LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 :<L 5. 
 
 GIFT OF" 
 
 Class 
 
LEE S 
 CENTENNIAL 
 
 AN ADDRESS BY 
 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 
 
 DELIVERED AT LEXINGTON VIRGINIA 
 SATURDAY JANUARY 19 1907 
 
 ON THE INVITATION OF 
 
 THE PRESIDENT AND FACULTY OF 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LEE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 Ritoerffte prerfg, Cambridge 
 1907 
 
WITH COMPLIMENTS OK 
 
 CHARLES F. 
 
 23 COURT ST., BOSTON 
 
 DELIVERED AT LEXINGTON VIRGINIA 
 SATURDAY JANUARY - 19 1907 
 
 ON THE - INVITATION OF 
 
 THE PRESIDENT - AND - FACULTY OF 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LEE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 ffiitoerjnbe press, Cambridge 
 1907 
 
LEE S 
 CENTENNIAL 
 
 AN ADDRESS BY 
 CHARLES FRANCIS -ADAMS 
 
 DELIVERED - AT LEXINGTON VIRGINIA 
 SATURDAY - JANUARY 19 - 1907 
 
 ON THE - INVITATION OF 
 
 THE PRESIDENT - AND FACULTY - OF 
 
 WASHINGTON AND - LEE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 %Sv 
 
 OF THE " A 
 
 UNIVERSITY )) 
 
 OF 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 press, ambribfle 
 1907 
 

LEE S CEKTEOTQAL 
 
 HAVING occasion once to refer in discussion to 
 certain of the founders of our Massachusetts 
 Commonwealth, I made the assertion that 
 their force "lay in character;" and I added 
 that in saying this I paid, and meant to pay, 
 the highest tribute which in my judgment 
 could be paid to a community or to its typical 
 men. Quite a number of years have passed 
 since I so expressed myself, and in those years 
 I have grown older materially older; but I 
 now repeat even more confidently than I 
 then uttered them, these other words "The 
 older I have grown and the more I have 
 studied and seen, the greater in my esteem, 
 as an element of strength in a people, has 
 Character become, and the less in the con 
 duct of human affairs have I thought of mere 
 capacity or even genius. With Character a 
 race will become great, even though as stupid 
 and unassimilating as the Romans; without 
 Character, any race will in the long run prove 
 a failure, though it may number in it individ 
 uals having all the brilliancy of the Jews, 
 crowned with the genius of Napoleon." We 
 
 ^ C 
 
2 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 are here to-day to commemorate the birth 
 of Robert Edward Lee, essentially a Man of 
 Character. That he was such all I think recog 
 nize; for, having so impressed himself through 
 out life on his cotemporaries, he stands forth 
 distinctly as a man of character on the page of 
 the historian. Yet it is not easy to put in words 
 exactly what is meant when we agree in attrib 
 uting character to this man or to that, or with 
 holding it from another; conceding it, for 
 instance, to Epaminondas, Cato and Well 
 ington, but withholding it from Themis- 
 tocles, Caesar or Napoleon. Though we can 
 illustrate what we mean by examples which 
 all will accept, we cannot define. Emerson 
 in his later years (1866) wrote a paper on 
 "Character;" but in it he makes no effort 
 at a definition. " Character," he said, "de 
 notes habitual self-possession, habitual regard 
 to interior and constitutional motives, a bal 
 ance not to be overset or easily disturbed by 
 outward events and opinion, and by implica 
 tion points to the source of right motive. We 
 sometimes employ the word to express the 
 strong and consistent will of men of mixed 
 motive; but, when used with emphasis, it 
 points to what no events can change, that is a 
 will built of the reason of things." The more 
 matter-of-fact lexicographer defines Charac 
 ter as "the sum of the inherited and acquired 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 3 
 
 ethical traits which give to a person his moral 
 individuality." To pursue further the defini 
 tion of what is generally understood would 
 be wearisome, so I will content myself with 
 quoting this simile from a disciple of Emerson 
 "The virtues of a superior man are like the 
 wind; the virtues of a common man are like 
 the grass ; the grass, when the wind passes 
 over it, bends." 
 
 That America has been rich in these men 
 of superior virtues before whom the virtues 
 of the common man have bent, is matter of 
 history. It has also been our making as a 
 community. Such in New England was John 
 Winthrop, whose lofty example still influences 
 the community whose infancy he fathered. 
 Such in New York was John Jay. Such, 
 further south, was John Caldwell Calhoun, 
 essentially a man of exalted character and 
 representative of his community, quite irre 
 spective of his teachings and their outcome. 
 Such unquestionably in Virginia were George 
 Washington and John Marshall; and, more 
 recently, Robert Edward Lee. A stock, of 
 which those three were the consummate 
 flower, by its fruits is known. 
 
 Here to commemorate the centennial of the 
 birth of Lee, I do not propose to enter into 
 any eulogium of the man, to recount the well- 
 known events of his career, or to estimate the 
 
4 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 final place to be assigned him among great 
 military characters. All this has been suffi 
 ciently done by others far better qualified for 
 the task. Eschewing superlatives also, I shall 
 institute no comparisons. One of a commu 
 nity which then looked upon Lee as a renegade 
 from the flag he had sworn to serve, and a 
 traitor to the Nation which had nurtured him, 
 in my subordinate place I directly confronted 
 Lee throughout the larger portion of the War 
 of Secession. During all those years there was 
 not a day in which my heart would not have 
 been gladdened had I heard that his also had 
 been the fate which at Chancellorsville befell 
 his great lieutenant; and yet more glad had 
 it been the fortune of the command in which 
 I served to visit that fate upon him. Forty 
 more years have since gone. Their close finds 
 me here to-day certainly a much older, 
 and, in my own belief at least, a wiser man. 
 Nay, more ! A distinguished representative of 
 Massachusetts, speaking in the Senate of the 
 United States shortly after Lee s death upon 
 the question of a return to Lee s family of 
 the ancestral estate of Arlington, used these 
 words: "Eloquent Senators have already 
 characterized the proposition and the traitor 
 it seeks to commemorate. I am not disposed 
 to speak of General Lee. It is enough to say 
 he stands high in the catalogue of those who 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 5 
 
 have imbrued their hands in their country s 
 blood. I hand him over to the avenging pen of 
 History." It so chances that not only am I 
 also from the State of Massachusetts, but, for 
 more than a dozen years, I have been the 
 chosen head of its typical historical society, 
 - the society chartered under the name and 
 seal of the Commonwealth considerably more 
 than a century ago, the parent of all simi 
 lar societies. By no means would I on that 
 account seem to ascribe to myself any repre 
 sentative character as respects the employ 
 ment of History s pen, whether avenging or 
 otherwise; 1 nor do I appear here as repre 
 sentative of the Massachusetts Historical So 
 ciety: but, a whole generation having passed 
 away since Charles Sumner uttered the words 
 I have quoted, I do, on your invitation, chance 
 to stand here to-day, as I have said, both a 
 Massachusetts man and the head of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, to pass 
 judgment upon General Lee. The situation 
 is thus to a degree dramatic. 
 
 Though, in what I am about to say I shall 
 
 1 Possibly, and more properly, this attribute might be con 
 sidered as pertaining rather to James Ford Rhodes, also a 
 member of the Society referred to, and at present a Vice-Presi 
 dent of it. Mr. Rhodes characterization of General Lee, and 
 consequent verdict on the course pursued by him at the time 
 under discussion, can be found on reference to his History of the 
 United States (vol. iii, p. 413). 
 
6 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 confine myself to a few points only, to them I 
 have given no little study, and on them have 
 much reflected. Let me, however, once for all, 
 and with emphasis, in advance say I am not 
 here to instruct Virginians either in the his 
 tory of their State or the principles of Consti 
 tutional Law ; nor do I make any pretence to 
 profundity whether of thought or insight. On 
 the contrary I shall attempt nothing more 
 than the elaboration of what has already been 
 said by others as well as by me, such value or 
 novelty as may belong to my share in the occa 
 sion being attributable solely to the point of 
 view of the speaker. In that respect, I sub 
 mit, the situation is not without novelty; for, 
 so far as I am aware, never until now has one 
 born and nurtured in Massachusetts a typi 
 cal bred-in-the-bone Yankee, if you please 
 addressed at its invitation a Virginian audi 
 ence, on topics relating to the War of Seces 
 sion and its foremost Confederate military 
 character. 
 
 Coming directly to my subject, my own 
 observation tells me that the charge still most 
 commonly made against Lee in that section of 
 the common country to which I belong and 
 with which I sympathize is that, in plain lan 
 guage, he was false to his flag, educated at 
 the national academy, an officer of the United 
 States Army, he abjured his allegiance and 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 7 
 
 bore arms against the government he had 
 sworn to uphold. In other words he was a 
 military traitor. I state the charge in the 
 tersest language possible; and the facts are as 
 stated. Having done so, and admitting the 
 facts, I add as the result of much patient study 
 and most mature reflection, that under similar 
 conditions I would myself have done exactly 
 what Lee did. In fact, I do not see how I, 
 placed as he was placed, could have done 
 otherwise. 
 
 And now fairly entered on the first phase 
 of my theme, I must hurry on; for I have 
 much ground to traverse, and scant time in 
 which to cover it. I must be concise, but 
 must not fail to be explicit. And first as to 
 the right or wrong of secession, this theoreti 
 cally; then practically, as to what secession 
 in the year of grace 1861 necessarily involved. 
 
 If ever a subject had been thoroughly 
 thrashed out, so thrashed out in fact as to 
 offer no possible gleaning of novelty, it 
 might be inferred that this was that subject. 
 Yet I venture the opinion that such is not al 
 together the case. I do so moreover not with 
 out weighing words. The difficulty with the 
 discussion has to my mind been that through 
 out it has in essence been too abstract, legal 
 and technical, and not sufficiently historical, 
 sociological and human. It has turned on 
 
8 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 the wording of instruments, in themselves 
 not explicit, and has paid far too little regard 
 to traditions and local ties. As matter of 
 fact, however, actual men as they live, move 
 and have their being in this world, caring 
 little for parchments or theory, are the crea 
 tures of heredity and local attachments. 
 Coming directly to the point, I maintain that 
 every man in the eleven States seceding 
 from the Union had in 1861, whether he would 
 or no, to decide for himself whether to ad 
 here to his State or to the Nation; and I 
 finally assert that, whichever way he decided, 
 if only he decided honestly, putting self-inter 
 est behind him, he decided right. 
 
 Paradoxical as it sounds, I contend, more 
 over, that this was indisputably so. It was 
 a question of Sovereignty State or Na 
 tional; and from a decision of that question 
 there was in a seceded State escape for no 
 man. Yet when the national Constitution 
 was framed and adopted that question was 
 confessedly left undecided; and intention 
 ally so left. More than this, even : the Federal 
 Constitution was theoretically and avowedly 
 based on the idea of a divided sovereignty, 
 in utter disregard of the fact that, when a 
 final issue is presented, sovereignty does not 
 admit of division. 
 
 Yet even this last proposition, basic as it is, 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 9 
 
 I have heard denied. I have frequently had 
 it replied that, as matter of fact, sovereignty 
 is frequently divided, divided in domestic 
 life, divided in the apportionment of the 
 functions of government. Those thus ar 
 guing, however, do so confusedly. They 
 confound sovereignty with an agreed, but 
 artificial, modus vivendi. The original con 
 stitution of the United States was, in fact, in 
 this important respect just that, a modus 
 vivendi: under the circumstances a most 
 happy and ingenious expedient for over 
 coming an obstacle in the way of nationality, 
 otherwise insurmountable. To accomplish 
 the end they had in view, the framers had 
 recourse to a metaphysical abstraction, under 
 which it was left to time and the individual 
 to decide, when the final issue should arise, 
 if it ever did arise as they all devoutly 
 hoped it never would arise where sover 
 eignty lay. There is nothing in connection 
 with the history of our development more 
 interesting from the historical point of view 
 than the growth, the gradual development of 
 the spirit of nationality, carrying with it 
 sovereignty. It has usually been treated as 
 a purely legal question to be settled on the 
 verbal construction of the instruments, - 
 "We, the People," etc. Webster so treated 
 it. In all confidence I maintain that it is 
 
10 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 not a legal question; it is purely an historical 
 question. As such, furthermore, it has been 
 decided, and correctly decided, both ways 
 at different times in different sections, and 
 at different times in opposite ways in the 
 same section. 
 
 And this was necessarily and naturally so; 
 for, as development progressed along various 
 lines and in different localities, the sense of 
 allegiance shifted. Two whole generations 
 passed away between the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution and the War of Seces 
 sion. When that war broke out in 1861 the 
 last of the framers had been a score of years 
 in his grave; but evidence is conclusive that 
 until the decennium between 1830 and 1840 
 the belief was nearly universal that in case 
 of a final, unavoidable issue, sovereignty 
 resided in the State, and to it allegiance was 
 due. The law was so laid down in the Ken 
 tucky resolves of 1798; and to the law as 
 thus laid down Webster assented. Chancellor 
 Rawle so propounded the law; and such was 
 the understanding of so unprejudiced and 
 acute a foreign observer as De Tocqueville. 1 
 
 The technical argument the logic of 
 the proposition seems plain and, to my 
 thought, unanswerable. The original sov 
 ereignty was indisputably in the State; in 
 
 i See Appendix. 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 11 
 
 order to establish a nationality certain at 
 tributes of sovereignty were ceded by the 
 States to a common central organization; 
 all attributes not thus specifically conceded 
 were reserved to the States, and no attri 
 butes of moment were to be construed as 
 conceded by implication. There is no attri 
 bute of sovereignty so important as allegiance, 
 citizenship. So far all is elementary. Now 
 we come to the crux of the proposition. Not 
 only was allegiance the right to define 
 and establish citizenship not among the 
 attributes specifically conceded by the sev 
 eral States to the central nationality, but, 
 on the contrary, it was explicitly reserved, 
 the instrument declaring that "the citizens 
 of each State" should be entitled to "all 
 Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in 
 the several States." Ultimate allegiance was, 
 therefore, due to the State which defined 
 and created citizenship, and not to the cen 
 tral organization which accepted as citizens 
 whomever the States pronounced to be such. 1 
 Thus far I have never been able to see 
 where room was left for doubt. Citizenship 
 
 1 See W. H. Fleming, Slavery and the Race Problem at the 
 South, pp. 19, 20. An authoritative definition of United States 
 citizenship, as distinct from the citizenship of a State, was first 
 given in the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, 
 ratified in 1868. See J. S. Wise, A Treatise on American Citi 
 zenship, pp. 6, 13, 31. 
 
12 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 was an attribute recognized by the Constitu 
 tion as originating with, and of course be 
 longing to, the several States. But, speaking 
 historically and in a philosophical rather than 
 in a legal spirit, it is little more than a com 
 monplace to assert that one great safeguard 
 of the Anglo-Saxon race what might al 
 most be termed its political palladium 
 has ever been that hard, if at times illogical, 
 common sense which, recognizing established 
 custom as a binding rule of action, found its 
 embodiment in what we are wont with pride 
 to term the Common Law. Now, just as there 
 can, I think, be no question as to the source 
 of citizenship and, consequently, as to sover 
 eignty, when the Constitution was originally 
 adopted, there can be equally little question 
 that during the lives of the two succeeding 
 generations a custom of nationality grew up 
 which became the accepted Common Law 
 of the land, and practically binding as such. 
 This was true in the South as well as the North, 
 though the custom was more hardened into 
 accepted law in the latter than in the former; 
 but the growth and acceptance as law of the 
 custom of nationality even in the South was 
 incontrovertibly shown in the very act of 
 secession, the seceding States at once crys 
 tallizing into a Confederacy. Nationality was 
 assumed as a thing of course. 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 13 
 
 But the metaphysical abstraction of a di 
 vided sovereignty, none the less, bridged the 
 chasm. As a modus vivendi it did its work. 
 I have called it a metaphysical abstraction; 
 but it was also a practical arrangement re 
 sulting in great advantages. It might be 
 illogical, and fraught with possible disputes 
 and consequent dangers; but it was an insti 
 tution. And so it naturally came to pass that 
 in many of the States a generation grew 
 up, dating from the War of 1812, who, gravi 
 tating steadily and more and more strongly 
 to nationality, took a wholly different view 
 of allegiance. For them Story laid down the 
 law; Webster was their mouthpiece; at one 
 time it looked as if Jackson was to be their 
 armed exponent. They were, moreover, 
 wholly within their right. The sovereignty 
 was confessedly divided; and it was for them 
 to elect. The movements of both science 
 and civilization were behind the nationalists. 
 The railroad obliterated State lines, while it 
 unified the nation. What did the foreign im 
 migrants, now swarming across the ocean, 
 care for States ? They knew only the Nation. 
 Brought up in Europe, the talk of State sov 
 ereignty was to them foolishness. Its alpha 
 bet was incomprehensible. In a word, it too 
 "was caviare to the general." 
 
 Then the inevitable issue arose; and it 
 
14 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 arose over African slavery; and slavery was 
 sectional. The States south of a given line 
 were arrayed against the States north of that 
 line. Owing largely to slavery, and the prac 
 tical exclusion of immigrants because thereof, 
 the States of the South had never undergone 
 nationalization at all to the extent those of 
 the North had undergone it. The growing 
 influence and power of the national govern 
 ment, the sentiment inspired by the wars in 
 which we had been engaged, the rapidly im 
 proving means of communication and inter 
 course, had produced their effects in the 
 South; but in degree far less than in the North. 
 Thus the curious result was brought about 
 that, when, at last, the long deferred issue 
 confronted the country, and the modus vi- 
 vendi of two generations was brought to a 
 close, those who believed in national sov 
 ereignty constituted the conservative ma 
 jority, striving for the preservation of what 
 then was, the existing nineteenth-century 
 Nation, while those who passionately ad 
 hered to State sovereignty, treading in the foot 
 steps of the fathers, had become eighteenth- 
 century reactionists. Legally, each had right 
 on his side. The theory of a divided Sover 
 eignty had worked itself out to its logical con 
 sequence. "Under which King, Bezonian ? " 
 and every man had to "speak or die." 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 15 
 
 In the North the situation was simple. 
 State and Nation stood together. The ques 
 tion of allegiance did not present itself, for 
 the two sovereignties merged. It was other 
 wise in the South; and there the question 
 became, not legal or constitutional, but prac 
 tical. The life of the Nation had endured 
 so long, the ties and ligaments had become 
 so numerous and interwoven that, all the 
 ories to the contrary notwithstanding, a peace 
 able secession from the Union a virtual 
 exercise of State sovereignty had become 
 impossible. If those composing the several 
 dissatisfied communities would only keep 
 their tempers under restraint, and exercise 
 an almost unlimited patience, a theoretical 
 divided sovereignty, maintained through the 
 agency and intervention of the Supreme 
 Court, in other words the perpetuation 
 of the modus vivendi, was altogether prac 
 ticable; and probably this was what the 
 framers had in mind under such a contin 
 gency as had now arisen. But that, after 
 seventy years of Union and nationalization, 
 a peaceable and friendly taking to pieces 
 was possible, is now, as then it was, scarcely 
 thinkable. Certainly, with a most vivid re 
 collection of the state of sectional feeling 
 which then existed, I do not believe there was 
 a man in the United States I am confi- 
 
16 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 dent there was not a woman in the South 
 - who fostered self-delusion to the extent 
 of believing that the change was to come 
 about without a recourse to force. In other 
 words practical Secession was revolution the 
 oretically legal. Why waste time and breath 
 in discussion! The situation becomes mani 
 festly impossible of continuance where the 
 issue between heated men, with weapons 
 handy, is over a metaphysical distinction in 
 volving vast material and moral consequences. 
 Lee, with intuitive common sense, struck the 
 nail squarely on the head when amidst the 
 Babel of discordant tongues he wrote to his 
 son "It is idle to talk of secession;" the 
 national government as it then was " can 
 only be dissolved by revolution." That 
 struggle of dissolution might be longer and 
 fiercer, as it was, or shorter, and more 
 wordy than blood-letting, as the seceding 
 States confidently believed would prove to be 
 the case, but a struggle there would be. 
 
