Goldsboro weekly argus., 1909-01-28

you laid down arms at his command,
still ready to dare and die If he should
give the word. All, my young friends,
you children of to-day, and you OF the
generation to which I belong, these
be men Of gigantic stature-these fol-
lowers of Lee, measured by the deeds
that make men colossal! It behooves
us to genuflect at sight Of them in our
midst as they come to join US in the
tribute to the memory of their great
general, the knightliest soldier in all
the tide of time What can we know
how they loved him? And what gen.
eral was ever more worthy Of his sol
dIers' love? What has the South not
suffered and dared in the bodies and
hearts of these men of the sixties?
What would the Southland be to-day
without the patriotic inspiration or
the heroic history they made? Truly |
there is something titanic IN these
men who followed Lee, and let not
the tribute we so proudly pay to his
memory shut from our grateful view
and consideration the solemn grand
eur of their past and present lives.
Soon shall they, now follow him to
the eternal bivouac, across the mystic
river Rarely privileged are we,
therefore, to feel the soul upliftment
the presence of such men must IN
spire decade or so hence we will
not be so privileged. God bless you,
surviving Veterans, and grant you to
see again your loved generals face
transfgured, beati6c in the joy of His
presence to see whose face Is the re-
ward of the elect.
Why did his soldiers love Lee So?
Because he was the embodiment OF
their ideas of true manhood and no
bflity-the highest type Of the Cav
alier. His spirit was a bloom from
the traditions of generations, and
among the most cherished racial ira
ditions of generations to come will be
the story of his life and deeds. The
men who followed Lee followed the
personification of the thought and
sentiment of the South. The temper,
the mettle, the daring. the loyalty,
, the truth, the unselfishness, the cour-
tesy, the quiet dignity and valor OF Its
ideals found human realization in
him. 1t was as if the visible Avater
of the Southern spirit rode before
, them through all those stormy years,
that knew neither fatigue nor fear,
, from Manassas to, Appomattox. Many
men face death unhinchingly. It Is
only men with the superior quality of
, valor which was his who can present
the same brave and cheerful front to
both life and death. But the quail
ties which marked Lee as superior In
war made him great in peace, for
they we're the manifestations OF no
BILE soul. Every Southerner Is the
better man for the example that Gen
eral Lee set before the manhood and
T the youth of the South, and our South
land will be robust and perennial as
+ the custodian of correct principles OF
Republican government and political
, ethics as long as and no longer than,
Robert E. Lee is held forth. as, the
, ideal of splendid citizenship And
therefore I take this occasion to urge
that the South remain true-stoicly
.solid," if you will-to those princi-
; pies of democracy in the sturdy main
tenance of which depends and rests
/ the perpetuity of our free institutions.
. A solid South is the bulwark of the
, nations life as free republic Let
> us care not for the pelf Of power
Il
, tician for the fawning-the money
| madness Of the times, that is endeav-
Oring to inoculate it's leprOsy into
f the so-called New South. Let US TO
: Gus this latter movement under the
= searchlight of Lees life, as recently
analyzed by Prof. Chas. Foster Smith,
Southern-born man, who holds the
f chair of pedagogy in a northern col
9 lege, and from his striking deductions
r let us become even more vigilant for
, our safety, remembering that eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty"
f In the course of a most instructive
> article entitled Ideal Teaching and
f Teacher" publish in the Methodist
2 Quarterly Review for October, Prof.
Smith has this to say Of General Lee:
) young people in college and uni
!, versity must be taught to know a
good man when they see him. And 1t
seems to me we Southern people have
had in our own time as remarkable
!, an object lesson Of this sort as the
: world ever saw-a good and great
man, idolized by whole people, tried
by the severest test under the blaze
of the search-lights of the whole CIV
i1ized world Some Of US know, and
the rest have heard and read, of what
happened in this country from 1860
7 to 1870. There was offered then, un-
consciously, what might be called a
3 university course in ethics to form or
test the character of a whole people.
: Gen. Robert e. Lee was the instruc
, tor, and his immediate scholars we're
: from 1861 to 1865, the army of North
ern Virginia; from 1865 to 1870, the
i. students and faculty Of Washington
Colleges. but back of these, and look
81 ing on as vast audience at a great
l trial scene, stood the whole Southern