The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-04-20
Hide Your Head, Senator Hepburn.

Undoubtedly the meanest fling
which any man in public life has ever
made at the character of the South's
peerless chieftain in battle was made
before the Union League of Wash.
ington, D. c., the other evening bv
an individual Of whom we have had
occasion to speak heretofore-Sena-
tor Hepburn, of Idaho.
The system Of the man must be
fairly diseased with venom who. at
the expense of one of the whitest and
purest spirits this world has ever
looked upon, could indulge in vitu-
peration the like of which has come
from this mans lips
He says that he has himself exam
ined the records of the government
and has found that when Robert T..
Lee resigned from the United States
army it was after Lincoln had pro-
noted him to a full colonelcy and
that he drew his pay as such three
days after he had accepted a COM
mission from the Confederacy.
That" said he, "is the man whom
we are asked to accept as a hero
| and a soldier"
If the speakers language Is to be
construed according to the rules Of
| English syntax, 1t simply means that
the government was three days be-
hind in paying to General Lee the
sum to which he was properly entit!-
| ed, but what this mutilator Of his
mother tongue intended to say was
that General Lee drew pay for three
days service as colonel when he
possessed no right to such compen-
sation.
Is this the only flaw which after
the lapse Of nearly half a century
can be found upon the character of
Lee?
If so, then clean, indeed, must be
the record upon which his traducers
by every sort of device, from chemi-
cal analysis to sheer fabrication,
have sought in vain to find a blem-
ish, and the ridiculous extremity to
which this man has resorted is in
ferentially tribute of the most as
founding character to Lees unsul-
lied fame.
General Lee was a man Of means
At the time of his resignation from
the United States army his home was
at Arlington, one of the lordliest
estates in Virginia, overlooking the
Potomac river just opposite the city
| of Washington.
| Yet he deliberately connived to de-
fraud the government out of three
days pay!
In the name Of Simple Simon, when
did an intelligent man eevr seek by
such an absurd argument to blacken
virtue or to besmirch honor! It only
shows into what straits of folly we
are sometimes betrayed when we
nurse malice and hatred. Instead of
harming General Lee, the author of
such an attack only makes himself
ridiculous
At the close Of the war General
Lee was stript of his fortune. He was
then dependent upon his hard earn
ings. But we find the old soldier de-
clining more than once a salary Of
$50, 600 year. To accept what ?
The presidency of an unpretentious
college in the valley of Virginia.
Yet the noble old Roman who in
days of adversely could decline the
overtures of wealth was not above
the temptation in days Of aifiuence
to defraud the government Of three
days pay!
Senator Hepburn, if you are not
wholly lost to shame, go hide your
head.
You are not the first vulture who
has envied an eagle; but you can no
more sully the good name of this
prince among men than you can sui
ly the SHOWS on the Rocky noun
tains.
Nature made but one such man
and broke the die in molding Lee.
Men like Senator Hepburn are
great only in their own lttleness and
wise only in their own conceit.
When the world forgets that he