The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-01-21

sacbusetts, Charles Francis Adams,
reared in the New England school OF
nolitics. himself throughout the war
in the army which confronted Lee.
son of that Charles Francis Adams
who as United States Minister 10
England during the Civil War proba-
blv did as much as any other one man
to defeat the cause of the Confedera-
CIV. grandson of John Quincy Adams
and great-grandson of that elder Ad-
ans who succeeded Washington as
President of the United States, man
who so differed from Lee in his III
depreciation of the duty an American
citizen owes as between his State anc
the central Government that ne de-
clared he would go against Massachu-
sets for the Union, has written this
for history:
"If Robert E. Lee was traitor, SO
also and indisputably was George
Washington. Washington furnishes
precedent at every point. A Vir-
ginian, like Lee, he was also Brit
iish subject; he had fought under the
British flag, as Lee had fought under
that of the United States; when, In
I1776, Virginia seeded from the Brit
ish Empire he went with his State,
lust as Lee went eighty-five years la
ter; subsequently Washington COM
manded armies in the field designated
by those opposed to them as rebels
and whose descendants now glorify
them as the rebels of &c. much
as Lee later commanded and at last
surrendered much larger armies,
also designated rebels by those
they confronted. Except in their
outcome the cases were, therefore,
precisely alike; and logic is logic.
1t consequently appears to follow
that if Lee was traitor Washing
ton was Also"
He further says:
"In him there are exemplified those
lofty elements of personal character,
which, typifying Virginia at her high
est, made Washington possible. Es-
sentially a soldier, Robert E. Lee was
many-sided man. l might speak
of him as strategist, but of this as
pect of the man enough has perhaps
been said. l might refer to the res
pect, the confidence and love with
which he inspired those under his COM
mand. l might dilate on his restraint
in victory; his patient endurance in
the face of adverse fortune; the Sc
rene dignity with which he in the end
triumphed over defeat. But, passing
over all these well-worn themes,
shall confine myself to that one attrl,
L. hioh 4
soldier by an opponent, | cannot bu'
regard as his surest and loftiest tltls
to enduring fame | refer to hi. hui
: manity in arms and his scrupulous re-
gard for the most advanced rules OF
modern warfare"
Denying the contention that wal
must be made hell, holding up to ex
: ecration the authors of the bloodies'
deeds in history, this generous foe anc
) great American said:
; 81 rejoice that no such hatred at
taches to the name of Lee. Reckless
: of life to attain the legitimate end:
of war, he sought to mitigate its hor
rors. Opposed to him at Gettysburg
|, here forty years later, do him jus
tice. No more creditable order evel
issued from a commanding Genera
than that formulated and signed al
Chambersburg by Robert E. Lee, as
toward the close of June, 1868, he ad
vanced on a war of invasion. NC
greater disgrace he then declared
can befall the army, and through il
our whole people, than the perpetra-
ton of barbarous outrages upon the
innocent and defenseless. Such pro-
ceedings not only disgrace them, but
are subversive of the discipline and
efficiency of the army, and destructive
of the ends of our movement. 1t must
be rendered that we make war only
on armed men,
an scope and spirit Lees order was
observed, and | doubt if hostile force
ever advanced into an enemy's coun-
try or fell back from it in retreat
leaving behind less cause of hate and
bitterness than did the army of Nor
thern Virginia in that memorable
campaign which eliminated at Gettys-
burg"
In dwelling on this theme, in con-
trast to Lees humanity may not "the
avenging pen of history" quote from
"Ohio in the War;" by the Hon.
Whitelaw Reid, at this time Ambas-
sador of the United States at the
Court of st. James, who in speak
ing of the burning of Columbia wrote:
at was the most monstrous barbar-
ity of this barbarous march. Before
his movement began General Sher-
man begged permission to turn his
army loose in South Carolina and de
vastate it. He used this permission
to the full. He protested that he did
not wage war upon women and chil-
dren. But, under the operations Of
his orders, the last morsel of food
was taken from hundreds of destitute
families that his soldiers might feast
in needless and riotous abundance.
Before his eyes rose, day after day,
the mournful clouds of smoke on ev.
cry side that tcld of old people ald
their grandchildren driven, in midwin-
ter, from the only roofs there were
to shelter them, by the flames which
the wantonness of his soldiers hal
kindled. Yet, if a single soldier was
punished for a single outrage or theft
during that entire movement we have
found no mention of it in all the yol-