The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1910-01-27


versatiOn with the latter. General
Lee was one OF the few men who ever
seriously impressed and moved me-
with their natural, their inherent
greatness"
He was, as declared by Hon. B. H
Hill of Georgia, in words that almost
exhaust the language of eufogy: "a
Zoe without hate; q friend without
treachery; a soldier without cruelty;
a victim without complaint He was
a public man without vices; a private
citizen without wrong; a neighbor
without reproach; Christian with
out hypocracy; a man without guile.
He was Cazar without his ambition;
Frederick the Great without his tyr
amy; Napoleon without his selfish
ness; Washington without his re-
ward"
General John B. Gordon said that
''Those who knew him best and stud
led him most have decided that he
was unlike any of the great captains
Of history. In his public career, there
was a singular absence of selfseeking,
otherwise he would have listened to
the wooings of ambition when debat-
ing the course he should take at the
beginning of the Civil War. Recog-
nized as the foremost soldier of his
country, offered the command of the
Union army, he turned aside to lead
the forlorn hope of his own people, be-
cause they had rights to defend and
principles to maintain for which they
were in duty bound to do their best,
even if they persisted in the endeavor'"
| know of no more beautiful appre-
citation than the words Of the late
James P. HOlcombe, who Gin grief at
his loss, reverence for his character,
pride in his glory, gratitude for his
service, thankfulness for his life and
devotion to his memory" spoke Of
him as follows: ga great life has
closed, a life upon which the longer
we linger the more we shall find to
love and revere, for it was one over
which virtue will scarce breathe a
sigh and to which fame could hard
ly add a chaplet. 1t was life which
in every season. relation and employ
ment was crowned with all that wins
the affection and commands the
homage of mankind. 1t was a life
that spanned the extremes OF tri-
umph and of calamity, but which was
so TRANSPORTED by faith. hope and
charity that its lines of suffering are
even more lustrous than it's lines of
glory.
IF other lives haze been sown
more thickly with the glittering stars
OF human honor, or have rejoiced
more abundantly in the gifts of
earthly fortune, none have been more
richly lowered with the love of man,
nor more divinely radiant with the be-
attitudes of God. Death, which with
ers the roses and fades the flowers of
kings and lays in dust the pride and
pomp of ambition, has no power
over such life but to touch it with
the lines Of heaven and seal it for inn
mortality"
With all of this you most heartily
agree. You could no more have
thought of him as being guilty of
cOwardice, or meanness Or treachery
or deceit than you could have doubt
ed your own existence.
In every crucial test of life, public
or private, soldier or citizen, as friend
or foe, he was the impersonation of
every manly virtue, the fittest repre-
sentative OF his own sublimely beau
tiful adage, Human virtue should
always equal human calamity"
Major Stiles says of him: 1T would
have strained and blurred our strong
est and clearest conceptions OF the
distinction between right and wrong
to have entertained even for a mo-
ment the thought that General Lee
ever acted from other than the pur-
est and Hottest motives" So univer-
sal. was this opinion among his sol
diers that he never but once during
the four years of the war heard even
a suggestion to the contrary, and
then it so incensed the hearers that
all military subordination was for
gotten and a colonel rushed with a
drawn sword against the maior-gen-
eral who made it.
FAITH IN HIS GENIUS AS A SOL.
DER.
From the day he assumed com.
mand until the day he surrendered
from Seven Pines to AppomattOz
you followed him with perfect conf
dence. You never criticised mol
doubted, never attributed to him men
tai error or moral weakness. Wheth
er in camp or on the march; in often
sive or defensive war, in the day O
victory or in the hour of defeat, yor
believed General Lee the equal of any
soldier of the Civil War All during
the war, certainly after the dealt
of General Albert Sidney Johnson
his fitnsss for chief command was sc
generally recognized that there art
men who believed that there was not
more than one officer in all the army
who would have consented to super
cede him had the opportunity beer
given.
Such was the faith of his men il
his genius that after the crisis a
Gettysburg and the attempt haC
failed, there was but one person wht
felt that General Lee ought to resign
. the command to younger anC
stronger man. and that person wa
: General Lee himself.
And as the end drew near and al
the world knew that it was only 1
r question of time-a fact known to NJ
1 one better than to General Lee
such was your confidence in his lead
r ership and faith in his consummat
3 genius that many OF you still believed
that he would triumph though tn
: difficulties appeared insuperable. oh
how you trusted himl
t Bearing all this in mind l woul'
' now call your attention to the fac
1 that there is in this world a caus
: more important than any other 70
: which eloquence ever lifted up it
n voice or for which man ever engage
q in battle-a cause that makes 10
j. truth and Righteousness and holmes