Year: 1868

At Lexington, in the State Of Virginia, there is
college which bears the name of the most illus
trious citizen ever born in the "Old Dominion"
fertile as that pleasant land has been in heroes
nor could George Washington himself have wished
that the college erected in his honor should have
for President worthier chief than the one who
quietly entered upon his duties just fortnight
ago. The new President is still in the prime of
manhood, though already his hair and beard arc
gray; he has been long accustomed to command;
he is familiar with hardships as with fame-has
slept for months amid the woods of Virginia, and
has crossed the Rappahannock Northward at the
head of the victorious army; he has been proved
alike by good and evil fortune, and whether when
threatening the Federal capital, or when surren-
dering his sword to Federal Captain, he has ever
borne himself as beseemed aman noble alike by an
cestry and by nature. The descendant Of Light
Horse Harry has doaed the gray uniform for the
garb of peaceful professor; nor can we own that
change is degradation, even for Robert Lee.


There is difference in the mode of action, but
no alteration in the object, which is simply to rem
der the best service he can to hisnatiye State 10
that single aim he has never once been unfaithful


and he will still pursue it, we may rest assured,
with the old high enthusiasm, tempered by eau
tious brain. Throughout the war nothing was
more remarkable than Lee's personal inAuence-the
manner in which he impressed every one who ap-
preached him. That men with Jacksons purity
and earnestness, with the deJonnaire and graceful
valor of Stuart, should appreciate the ilustrious
qualities of their leader was only natural; but even
the humblest soldiers in the rank felt though they
might nothave beenable to express the moral power
which Leeexerted The war was, in all conscience,
sanguinary enough; but there would have been q
very carnival of carnage, devilish outbreak of all
mems 6ercest passions, had the Southern leader
been of different temper. Calamity as the Confed-
crates fought we must never forget that their ar
mics were often composed of somewhat question
able raw material; that the volunteers, with all the
instinct of bravery which seldom deserts domi-
nant class, had likewise many Uf the vices which
are invariably engendered by the possession Of ar
bitrary and lawless power. Accustomed to the un-
checked license of authority, the shareholders might
perchance have been ready enough to give the war
q character of internecine hatred and it was emil
nently due to Robert Lee that the courtesies and
humilites of civilized warfare were, on the WHOLE


observed. The general nature of the man never
degeneratcd into weakness; with high hand he
could restrain excesses, and admirably did he ex-
ercise his power. There are no purer pages in the
history of the civil war than those which relate to
his invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, at a
time when the temper of the Southern people was
sorely tried. Such qualities as he displayed could
not fall in long run, to win the regard Of manly
and affectionate people and while we find that he
was loved like farher by an those who shared his
immediate pers, we have not yet forgotten that
when the victorious veterans of the North were
marching home through Richmond, they burst in
to splendid shout of enthusiasm as they recogniz-
ed, gravely contemplating them from curtained
window, the familiar form and face Of Robert Lee