 Historically, such were the conditions to 
 which natural processes of development had 
 brought the common country at the mid-de- 
 cennium of the century. People had to elect; 
 the modus vivendi was at an end. Was the 
 State sovereign; or was the Nation sovereign ? 
 And, with a shock of genuine surprise that 
 any doubt should exist on that head, eleven 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 17 
 
 States arrayed themselves on the side of the 
 Sovereignty of the State and claimed the un 
 questioning allegiance of their citizens; and 
 I think it not unsafe to assert that nowhere did 
 the original spirit of State Sovereignty and 
 allegiance to the State then survive in greater 
 intensity and more unquestioning form than 
 in Virginia, the "Old Dominion," -the 
 mother of States and of Presidents. And here 
 I approach a sociological factor in the problem 
 more subtle and also more potent than any 
 legal consideration. It has no standing in 
 Court: but the historian may not ignore it; 
 while, with the biographer of Lee, it is cru 
 cial. Upon it judgment hinges. I have not 
 time to consider how or why such a result 
 came about, but of the fact there can, I hold, 
 be no question, State pride, a sense of 
 individuality, has immemorially entered more 
 largely and more intensely into Virginia and 
 Virginians than into any other section or 
 community of the country. Only in South 
 Carolina and among Carolinians, on this 
 continent, was a somewhat similar pride of 
 locality and descent to be found. There was 
 in it a flavor of the Hidalgo, or of the 
 pride which the Macgregors and Campbells 
 took in their clan and country. In other 
 words, the Virginian and the Carolinian had 
 in the middle of the last centurv not un- 
 
18 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 dergone nationalization to any appreciable 
 extent. 
 
 But this, it will be replied, though true of 
 the ordinary man and citizen, should not have 
 been true of the graduate of the military acad 
 emy, the officer of the Army of the United 
 States. Winfield Scott and George H. Thomas 
 did not so construe their allegiance; when the 
 issue was presented, they remained true to 
 their flag and to their oaths. Robert E. Lee, 
 false to his oath and flag, was a renegade! 
 The answer is brief and to the point : the 
 conditions in the several cases were not the 
 same, neither Scott nor Thomas was Lee. 
 It was our Boston Dr. Holmes who long ago 
 declared that the child s education begins 
 about two hundred and fifty years before it is 
 born; and it is quite impossible to separate 
 any man least of all, perhaps, a full- 
 blooded Virginian from his prenatal tra 
 ditions and living environment. From them 
 he drew his being; in them he exists. .Robert 
 E. Lee was the embodiment of those condi 
 tions, the creature of that environment, a 
 Virginian of Virginians. His father was 
 "Light Horse Harry" Lee, a devoted fol 
 lower of Washington; but in January, 1792, 
 "Light Horse Harry" wrote to Mr. Madi 
 son: "No consideration on earth could induce 
 me to act a part, however gratifying to me, 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 19 
 
 which could be construed into disregard of, or 
 faithlessness to, this Commonwealth;" and 
 later, when in 1798 the Virginia and Ken 
 tucky resolutions were under discussion, 
 "Light Horse Harry" exclaimed in debate, 
 "Virginia is my country; her will I obey, 
 however lamentable the fate to which it may 
 subject me." Born in this environment, nur 
 tured in these traditions, to ask Lee to raise 
 his hand against Virginia was like asking 
 Montrose or the MacCallum More to head a 
 force designed for the subjection of the High 
 lands and the destruction of the clans. Where 
 such a stern election is forced upon a man as 
 then confronted Lee, the single thing the fair- 
 minded investigator has to take into account is 
 the loyalty, the single-mindedness of the elec 
 tion. Was it devoid of selfishness, --was it 
 free from any baser and more sordid worldly 
 motive, ambition, pride, jealousy, revenge 
 or self-interest? To this question there can, 
 in the case of Lee, be but one answer. When, 
 after long and trying mental wrestling, he 
 threw in his fate with Virginia, he knowingly 
 sacrificed everything which man prizes most, 
 - his dearly beloved home, his means of sup 
 port, his professional standing, his associates, 
 a brilliant future assured to him. Born a 
 slaveholder in a race of slaveholders, he was 
 himself no defender, much less an advocate of 
 
v>o LKK S CKNTKNNIAL 
 
 slavery; on the contrary, ho did no! hcsilale 
 to pmumiiiee it in his place ^ -.[ moral and po 
 litical evil." Later, he manumitted his slaves. 
 
 lie did not believe in secession; as a ri^hl rc- 
 
 i~ 
 
 served under (lie Constitution he pronounced 
 
 I 
 
 it "idle talk:" but, as a Virginian, lie also 
 added, " il the (iov(*nunent is disrupted, I 
 sludl return to my njilive Slnlo and slunv the 
 miseries of my |>eo|)h\ and save in defence 
 will draw my sword on none/ Nexl lo his 
 hi^h sense of allegiance t(> Virginia wns Lee s 
 pride in his profession, lie \vas :\ soldier; a.s 
 such rank, and the nossihilitv of hiirh coni- 
 
 V f~> 
 
 mand a.nd gre. il. aeliievmont, \V<MH very dear 
 to him. His choice pul rnnk :md coinni.Miid 
 behind him. I le (juicily and silently made I he 
 greatest sacrifice a. soldier can be asked to 
 make. With war plainly impending) the fore 
 most place in I he army of which he was an 
 officer was now tendered him; his answer was 
 to lay down the commission he already held. 
 Virginia had been drawn into the struggle; 
 and, though he reeogni/cd no necessity for the 
 state of affairs, 4 * in my own person, * he wrote, 
 * I had lo meet the question whether I should 
 take part against my native States I have not 
 been able lo make up mv mind to raise my 
 hand against mv relatives, my children, my 
 
 r> j v v 
 
 home." It may have* been treason to lake this 
 position; the man who look il, uttering these 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 21 
 
 words and sacrificing as he sacrificed, may 
 have been technically a renegade to his flag, 
 if you please, false to his allegiance; but he 
 stands awaiting sentence at the bar of history 
 in very respectable company. Associated with 
 him are, for instance, William of Orange, 
 known as The Silent, John Hampden, the 
 original Pater Patriae, Oliver Cromwell, the 
 Protector of the English Commonwealth, Sir 
 Harry Vane, once a governor of Massachu 
 setts, and George Washington, a Virginian of 
 note. In the throng of other offenders I am 
 also gratified to observe certain of those from 
 whom I not unproudly claim descent. They 
 were, one and all, in the sense referred to, false 
 to their oaths forsworn. As to Robert E. 
 Lee, individually, I can only repeat what I have 
 already said, if in all respects similarly cir 
 cumstanced, I hope I should have been filial 
 and unselfish enough to have done as Lee 
 did." l Such an utterance on my part may be 
 "traitorous; " but I here render that homage. 
 In Massachusetts, however, I could not 
 even in 1861 have been so placed; for, be it 
 because of better or worse, Massachusetts was 
 not Virginia; no more Virginia than Eng 
 land once was Scotland, or the Lowlands the 
 Highlands. The environment, the ideals, were 
 
 1 See Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers (second edition), 
 pp. 411-416. 
 
22 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 in no respect the same. In Virginia, Lee was 
 Macgregor; and, where Macgregor sat, there 
 _. was the head of the table. 
 
 Into Lee s subsequent military career, there 
 is no call here to enter; nor shall I undertake 
 to compare him with other great military 
 characters whether contemporaneous or of 
 all time. As I said when I began, the topic 
 has been thoroughly discussed by others ; and, 
 moreover, the time limitation here again con 
 fronts me. I must press on. Suffice it for 
 me, as one of those then opposed in arms to 
 Lee, however subordinate the capacity, to 
 admit at once that, as a leader, he conducted 
 operations on the highest plane. Whether 
 acting on the defensive upon the soil of his 
 native State, or leading his army into the 
 enemy s country, he was humane, self-re 
 strained and strictly observant of the most 
 advanced rules of civilized warfare. He re 
 spected the non-combatant; nor did he ever 
 permit the wanton destruction of private pro 
 perty. His famous Chambersburg order was 
 a model which any invading general would 
 do well to make his own ; and I repeat now 
 what I have heretofore had occasion to say, 
 "I doubt if a hostile force of an equal size 
 ever advanced into an enemy s country, or 
 fell back from it in retreat, leaving behind 
 less cause of hate and bitterness than did the 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 23 
 
 Army of Northern Virginia in that memorable 
 campaign which culminated at Gettysburg." 
 
 And yet that Gettysburg campaign is an epi 
 sode in Lee s military career which I am loth 
 wholly to pass over; for the views I entertain 
 of it are not in all respects those generally held. 
 Studied in the light of results, that campaign 
 has been criticised; the crucial attack of Get 
 tysburg s third day has been pronounced a mur 
 derous persistence in a misconception; and, 
 among Confederate writers especially, the effort 
 has been to relieve Lee of responsibility f or final 
 miscarriage, transferring it to his lieutenants. 
 As a result reached from participation in those 
 events and subsequent study of them, briefly 
 let me say I concur in none of these conclu 
 sions. Taking the necessary chances incident 
 to all warfare on a large scale into considera 
 tion, the Gettysburg campaign was in my 
 opinion timely, admirably designed, energeti 
 cally executed, and brought to a close with 
 consummate military skill. A well considered 
 offensive thrust of the most deadly character, 
 intelligently aimed at the opponent s heart, its 
 failure was of the narrowest; and the disaster 
 to the Confederate side which that failure 
 might readily have involved was no less skil 
 fully than successfully averted. 
 
 I cannot here and now enter into details. 
 But I hold that credit, and the consequent 
 
24 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 measure of applause, in the outcome of that 
 campaign belong to Lee s opponent, and not 
 to him. All the chances were in Lee s favor, 
 and he should have won a great victory; and 
 Meade should have sustained a decisive de 
 feat. As it was, Meade triumphantly held his 
 ground; Lee suffered a terrible repulse, his 
 deadly thrust was foiled, and his campaign 
 was a failure. 
 
 So far as Lee s general plan of campaign, 
 and the movements which culminated in the 
 battle of Gettysburg, were concerned, in war, 
 be it always and ever remembered, a leader 
 must take some chances, and mistakes will 
 occur; but the mistakes are rarely, if ever, all 
 on one side. They tend to counterbalance each 
 other; and, commanders and commanded 
 being at all equal, not unseldom it is the bal 
 ance of misconceptions, shortcomings, mis 
 carriages, and the generally unforeseen and 
 indeed unforeseeable, which tips the scale to 
 victory or defeat. I have said that I proposed 
 to avoid comparisons; at best such are in 
 vidious, and, under present circumstances, 
 might from me be considered as doubtful in 
 matter of taste. I think, however, some things 
 too obvious to admit of denial; or, conse 
 quently, to suggest comparison. About every 
 crisp military aphorism is as matter of course 
 attributed to Napoleon; and so Napoleon is 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 25 
 
 alleged first to have remarked that "In 
 war, men are nothing; a man is everything." 
 And, as formerly a soldier of the Army of the 
 Potomac, I now stand appalled at the risk 
 I unconsciously ran anterior to July, 1863, 
 when confronting the Army of Northern Vir 
 ginia, commanded as it then was and as we 
 were. The situation was in fact as bad with 
 us in the Army of the Potomac as it was with 
 the Confederates in the Southwest. The un 
 fortunate Pemberton there was simply not 
 in the same class as Grant and Sherman, to 
 whom he found himself opposed. Results 
 there followed accordingly. So, in Virginia, 
 Lee and Jackson made an extraordinary, a 
 most exceptional combination. They out 
 classed McClellan and Burnside, Pope and 
 Hooker; outclassed them sometimes terribly, 
 sometimes ludicrously, always hopelessly : and 
 results in that case also followed accordingly. 
 That we were not utterly destroyed con 
 stitutes a flat and final refutal of the truth of 
 Napoleon s aphorism. If we did not realize 
 the facts of the situation in this respect, our 
 opponents did. Let me quote the words of 
 one of them: " There was, however, one 
 point of great interest in [the rapid succession 
 of the Federal commanders], and that was 
 our amazement that an army could maintain 
 even so much as its organization under the 
 
26 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 depressing strain of those successive appoint 
 ments and removals of its commanding gen 
 erals. And to-day (1903) I, for one, regard 
 the fact that it did preserve its cohesion and 
 its fighting power under, and in spite of such 
 experiences, as furnishing impressive demon 
 stration of the high character and intense 
 loyalty of our historic foe, the Federal Army 
 of the Potomac." 1 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that until the 
 death of Jackson and the Gettysburg cam 
 paign we were thus glaringly outclassed, and 
 at a corresponding disadvantage in every re 
 spect save mere men and equipment, the one 
 noticeable feature of the succession of Vir 
 ginia campaigns from that of 1862 to that 
 of 1864, was their obstinacy and indecisive 
 character. The advantage would be some 
 times on one side, sometimes on the other: 
 but neither side could secure an indisputable 
 supremacy. This was markedly the case at 
 Gettysburg; and yet, judging by the Con 
 federate accounts of that campaign which 
 have met my eye, the inference would be that 
 the Union forces labored under no serious 
 disadvantage, while Lee s plans and tactics 
 were continually compromised by untoward 
 accident, or the precipitation or remissness 
 of his subordinates. My study of what then 
 
 1 Stiles, Four Years under Marse Robert, p. 21. 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 27 
 
 took place leads me to a wholly opposite con 
 clusion. Well conceived and vigorously car 
 ried out as that campaign was on the part 
 of the Confederate leader, the preponderance 
 of the accidental the blunders, the unfore 
 seeable, the misconceptions and the miscar 
 riages was distinctly in Lee s favor. On 
 any fair weighing of chances, he should have 
 won a decisive victory; as a matter of actual 
 outcome, he and his army ought to have been 
 destroyed. As usual, on that theatre of war at 
 the time, neither result came about. 
 
 First as to the chapter of accidents, the 
 misconceptions, miscarriages and shortcom 
 ings. If, as has been alleged, an essential por 
 tion of Lee s force was at one time out of 
 reach and touch, and if, at the critical moment, 
 a lieutenant was not promptly in place at a 
 given hour, on the Union side an unforeseen 
 change of supreme command went into effect 
 when battle was already joined, and the newly 
 appointed commander had no organized staff; 
 his army was not concentrated; his strongest 
 corps was over thirty miles from the point of 
 conflict; and the two corps immediately en 
 gaged should have been destroyed in detail 
 before reinforcements could have reached 
 them. In addition to all this superadded 
 thereto the most skilful general and per 
 haps the fiercest fighter on the Union side was 
 
28 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 killed at the outset, and his line of battle 
 was almost fatally disordered by the miscon 
 ception of a corps commander. 
 
 The chapter of accidents thus reads all in 
 Lee s favor. But, while Lee on any fair 
 weighing of chances stands in my judgment 
 more than justified both in his conception 
 of the campaign and in every material strate 
 gic move made in it, he none the less funda 
 mentally misconceived the situation, with 
 consequences which should have been fatal 
 both to him. and to his command. Frederick 
 did the same at Kunersdorf; Napoleon, at 
 Waterloo. In the first place, Lee had at that 
 time supreme confidence in his command; 
 and he had grounds for it. As he himself 
 then wrote " There never were such men 
 in an army before. They will go anywhere 
 and do anything, if properly led." And, 
 for myself, I do not think the estimate thus 
 expressed was exaggerated; speaking delib 
 erately, having faced some portions of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia at the time and 
 having since reflected much on the occur 
 rences of that momentous period, I do not 
 believe that any more formidable or better 
 organized and animated force was ever set 
 in motion than that which Lee led across 
 the Potomac in the early summer of 1863. 
 It was essentially an army of fighters, men 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 29 
 
 who, individually or in the mass, could be 
 depended on for any feat of arms in the power 
 of mere mortals to accomplish. They would 
 blanch at no danger. This Lee from experi 
 ence knew. He had tested them; they had 
 full confidence in him. He also thought he 
 knew his opponent; and here too his recent 
 experience justified him. 
 
 The disasters which had befallen the Con 
 federates in the Southwest in the spring and 
 early summer of 1863 had to find compensa 
 tion in the East. The exigencies of warfare 
 necessitated it. Some risk must be incurred. 
 So Lee determined to strike at his opponent s 
 heart. He had what he believed to be the 
 better weapon; and he had reason for con 
 sidering himself incomparably the superior 
 swordsman. He was; of that he had at Chan- 
 cellorsville satisfied himself and the world. 
 Then came the rapid, aggressive move; and 
 the long, desperately contested struggle at 
 Gettysburg, culminating in that historic 
 charge of Pickett s Virginia division. Para 
 doxical as it may sound, in view of the result, 
 that charge what those men did justified 
 Lee. True, those who made the charge did 
 not accomplish the impossible; but towards 
 it they did all that mortal men could do. 
 But it is urged that Lee should have recog 
 nized the impossible when face to face con- 
 
30 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 fronted by it, and not have directed brave 
 men to lay down their lives in the vain effort 
 to do it. That is true; and, as Lee is said to 
 have once remarked in another connection, 
 "Even as poor a soldier as I am can gen 
 erally discover mistakes after it is all over." 
 After Gettysburg was over, like Frederick 
 at Kunersdorf and Napoleon at Waterloo, 
 Lee doubtless discovered his mistake. It 
 was a very simple one: he undervalued his 
 opponent. The temper of his own weapon 
 he knew; he made no mistake there. His 
 mistake lay in his estimate of his antagonist: 
 but that estimate again was based on his own 
 recent experience, though in other fields. 
 
