Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-01-20
AMERICUS' TRIBUTE TO
THE NOBLE R. {. LEE.
Fine Address at the Meet
ing Yesterday.
Many Hear Prof. Had
docks Address at
the Armory.

The anniversary celebration of the
birth of Gen. Robert E. Lee drew a
large audience to the armory yester-
day morning. Probably thirty of the
members Of Sumter Camp of Veterans
were in attendance, and there was a
large outturn of the Daughters of the
Confederacy. Many school children
were also present, to receive lessons
in patriotism from the orator of the
occasion.
Tribute to Daughters.
Rev. o. B. Chester opened the SER
vices with an appropriate prayer.
Commander Davenport then addressed
a few well chosen words of tribute to
the Daughters for their grand work
in rescuing Southern history from
oblivion and perpetuating Southern
traditions and memories, and intro
duced the speaker of the occasion,
Prof. Haddock, principal of the High
School.
Prof. Haddock's address was one of
the best that has ever been delivered
on similar occasion in Americus. In
the compass of thirty minutes the
speaker graphically, in chaste Ian
guage, and with the impressiveness
and forcefulness that comes more
from the genuineness of the tribute
and the character of the subject than
from any efforts at oratorical display,
surveyed the life of Lee. Paying trib-
ute to the notable deeds of the Lees
from the field of Hastings to that Of
Appomattox, Prof Haddock told Of
the valor of Robert E. Lee in the Mexi-
can war, of his unwavering devotion
to the highest sense of duty in ali the
crises Of life, of the moment when am
bition and attachment to the Union
were thrust aside to respond to the
call of the state wherein his duty lay
and of his subsequent genius as mill
tary chieftain. Gettysburg and Appo-
mattox the two greatest crises in his
career as the leader of the Southern
forces, were sketched in tense and
eloquent sentences that brought forth
applause from all present. In closing
his graphic sketch Prof. Haddock
said:
Nobility of Lee and Its Lessons.
WAS it fate that Lee should teach
us how .t9,1f5Sthat which we did not
need ssYas his character, grander
than all of his battles, been left US as
a nobler heritage, that from it the sor-
rowing South might find comfort and
rightly choose her destiny? Verify,
Lee hath left us text for every con-
tingency And every text martially
proclaims the sublime principle of
duty.
Every old soldier who donned the
gray in 81 did not what seemed to be,
as some say, but what actually was his
duty. These old soldiers lost the
grosser victory, but made a spiritual
conquest whose glory is our most sa-
cred heritage. And every noble quail
ity in the souls of Confederate soldiers
was exemplified in the life of Lee. In
deed, he seems to have been the epi-
tome of all their virtues, with never
iarring flaw. So that we may best
honor them by studying his life, and
may best perpetuate their heroism by
needing and doing his life's tuition.
I'm our relations to the rest of the
Union, we may consider the text left
us by him when he surrendered the
Army of Northern Virginia. It would
have been easy enough and glorious
enough for him had he formed in bat
tie line his ragged troops and died in
the endeavor to break the opposing
lines. We would have glorified him
as a magnificent martyr. But pre-
monition of the hardships of recon-
struction possessed him, and he said
But it is our duty to live. What would
the women and the children of the
South do if we were not here to pro-
tect them?' And is it right for me
to surrender this army? If it's right,
I'll assume the responsibility
Evidently he considered 1t right.
And that act of his settled forever our
relations to the rest of the Union. Our
position was defined by Sydney Lanier
when he said to the little green leaves:
/" Teach me the terms of silence;
preach me the passion of patience;
And there, o there, as ye hang with
your myriad palms upturned in
the air,
Breathe me a myriad prayer
when any of US individually shall
have failed at some dear project, so
that the wreck of its fabric shall ex-
tend to our spiritual horizon, and we
shall seem to be in the Valley OF the
Shadow of Death, let us remember
his words at Gettysburg: "Never mind,
General, l lost this fight, and you
must help me out of it in the best way
that you can
"And at all times, remember Lee at
Appomattox: is it right for me to
surrender this army? If it's right, I'll
assume the responsibility
Lees Record, the Love of the South.
Our reward, in that case, shall be
analogous to what was his reward.
No place of titular advantage was ac-
corded him in his declining years. The
laurel, the pompous epaulette, the
tawdry medal were withheld. But
the children of his countrymen hailed
him with glad acclaim, and the wives
and widows of his old guard shed
tears of genuine affection for him as
he rode down the streets Of ruined
Richmond. The sons of the men who
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