The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-01-20

unsheathed their sword at the com
mand of conscience, both of them NOR
al giants, rallying posts for the thou
sands of their countrymen who be-
lieved in the business Of their cause
And this may be the theory to explain
the likeness of Washington and Lee
believe that when young Lee went
off to West Point he took counsel OF
the Father of his county how to be a
man. AS a student he seemed to ask
the question: What would Washing
ton do?" at every juncture. And so
communing with his ideal of a states
man, a soldier, and a citizen, Lee was
fashioned into the image of his Illus
trious ideal. And I know of nothing
better that could happen to the young
man and woman in our schools than
that they should look back into that
past. That past which the poet says
is now like an Artic sea:
Where the living currents have ceased
to run,
But over that past the fame of Lee
Shines out as the Midnight Sun,
should look back, and as he chose
Washington, they should choose Lee
this "Midnight Sun" to point them On
the path of gentle manliness and
honor.
For 20 years Lee was busy with the
appointments of the government. AS
expert engineer he was detailed to
several difficult and important posts.
He did his work with characteristic
vigor and precision. Nothing is finer
than his letters to his home during
these periods of absence. He had mar
ried young, and it is one of the pathe-
tic elements of the story of this gen
tie soul, that would have reveled In
the lows of home and fireside, that he
was forced by duty to the spending OF
so much of his time from home that
when he met his youngest son he did
not know him.
The world knows the career OF Lee
in Mexico. Indeed that war With
Mexico trained the great commanders
North and South, for the conflict OF
THE sixties. On the pampas and upon
the mountains of Mexico they learned
the science which was so signalize the
ferciest battles of the Civil war. There
is no time to sketch his services as an
engineer and lieutenant, except to note
that fine encomium of praise bestoW-
ed upon him by his chief, Gen. Winfield
Scott. He said of Lee: '*I never saw a
liner soldier on the battlefield" He
said: eff I were on my death-bed to-
morrow, and the president of the Unit
ed States should tell me that a great
battle were to be fought for the liber-
ty or slavery of the country, and ask
ed my judgment as to the ability of a
commander, I would say with my dy-
ing breath: Let it be Robert E. Lee!' -
Yet the man who won that confidence
and high honor was not a blusterer or
a braggart, nor an iron man with the
feelings of humanity shriveled up in
the heat Of butchery and battle. No,
his heart was at home with kindness
everywhere. He was not as busy with
the stern details of war that he could
not think to his boys. 1t was
Christmas, and he said: Il hope
good Santa Claus will fill my Roberts
stocking tonight with good things.
do not know what he may have for
you and Mary, but if he only leaves
for you one-half of what 7 wish you
will want for nothing" The very
mare he rode seemed to catch his splr,-
it. He writes to his wife and describes
most graphically how the mare he rode
carefullp picked her way among the
dead upon the battlefield, as if she was
afraid of hurting the poor fellows
who had been killed" War did not
carna.lize his soul. While on others
war wrought it's metamiorphis of hu-
man beings into brutes, on the Grey
Commander it wrought in vain except
to open wider the fountain of his man
ly pity. Everywhere he wore the Inca
ment of a gentleman, never naughty
to the humble and never humble to the
naughty"
And so T believe you can take that
thought of the gentleness of Lee, and
follow him all through the civil war,
all through his great career from
Stratford to Lexington, and you will
find him proving his title clear to the
grand old name of gentleman.