 On the other hand, from the day I rode 
 over the field of Gettysburg immediately 
 following the fight, to that which now is, I 
 have fully and most potently believed that 
 only some disorganized fragments of Lee s 
 army should after that battle have found 
 their way back to Virginia. The war should 
 have collapsed within sixty days thereafter. 
 For eighteen hours after the repulse of Pickett s 
 division, I have always felt and now feel, the 
 fate of the Army of Virginia was as much in 
 General Meade s hands as was the fate of 
 the army led by Napoleon in the hands of 
 Bliicher on the night of Waterloo. As an 
 aggressive force, the Confederate army was 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 31 
 
 fought out. It might yet put forth a fierce 
 defensive effort; it was sure to die game: but 
 it was impotent for attack. Meade had one 
 entire corps perhaps his best, -- his Sixth, 
 commanded by Sedgwick intact and in 
 reserve. It lay there cold, idle, formidable. 
 The true counter movement for the fourth 
 day of continuous fighting would on Meade s 
 part have been an exact reversal of Lee s 
 own plan of battle for the third day. That 
 plan, as described by Fitzhugh Lee, was simple. 
 "His [Lees] purpose was to turn the enemy s 
 left flank with his First Corps, and, after 
 the work began there, to demonstrate against 
 his lines with the others in order to prevent 
 the threatened flank from being reinforced, 
 these demonstrations to be converted into 
 a real attack as the flanking wave of battle 
 rolled over the troops in their front." What 
 Lee thus proposed for Meade s army on the 
 third day, Meade should unquestionably 
 have returned on Lee s army upon the fourth 
 day. Sedgwick s corps should then have 
 assailed Lee s right and rear. I once asked 
 a leading Confederate general, who had been 
 in the very thick of it at Gettysburg, what 
 would have been the outcome had Meade, 
 within two hours of the repulse of Pickett, 
 ordered Sedgwick to move off to the left, and, 
 occupying Lee s line of retreat, proceeded to 
 
32 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 envelop the Confederate right, while, early 
 the following morning, Meade had com 
 manded a general advance. The answer I 
 received was immediate: "Without ques 
 tion we would have been destroyed. We all 
 that night fully expected it; and could not 
 understand next day why we were unmo 
 lested. My ammunition " - for he was an 
 officer of artillery "was exhausted." 
 
 But in all this, as in every speculation of 
 the sort, and the history of warfare is 
 replete with them, the "if" is much in evi 
 dence; as much in evidence, indeed, as it 
 is in a certain familiar Shakesperian dis 
 quisition. I here introduce what I have said 
 on this topic simply to illustrate what may 
 be described as the balance of miscarriages 
 inseparable from warfare. On the other hand, 
 the manner in which Lee met disaster at 
 Gettysburg, and the combination of serene 
 courage, and consequent skill, with which he 
 extricated his army from a most critical situa 
 tion commands admiration. I would here say 
 nothing depreciatory of General Meade. He 
 was an accomplished officer as well as a 
 brave soldier. Placed suddenly in a most 
 trying position, assigned to chief command 
 when battle was already joined, untried in 
 his new sphere of action, and caught unpre 
 pared, he fought at Gettysburg a stubborn, 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 33 
 
 gallant fight. With chances at the beginning 
 heavily against him, he saved the day. Per 
 sonally, I was later under deep obligation to 
 General Meade. He too had character. None 
 the less, as I have already pointed out, I fully 
 believe that on the fourth day at Gettysburg 
 Meade had but firmly to close his hand, and 
 the Army of Northern Virginia was crushed. 
 Perhaps under all the circumstances it was 
 too much to have expected of him; certainly 
 it was not done. Then Lee in turn did avail 
 himself of his opportunity. Skilfully, proudly 
 though sullenly, preserving an unbroken front, 
 he withdrew to Virginia. That withdrawal 
 was masterly. 
 
 Narrowly escaping destruction at Gettys 
 burg, my next contention is that Lee and the 
 Army of Northern Virginia never sustained 
 defeat. Finally, it is true, succumbing to ex 
 haustion, to the end they were not overthrown 
 in fight. And here I approach a large topic, 
 but one closely interwoven with Lee s mili 
 tary career; in fact, as I see it, the explana 
 tion of what finally occurred. What then was 
 it that brought about the collapse of the Army 
 of Northern Virginia, and the consequent 
 downfall of the Confederacy ? The literature 
 of the War of Secession now constitutes a 
 library in itself. Especially is this true of it in 
 its military aspects. The shelves are crowded 
 
34 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 with memoirs and biographies of its generals, 
 the stories of its campaigns, the records and 
 achievements of its armies, its army corps and 
 its regiments. Yet I make bold to say that 
 no well and philosophically considered nar 
 rative of the struggle has yet appeared; nor 
 has any satisfactory or comprehensive ex 
 planation been given of its extraordinary and 
 unanticipated outcome. Let me briefly set 
 it forth as I see it; only by so doing can I 
 explain what I mean. 
 
 Tersely put, dealing only with outlines, 
 the southern community in 1861 precipitated 
 a conflict on the slavery issue, in implicit 
 reliance on its own warlike capacity and re 
 sources, the extent and very defensible char 
 acter of its territory, and, above all, on its 
 complete control of cotton as the great staple 
 textile fabric of modern civilization. That 
 the seceding States fully believed in the jus 
 tice of their cause, and confidently appealed 
 to it, I do not question, much less deny. For 
 present purposes let this be conceded in full. 
 But, historically, it is equally clear that to 
 vindicate the right, next to their own man 
 hood and determination, they relied in all 
 possible confidence on their apparently ab 
 solute control of one commercial staple. 
 When, therefore, in 1858, with the shadow 
 of the impending conflict darkening the hori- 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 35 
 
 zon, a thoughtful senator from South Carolina, 
 one on whom the mantle of Calhoun had 
 fallen, declared that "Cotton is King," 
 that "no power on earth dares to make war 
 on it," that "without firing a gun, without 
 drawing a sword," the cotton-producing 
 South could, if war was declared upon it, 
 bring "the whole world" to its feet, he only 
 gave utterance to what was in the South ac 
 cepted as a fundamental article of political 
 and economical faith. Suggesting the con 
 tingency that no cotton was forthcoming 
 from the South for a period of three years, 
 the same senator declared, "this is certain: 
 England would topple headlong and carry 
 the whole civilized world with her, save the 
 South. Who," he then exclaimed, "that has 
 looked on recent events, can doubt that cotton 
 is supreme." In case of conflict, cotton, if it 
 went forth, was to supply the South with the 
 sinews of warfare; if it did not go forth the 
 lack of it would bring about European civil 
 commotion, and compel foreign intervention. 
 In either case the South was secure. As to a 
 maritime blockade of the South, shutting it up 
 to die of inanition, the idea was chimerical. 
 No such feat of maritime force ever had been 
 accomplished, it was claimed ; nor was it pos 
 sible of accomplishment. To "talk of put 
 ting up a wall of fire around eight hundred 
 
36 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 and fifty thousand square miles" situated as 
 the Confederacy was, with its twelve thousand 
 miles of seacoast, was pronounced too "ab 
 surd" for serious discussion. And, certainly, 
 that no such thing had ever yet been done was 
 undeniable. But, even supposing it were pos 
 sible of accomplishment, the doing it would 
 but the more effectively play the Confederate 
 game. It would compel intervention. As 
 well shut off bread from the manufacturing 
 centres of Europe as stop their supply of cot 
 ton. In any or either event, and in any con 
 tingency which might arise, the victory of the 
 Confederacy was assured. And this theory of 
 the situation and its outcome was accepted by 
 the southern community as indisputable. 
 
 What occurred? In each case that which 
 had been pronounced impossible of occur 
 rence. On land the Confederacy had an 
 ample force of men, they swarmed to the 
 standards; and no better or more reliable 
 material was ever gathered together. Well 
 and skilfully marshalled, the Confederate 
 soldier did on the march and in battle all that 
 needed to be done. Nor were the two sides 
 unequally matched so far as the land arrays 
 were concerned. As Lee with his instinctive 
 military sense put it even in the closing stages 
 of the struggle "The proportion of experi 
 enced troops is larger in our army than in that 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 37 
 
 of the enemy, while his numbers exceed our 
 own." And in warfare experience, combined 
 with an advantageous defensive, counts for a 
 great deal. This was so throughout the con 
 flict; and yet the Confederate cause sank in 
 failure. It did so to the complete surprise of 
 a bewildered world; for, in Europe, the ulti 
 mate success of the South was accepted as a 
 foregone conclusion. To such an extent was 
 this the case that the wisest and most far- 
 seeing of English public men did not hesitate 
 to stake their reputation for foresight upon it 
 as a result. How was the wholly unexpected 
 actual outcome brought about? The simple 
 answer is, The Confederacy collapsed from 
 inanition. Suffering such occasional reverses 
 and defeats as are incidental to all warfare, it 
 was never crushed in battle or on the field, 
 until its strength was sapped away by want of 
 food. It died of exhaustion, starved and 
 gasping! 
 
 Take a living organism, whatever it may be, 
 place it in a vessel hermetically sealed, and 
 attach to that vessel an air pump. You know 
 what follows. It is needless to describe it. No 
 matter how strong or fierce or self-confident it 
 may be, the victim dies; growing weaker by 
 degrees, it finally collapses. That was the 
 exact condition and fate of the Confederacy. 
 What had been confidently pronounced im- 
 
38 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 possible was done. The Confederacy was 
 sealed up within itself by the blockade; and 
 the complete exclusion of cotton from the 
 manufacturing centres of Europe did not 
 cause revolution there, nor compel interven 
 tion here. Man s foresight once more came 
 to grief. As usual, it was the unexpected 
 which occurred. 
 
 Thus the two decisive defeats of the Con 
 federacy, those which really brought about 
 its downfall and compelled Lee to lay down his 
 arms, were inflicted not before Vicksburg 
 nor yet in Virginia, not in the field at all ; 
 they were sustained, the one, almost by default, 
 on the ocean ; the other, most fatal of all, after 
 sharpest struggle in Lancashire. The story 
 of that Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861 to 
 1864 has never been adequately told in con 
 nection with our Civil War. Simply ignored 
 by the standard historians, it was yet the Con 
 federacy s fiercest fight, and its most decisive 
 as well as most far-reaching defeat. A mo 
 mentous conflict, the supremacy of the Union 
 on the ocean hung on its issue; and upon that 
 supremacy depended every considerable land 
 operation: the retention by the Confeder 
 acy of New Orleans, and the consequent con 
 trol of the Mississippi; Sherman s march to 
 the sea; the movement through the Caro- 
 linas; the operations before Petersburg; gen- 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 39 
 
 erally, the maintenance of the Confederate 
 armies in the field. It is in fact no exaggera 
 tion to assert that both the conception and the 
 carrying out of every large Union operation of 
 the war without a single exception hinged and 
 depended on complete national maritime su 
 premacy. It is equally indisputable that the 
 struggle in Lancashire was decisive of that 
 supremacy. As Lee himself admitted in the 
 death agony of the Confederacy, he had never 
 believed it could in the long run make good its 
 independence "unless Foreign Powers should, 
 directly or indirectly, assist" it in so doing. 
 Thus, strange as it sounds, it follows as a logi 
 cal consequence that Lee and his Army of 
 Northern Virginia were first reduced to inani 
 tion, and finally compelled to succumb, as the 
 result of events on the other side of the Atlan 
 tic, largely stimulated by a moral impulse over 
 which they could exert no control. The great 
 and loudly trumpeted cotton campaign of the 
 Confederacy was its most signal failure; and 
 that failure was decisive of the war. 
 
 It is very curious, at times almost comical, 
 to trace historical parallels. Plutarch is, 
 of course, the standard exemplar of that sort 
 of treatment. Among other great careers, 
 Plutarch, as every college boy knows, tells the 
 story of King Pyrrhus, the Epirot. A great 
 captain, Pyrrhus devised a military formation 
 
40 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 which his opponents could not successfully 
 face, and his career was consequently one of 
 victory. But at last he met his fate. Assaulting 
 the town of Argos, he became entangled in its 
 streets; and, fighting his way out, he was 
 struck down, and killed, by a tile thrown from 
 a house-top by an Argive woman. The Con 
 federacy, and, through the Confederacy, Lee 
 underwent a not dissimilar fate ; for, as an his 
 torical fact, it was a missile from a woman s 
 hand which was decisive of that Lancashire 
 conflict, and so doomed the Confederacy. A 
 startling proposition ; but proof quite irrefuta 
 ble of it exists in a publication to which as an 
 authority no Southern writer at least will take 
 exception, the organ established in London by 
 the agents of the Confederacy in 1862. Sus 
 tained as long as the conflict continued from 
 Confederate funds, with a view to influencing 
 European public opinion, the Index, as it 
 was called, collapsed with the Confederacy in 
 July, 1865. Naturally those in charge of it 
 watched with feverish interest the progress of 
 the cotton famine. Not only was the British 
 pocket nerve touched at its most sensitive 
 point, but in Lancashire starvation empha 
 sized financial distress. The pressure thus 
 brought to bear on public opinion in Great 
 Britain, and, through that public opinion, on 
 the policy of Europe, was confidently counted 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 41 
 
 on for results decisive of the American strug 
 gle. Ten years before Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 had launched through the press her Uncle 
 Tom s Cabin. Translated into every civil 
 ized tongue, it had soon become world litera 
 ture. In Great Britain, and especially in Lan 
 cashire, it "carried the new gospel to every 
 cabin in the land." Whoever in those days 
 read anything, read Uncle Tom s Cabin. 
 That it was a correct portrayal of conditions 
 actually existing in the region wherein the 
 incidents narrated were supposed to have 
 occurred, is not now to be considered. That 
 Uncle Tom himself was a type of his race, or 
 indeed even a possibility in it, few would now 
 be disposed to contend. 1 Ethically, he was a 
 Christian martyr of the most advanced descrip 
 tion and, on the large class who accepted the 
 work as a correct portrayal, the pathetic story 
 and cruel fate of the colored saint, moralist 
 and philosopher made an indelible impression. 
 Indeed, that female and sentimentalist por 
 trayal lent a force which has not yet spent it 
 self to the contention that the only difference 
 between the Ethiopian and the Caucasian is 
 
 1 J. C. Read, The Brothers War, pp. 194-198. There is in 
 Mr. Read s book, published fifty years after the appearance of 
 Mrs. Stowe s historic tale and forty years after the Proclama 
 tion of Emancipation, a chapter (ix) entitled, "Uncle Tom s 
 Cabin," in which are to be found the views of an observant and 
 reflecting Georgian on the statement in the text. 
 
42 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 epidermal; the negro being in fact merely a 
 white man a Yankee, if you please who, 
 having a black skin, has never been given a 
 chance! Nay, more! if Uncle Tom and Le- 
 gree were to be accepted as types, the black 
 man was superior naturally to the white; for 
 Uncle Tom was a fully developed moralist, 
 while Legree was a demon incarnate. And 
 this presentation of life and manners, and this 
 portrayal of typical racial characters were in 
 Lancashire implicitly accepted as gospel 
 truth! Such indisputably was the fact; and, 
 when the final issue was joined, the fact told 
 heavily against the Confederacy. In contem 
 plation of it, realizing the handicap thus 
 imposed, the burden of which at the moment 
 the historian has since ignored, and few con 
 sequently now appreciate, the writers for 
 the Index fairly cried aloud in agony. Their 
 wail, long repeated, has in it as now read an 
 element of the comic. The patience of the vic 
 tims of the cotton famine, they declared, was 
 the extraordinary feature of the foreign situa 
 tion; and the agents of the Confederacy noted 
 with unconcealed dismay the absence of po 
 litical demonstrations calculated to urge on a 
 not unwilling Palmerston ministry "its duty 
 to its suffering subjects." There was but one 
 way of accounting for it. Uncle Tom and 
 Legree were respectively doing their work. So 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 43 
 
 it was that the Index despairingly at last 
 declared "The emancipation of the negro 
 from the slavery of Mrs. Beecher Stowe s he 
 roes is the one idea of the millions of British 
 who know no better, and do not care to know." 
 Like the Cherubim with the flaming sword 
 this sentiment stood between Lancashire and 
 cotton; and the inviolate blockade made pos 
 sible the subjugation of the Confederacy. ; $ t *- 
 With Pyrrhus, it was the tile thrown by a , 
 woman from the house-top; with Lee, it was 
 a book by a woman issued from the printing 
 press! The missiles were equally fatal. It 
 was only a difference of time, and its changed /J r w/ 
 conditions. 
 
 Foreign intervention being thus withheld, 
 and the control of the sea by the Union made 
 absolute, the blockade was gradually per 
 fected. The fateful process then went steadily 
 on. Armies might be resisted in the field ; the 
 working of the air pump could not be stopped : 
 and, day and night, season after season, the 
 air pump worked. So the atmosphere of the 
 Confederacy became more and more attenu 
 ated, respiration sensibly harder. Air-hole on 
 air-hole was closed. First New Orleans fell; 
 then Vicksburg, and the Mississippi flowed 
 free; next Sherman, securely counting on the 
 control of the sea as a base of new operations 
 on land, penetrated the vitals of the Confeder- 
 
44 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 acy; then, relying still on maritime coopera 
 tion, he pursued his almost unopposed way 
 through the Carolinas; while Grant, with his 
 base secure upon the James and Fortress 
 Monroe, beleaguered Richmond. Lee with his 
 Army of Northern Virginia calmly, but watch 
 fully and resolutely, confronted him. The 
 Confederate lines were long and thin, guarded 
 by poorly clad and half-fed men. But, veter 
 ans, they held their assailants firmly at bay. 
 As Lee, however, fully realized, it was only a 
 question of time. The working of the air 
 pump was beyond his sphere either of in 
 fluence or operations. Nothing could stop it. 
 As early as the close of 1863 Lee wrote of his 
 men, "Thousands are bare-footed, a greater 
 number partially shod, and nearly all without 
 overcoats, blankets, or warm clothing;" and 
 later, in the dead of winter, referring to the 
 elementary necessities of any successful war 
 fare, he said, -- "The supply, by running the 
 blockade, has become so precarious that I 
 think we should turn our attention to our own 
 resources ... as a further dependence upon 
 those from abroad can result in nothing but 
 increase of suffering and want." The conclu 
 sion here drawn, while necessary, was ex 
 tremely suggestive. "Our own resources!" 
 - the Confederacy had always prided itself 
 on being a purely agricultural community. 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 45 
 
 With institutions patriarchal in character, it 
 had looked upon the people of the North as its 
 agents and factors, and those of Europe as its 
 skilled workmen and artisans; and now that 
 community shut up within its own limits, un 
 der conditions of warfare active and severe, 
 had only itself to rely upon for a supply of 
 everything its defenders needed, from muni 
 tions to shoes, from blankets to medicines and 
 even soap. Viewed in a half century s per 
 spective, the situation was simply and mani 
 festly impossible of continuance. To it there 
 could be but one outcome; and when at last 
 on the 16th of January, 1865, the telegraph 
 announced the fall of Fort Fisher, the Con 
 federacy felt itself hermetically sealed. Wil 
 mington, its last breathing hole, was closed. 
 Still, not the less for that, the air pump kept 
 on in its deadly silent work. 
 
