the closing years of his life, weat
we'd those who so sorely needed NJ
1t be so freely gave" III
he friends of Washington and Scho,
81. |!