The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1909-01-28
ROBERT E. LEE.
What Manner of Man He Was
ga Consummate Illustration
of the Real Mali of Power"


of the Real Mali of Power"
The following eloquent tribute
to General Robt. E. Lee is taken
from an address delivered at
Chapel Hill on last Tuesday, the
anniversary of Gen. Lees birth,
by DR.. Woodrow Wilson, presi-
dent of Princeton University:
'The war between the States
was quick with forces which it
is difficult for us to handle even
now without excitement. That
war represented such convictions
as are of the color and ardor of
blood. The stage of that great
drama is flooded with a lurid
light. 1t is hard to hold calm
judgments regarding it. And yet
perhaps the most dramatic cir
cumstance of the whole tragedy
is that at the centre of that
crimson field stood the quiet fig
ure of this man whom we re-
gard as above all gentle, remov-
ed from passion and of the very
flavor of quiet sincerity. There
was no touch of the histrionic
about General Lee. His modest
demeanor upon every field of
action seems almost an attempt
to withdraw himself from sight
and to move the forces of the
day without thought of the gen.
eral and with thought only for
the business in hand. And yet
he is all the more noticeable on
that account. He was. in fact,
like every man of supreme force,
compact of fire, as Washington
was, though the fire that burnedin
Washington was less concealed
upon the surface of the man
than that which moved Lee to
his daily achievements. Every
one who approached General
Washington was aware that he
was in the presence of a man Of
powerful passions, though only
one or two men could ever say
that they had seen him yield to
1.-THE impulsive forces that slum-
bered in him. He had himself
perfectly in hand. In General
Lee, on the other hand, the fire
came to the surface and declared
itself to the observation of those
who stood about him only at
some crisis of the action on the
battlefield, when with a sort of
imperious energy he reused him
self to stir those whom he COM
manded to the thing that was to
be done and to check any at
tempt to question or alter his
directions. And so he stands
for us as a consummate illustra-
ton of the real man of power.
Fire under control is the very
emblem of force: uncontrolled it
is the emblem of destruction,
and this mans perfectly school
ed and disciplined power is the
model of what men who COM
mand should be.
But fire under control is a
perfect emblem Of force only
when it is not only, controlled,
but directed to the accomplish
ment of definite ends, Lee was
expressive, not of self-will, not
of mere aggressive, command
ing power, however disciplined
and restrained, but of something
which can be described only as a
principle alive and in action. He
used his force as a man, does
who is serving, not himself, but
, some idea which rules and in
: spires him. His quietness and
modesty when out of action were
as true an indication of the real
character of the man as the fire
e and energy that famed in hin
l when battles were afoot. For il
was not himself he was crafty
ing; it was a duty he was serv.
? ing and a definite conception anC
purpose he was pursuing. HC
was self-subordinated to princi.
pie alike in choice and in action
looking not to his interest Q.
t his own glory, but to his duty
1t is this which makes him {;
supreme example for men VIII,
seek to serve. With force enough
e initiative enough, organizing an,
f commanding power enough t
u gain any object he chose fo
: himself, he thought never o
), himself but only of the thing h
S was set to do, and this self-sub
- ordination to principle and
e duty, shining so conspicuousl
l. in him, as it did in Washington
l. is what puts him alongside Q
d Washington among the grea
le characters Of our country, for
Y is a singular and signifcan
a thing that mems character
er grow in proportion as they be
20 come Indifferent to themselve
1T and to their own interests. The
a are lifted, not by schemes Q
if self-aggrandizement, but b
III wishing only to guide the tic
n of purpose arising in nation, an
le they are Observation-Disclosures
lg the tide by which they are lifte
at and which they know how 1
govern. There is a sense in whic
. it may be said that it is M
character merely that does thi
,s for the quality of this kind {
ne accomplishment does not see
en- wholly personal. 1t is rather tt
is EXPRESSION tho embodiment