 Three months later the long-delayed in 
 evitable occurred. The collapse came. That 
 under such conditions it should have been so 
 long in coming is now the only legitimate 
 cause of surprise. That adversity is the test 
 of man is a commonplace; that Lee and his 
 Army of Northern Virginia were during the 
 long, dragging winter of 1864-5 most direfully 
 subjected to that test need not here be said; 
 any more than it is needful to say that they 
 bore the test manfully. But the handwriting 
 
46 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 was on the wall; the men were taxed beyond 
 the limits of human endurance. And Lee 
 knew it. " Yesterday, the most inclement day 
 of the winter," he reported on February 8, 
 1865, the right wing of his army "had to be 
 retained in line of battle, having been in the 
 same condition the two previous days and 
 nights. . . . Under these circumstances, 
 heightened by assaults and fire of the enemy, 
 some of the men had been without meat for 
 three days, and all were suffering from re 
 duced rations and scant clothing, exposed 
 to battle, cold, hail and sleet. . . . The 
 physical strength of the men, if their courage 
 survives, must fail under this treatment." 
 If it was so with the men, with the animals it 
 was even worse. "Our cavalry," he added, 
 "has to be dispersed for want of forage." 
 Even thus Lee s army faced an opponent 
 vastly superior in numbers, whose ranks were 
 being constantly replenished; a force armed, 
 clothed, equipped, fed and sheltered as no 
 similar force in the world s history had ever 
 been before. I state only indisputable facts. 
 Lee proved equal to even this occasion. Bear 
 ing a bold, confident front, he was serene and 
 outwardly calm ; alert, resourceful, formidable 
 to the last, individually he showed no sign of 
 weakness, not even occasional petulance. In 
 spired by his example, the whole South seemed 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 47 
 
 to lean up against him in implicit, loving re 
 liance. It was a superlative tribute to Charac 
 ter. Finally, when in April the summons to 
 conflict came, the Army of Northern Virginia, 
 the single remaining considerable organized 
 force of the Confederacy, seemed to stagger 
 to its feet, and, gaunt and grim, shivering 
 with cold and emaciated with hunger, worn 
 down by hard, unceasing attrition, it faced 
 its enemy, formidable still. As I have since 
 studied that situation, listened to the ac 
 counts of Confederate officers active in the 
 closing movements, and read the letters 
 written me by those of the rank and file, it 
 has seemed as if Lee s command then co 
 hered and moved by mere force of habit. 
 Those composing it failed to realize the utter 
 hopelessness of the situation the dispar 
 ity of the conflict, I am sure Jefferson Davis 
 failed to realize it; so, I think, in less de 
 gree, did Lee. They talked, for instance, of 
 recruits and of a levy in mass ; Lee counselled 
 the arming of the slaves; and when, after 
 Lee had surrendered, Davis on the 10th of 
 April, 1865, held his last war conference at 
 Greensboro, he was still confident he would 
 in a few weeks have another army in the field, 
 and did not hesitate to express his faith that 
 "we can whip the enemy yet, if our people 
 will turn out." I have often pondered over 
 
48 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 what Davis had in mind when he ventured 
 this opinion; or what led Lee to advocate the 
 enlistment of negroes. Both were soldiers; 
 and, besides being great in his profession, 
 Lee was more familiar than any other man 
 alive with actual conditions then existing 
 in the Confederate camps. Both Davis and 
 Lee, therefore, must have known that, in those 
 final stages of the conflict, if the stamp of a 
 foot upon the ground would have brought a 
 million men into the field, the cause of the 
 Confederacy would thereby have been in no 
 wise strengthened; on the contrary, what was 
 already bad would have been made much 
 worse. For, to be effective in warfare, men 
 must be fed and clothed and armed. Organ 
 ized in commands, they must have rations 
 as well as ammunition, commissary and quar 
 termaster trains, artillery horses and forage. 
 In the closing months of the Civil War, both 
 Lee and Davis knew perfectly well that they 
 could not arm, nor feed, nor clothe, nor 
 transport the forces already in the field; they 
 were themselves without money, and the 
 soldiers most inadequately supplied with arms, 
 clothing, quartermaster or medical supplies, 
 commissariat or ammunition. Notoriously, 
 those then on the muster-rolls were going 
 home, or deserting to the enemy, as the one 
 alternative to death from privation hunger 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 49 
 
 and cold. If then, a million, or even only a 
 poor hundred thousand fresh recruits had 
 in answer to the summons swarmed to the 
 lines around Richmond, how would it have 
 bettered the situation? An organized army 
 is a mighty consumer of food and material; 
 and food and material have to be served out to 
 it every day. It must be fed as regularly as 
 the sun rises and sets. And the organized 
 resources of the Confederacy were exhausted ; 
 its granaries Georgia and the valley of the 
 Shenandoah were notoriously devastated 
 and desolate; its lines of communication and 
 supply were cut, or in the hands of the invader. 
 
 Realizing this, when the time was ripe, 
 Lee rose to the full height of the great occa 
 sion. The value of Character made itself felt. 
 The service Lee now rendered to the common 
 country, the obligation under which he placed 
 us whether of the North or South, has not, I 
 think, been always appreciated; and to over 
 state it would be difficult. Again to put on re 
 cord my estimate of it brings me here to-day. 
 
 That the situation was to the last degree 
 critical is matter of history. Further organ 
 ized resistance on the part of the Confeder 
 acy was impossible. The means for it did 
 not exist; could not be had. Cut off com 
 pletely from the outer world, the South was 
 consuming itself, feeding on its own vitals. 
 
50 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 The single alternative to surrender was dis- 
 bandment and irregular warfare. As General 
 Johnston afterwards wrote, "without the 
 means of purchasing supplies of any kind, or 
 procuring or repairing arms, we could con 
 tinue the war only as robbers or guerrillas." 
 But that it should be so continued was wholly 
 possible; nay more, it was in the line of 
 precedent, it had been done before, and, 
 more than once, it has since been done, 
 notably in South Africa. It was, moreover, 
 the course advocated by many southern 
 participants in the struggle as that proper 
 to be pursued; and that it would be pursued 
 was accepted as of course by all foreign ob 
 servers, and by the organ of the Confederacy 
 in London. "A strenuous resistance and not 
 surrender," it was there declared, "was the 
 unalterable determination of the Confeder 
 ate authorities." Lee s own son, then in the 
 Army of Northern Virginia, but by chance 
 not included in the surrender, has since de 
 scribed how surprised and incredulous he was 
 when news of it first reached him; and, "not 
 believing for an instant that our struggle 
 was over," he made his way at once to Jeffer 
 son Davis, at Greensboro. At the time of his 
 capture Davis himself, wholly unsubdued in 
 spirit, was moving in the direction of the 
 Mississippi intent on organizing resistance in 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 51 
 
 Texas, a resistance which the writers of the 
 Index confidently predicted would "be fierce, 
 ferocious and of long duration," "a suc 
 cessful or at least a protracted resistance." 
 
 Indeed, had the veil over the immediate 
 future then been lifted, and the outrages, and 
 humiliations worse than outrage, of the period 
 of so-called reconstruction, but actual servile 
 domination, now to ensue revealed itself, no 
 room for doubt exists that the dread alter 
 native would have been adopted. Even as 
 it was, the scales hung trembling. Anything 
 or everything was possible; even that mad 
 pistol shot of the theatrical fool which five 
 days later so irretrievably complicated a 
 delicate and dangerous situation. None the 
 less, what Lee and Grant had done at Appo- 
 mattox on April 9 could not be wholly un 
 done even by the deed in Ford s theatre of 
 April 14; much had been secured. Of Ap- 
 pomattox, and what there occurred, I do not 
 care here to speak. I feel I could not speak 
 adequately, or in words sufficiently simple; 
 for, in my judgment, there is not in our 
 whole history as a people any incident so 
 creditable to our manhood, so indicative 
 of our racial possession of Character. Marked 
 throughout by a straightforward dignity of 
 personal bearing and propriety in action, 
 it was marred by no touch of the theatrical, 
 
52 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 no effort at posturing. I know not to which of 
 the two leaders, there face to face, preference 
 should be given. They were thoroughly typi 
 cal, the one of Illinois and the New West, 
 the other of Virginia and the Old Dominion. 
 Grant was considerate and magnanimous, - 
 restrained in victory; Lee, dignified in de 
 feat, carried himself with that sense of ab 
 solute fitness which compelled respect. Ver 
 ily! "he that ruleth his spirit is better than 
 he that taketh a city"! 
 
 The lead that day given by Lee proved de 
 cisive of the course to be pursued by his fel 
 lows with arms in their hands. At first, and 
 for a brief space, there was in the Confed 
 erate councils much diversity of opinion as 
 to what should or could be done. Calm and 
 dignified in presence of overwhelming dis 
 aster, the voice of Jefferson Davis was that 
 of Milton s "scepter d king:" "My sen 
 tence is for open war!" Lee was not there; 
 none the less, Lee, absent, prevailed over 
 Davis. The sober second thought satisfied 
 all but the most extreme that what he had 
 done they best might do. Thus the die was 
 cast. And now, forty years and more after 
 the event, it is appalling to reflect what in all 
 human probability would have resulted had 
 the choice then been other than it was, had 
 Lee s personality and character not intervened. 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 53 
 
 The struggle had lasted four full years; the 
 assassination of Lincoln was as oil on the 
 Union fire. With a million men, inured to war, 
 on the national muster rolls, men impatient 
 of further resistance, accustomed to license 
 and now educated up to a belief that war 
 was Hell, and that the best way to bring it 
 to a close was to intensify Hell, with such 
 a force as this to reckon with, made more 
 reckless in brutality by the assassin s sense 
 less shot, the Confederacy need have looked 
 for no consideration, no mercy. Visited by 
 the besom of destruction, it would have been 
 harried out of existence. Fire and sword 
 sweeping over it, what the sword spared the 
 fire would have consumed. Whether such 
 an outcome of a prolonged conflict what 
 was recently witnessed in South Africa 
 would in its result have been more morally 
 injurious to the North than it would have 
 been physically destructive to the South, 
 is not now to be considered. It would, how 
 ever, assuredly have come about. 
 
 From that crown of sorrows Lee saved the 6^ 
 common country. He was the one man in the 
 Confederacy who could exercise decisive in 
 fluence. It was the night of the 8th of April, 
 lacking ten days only of exactly four full years, 
 years very full for us who lived through 
 them since that not dissimilar night when 
 
54 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 Lee had paced the floor at Arlington, com 
 muning with himself over the fateful issue, a 
 decision on which was then forced upon him. 
 A decision of even greater import was now to 
 be reached, and reached by him. A com 
 mander of the usual cast would under such 
 circumstances have sought advice perhaps 
 support; at least, a divided responsibility. 
 Even though himself by nature and habit a 
 masterful man and one accustomed to direct, 
 he would have called a council, and barkened 
 to those composing it. This Lee did not do. 
 A singularly self-poised man, he sought no 
 external aid. Sitting before his bivouac fire 
 at Appomattox he reviewed the situation. 
 Doing so, as before at Arlington, he reached 
 his own conclusion. That conclusion he him 
 self at the time expressed in words, brief, in 
 deed, but vibrating with moral triumph: 
 ;< The question is, is it right to surrender this 
 army? If it is right, then I will take all the 
 responsibility." The conclusion reached at 
 Arlington in the April night of 1861 to some 
 seems to have been wrong inexcusable even; 
 all concur in that reached before the Appo 
 mattox camp-fire in the April vigils of 1865. 
 He then a second time decided; and he de 
 cided right. 
 
 His work was done; but from failure he 
 plucked triumph. Thenceforth Lee wore 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 55 
 
 defeat as t were a laurel crown. A few days 
 later a small group of horsemen appeared 
 in the morning hours on the further side of 
 the Richmond pontoons across the James. 
 By some strange intuition it became known 
 that General Lee was of the party; and, 
 silent and uncovered, a crowd Virginians 
 all gathered along the route the horsemen 
 would take. "There was no excitement, no 
 hurrahing; but as the great chief passed, 
 a deep, loving murmur, greater than these, 
 rose from the very hearts of the crowd. 
 Taking off his hat, and simply bowing his 
 head, the man great in adversity passed si 
 lently to his own door; it closed upon him; 
 and his people had seen him for the last time 
 in his battle harness." 
 
 From the day that he affixed his signature 
 to the terms of surrender submitted to him by 
 Grant at Appomattox to the day when he drew 
 a dying breath at Lexington, Lee s subsequent 
 course was consistent. In his case there was 
 no vacillation, no regretful glances backward 
 thrown. When, four months after the last hos 
 tile shot was fired, he was invited to assume 
 the presidency of this college, though then 
 under indictment, in flagrant disregard of the 
 immunity assured him when he gave his pa 
 role, he briefly set forth his views. "I think 
 it," he wrote, " the duty of every citizen, in the 
 
56 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 present condition of the country, to do all in 
 his power to aid in the restoration of peace and 
 harmony, and in no way to oppose the policy 
 of the State or General Governments directed 
 to that object." And, four days later, writ 
 ing to the Confederate Governor of Virginia, 
 he said "The duty of [Virginian] citizens 
 appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All 
 should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the 
 effects of war, and to restore the blessings of 
 peace. They should remain if possible in the 
 country; promote harmony and good feeling; 
 qualify themselves to vote, and elect to the 
 State and general legislatures wise and patri 
 otic men, who will devote their abilities to the 
 healing of all dissensions. I have," he added, 
 "invariably recommended this course since 
 the cessation of hostilities, and have en 
 deavored to practice it myself." Here was a 
 complete exposition of duty, combined with 
 abnegation of self; the purest patriotism, it 
 was also the concentrated essence of states 
 manship. He counselled with a wisdom not 
 less profound because unconscious ; and what 
 he said evinced that underlying common sense 
 which in politics avails more than genius. 
 
 Five years of life and active usefulness yet 
 remained to General Lee years in my judg 
 ment most creditable to himself, the most use 
 ful to his country of his whole life; for, during 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 57 
 
 them, he set to Virginia and his own people a 
 high example, an example of lofty charac 
 ter and simple bearing. Uttering no com 
 plaints, entering into no controversies, he was 
 as one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing. 
 His blood and judgment were well commin 
 gled; and so it fell out that he accepted for 
 tune s buffets and rewards with equal thanks. 
 His record and appearance during those final 
 years are pleasant to dwell upon, for they 
 reflect honor on our American manhood. 
 Turning his face courageously to the future, 
 he uttered no word of repining over the past. 
 Yet, like the noble Moor, his occupation also 
 was gone 
 
 " The royal banner, and all quality, 
 Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war! " 
 
 But with Lee this did not imply 
 
 " Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! " 
 
 Far from it; for as the gates closed on the old 
 occupation, they opened on a new. And it was 
 an occupation through which he gave to his 
 country, North and South, a priceless gift. 
 
 Speaking advisedly and on full reflection, I 
 say that of all the great characters of the Civil 
 War, and it was productive of many whose 
 names and deeds posterity will long bear in 
 recollection, there was not one who passed 
 away in the serene atmosphere and with the 
 
58 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 gracious bearing of Lee. From beginning to 
 end those parting years of his will bear closest 
 scrutiny. There was about them nothing 
 venal, nothing querulous, nothing in any way 
 sordid or disappointing. In his case there was 
 no anti-climax; for those closing years were 
 dignified, patient, useful; sweet in domes 
 ticity, they in all things commanded respect. 
 It is pleasant to catch glimpses of the erst 
 while commander in that quiet Virginia life. 
 There is in the picture something altogether 
 human intensely sympathetic. "Traveller," 
 he would write, "is my only companion; I 
 may also say my pleasure. He and I, when 
 ever practicable, wander out in the mountains 
 and enjoy sweet confidence." Or again we 
 see him, always with Traveller, the famous 
 old charger this time "stepping very proudly," 
 as his rider showed those two little sunbon- 
 neted daughters of a professor, astride of a 
 plodding old horse, over a pleasant road, quite 
 unknown to them. Once more in imagina 
 tion we may ride, his companions, through 
 those mountain roads of his dearly loved Vir 
 ginia, or seek shelter with him and his daugh 
 ter from a thunder-shower in the log cabin, 
 the inmates of which are stunned when too late 
 they realize that the courtly, gracious intruder 
 was no other than the idolized General Lee. 
 Indifferent to wealth, he was scrupulous as 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 59 
 
 respects those money dealings a carelessness 
 in regard to which has embittered the lives 
 of so many of our public men, as not infre 
 quently it has tarnished their fame. Lee s 
 career will be scrutinized in vain for a sug 
 gestion even of the sordid, or of an obligation 
 he failed to meet. He was nothing if not self- 
 respecting. He once wrote to a member of his 
 family " vile dross has never been a drug 
 with me," yet his generosity as a giver from 
 his narrow means was limited only by his 
 resources. Restricting his own wants to ne 
 cessities, he contributed, to an extent which 
 excites surprise, to both public calls and pri 
 vate needs. But the most priceless of those 
 contributions were contained in the precepts 
 he inculcated and in the unconscious example 
 he set during those closing years. 
 
 Lee was at the head of Washington College 
 from October, 1865, to October, 1870; a very 
 insufficient time in which to accomplish any 
 considerable work. A man of fast advancing 
 years, he also then had sufficient cause to feel 
 a sense of lassitude. He showed no signs of 
 it. On the contrary, closely studied, those 
 years, and Lee s bearing in them, were in cer 
 tain respects the most remarkable as well as 
 the most creditable of his life; they impressed 
 unmistakably upon it the stamp of true great 
 ness. Unable to pass them wholly over, I shall 
 
60 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 deal very briefly with them. His own means 
 of subsistence having been swept away by 
 war, the property of his w r ife as well as his 
 own having been sequestered and confiscated 
 in utter disregard not only of law, but I 
 add it regretfully of decency, a mere 
 pittance, designated in courtesy "salary," 
 under his prudent management w^as made to 
 suffice for the needs of an establishment the 
 quiet dignity of which even exceeded its severe 
 simplicity. Within five months of the down 
 fall of the Confederacy, he addressed himself 
 to his new vocation. Coming to it from crush 
 ing defeat, about him there was nothing sug 
 gestive of disappointment; and thereafter 
 through public trials and private misfortunes 
 - for it pleased Heaven to try him with afflic 
 tions he bore himself with serene patience, 
 and a mingled firmness and sweetness of tem 
 per to which mere words fail to do justice. 
 More than that, becoming interested in his 
 new work, he evinced, it would seem, as the 
 head of a college a grasp of educational prob 
 lems not less clear and intelligent than he had 
 previously shown of strategic conditions. It 
 was indeed extraordinary that a man edu 
 cated in a military school, first an engineer, 
 then an officer of cavalry, and finally a general 
 in charge of large field operations, should, 
 when approaching his sixtieth year, have 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 61 
 
 given proof of such mental activity and 
 freshness. Fully realizing the needs and 
 requirements of the present age, the former 
 commandant of West Point was the ardent 
 advocate of complete classical and literary 
 culture. Utterly out of sympathy with the mod 
 ern advocates of materialistic education, he 
 yet recognized the fact that material well-being 
 is, for a people, the condition of all high civili 
 zation; and, accordingly, sought to provide, in 
 the institution of which he was the head, all 
 means for the development of science, and its 
 practical application. With a large and cor 
 rect conception he planned, therefore, to 
 connect all the departments of literary, scien 
 tific, and professional education, and to con 
 solidate them under a common organization. 
 He thus outlined a true university. So, at an 
 early day he called into existence, as adjuncts 
 of the college he found prostrate and well-nigh 
 moribund, schools of Applied Mathematics, 
 of Engineering and of Law; while later he 
 submitted to its Board of Trustees a matured 
 scheme for the complete development of the 
 scientific and professional departments. His 
 death, just before he had yet reached the 
 grand climacteric, prevented the full develop 
 ment of his great conception. None the less, 
 he had shown himself fully equal to the new 
 demand upon him. 
 
