Goldsboro weekly argus., 1909-01-28
In Memory
Of R. E. Lee
Col. Jos. E. Robinson Deliver
ed Masterful Grafton at
FaiSon Tuesday.
Report From Duplin Journal.
An Address on That Great General
Who Fought and Lost a Great
Cause, and Yet Did Not
Lose in Another
Sense.

Gen. Robert Il. Lee 8 anniversary
was celebrated by the Daughters of
the Confederacy Tuesday with ,appro-
pirate exercises.
Mrs. Marshall Williams, president
of the local chapter, called the assem-
bly, to order at the Faison Academy,
Tuesday morning at 10 O'Clock, ma
king a splendid short address-set-
ting forth the grand work of the Uni
ted Daughters of the Confederacy of
this State
After song and prayer Prot. Spencer
introduced Col. Joseph E. Robinson,
the orator of the occasion, who held
the rapt attention of his appreciative
audience with the following beautiful,
scholarly address upon the high char
acter of that grand military and civic
chieftain great in war and greater In
peace, Robert E. Lee.
Col Robinson said:
NV Friends-Ladies and Gentlemen
Children and Veterans OF Falson:
In coming to be with you to-day to
speak to you of him the anniversary
of whose birth has, from year to year.
since he came before the world on
the war-stage of the SOS, been grow
ing in recognition untIl to-day it Is
well-nigh universal, | esteem myself
peculiarly privileged, and so intense is
my reverence for Robert E. Lee that
in essaying to speak to you of him L
feel like taking the shoes from Off my
feet, for the ground whereon | stand
is holy!
All over our Southland to-day in
hamlet, town, city, school, college and
university, wherever the quick blood
of the cavalier pulses through patrio-
tic hearts-wherever the world over,
the virtue of patriotism finds lodge
ment in logical minds, the youth of
the time is being schooled in the les
son of his glorious and triumphant
life. 1 am glad that $50 large an ele-
ment of my audience this morning are
the school children OF the town, bor
they could not get-and / hope they
will grasp and imbibe it better
definition of life than as Robert q.
Lee lived it. His life was model
from his earliest bOyhOod-frOm his
first lisping prayer at his invalid MOTH
er's knee, to his last breath. And
so. standing here in your presence
and looking back across the years to
the stirring panorama IN which ne
was a living, important figure, and for
ward across the tops of the coming
centuries to the homage that will
forever halo his name, I repeat, you
could not get a better definition OF
life than as he lived it. What was
his life? How did he live it? Have
you ever asked yourselves the ques-
ton. What is life?
Shakespeare, the immortal bard of
Avon, makes Macbeth to say, "Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon
the stage, and then is heard no more.
Tt is a tale told by an idiot full Of
sound and fury signifying nothing. y
But this was not Lees conception OF
life. His, rather, was that OF the
poet Bailey in his beautiful Festus,
wherein he says, "Life is means
unto an end-that end the beginning,
mean and end Of all things-God." !"
Lees faith in God was the predOmi-
nant element in his rounded character
the crock that was higher" than he,
in whose shade he could ever find So
lace and strength. This faith was ac-
c0nCudLGu Wu0A lAS 1oIdtO VI VII 6AAAee
appointed him Major-General and
Commander-in-C Chief of all her mill
tary forces. In open and crowded
convention he formally accepted this
position, saying with all that dignity
and grace of manner which distin-
guished him, that he did so trusting
in Almighty God, an approving con-
science, and the aid Of my fellow citi-
zens" And in all his campaign he
eyinced his belief in an overruling
Providence, in whose help he trusted
implicitly, and for whose interposition
he prayed at all times, and the sol-
diers whom he led had almost as sub
lime faith in him. You know ft-you
battle-grimed Veterans who followed
him with unfaltering faith to victory