The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-21


 sire. His father. Richard Henry Lee, or better known is history as Light Horse Harry, served as an efficient gem eral in the army of Washington, and his father. Charles Richard Lee came to this country and settled in Virginia when Charles l.. was King of England. In England, the family of Lees can be traced still further back to the time of William the Conaueror. who flourish ed in the Eleventh Century. but what of this, unless Lee himself had been a Lee,
 Now. in the time allotted me. I can- not recount for you in any detail the heroic achievement s'rof sQenerai q Lee. From childhoodr to youth his lie was simple as the 1fvesssof all great men invariably are. At the age of 22 years he was graduated from the West Point Military Academy. and was by the Unit ed States Government made Lieutenant General of the Corps of Engineers in the Mexican War. Here he distinguish ed himself for faithfulness. and when the City of Mexico was at length taken General Scott said his success was due more largely to the efficient service or Lee than any other one man. At the close of the war, Lee went back to Vir- ginia and became the president of the West Point Military Academy. Here he remained for three years, but in the meantime the Indians began their dep- relations in Texas. and Lee, with reg tment of cavalry. was sent to combat them. It was during this time that his wifes father. Mir. Custis. 6ied. and he went back to Virginia to visit his family and console his wife in her deep bereavement. He reached Virginia just in time to put down John Browns up-' rising. While here he saw clearly the trouble brewing between the States. avx1 LA Ir ALA NH a. country would be plunged in civil war. However. he went back to his post in Texas. only to be called home again to take up his sword in defense of Vir. ginia and the South, and we all know the result. I could easily spend the re- mainder of my time in a high flown grandiloquent style in describing for you any one of his many triumphs, and decade ago. when I first entered college. this appealed to me in a sense: I thought then there was something in it. but find myself getting away from that now. and I find myself inevitably looking into the causes of things. We recognize our hero's greatness. There were none of his contemporaries, nor have there been any since to be com pared with him. Now if I can bring before you some of the clements which entered into his character and produced this greatness, and then show you that 1t Is possible for us to attain, at least in degree to the same thing, shall be happy. Under any other conditions our coming together Is not worth while.
 The first element of greatness. then, in General Lee. was his absolute spirit of loyalty, and his unswerving fidelity to every trust This principle came not only from his father. but as we'll from his mother. whom we read: Was a good woman. and lived only to train her children in the right way" and his father before him had said: 'vir- ginia Is my country: her will I obey, however sad the fate to which 1t may subject me-" and this same spirit was imbibed by their more illustrious son. More than thirty years of his life had been spent in the Union service prior to the civil war and now that the war was on. he was offered the chief corns mand of the Union army if he would continue in It's service. He knew too for him to reject this offer 1t meant that he was to lose his rank as sol. dier; his beautiful home. Arlington would go. and with 1t the rest of his property: vet. in the face of the fiat tering offer on the one hand, and the great sacrifice on the other. he said. No, a thousand times no. for how can I turn my sword against Virginia"
 It ia related by Mir. Wise. in one of the issues of The Circle. that when Lee went to Richmond to take command Of the army. his countenanoe was cast down beyond all human expression; he was sorrowing as one unto death: the dark forebodings of the future of his country was already pressing upon his sensitive soul. and the sobs and signs of widows and orphans could already be heard. And he told MT. Blair. who came to offer him the command of the army; "If I owned the 100000 slaves of the South, I would give them all up to save the Union. but how can I draw my sword against Virginia" And so it was when MT. Lincoln called for troops l to send against the South, Lee turned his back upon the Union. and all that | wealth and rank could offer, and turned his face toward the sunshine and flow | CTS. Duty was his watch word. whe- ther in war or fn peace; in public or private life, it was duty. This was what he tried to inspire into the breasts of | his students when after the war he was president of Washington and Lee Uni-