62 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 The most marked feature of his educational 
 career was, however, the moral influence he 
 exerted on the student body, what has most 
 fitly been described by one associated with him 
 as "the mighty influence of his personal char 
 acter." Here, as in the Army of Northern Vir 
 ginia, this was all-powerful. It was sorely 
 needed, too; for the young men of the South 
 were wild, and resented efforts at restraint. 
 Grown up in an environment of warfare and 
 consequent violence, they were somewhat dis 
 posed to take matters into their own hands, 
 to be, in a word, a law unto themselves; but, 
 under Lee s presidency, the elevation of tone 
 in this respect, and the consequent improve 
 ment in student conduct were, we are on good 
 evidence assured, marked and rapid. Acts of 
 disorder became infrequent; and in the latter 
 years of Lee s brief administration it is said 
 that "hardly a single case of serious discipline 
 occurred." A Boston student of Washington 
 College in those years sent there because 
 of the feelings of profound respect for Lee en 
 tertained by his Northern father has since 
 borne witness to me of the personal interest 
 taken by Washington s president in the indi 
 vidual students. In close sympathy with the 
 modern university spirit, the youth in ques 
 tion was, I have reason to suppose, far more 
 addicted to athletics than to his text-books. 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 63 
 
 "This lack of proficiency in my studies," he 
 has recently written me, "was, of course, a 
 matter for which I was frequently called into 
 the presence of General Lee; and I fully 
 appreciate now, though I did not then, the 
 difficulties under which he labored; for, if he 
 had expelled me, as under similar circum 
 stances he undoubtedly would have expelled 
 any Southern student, it would have been 
 considered a factional matter. He would 
 plead most earnestly with me always that I 
 should attend more to my studies and less to 
 athletics, and never a harsh word during the 
 entire period." 
 
 It remains to assign due weight and value 
 to these precepts and this great example at 
 just that juncture and from just that man. 
 And here, bearing in mind the common coun 
 try, the community to which I belong as 
 well as that I now address, I feel I tread on 
 dangerous ground. What I must necessarily 
 say will be very susceptible of misconstruc 
 tion. Speaking, however, in the true historical 
 spirit, as throughout I have sought to do, I 
 must deal with this topic also as best I can. 
 
 Because no blood flowed on the scaffold, 
 and no confiscations of houses or lands 
 marked the close of our war of Secession, 
 it has always been assumed by us of the vic 
 torious party that extreme, indeed unprece- 
 
64 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 dented, clemency was shown to the van 
 quished, and that subsequently they had no 
 good ground of complaint or sufficient cause 
 for restiveness. That history will accord 
 assent to this somewhat self-complacent con 
 viction is open to question. On the contrary, 
 it may not unfairly be doubted whether a 
 people prostrate after civil strife has often 
 received severer measure than was inflicted 
 on the so-called reconstructed Confederate 
 States during the years immediately succeed 
 ing the close of strife. Adam Smith somewhere 
 defined Rebels and Heretics as "those un 
 lucky persons who, when things have come 
 to a certain degree of violence, have the mis 
 fortune to be of the weaker party." Spolia 
 tion and physical suffering have immemo- 
 rially been their lot. The Confederate, it is 
 true, when he ceased to resist, escaped this 
 visitation in its usual and time-approved 
 form. Nevertheless, he was by no means ex 
 empt from it. In the matter of confiscation, 
 it has been computed that the freeing of the 
 slaves by act of war swept out of existence 
 property valued at some two thousand mil 
 lions; while, over and above this, a system 
 of simultaneous reconstruction subjected the 
 disfranchised master to the rule of the en 
 franchised bondsman. For a community 
 conspicuously masterful, and notoriously 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 65 
 
 quick to resent affront, to be thus placed by 
 alien force under the civil rule of those of a 
 different and distinctly inferior race, only 
 lately their property, is not physical torment, 
 it is true, but that it is mild or considerate 
 treatment can hardly be contended. Yet this 
 slave confiscation, and reconstruction under 
 African rule was the war penalty imposed 
 on the States of the Confederacy. That the 
 policy inspired at the time a feeling of bitter 
 resentment in the South was no cause for 
 wonder. Upon it time has already recorded 
 a verdict. Following the high precedent set 
 at Appomattox it was distinctly unworthy. 
 Conceived in passion, it ignored both science 
 and the philosophy of statesmanship; worse 
 yet, it was ungenerous. Lee, for instance, 
 again setting the example, applied formally 
 for amnesty and a restoration of civil rights 
 within two months of his surrender. His ap 
 plication was silently ignored; while he died 
 "a prisoner on parole," the suffrage denied 
 him was conferred on his manumitted slaves. 
 Verily, it was not alone the base Indian of 
 the olden time who "threw a pearl away 
 richer than all his tribe"! 
 
 But on such a rejection and choice of ma 
 terial as this was the so-called reconstruction 
 edifice based; nor is it matter for wonder that 
 it speedily crumbled away. It was under 
 
66 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 these conditions that Lee s bearing and ex 
 ample were of special national importance. 
 The one political result the States of the Con 
 federacy should ever have kept steadily in 
 view after strife closed was the restoration 
 of local self-government; and that, under 
 the traditions and political instincts of the 
 American community, was sure to come. It 
 was only a question of time; and patience 
 and self-restraint were the two qualities most 
 sure to hasten the steps of time. "We shall 
 have to be patient," Lee in March, 1866, 
 wrote to old companions in arms, "and 
 suffer for a while at least; ... I hope, in 
 time, peace will be restored to the country, 
 and that the South may enjoy some measure 
 of prosperity. I fear, however, much suffer 
 ing is still in store for her, and that her people 
 must be prepared to exercise fortitude and 
 forbearance." To those to whom it was 
 addressed, no wiser or more tactful counsel 
 could at that juncture (March, 1866) have 
 been imparted; for, while Lee himself pos 
 sessed those virtues to a well-nigh unexampled 
 degree, patience and self-restraint have not 
 been generally accepted as most conspicuous 
 among the many manly and ennobling quali 
 ties of the race to which Lee belonged. 
 
 In the passage with which I began, it was 
 observed by Emerson that "Character de- 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 67 
 
 notes habitual self-possession, habitual re 
 gard to interior and constitutional motives, 
 a balance not to be overset or easily disturbed 
 by outward events and opinion." To my 
 knowledge I never saw General Lee ; I cer 
 tainly never stood in his presence, nor ex 
 changed a word with him. On the few oc 
 casions when I was a guest in his house, 
 he chanced to be absent. Even that was long 
 ago; while he and his family still lived at 
 Arlington. Thus I know him only by report, 
 and through his letters. But, if the report of 
 those who did know him well, and the evi 
 dence of what he wrote, may be relied on, 
 "habitual self-possession, habitual regard to 
 interior and constitutional motives, a balance 
 not to be overset or easily disturbed by out 
 ward events and opinion," were his to an 
 eminent degree, a degree which his harsh 
 est and most prejudiced critic could not ig 
 nore. That, himself a devout man and by 
 conviction sincerely^ rjli^ious, he was neither 
 ashamed nor afraid so publicly to profess 
 himself, may be read in his repeated army 
 orders; or, to such as prefer there to look for 
 it, in his family letters. What more expres 
 sive of a profound religious faith could be 
 imagined than these words written in the 
 very shadow of Gettysburg s disaster to the 
 dying wife of his wounded and captured son ? 
 
68 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 "In his own good time He will relieve us, 
 and make all things work together for our 
 good, if we give Him our love and place in 
 Him our trust." That his immediate family 
 circle regarded him with the affectionate devo 
 tion founded on respect which is the surest 
 indication of those sterling and fundamental 
 qualities which alone can cause a man to 
 seem a hero to those near to him, the con 
 fidants of his privacy, appears from those 
 family letters and recollections which have 
 been so freely published. That he impressed 
 himself on those about him in his professional 
 and public life to an uncommon extent, - 
 that the soldiers of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia as well as those of his staff and in 
 high command felt not only implicit and un 
 questioning confidence in him but to him 
 a strong personal affection, is established by 
 their concurrent testimony. He, too, might 
 well have said with Brutus : 
 
 " My heart doth joy that yet in all my life 
 I found no man but he was true to me. 
 I shall have glory by this losing day." 
 
 Finally, one who knew him well has written 
 of him "He had the quiet bearing of a 
 powerful yet harmonious nature. An un 
 ruffled calm upon his countenance betokened 
 the concentration and control of the whole 
 being within. He was a kingly man whom 
 
LEE S CENTENNIAL 69 
 
 all men who came into his presence expected 
 to obey." That he was gifted in a prominent 
 degree with the mens aequa in arduis of the 
 Roman poet, none deny. 
 
 And now, Virginians, a word with you in 
 closing: "Show me the man you honor; 
 I know by that symptom, better than by any 
 other, what kind of man you yourself are. 
 For you show me then what your ideal of 
 manhood is; what kind of man you long 
 possibly to be, and would thank the Gods, 
 with your whole soul, for being if you could. 
 Whom shall we consecrate and set apart as 
 one of our sacred men? Sacred; that all 
 men may see him, be reminded of him, and, 
 by new example added to old perpetual 
 precept, be taught what is real worth in man. 
 Whom do you wish to resemble ? Him you 
 set on a high column, that all men looking 
 at it, may be continually apprised of the duty 
 you expect from them." 
 
 "The virtues of a superior man are like 
 the wind; the virtues of a common man are 
 like the grass; the grass, when the wind 
 passes over it, bends." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 (Page 10) 
 
 IN regard to the early utterances of Mr. Webster, the 
 following is from a speech by him in the National 
 House of Representatives, December 9, 1814. It should 
 be borne in mind that this speech was delivered in 
 the midst of the gloomiest period of the War of 1812- 
 15, four months after the battle of Bladensburg and 
 the capture of Washington, and one month before the 
 British were defeated below New Orleans. The speech 
 was first published (1902) by C. H. Van Tyne, in his 
 edition of the Letters of Daniel Webster (p. 67). 
 
 "In my opinion [the law under consideration for 
 compulsory army and military service] ought not to be 
 carried into effect. The operation of measures thus 
 unconstitutional and illegal ought to be prevented, by 
 a resort to other measures which are both constitu 
 tional and legal. It will be the solemn duty of the State 
 Governments to protect their own authority over their 
 own Militia, and to interpose between their citizens and 
 arbitrary power. These are among the objects for which 
 the State Governments exist; and their highest obli 
 gations bind them to the preservation of their own 
 rights and the liberties of their people. I express these 
 sentiments here, Sir, because I shall express them to 
 my constituents. Both they and myself live under a 
 Constitution which teaches us, that the doctrine of 
 non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression 
 is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and 
 
72 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 happiness of mankind. With the same earnestness 
 with which I now exhort you to forbear from these 
 measures, I shall exhort them to exercise their unques 
 tionable right of providing for the security of their own 
 liberties." 
 
 William Rawle was in his day an eminent Philadel 
 phia lawyer, and Chancellor of the Law Association of 
 Philadelphia. The principal author of the revised code 
 of Pennsylvania, he stood in the foremost rank of 
 American legal luminaries in the first third of the nine 
 teenth century. His instincts, sympathies, and connec 
 tions were all national. His View of the Constitution, 
 published in Philadelphia in 1825, was the standard 
 text-book on the subject until the publication of 
 Story s Commentaries, in 1833. It has been asserted 
 that Rawle s View was used as a text-book for the 
 instruction of the students at West Point until after the 
 year 1840. (See prefatory matter to republication of 
 paper entitled Sectional Misunderstandings, by Robert 
 Bingham, in North American Review of September, 
 1904.) 
 
 "If a faction should attempt to subvert the govern 
 ment of a State for the purpose of destroying its re 
 publican form, the paternal power of the Union could 
 thus be called forth to subdue it. Yet it is not to be 
 understood that its interposition would be justifiable 
 if the people of a State should determine to retire from 
 the Union, whether they adopted another or retained 
 the same form of government. (Page 289.) . . . 
 
 "The States, then, may wholly withdraw from the 
 Union; but while they continue they must retain the 
 character of representative republics." (Page 290.) 
 
 "The secession of a State from the Union depends 
 
APPENDIX 73 
 
 on the will of the people of such State. The people 
 alone, as we have already seen, hold the power to alter 
 their constitution. The Constitution of the United 
 States is, to a certain extent, incorporated into the con 
 stitutions of the several States by the act of the people. 
 The State legislatures have only to perform certain 
 organical operations in respect to it. To withdraw 
 from the Union comes not within the general scope of 
 their delegated authority. There must be an express 
 provision to that effect inserted in the State constitu 
 tions. This is not at present the case with any of them, 
 and it would perhaps be impolitic to confide it to them. 
 A matter so momentous ought not to be entrusted to 
 those who would have it in their power to exercise it 
 lightly and precipitately upon sudden dissatisfaction, 
 or causeless jealousy, perhaps against the interests and 
 the wishes of a majority of their constituents. 
 
 "But in any manner by which a secession is to take 
 place, nothing is more certain than that the act should 
 be deliberate, clear, and unequivocal. The perspicuity 
 and solemnity of the original obligation require cor 
 respondent qualities in its dissolution. The powers of 
 the general government cannot be defeated or im 
 paired by an ambiguous or implied secession on the 
 part of the State, although a secession may perhaps be 
 conditional. The people of the State may have some 
 reasons to complain in respect to acts of the general 
 government; they may in such cases invest some of 
 their own officers with the power of negotiation, and 
 may declare an absolute secession in case of their fail 
 ure. Still, however, the secession must in such case be 
 distinctly and peremptorily declared to take place on 
 that event; and in such case, as in the case of an un 
 conditional secession, the previous ligament with the 
 
74 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 Union would be legitimately and fairly destroyed. But 
 in either case the people is the only moving power." 
 (Pages 295, 296.) 
 
 De Tocqueville cannot, of course, be cited as an 
 authority on American Constitutional Law. Never 
 theless, an acute observer, his evidence carries great 
 weight on the question of the views generally current 
 on all constitutional questions at the time he collected 
 the materials for his great work (1831-32). The follow 
 ing extracts bearing upon the topic under discussion 
 are found in the translation of Democracy in America 
 by Henry Reeve (London, 1889). 
 
 "In America, each State has fewer opportunities of 
 resistance and fewer temptations to non-compliance; 
 nor can such a design be put in execution (if indeed it 
 be entertained) without an open violation of the laws 
 of the Union, a direct interruption of the ordinary 
 course of justice, and a bold declaration of revolt; in a 
 word, without taking a decisive step which men hesi 
 tate to adopt." . . . "Here the term Federal govern 
 ment is clearly no longer applicable to a state of things 
 which must be styled an incomplete national govern 
 ment : a form of government has been found out which 
 is neither exactly national nor federal; but no further 
 progress has been made, and the new word which will 
 one day designate this novel invention does not yet 
 exist." (Vol. i, pp. 156, 157.) 
 
 "The Union is a vast body which presents no definite 
 object to patriotic feeling. The forms and limits of the 
 State are distinct and circumscribed; since it repre 
 sents a certain number of objects which are familiar 
 to the citizens and beloved by all. It is identified with 
 the very soil, with the right of property and the do- 
 
APPENDIX 75 
 
 mestic affections, with the recollections of the past, 
 the labours of the present, and the hopes of the future. 
 Patriotism, then, which is frequently a mere exten 
 sion of individual egotism, is still directed to the State, 
 and is not excited by the Union." (Vol. i, p. 394.) 
 
 "The Federal Government is, therefore, notwith 
 standing the precautions of those who founded it, 
 naturally so weak that it more peculiarly requires the 
 free consent of the governed to enable it to subsist. 
 
 "If the Union were to undertake to enforce the 
 allegiance of the Confederate States by military means, 
 it would be in a position very analogous to that of Eng 
 land at the time of the War of Independence." (Vol. 
 i, p. 395.) 
 
 "The Union was formed by the voluntary agree 
 ment of the States; and, in uniting together, they have 
 not forfeited their nationality, nor have they been re 
 duced to the condition of one and the same people. 
 If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from 
 the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right 
 of doing so; and the Federal Government would 
 have no means of maintaining its claims directly, 
 either by force or by right." (Vol. i, p. 396.) 
 
 "It appears to me unquestionable that if any por 
 tion of the Union seriously desired to separate itself 
 from the other States, they would not be able, nor 
 indeed would they attempt, to prevent it; and that 
 the present Union will only last as long as the States 
 which compose it choose to continue members of the 
 confederation." (Vol. i, p. 397.) 
 
 "The dangers which threaten the American Union 
 do not originate in the diversity of interests or of opin 
 ions, but in the various characters and passions of 
 the Americans. The men who inhabit the vast terri- 
 
76 LEE S CENTENNIAL 
 
 tory of the United States are almost all the issue of 
 a common stock; but the effects of the climate, and 
 more especially of slavery, have gradually introduced 
 very striking differences between the British settler 
 of the Southern States and the British settler of the 
 North." (Vol. i, p. 402.) 
 
 "I think that I have demonstrated that the existence 
 of the present confederation depends entirely on the 
 continued assent of all the confederates; and, start 
 ing from this principle, I have inquired into the causes 
 which may induce the several States to separate from 
 the others. The Union may, however, perish in two 
 different ways : one of the confederate States may choose 
 to retire from the compact, and so forcibly to sever 
 the Federal tie; and it is to this supposition that most 
 of the remarks that I have made apply: or the au 
 thority of the Federal Government may be progres 
 sively entrenched on by the simultaneous tendency 
 of the united republics to resume their independence." 
 (Vol. i, p. 412.) 
 
 "The Constitution had not destroyed the distinct 
 sovereignty of the States; and all communities, of 
 whatever nature they may be, are impelled by a secret 
 propensity to assert their independence." (Vol. i, p. 
 415.) 
 
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ROBERT E. LEE 
 
 Centennial Celebration of His Birth Held Under the 
 
 Auspices of the University of South Carolina 
 
 on the Nineteenth Day of January, 1907 
 
 JJNIVERSIIAS CAP 
 MERID. 
 1801, 
 
PRESENTED TO MRS. JOYNES BY MRS. LEE, AS 
 THE BEST LIKENESS OF THE GENERAL. 
 
ROBERT E. LEE 
 
 Centennial Celebration 
 
 OF 
 
 His Birth 
 
 Held Under the Auspices 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of South Carolina 
 
 ON 
 
 the Nineteenth Day of January 
 1907 
 
 Columbia S. C. 
 
 The State Company, Printers 
 
 1907 
 
(From Journal of the House of Representatives, Jan. 9, 1907.) 
 
 On motion of Kepresentative Porter A. McMaster : 
 
 Be it Resolved, That the use of the Hall of the House of Kep- 
 resentatives be extended to the Faculty of the University of South 
 Carolina on the evening of January 19th inst., for public services 
 commemorative of the centenary of the birth of Gen. Eobert E. 
 Lee. 
 
PROGRAMME 
 
 Music by University Glee Club 
 Prayer, by the Rev. W. P. Witsell 
 
 Music 
 
 Address, "Lee, the Soldier," 
 
 by Major Henry Edward Young, of General Lee s Staff 
 
 Music 
 
 Address, "Lee, the College President," 
 
 by Dr. Edward S. Joynes, formerly of General Lee s Faculty 
 
 Music 
 
 Presentation of medal offered by Wade Hampton Chapter, 
 U. D. C., to Mr. Eugene Blake for best essay on: "Was 
 Secession a Constitutional Eight prior to 1861 ?" by Professor 
 Yates Snowden 
 
 Music 
 
2 Ty 
 
PRESENTED CHRISTMAS, 1867, BY MRS. LEE TO 
 
 WALKER \V. JOYNES; THEN FIVE 
 
 YEARS OLD. 
 
MAJOR YOUNG S ADDRESS 
 
 Mr. President, and professors of the University of South Caro 
 lina: Let me in the first place thank you, and thank you very 
 sincerely for the honor you have conferred on me in giving me 
 the opportunity of doing myself honor by showing my apprecia 
 tion of and admiration for the great soldier and man "the 
 greatest of all modern leaders," and "the most perfect man" 
 under whom I had the honor of serving personally during the 
 late war. It is needless to say how greatly I value and cherish 
 the memory of my almost daily association with him during the 
 later years of the war. 
 
 There are two men with whom in life I have associated inti 
 mately and who, though very different in some respects, always 
 impressed me as great men the greatest I have been privileged 
 to associate with. And yet how different their fates. The one 
 sinking slowly from the ken of men and now within a generation 
 nearly forgotten the other growing greater day by day a world 
 hero Mr. James L. Petigru and Gen. Robert E. Lee. Both were 
 absolutely fearless, both absolutely upright, both absolutely truth 
 ful, both devoted to duty, both exercising during life a wide 
 influence. Both ready to help in distress. To whom the poor and 
 needy and weak never appealed in vain ; both with intellects that 
 placed them in their several spheres far above all their contem 
 poraries. And yet, before the generation that knew him has 
 passed away, I have been asked in a body of lawyers, when I men 
 tioned Petigru as the highest type of the lawyer I had ever had 
 the privilege of knowing, who he was, when he lived, and what he 
 had done. He lived and worked and toiled faithfully for that 
 jealous mistress the law, and already his great reputation is seen 
 to have been written on the seashore of time and is rapidly wash 
 ing away. 
 
 With Lee, on the contrary, the great reputation graven on the 
 monuments more eternal than brass are but graven deeper and 
 deeper by time. And whatever in the future may happen to the 
 
8 
 
 South, whether it produces statesmen again, known to the whole 
 world without whose name the world s history cannot be written 
 and who shall join in the building up of this mightiest empire 
 the world has ever known or be, as at present, the mere fly on the 
 chariot shaft ; its name and history as identified with Lee and his 
 glorious Army of Northern Virginia will be engraved deeply on 
 those same tablets of brass and will not sink to oblivion. But it 
 is time that I turn to the duty you have so kindly assigned to me 
 as one of the staff of General Lee. 
 
 To sketch even the outline of General Lee s military career till 
 his life, begun by Colonel Marshall and yet to be completed, is 
 given to the world, laying open more than what mere official 
 records can show, will necessarily be unsatisfactory. 
 
 Of course it is easy to sketch his career from West Point, 
 through the Mexican war, to the opening of the great Civil war. 
 The history of those days has been fully written, and no doubt 
 finally written ; but from that time on no full history, sanctioned 
 and approved by him, or those naturally acquainted with his 
 views, as, for instance, Colonel Taylor, perhaps his most intimate 
 staff officer during the war, has been written. That by Colonel 
 Long, his staff officer, fills the void only in part it is so brief. 
 The campaign of West Virginia is not now recognized as the 
 absolute failure it was considered in 1862, and the clamor of the 
 South Carolina papers when the "mud- digger" was given com 
 mand over the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, etc., against him, 
 and the demand that a brigadier general of this State should 
 have the command, sounds now as the mere madness of the pass 
 ing hour; fortunately it was then treated as the madness of th 
 ignorant, and was without influence. 
 
 While it is true that the defense of the seacoast of Georgia and 
 South Carolina as planned by General Lee remained substantially 
 unchanged during the four years of the war, and was successfully 
 maintained, yet the most interesting part of Lee s career, and that 
 most known to the world, which, from no mean soldier (Lord 
 Wolseley), has won for him the well-earned praise of being not 
 only the "greatest soldier of his age," but also of "the most perfect 
 man I ever met," dates from his taking command of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia great praise, certainly, when we recall that 
 the man thus placed above his compeers was the unsuccessful 
 
Lee compared with the unsuccessful Sydney Johnson, Joe John 
 ston, "Stonewall" Jackson, etc., the successful Grant, Sherman, 
 Sheridan, McPherson, etc., of this country, and the successful von 
 Moltke and Skobeleff, etc., of Europe. Von Moltke, too, we should 
 recall, places General Lee above Wellington. 
 
 Lord Wolseley wrote thus just after Lee s death : Forty years 
 later, in his personal memoirs, when time had matured his judg 
 ment, Lord Wolseley styles himself : "A close student of war all 
 my (his) life, and especially of this Confederate war, and with a 
 full knowledge of the battles fought during its progress," repeats 
 his judgment that General Lee was "the greatest of all modern 
 leaders," and compares his campaign of 1862 with that of Napo 
 leon s of 1796. Speaking of his visit to General Lee, he says : "I 
 have taken no special trouble to remember all he said to me then 
 (1862) and during subsequent conversations, and yet it is still 
 fresh in my recollection. But it is natural that it should be so, for 
 he was the ablest general, and to me seemed the greatest man I 
 ever conversed with ; and yet I have had the privilege of meeting 
 von Moltke and Prince Bismarck, and at least on one occasion had 
 a very long and intensely interesting conversation with the latter. 
 General Lee was one of the few men who ever seriously impressed 
 and awed me with their natural and their inherent greatness. 
 Forty years have come and gone since our meeting, and yet the 
 majesty of his manly bearing, the genial winning grace, the 
 sweetness of his smile and the impressive dignity of his old-fash 
 ioned style of address, come back to me amongst the most 
 cherished of my recollections. His greatness made me humble, 
 and I never felt my own individual insignificance more keenly 
 than I did in his presence. His was indeed a beautiful character, 
 and of him it might truthfully be written: In righteousness he 
 did judge and make war ." 
 
 Nor does Lord Wolseley in these opinions stand alone. His 
 judgment is that of such military writers and critics as Chesney, 
 Lawler, and of the higher press, Northern as well as foreign. 
 
 Says Lord Wolseley again: "I desire to make known to the 
 reader not only the renowned soldier, whom I believe to have been 
 the greatest of his age, but to give some insight into the character 
 of one whom I have always considered the most perfect man I 
 ever met." 
 
10 
 
 It would, therefore, be a mere vain repetition to repeat praises 
 made by those so competent to judge and whose opinions will 
 weigh. 
 
 It will, therefore, be far more profitable and suitable to this 
 occasion to note an apparent change of opinion which some of 
 the more recent writers seem to take, and the effort to elevate one 
 of Lee s subordinates above him; passing over the omissions, for 
 instance, of General Jackson and giving him the credit due really 
 to General Lee. Is this well founded ? General Jackson has had 
 the good fortune of having his life written by several devoted 
 friends two clergymen, members of his staff more apt to be 
 partisans than cool judges and Colonel Henderson, even, seems 
 to be guided by Mrs. Jackson. 
 
 General Lee s life has not yet been written by such, except the 
 brief life suggested rather than written by General Long. So the 
 world has General Jackson s side of the case, while the other is 
 wanting. The battles around Richmond were brilliant successes 
 for General Lee, and no one disputes that he planned them; yet 
 they were not as complete as they should have been, and would 
 have been, if General Jackson had not delayed at Ashland, and 
 again at White Oak Swamp. General Jackson had been sent for 
 by General Lee before he opened the battles, and brought to 
 Richmond from the valley, and fully informed of the campaign 
 planned. The initial move hinged upon Jackson. With his wing 
 of the army he should have passed Ashland and been at Slash 
 Church practically on the 25th of June, 1862, and then attacked 
 McClellan on the flank, but he had not then passed Ashland, and 
 did not attack McClellan till the afternoon of the 26th, thus 
 occasioning the check and useless heavy loss at Beaver Dam ; the 
 enemy retired from the latter place as soon as Jackson reached 
 his flank. So also the next day at White Oak Swamp. By his 
 delay there he failed to support the attack of Longstreet and Hill 
 at Frazier s farm, and thus "McClellan only escaped destruction 
 through the non-execution of Lee s orders." Colonel Henderson 
 and Captain Battine would have us believe that these were errors 
 of General Lee, and not of General Jackson; in Lee s failing to 
 give Jackson precise orders. 
 
II 
 
 General Longstreet thus states the matter: "When he (Lee) 
 set out on his first campaign (Chickahominy) with the army, the 
 key of the campaign was intrusted to General Jackson, who named 
 the hour for the opening and failed to meet his own appointment. 
 At the time he appointed, A. P. Hill s, D. H. Hill s, and Long- 
 street s commands were in position waiting (Beaver Dam, etc.). 
 About eight hours after his time was up, he deliberately marched 
 past the engagement and went into camp, a mile or more behind 
 the hot battle. He remained in his camp next morning, and per 
 mitted the enemy, dislodged of his position of the day before, to 
 march by him to a strong position at Gaines s Mill. When his 
 column reached that position, his leading division (D. H. Hill s) 
 engaged the enemy s right without orders. He called the division 
 off and put his command in position to intercept the enemy s 
 retreat towards the Pamunkey, from which he was afterwards 
 called to his part in the general engagement. The next day he had 
 the cavalry and part of his infantry in search of the enemy s next 
 move. At my headquarters were two clever young engineers 
 who were sent to find what the enemy was about; they were the 
 first to report the enemy s retreat towards James River. Orders 
 were given for Jackson to follow on the direct line of retreat, 
 also Magruder and Huger. My command was ordered around 
 through the outskirts of Richmond, by the Darbytown Road, to 
 interpose between McClellan s army and the James River, about 
 twenty miles; the other troops marching by routes of about nine 
 miles. We were in position on the evening of the 29th June, and 
 stood in front of the enemy all of the 30th, fighting a severe battle 
 in the afternoon. Magruder and Huger got up after night, and 
 Jackson on the morning of the 1st. After the battle of the 1st, 
 Jackson, Magruder and Huger were ordered in direct pursuit 
 along the route of retreat, my command by the longer route of 
 Nance s Store. Jackson s column and mine met on the evening of 
 the 3rd near Westover, the enemy s new position." 
 
 Naturally this may be tinged somewhat by Longstreet s bitter 
 ness under the criticisms of himself after Gettysburg ; still Long- 
 street was not one to misrepresent facts. 
 
 Again, of this White Oak Swamp delay, Colonel Allan, Jack 
 son s own chief of ordnance and his devoted friend, says : 
 
12 
 
 "Only the column under Longstreet and Hill did anything, the 
 others accomplished nothing. They did not even prevent rein 
 forcements from going to the Federal centre. It is impossible to 
 deny that General Lee was very poorly served on the occasion by 
 his subordinates. Holmes was so imposed upon by Porters 
 demonstration that he was not only paralyzed for the day, but 
 continued inactive during the great struggle at Malvern Hill. 
 * * * Magruder, out of the fight, spent the afternoon in 
 marching and countermarching. * * * Huger s feeble opera 
 tions were the most disappointing of all. He was nearest to Long- 
 street, and he was almost on the edge of the battlefield, yet he did 
 nothing, * * * nor is it possible to free from blame on this 
 occasion a greater soldier than Holmes or Huger; Jackson, igno 
 rant of the country, had, in the swamp and Franklin s veterans, 
 substantial causes of delay, but they were not such obstacles as 
 usually held Jackson in check. * * * Jackson s comparative 
 inaction was a matter of surprise at the time, and has never been 
 satisfactorily explained." 
 
 Remarkable as the admission of Colonel Allan, Jackson s staff 
 officer, that Jackson is really to blame for the failure of a com 
 plete victory in the battles around Richmond, equally remarkable 
 is the present admission of another of his staff officers (Rev. Mr. 
 Jones), that Chancellorsville is General Lee s work, not Jackson s. 
 Instead of suggesting the flank movement to General Lee s ques 
 tion, "How can we get at these people?" he replies only, "You 
 know; show me what to do, and I ll do it." When General Lee 
 had explained the movement, he caught it quick enough and 
 executed it with his usual force and vigor. "Such an executive 
 officer the sun never shone on," said General Lee of him; or, as 
 McClellan is said to have expressed it, "Jackson is the best execu 
 tive officer of the Confederacy, as Lee is its greatest general." 
 Despite of all the balderdash and exaggerated fine writing of Gen 
 eral Gordon, Captain Battine has gone too fast and too far ahead, 
 even of Colonel Henderson, in claiming Chancellorsville for 
 General Jackson. The truth is now gradually coming to light. 
 It is becoming clearer and clearer that Chancellorsville was 
 fought, as it was fought, really against Jackson s ideas. He 
 wished to attack Sedgwick not move on Hooker. Even when in 
 front of Chancellorsville, he thought Hooker would cross the river 
 
13 
 
 and move to support Sedgwick. "General Lee seemed to be the 
 only one who seemed to have the absolute conviction that the 
 real move of the Federal army was the one he was meeting then." 
 Replying to Jackson, finally, "But, general, we must get ready to 
 attack the enemy if we should find him here tomorrow, and you 
 must make all arrangements to move around his right flank." 
 Then, says a bystander, "Jackson s face lighted with a smile, and 
 rising and touching his cap, he said, My troops will move at four 
 o clock. 
 
 General Lee s own words are in a letter he wrote in reply to an 
 enquiry by Bledsoe, seeking to give Jackson the credit of Chan- 
 cellorsville, but wise enough to enquire if he was correct : "I have 
 the greatest reluctance to say anything that might be considered 
 as detracting from his (Jackson s) well- deserved fame, for I 
 believe no one was more convinced of his worth or appreciated 
 him more highly than myself; yet your knowledge of military 
 affairs, if you have none of the events themselves, will teach you 
 that this could not have been so. Every movement of an army 
 must be well considered and properly ordered, and every one who 
 knew General Jackson must know that he was too good a soldier 
 to violate this fundamental principle. In the operations around 
 Chancellorsville, I overtook General Jackson, who had been 
 placed in command of the advance as the skirmishers of the 
 approaching armies met, advanced with the troops to the Federal 
 line of defenses, and was on the field until their whole army 
 recrossed the Rappahannock. There is no question as to who was 
 responsible for the operations of the Conferedates, or to whom 
 any failure would have been charged." 
 
 The writer of General Jackson s life, to exonerate him from the 
 blame of the failure at Ashland and White Oak Swamp to play 
 his allotted part in the battles before Richmond, throws the blame 
 on Lee, as having failed to give Jackson specific orders. I don t 
 suppose that to Longstreet, or Jackson, or Hill, or Stuart, General 
 Lee ever gave iron-clad orders. When Jackson had been informed 
 of the plans of the attack and fully discussed them at Richmond, 
 and knew the time fixed for the movement of the troops, on the 
 left of the enemy, he could not have failed to know that he was 
 to attack at that time, and to cooperate. Yet greater are the mis 
 representations which have been made by General Jackson s 
 
14 
 
 admirers as to Chancellorsville. Of a victory, perhaps the 
 greatest won by the Army of Northern Virginia, in the triumph 
 of which Providence, alas, kept him from sharing, everything has 
 been claimed for him. Fortunately so openly that General Lee 
 was compelled, by their own action, to notice the claim. He 
 does this in his usual modest, self -deprecatory way, viz., in a letter 
 to Mrs. Jackson herself of 25th January, 1866, in reply to one 
 from her, I quote from it: "The opinion of General Jackson in 
 reference to the propriety of attacking the Federal Army under 
 General McClellan at Harrison s Landing is not, I think, cor 
 rectly stated. Upon my arrival there the day after General 
 Longstreet and himself, I was disappointed that no opportunity 
 for striking General McClellan on the retreat, or in his then 
 position, had occurred; and went forward with General Jackson 
 alone on foot, and after a careful reconnoissance of the whole 
 line and position, he certainly stated to me at that time the impro 
 priety of attacking. I am misrepresented at the battle of Chan 
 cellorsville in proposing an attack in front, the first evening of 
 our arrival. On the contrary, I decided against it, and stated to 
 General Jackson we must attack on our left as soon as practicable, 
 and the necessary movement of troops began immediately." If 
 Lee decided against this, Jackson alone could have proposed it. 
 
 This letter of General Lee settles forever, or should settle for 
 ever, the claim of General Jackson s friends that he was the author 
 of the celebrated flank movement at Chancellorsville, or that he 
 even suggested it. It is absurd enough to claim that in any battle 
 a subordinate should direct it and have the credit for it. He obeys 
 orders, and General Jackson said often he would obey any officer 
 in command cheerfully, but General Lee he would follow blind 
 fold, and at Chancellorsville, he did obey. But, in fact, Chan 
 cellorsville was not fought according to Jackson s suggestion at 
 all. When Sedgwick crossed the Rappahannock and formed his 
 line of battle in front of Fredericksburg, while Hooker crossed the 
 same river some miles above, Jackson urged that Sedgwick should 
 be attacked. General Lee was satisfied that the main attack was 
 to be by Hooker, and that he should attack Hooker, and not wait 
 for his attack. I well remember the occasion, almost every staff 
 officer of Lee had been sent out to observe Sedgwick s move 
 ments. The two armies were in line opposite each other, but 
 
both apparently absolutely quiet so quiet that a deer which was 
 caught between the lines was pursued by the men of both sides. 
 The moment it passed a certain imaginary line the men of one side 
 ceased pursuit, and the opposite side took it up, till the deer was 
 finally caught by the Federals, but not even a picket fired a shot. 
 During the friendly contest not a shot was fired even by a picket. 
 General Lee was confined to his bed by the disease which 
 finally troubled him so much, the adhesion of the pleura to the 
 side, and Jackson sat by his bedside discussing the situation. 
 Upon Lee s staff reporting General Jackson s views still differing 
 from his, General Lee got up from his bed and rode to a hill, from 
 which most of the ground could be seen. For about an hour, with 
 his glasses, he closely and silently scrutinized the enemy s lines. 
 Then, turning to General Jackson, he remarked : "Our fight must 
 be at Chancellorsville," and by signal ordered General Anderson, 
 then near Chancellorsville with his division, not to bring on a 
 fight, but to hold the enemy without doing this, and ordered 
 McLaws to move to Anderson s aid at once, and ordered General 
 Jackson to move his command before daylight to where Ander 
 son was, near Chancellorsville, and to take command there till he 
 (Lee) should reach the spot; and ordered his general staff to be 
 ready before daylight to report to General Jackson. We were 
 all ready before day, but General Jackson did not pass our 
 quarters till the sun was well up, and his command followed a 
 little later. General Long states that General Jackson passed 
 headquarters at 9 a. m., but it was earlier, according to my recol 
 lection. About 9 a. m. General Jackson was upon the battlefield, 
 and was arranging to open the battle with General Anderson s 
 division, before Hill, Colston and Rodes were in line. General 
 Lee, who had quitted his sick bed, learning this, reached the field 
 on a gallop and the attack, by his order, was reduced to a skirmish 
 till Hill and McLaws were in position to join, and then the real 
 attack began, supported by Colston and Rodes in reserve. It is 
 pleasant to mention here an anecdote of a brilliant soldier of the 
 Confederacy, whose life was sacrified for its sake. Jackson s corps 
 was in three lines : First, Hill ; second, Colston, and third, Rodes. 
 Hill being outnumbered and hard pressed called on Colston for 
 support. He replied he had no orders. The gallant, glorious, 
 youthful Alabamian Rodes w r ho, with his men were lying down 
 
i6 
 
 behind him, heard this. He sprang up and called his men, "Hill 
 wants help, we ll help him." The men were up in a moment with 
 a Rebel yell, and their charge, with Hill s, drove the enemy back 
 and won the day and the handsome young brigadier his major 
 generalship, for that evening General Lee asked it for him by 
 telegraph. Colston was not heard of again in the Army of 
 Northern Virginia after this battle. 
 
 Colonel Henderson, in his life of Stonewall Jackson, evidently 
 writes on papers and memoranda furnished to him by Mrs. Jack 
 son, and is evidently strongly biased by them; still he prints 
 General Lee s letter to Mrs. Jackson correcting some of the Rev. 
 Dr. Dabney s errors. Unfortunately, however, for the truth of 
 history, the book that Colonel Henderson has written is the most 
 important book on the war in Virginia, and is entirely openly 
 partisan for General Jackson. General Lee s book on the war is 
 not yet before the world. So the matter has gone and now, in the 
 last English book on the subject, by Captain Battine, Ave find this 
 most positive statement : "The fall of the chief who designed and 
 executed the master stroke in the very hour of victory adds pathos 
 to the story, and appropriately closed his (Jackson s) too brief 
 career of glory. Great as were the moral and material results of 
 the victory, they were bought at all too dear a price, for with the 
 fatal shot which struck down Stonewall Jackson began the series 
 of disastrous events leading to the conquest of the Confederacy." 
 General Jackson, in fact, merely opened the battle of Chancellors- 
 ville. It was won the next day, when he had, unfortunately, been 
 wounded and had been carried away from the field. 
 
 Doubtless it is true what Captain Battine says of General Jack 
 son; every A. N. Va. man w r ill join him in it most fully: "The 
 possession of such a leader is of priceless value to any State in 
 time of war." But the fact that General Jackson s achievements 
 have been written of by his friends, his widow and chaplain 
 apparently inspiring them, has given, I think, an undue color. 
 
 The valley campaign was ordered and conceived by General 
 Johnston. General Johnston told me this himself, and his 
 Memoirs verify it. Jackson executed his orders as only the "best 
 executive officer the sun ever shone on" could execute them it is 
 true. The same, changing the name of Joe Johnston to Lee, is 
 true of his other campaigns, and so, doubtless, when the history of 
 
17 
 
 the Civil War is fully written, General McClellan s opinion will 
 be found the correct one, that "Lee, as a general, was incompar 
 ably the first of the Confederates, and Jackson, as an executive 
 officer, without an equal among them." 
 
 The judgment of General Early, himself a soldier, and inti 
 mately acquainted with both Lee and Jackson, and having served 
 throughout the war in the Army of Northern Virginia, will be 
 accepted above that of Captain Battine. 
 
 " As glorious as was this victory ( Chancellors ville) it never 
 theless shed a gloom over the whole arm}*- and country, for in it 
 had fallen the great lieutenant to whom General Lee had always 
 intrusted the execution of his most daring plans, and who had 
 proved himself so worthy of the confidence reposed in him. It is 
 not necessary for me to stop here, to delineate the character and 
 talents of General Jackson. As long as unselfish patriotism, 
 Christian devotion, and purity of character, and deeds of heroism 
 shall command the admiration of men, Stonewall Jackson s name 
 and fame will be reverenced. Of all who mourned his death, none 
 felt more acutely the loss the country and the army has sustained 
 than General Lee. General Jackson had always appreciated and 
 sympathized with the bold conceptions of the commanding gen 
 eral, and entered upon their execution with the most cheerful 
 alacrity and zeal. General Lee never found it necessary to accom 
 pany him, to see that his plans were carried out, but could always 
 trust him alone ; and well might he say, when Jackson fell, that he 
 had lost his right arm. r 
 
 I don t think one need fear much that Captain Battine will 
 change the view of history, which already seems to have put Lee 
 and Jackson in their proper positions one the natural com 
 mander, the other his right hand. 
 
 And perhaps, too, if we seek the opinions of English soldiers, 
 that of Colonel Lawler may be nearer the truth than Captain Bat- 
 tine, viz. : "But, after all, the one name, which in connection with 
 the great American Civil War posteri narratum atque traditum 
 super stes erit, is the name of Kobert Edward Lee" ; and Colonel 
 Chesney : "The day will come * * * History will speak with a 
 clear voice * * * and place above all others the name of the great 
 chief of whom we have written (Lee). In strategy, mighty; in 
 battle, terrible; in adversity and in prosperity, a hero indeed; 
 
i8 
 
 with the simple devotion to duty and the rare purity of the ideal 
 Christian knight, he joined all the kingly qualities of a leader of 
 men." 
 
 "There is a true glory and a true honor: The glory of duty 
 done. The honor of integrity and principle." After Lee s death, 
 an old knapsack which he had used was found with a few bread 
 crumbs and an old slip of dingy paper with these words written 
 on them. This had gone through the war with him aye, through 
 life. 
 
 And so, despite modern seekers after something new, the Con 
 federacy can safely leave the memory of its greatest man, whether 
 citizen or soldier "General R. E. Lee, the most stainless of living 
 commanders, and, except in fortune, the greatest." 
 
\ 
 
 MARY CUSTIS LEE; PRESENTED BY MRS. LEE TO 
 MRS. JOYNES. 
 
ADDRESS 
 LEE, THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT 
 
 BY DR. EDWARD S. JOYNES. 
 
 The most glorious object in nature is the sun. Yet in full 
 meridian its brightness dazzles the eye. But sometimes, in the 
 subdued glow of sunset, its magic radiance is revealed in resplen 
 dent charm of light and color, more beautiful because less 
 dazzling, than the midday brilliance. So it is sometimes, but 
 rarely, in human character. So it was, notably, with him whose 
 statue guards this capitol South Carolina s noblest hero and 
 exemplar, Hampton whose work in the evening of his life, as the 
 great Pacificator, outshines even the glory of his military achieve 
 ments. So it was, most conspicuously, with Robert E. Lee, who in 
 his latest years, in the humble office of a college president, bearing 
 bravely the burden of daily duty, beneath the weight of a disap 
 pointment which might well have crushed the strongest heart, 
 was yet to illustrate and confirm the finest traits of a character 
 whose perfection and power, on the highest fields of action, had 
 already won the admiration of the world. 
 
 I am to speak of General Lee as a College President only not 
 at all of his larger life or achievement in military service. In 
 this humbler capacity it was my privilege to serve him and to 
 know him intimately a privilege ah, how great ! so great that 
 I did not realize it until it was gone. Yet, ever since, I look back 
 upon it, with increasing estimate, as the golden age of my life 
 and with ever increasing regret that I could not know him better 
 and serve him better than I did. Such, I know, was the feeling of 
 all of us who were privileged to serve with him of whom I am 
 now, with one exception, the sole survivor.* Today, all over the 
 
 The other survivor of the faculty is my class-mate at the University of Vir 
 ginia (1853), Alexander L. Nelson, Professor of Mathematics for fifty-two years 
 (1854-1906) now retired on the Carnegie Foundation. Others, since distinguished 
 as teachers or otherwise, were then young instructors, but not members of the 
 faculty. The Rev. Dr. J. William Jones, General Lee s biographer and trusted friend, 
 was one of the chaplains of the College. It would be impossible to enumerate the 
 students of that day who have since attained distinction. 
 
2O 
 
 South, in many colleges as elsewhere, this Centennial is fitly cele 
 brated ; for General Lee, as a college president, has ennobled every 
 college in the land, and the memory of his great example will be 
 cherished so long as recurring centennials shall come. 
 
 In what I shall say to you, my friends, I shall speak without 
 ornament or oratory, but simply, and of intimate personal knowl 
 edge. I shall make large use of material written by myself soon 
 after General Lee s death, when recollection was fresher than 
 now.* Much of documentary evidence, which, though interesting, 
 has already been widely published, I shall omit; and if, on other 
 somewhat technical points, I seem to go too much into detail, my 
 apology must be that, in my opinion, all authentic facts concern 
 ing General Lee, as a college president, are of permanent interest 
 and importance. 
 
 ********* 
 
 General Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College, in 
 the first place, from a profound and deliberate sense of duty. The 
 same high principle of action that had characterized his conduct 
 in the gravest crises of public affairs marked his decision here; 
 and here, as ever, duty alone determined his choice.* There was 
 absolutely nothing in this position that could have tempted him. 
 Not only was it uncongenial with all the habits of his past life, 
 and remote from all the associations in which he had formerly 
 taken pleasure, but it was at that time most uninviting in itself. 
 The college to which he was called was broken in fortune and in 
 hope. The w y ar had practically closed its doors. Its buildings had 
 been pillaged and defaced, and its library scattered. It had now 
 neither money nor credit, and it was even doubtful whether it 
 would be shortly reopened at all for the reception of students. 
 The faculty were few in number, disorganized and dispirited. 
 Of the slender endowment that had survived the war hardly any 
 thing was available, and ready money could not be secured even 
 for the most immediate and pressing wants of the college. Under 
 these circumstances the offer of the presidency to General Lee 
 seemed well-nigh presumptuous ; and surely it was an offer from 
 which he had nothing to expect, either of fortune or of fame. The 
 
 *In December, 1870, for the University Monthly (March, 1871). 
 *His letter of acceptance, often printed, strikingly illustrates this trait of his 
 character, as well as his modesty and unselfishness. 
 
21 
 
 men, however, who made this election, the trustees of Washington 
 College ever honored be their memory for their noble concep 
 tion had not calculated in vain in their estimate of General Lee s 
 character. They felt that this position, however humble it might 
 seem, would afford to him what from their knowledge of the man 
 they were sure would be the most acceptable to him a sphere 
 of duty in which he could spend his days in the service of his 
 beloved people ; and though the country looked on astonished and 
 incredulous, the result showed that they had not been mistaken.* 
 Suffice it to say here, that it was a deliberate sense of duty to his 
 fellow-countrymen, and a desire to pay back as far as he could, 
 through their sons, the sufferings and sorrows of his own genera 
 tion in the South, that determined his decision. He had already 
 fully resolved not to leave Virginia under any circumstances ; and 
 this position, humble as it seemed to be, gave him the wished-for 
 opportunity of laboring for her people and for the South. There 
 fore he accepted it. 
 
 The profound sense of duty which marked General Lee s accep 
 tance of this office characterized also his whole administration of 
 it. He entertained the prof oundest convictions on the importance 
 of educational influences, both to individuals and to the country, 
 and the deepest sense of personal responsibility in his own office. 
 He felt that an institution like Washington College owed duty 
 not only to its own students but to the whole country, and that its 
 moral obligations were not only supreme within its own sphere, 
 but were attached to the wider interests of public virtue and of 
 true religion among all the people. Everybody around him felt 
 unconsciously that he was actuated by these principles, and all 
 were impressed by his high conceptions of duty and the singleness 
 of his devotion to it. Nothing else, indeed, could have sustained 
 him so serenely through so many and so constant details of labor 
 and of trial. Nothing else could have held his thoughts so high or 
 kept his heart so strong in the midst of daily tasks always so 
 severe, often so trivial and discouraging. But he never flagged; 
 and though he fully comprehended the difficulties of his office, 
 and was often wearied with its incessant labors, no word of 
 
 *Details of this event as of many other facts herein referred to may be found 
 in Jones "Personal Reminiscences." 
 
22 
 
 despondency fell from his lips. He felt that he was doing his 
 duty. "I have," he said, as reported by the Hon. Mr. Hilliard,* 
 "a self-imposed task which I cannot forsake"; and in this spirit 
 he met all the details of his daily labors, cheerfully to the last. 
 Again and again, during his life at Lexington, were tempting 
 offers urged upon him offers of large income, with comparative 
 ease and more active and congenial employment; but though he 
 fully appreciated these considerations and was not indifferent to 
 the attractions presented by such offers, he turned from them all 
 with the same reply. He had chosen his post of duty and he clung 
 to it. Year by year the conception of his duty seemed to grow 
 stronger with him ; and year by year the college, as its instrument 
 and representative, grew dearer to him. And as gradually the 
 fruits of his labors began to be manifest, and the moral and intel 
 lectual results of his influence approved themselves even to his own 
 modest self-estimate, his heart grew only warmer, and his zeal 
 more zealous, in his work. 
 
 His sense of personal duty was also expanded into a warm solic 
 itude for all who were associated with him. To the faculty he was 
 an elder brother, beloved and revered, and full of all tender sym 
 pathy.* To the students he was a father in carefulness, in encour 
 agement, in reproof. Their welfare and their conduct and 
 character as gentlemen were his chief concern ; and this solicitude 
 was not limited to their collegiate years, but followed them 
 abroad into life. He thought it to be the office of a college not 
 merely to educate the intellect, but to make Christian men. The 
 moral and religious character of the students was more precious 
 in his eyes even than their intellectual progress, and was made the 
 special object of his constant personal solicitude. In his annual 
 reports to the trustees, which were models of clear and dignified 
 composition, he always dwelt with peculiar emphasis upon these 
 interests; and nothing in the college gratified him more than its 
 marked moral and religious improvement during his adminis 
 tration. To the Rev. Dr. White he said, as affectingly narrated 
 soon after his death by that venerable minister : "I shall be dis- 
 
 *See Jones "Personal Reminiscences of Gen. R. E. Lee," p. 146. 
 
 *General Lee s treatment of his faculty was not only courteous, but kind and 
 affectionate. My wife reminds me that once, when I was detained at home by sick 
 ness, General Lee came every day, through a deep Lexington snow, and climbed the 
 high stairs, to inquire about me and to comfort her. 
 
23 
 
 appointed, sir I shall fail in the leading object that brought me 
 here unless these young men all become consistent Christians." 
 Other expressions, bearing eloquent witness to the same truth, 
 might be quoted ; but none could be more eloquent than the steady 
 tenor of his own life, quietly yet constantly devoted to the highest 
 ends of duty and of religion.* 
 
 Such w T ere the principles w r hich actuated General Lee as presi 
 dent of Washington College, and their effects showed themselves 
 in all the details of his administration. In the discipline of the 
 college his moral influence was supreme. A disciplinarian in the 
 ordinary sense of the term, as it is often most unworthily applied, 
 he was not. He was no seeker-out of small offences, no stickler for 
 formal regulations.f In his construction of college rules, and in 
 his dealings with actions generally, he was most liberal; but in 
 his estimate of motives, and in the requirements of principle and 
 honor, he was exacting to the last degree. Youthful indiscretion 
 found in him the most lenient of judges; but falsehood or mean 
 ness had no toleration with him. He looked rather to the prin 
 ciples of good conduct than to mere outward acts. He was most 
 scrupulous in exacting a proper obedience to lawful authority; 
 but he was always the last to condemn, and the most just to 
 hear the truth, even in behalf of the worst offenders. Hence 
 in the use of college punishments he was cautious, forbearing, 
 and lenient; but he was not the less firm in his demands and 
 prompt, when need was, in his measures. His reproof was stern, 
 yet kind, and often melting in its tenderness; and his appeals, 
 always addressed to the noblest motives, were irresistible. The 
 hardiest offenders were alike awed by his presence, and moved 
 
 * Great as was the need of the College for academic buildings, yet the first 
 building erected, under General Lee s direction, was a chapel for worship the same 
 under which his remains lie buried and he never failed there to attend morning 
 prayers or public worship, (Gen. Lee s views on religious training are fully set 
 forth by my colleague, Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick, in Dr. Jones "Personal Reminiscences 
 of General Lee.") 
 
 fThe "honor principle" which is the pride of Southern colleges never had a 
 stronger advocate or a better illustration than General Lee. He did not approve of 
 military ^regulations in college. I have heard him say that military discipline was, 
 unfortunately, necessary in military education, but was, in his opinion, a most 
 unsuitable training for civil life. A still more remarkable expression is recorded 
 by Professor Humphreys, in the memorial number of the Wake Forest Student: 
 "He warned me" (Prof. H. was then an instructor in the College) "against inflex 
 ible rules adopted beforehand, and suddenly startled me by saying : The great mis 
 take of my life was taking a military education. " 
 
2 4 
 
 often to tears by his words; and there Avas no student who did 
 not dread a reproof from General Lee more than every other 
 punishment. In all his official actions, and, indeed, in all his inter 
 course with the students, he looked to the elevation of the tone of 
 principle and opinion among themselves, as the vital source of 
 good conduct, rather than to the simple repression of vice. His 
 discipline was moral rather than punitive. Hence there were few 
 cases of dismission or other severe punishment during his admin 
 istration, and hence, also, the need for such punishments became 
 ever less and less. 
 
 The influence of this policy, aided especially by the mighty 
 influence of his personal character, was all-powerful. The eleva 
 tion of tone and the improvement in conduct were steady and 
 rapid. Immediately after the war the young men of the South 
 were wild and unrestrained, and acts of disorder were frequent; 
 in the latter years of his administration hardly a single case of 
 serious discipline occurred. I doubt, indeed, whether at any other 
 college in the world so many young men could have been found 
 as free from misconduct, or marked by as high a tone of feeling 
 and opinion, as were the students of Washington College during 
 these latter years of General Lee s life. The students felt this and 
 were proud of it; and they were proud of themselves and of 
 their college as representatives of the character and influence 
 of Lee. 
 
 Yet not the less was he rigidly exacting of duty and scrupu 
 lously attentive to details. By a system of reports, weekly and 
 monthly almost military in their exactness which he required 
 of each professor, he made himself acquainted with the standing 
 and progress of every student in every one of his classes* These 
 reports he studied carefully and was quick to detect shortcomings. 
 He took care, also, to make himself acquainted with each student 
 personally, to know his studies, his boarding-house, his associa 
 tions, disposition and habits ; and though he never obtruded this 
 knowledge, the students knew that he possessed it and that his 
 interest followed them everywhere. Nor was it a moral influence 
 
 *An illustration of this careful attention is related by one of my colleagues : 
 On one occasion the delinquency of a student was mentioned in faculty meeting. 
 
 "Mr. ," said General Lee, "I do not know him" and seemed mortified at the 
 
 omission. On inquiry it was found that the student had recently entered during 
 the absence of General Lee who at once proceeded to make his acquaintance. 
 
25 
 
 alone that he exerted in the college. He was equally careful of its 
 intellectual interests. Though not personally engaged in teaching, 
 he watched the progress of every class, attended all the examina 
 tions and frequently the recitations, and strove constantly to 
 stimulate both professors and students to the highest attain 
 ments^ The whole college, in a word, felt his influence as an 
 ever-present motive, and his character was quietly yet irresistibly 
 impressed upon it, not only in the general working of all its 
 departments, but in all the details of each. 
 
 Of this influence General Lee, modest as he was, was perfectly 
 aware and, like a prudent ruler, he husbanded it with a wise 
 economy. He preferred to confine his direct interposition to 
 purely personal acts ; and rarely, and then only on critical occa 
 sions, did he step forward to present himself before the whole 
 body of students in the full dignity of his presidential office. On 
 these occasions, which were always rare and in his later years 
 hardly ever occurred, he would quietly post an address to the 
 students, in which, appealing only to the highest principles of 
 conduct, he sought to dissuade them from threatened evil. These 
 addresses, which the boys designated as his "General Orders" 
 were always of immediate efficacy, and no student would have 
 been tolerated by his fellow-students who would have dared to 
 disregard such an appeal from General Lee.* 
 
 tGeneral Lee never failed to attend every examination, dividing the time among 
 the several classes. Every week he devoted an hour or more to attending recita 
 tions. He came when least expected, and his presence was a stimulus to both stu 
 dents and professors such as I have never since experienced. He would remain 
 10 or 15 minutes and then pass to another class. His bow, as he entered and left 
 the room, was an impressive lesson in courtesy that gracious courtesy which now 
 seems to me to have almost departed from the new generation. 
 
 *One of these addresses on an occasion of threatened peril, when a company 
 of Federal soldiers was encamped at Lexington, ready to take advantage of any 
 disorder is here appended. The original, copied for Gen. Lee by Mrs. Joynes and 
 by him presented to her, now hangs in my study. 
 
 Washington College, 26 Nov., 1866. 
 
 The faculty desires to call the attention of the students to the disturbances 
 which occurred in the streets of Lexington on the nights of Friday and Saturday 
 last. They believe that none can contemplate them with pleasure, or can find any 
 reasonable grounds for their justification. These acts are said to have been com 
 mitted by students of the college with the apparent object of disturbing the peace 
 and quiet of a town whose inhabitants have opened their doors for their reception 
 and accommodation, and who are always ready to administer to their comfort and 
 pleasure. 
 
 It requires but little consideration to see the error of conduct which could only 
 have proceeded from thoughtlessness and a want of reflection. The faculty there 
 fore appeal to the honour and self-respect of the students to prevent any similar 
 
26 
 
 General Lee was also most laborious in the duties of his office 
 as a college president. He gave himself wholly to his work. His 
 occupation was constant, almost incessant. He went to his office 
 daily at eight o clock, and rarely returned home until one or two. 
 During this time he was almost incessantly engaged in college 
 matters, giving his personal attention to the minutest details, and 
 always ready to receive visitors on college business. His office was 
 always open to students or professors, all whose interests received 
 his ready consideration. His correspondence meanwhile was very 
 heavy, yet no letter that called for an answer was ever neglected. 
 It was stated by the editor of a Virginia paper that to a circular 
 letter of general educational interest, addressed by him to a large 
 number of college presidents, General Lee was the only one that 
 replied ; yet he was the greatest and perhaps the busiest of them 
 all. In addition to the formal reports, which he always revised 
 and signed himself, his correspondence with the parents and 
 guardians of students was intimate and explicit, on every occasion 
 that required such correspondence. Many of these letters are 
 models of beautiful composition and noble sentiment.* 
 
 These varied duties grew upon him year after year with the 
 expanding interests of the college ; and year after year he seemed 
 to become more devoted to them. Again and again did the 
 trustees and faculty seek to lessen his labors ; but his carefulness 
 of duty and natural love of work seemed to render it impossible. 
 Equally, he declined donations offered expressly to raise his 
 salary ; for the college, he said, needed money more than he did. 
 The writer has heard the remark made that General Lee gave 
 himself to the duties of President of Washington College as 
 though he had never known any other duties or any other ambi 
 tion ; and this was true. He himself wrote to an old and famous 
 comrade in arms, "I am charmed with the duties of civil life." 
 
 occurrence, trusting that their sense of what is due to themselves, their parents 
 and the institution to which they belong, will be more effectual in teaching them 
 what is right and manly than anything they can say. 
 
 There is one consideration connected with these disorderly proceedings which 
 the faculty wish to bring to your particular notice : the example of your conduct, 
 and the advantage taken of it by others, to commit outrages for which you have 
 to bear the blame. They therefore exhort you to adopt the only course capable of 
 shielding you from such charges : the effectual prevention of all such occurrences 
 in future. R. E. LEE, Pres. W. C. 
 
 *Some of these may be found among General Lee s published letters. 
 
27 
 
 It can be truly said that he was wholly absorbed in his work, his 
 noble conception of which made it great, and worthy even of him. 
 But General Lee was not only earnest and laborious, he was also 
 able, as a college president. He was perfectly master of the situ 
 ation, and thoroughly wise and skillful in all its duties, of 
 organization and of policy as well as of detail. To this let the 
 results of his administration bear testimony. He found the college 
 practically bankrupt, disorganized, deserted; he left it strong, 
 progressive, and crowded with students. It was not merely num 
 bers that he brought to it, for these his great fame alone would 
 have attracted ; he gave it organization, unity, energy, and prac 
 tical success. In entering upon his presidency he seemed at once 
 fully to comprehend the wants of the college, and its history 
 during the next five years was but the development of his plans 
 and the reflection of his wise energy. And these plans were not 
 fragmentary, nor was this energy merely an industrious zeal. He 
 had from the beginning a distinct policy which he had fully 
 conceived and to which he steadily adhered, so that all his par 
 ticular measures of progress were but consistent steps in its 
 development. His object was nothing less than to establish and 
 perfect an institution which should meet the highest needs of 
 education in every department. At once, and without waiting for 
 the means to be provided in advance, he proceeded to develop this 
 purpose. Under his advice new chairs were created, and pro 
 fessors called to fill them ; so that before the end of the first year 
 the faculty was doubled in numbers. Later, additional chairs were 
 created, and finally a complete system of departments was estab 
 lished and brought into full operation. To these departments, 
 each one of which was complete in itself and under the individual 
 control of its own professor, was given a compact and unique 
 organization into a system of complete courses, with corres 
 ponding diplomas and degrees ; which, while securing the perfect 
 distinctness and responsibility of each department, gave perfect 
 unity to them all. These courses were so adapted and mutually 
 arranged as to avoid alike the errors of the purely elective system 
 on the one hand and of the close curriculum on the other, and to 
 secure, by a happy compromise, the best advantages of both. So 
 admirably was this plan conceived and administered that, 
 heterogeneous as were the students especially in the earlier years, 
 
28 
 
 each one found at once his proper place, and nearly all were kept 
 in the line of complete and systematic study. 
 
 Under this organization, and especially under the inspiration of 
 General Lee s central influence, the utmost harmony and the 
 utmost energy pervaded all the departments of the college. The 
 highest powers of both professors and students were called forth, 
 under the fullest responsibility. The standards of scholarship 
 were rapidly advanced; and soon the graduates of Washington 
 College were the acknowledged equals of those from the best 
 institutions elsewhere, and were eagerly sought after for the 
 highest positions as teachers in the best schools. These results, 
 which even in the few years of his administration had become 
 universally acknowledged throughout the South, were due directly 
 and immediately, more than to all other causes, to the personal 
 ability and influence of General Lee, as president of the college. 
 
 General Lee s plans for the development of Washington College 
 were not simply progressive; they were distinct and definite. 
 He aimed to make the college represent at once the wants and 
 the genius of the country. He fully realized the needs of the 
 present age, and he desired to adapt the education of the people 
 to their condition and their destiny. He was the ardent advocate 
 of complete classical and literary culture* Under his influence 
 the classical and literary departments of the college were fully 
 sustained. Yet he recognized the fact that material well-being 
 is a condition of all high civilization, and therefore he sought to 
 provide the means for the development of science and for its 
 practical applications. He thought, indeed, that the best antidote 
 to the materialistic tendencies of a purely scientific training was to 
 be found in the liberalizing influences of literary culture, and that 
 scientific and professional schools could best be taught when sur 
 rounded by the associations of a literary institution. He believed 
 fully in the university idea and not in separate technical schools ; 
 but that, as hereafter they must live together, so young men of 
 different pursuits should be educated together, and that their 
 mutual influence would be mutually beneficial in college as in 
 later life. He sought, therefore, to establish this mutual connec 
 tion, and to consolidate all the departments of literary, scientific 
 
 *He was often heard to regret that he had not more fully completed his clas 
 sical education before going to West Point. 
 
2 9 
 
 and professional education under a common organization. Hence, 
 at an early day, he called into existence the departments of 
 Applied Mathematics and Engineering, of Modern Languages, 
 and of Law, as part of the collegiate organization ; and, later, he 
 submitted to the trustees a plan for the complete development of 
 the scientific and professional departments of the college, which 
 will ever remain as an example of his enlarged wisdom, and which 
 anticipated, by many years, the actual attainments of any school 
 in this country.* In addition to all the other reasons for mourn 
 ing the death of General Lee, it is to be deeply regretted that he 
 did not live to complete his great designs.* Had he done so, he 
 
 *In the Washington College catalogue for 1868-69 (as part of General Lee i 
 report to the Board of Trustees) may be found the outline of a School of Com 
 merce, which now, after nearly forty years, Washington and Lee University (see its 
 last Summer Bulletin) has just been able to realize. A like course was included 
 (I regret to say, unsuccessfully) in the recommendations of our own University to 
 the present Legislature. So did General Lee anticipate the future, and so do his 
 works live after him. 
 
 I have elsewhere related how, in my first official interview with him, he 
 emphasized the teaching of Spanish, remarking (prophetically) that our relations 
 with Spanish-speaking countries were destined soon to become closer. 
 
 Properly to estimate the value of General Lee s work, as a college president, 
 and especially of the plans left unfulfilled by his death, we must consider the 
 condition of American colleges, generally, in the sixties, and not the more advanced 
 conditions of the present day. And, for a just estimate of his labors, it must be 
 remembered that in those days there were no telephones and no typewriters ; and, 
 BO far as I can recall, General Lee never had any private secretary. 
 
 The successive catalogues of Washington College, 1866-70, exhibit an inter 
 esting chapter in the history of education, which, it is hoped, Washington and Lee 
 University will some day make public ; for they show, in a striking way, the 
 progressiveness and the elevation of General Lee s ideas, beyond anything then 
 realized, or even conceived, in American colleges. Having already established (in 
 the first year) the departments of Applied Mathematics, of Civil Engineering, of 
 Modern Languages and English, and of Law ; and, in the second year, of History 
 and English Literature, of Natural History and Geology, of Applied Chemistry and 
 a Students Business School, General Lee, in the next year (1868-09) recommended 
 an extension of the scientific and practical courses, including : A Course of Agri 
 culture ; a Course of Commerce ; a Course of Mechanical Engineering ; a Course of 
 Mining Engineering, and a Course of Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 In recommending these courses, which are fully set forth in his report to the 
 trustees, and which anticipate the best work of the best schools of the present day, 
 General Lee wrote : 
 
 "The great object of the whole plan is to provide the facilities required by the 
 large class of our young men, who, looking to an early entrance into the practical 
 pursuits of life, need a more direct training to this end than the usual literary 
 courses. The proposed departments will also derive great advantage from the 
 literary Schools of the College, whose influence in the cultivation and enlargement 
 of the mind is felt beyond their immediate limits." 
 
 The fulfillment of these far-sighted plans was interrupted by his death (October 
 1870). The money, cheerfully subscribed for his sake all over the South, was no 
 longer available. 
 
30 
 
 would probably have left behind him an institution of learning 
 which would have been a not less illustrious tribute to his fame 
 than his most brilliant military achievements. As it is, he has 
 left a university, which, dowered with his memory and his name, 
 and inspired with his ideals, will always remain his noblest monu 
 ment. There today his memory has been celebrated, and his 
 praises spoken by a distinguished citizen of Massachusetts, who, 
 once a Union soldier, is now proud to claim the name and fame 
 of Lee as the property and the glory of the nation. 
 
 Outside of these more official statements there is much that I 
 might say of General Lee in his more personal and private rela 
 tions. Yet such detail might be wearisome, and, besides, much of 
 what I would say might be unsuitable for public utterance. But 
 no one who ever enjoyed the privilege of intercourse with General 
 Lee can forget that splendid and captivating personality. He was 
 the handsomest man I have ever seen. Besides the utmost perfec 
 tion of form and feature he had a mingled sweetness and dignity 
 of expression an unconscious grace and majesty of appearance 
 "the like of which," says General Lord Wolseley," I have never 
 seen in other men." His familiar conversation was kind and 
 gracious, and often lightened by the play of genial humor. He 
 enjo}^ed a joke and could tell one with a keen zest but never was 
 there any approach to unseemly levity, and no man could have 
 dared to take liberties w^ith General Lee. In his home, where I 
 often met him in his family circle, he was most loving and lovable 
 and especially his demeanor to Mrs. Lee, who for some years 
 had been disabled by rheumatism, was marked by a visible and 
 touching tenderness. Of this dear and gracious lady, who to my 
 wife and children showed the mingled love of friend and mother, 
 
 One other paragraph, from the Catalogue of 1867-68, I think worthy of record 
 here : 
 
 "The discipline has been placed upon that basis on which it is believed 
 experience has shown it can be most safely trusted upon the honour and self- 
 respect of the students themselves. The entire government, and the intercourse 
 of the faculty with the students, are adapted to the encouragement of these 
 principles. The cultivation of a high tone of truthfulness and honour, and of 
 a just and lofty public opinion among the students as a body, is believed to 
 furnish a better safeguard for the discipline of the College, as well as a better 
 assurance for the development of manly character, than any repressive or puni 
 tive regulations that could be adopted. Strict attention to duty is nevertheless 
 required of all." 
 
and whose memorials are among the dearest possessions of our 
 household, I may not speak here, except to say, that she was 
 worthy to he the wife of General Lee and the mother of his 
 children. Of his devotion to her, and of his affectionate and 
 beautiful family life, the richest proofs are given in his published 
 letters the most intimate of which exhibit, most unconsciously, 
 the finest traits of his character. To all women he always showed 
 the most chivalrous and delicate courtesy. Of children he was 
 affectionately fond, and to them he was irresistibly attractive. 
 They were often seen gathered around him on the campus, or in 
 his quiet walks. 
 
 In what is called "society" General Lee mingled but little he 
 had neither time nor inclination. But he was never forgetful of 
 the "small, sweet courtesies of life." A stranger visiting Lexing 
 ton, a father or mother visiting a son at college, was sure of a 
 call from General Lee, and with scrupulous courtesy he repaid the 
 social attentions that he received. At his table he presided with 
 his accustomed sweet and gentle dignity, and shared fully in 
 social, often playful conversation. On special occasions he offered 
 rare wines I remember once some that had been bottled by his 
 father. Of such he partook sparingly, but never so far as I 
 know of any other intoxicating drink. He was fond of riding 
 almost every afternoon, when he had time; and General Lee on 
 Traveller, booted and gauntleted in winter with his military 
 cloak and accompanied, as he often was, by his favorite friend, 
 Professor White like himself a superb horseman was the finest 
 sight on which the eye could rest. How often ah, how often ! I 
 have watched that splendid spectacle ! 
 
 In business matters, private or official, General Lee was accurate 
 and methodical, and his annual reports were models of clear and 
 comprehensive statement. In correspondence he was careful and 
 scrupulously punctual. On this subject I can speak with knowl 
 edge, for it often fell to my lot to help him as we were all ready 
 to do in answering his many letters. In private conversation he 
 was quiet and genial. He never spoke at least not in my hearing 
 of the war or of politics, except with the utmost reserve. Here 
 his recollections were, doubtless, too painful. I never heard from 
 his lips a word either of bitterness or of apology, nor any criticism 
 of others. It is known, I believe, that he had intended to write the 
 
32 
 
 history of his army, but that he desisted, because he thought this 
 could not be done "without causing too much pain." Thus, for 
 the sake of others, he forebore what would have been his own 
 supreme vindication. So tender, so self-denying, was this great 
 heart. 
 
 As I look back now, through the haze of forty years, I can 
 hardly realize, as I could not then, that this man, so quiet and so 
 human so simple in conduct and costume so kind and friendly 
 so diligent in business so social and cheerful so unassuming 
 and unpretending, as he shared or cheered our daily labors was 
 the same that had commanded great armies had swayed the 
 tide of battle had borne the hopes and sorrows of a great people, 
 and alike in victory and in defeat had given to his countrymen 
 and to the world the last and highest ideal of the heroic com 
 mander. And yet wonderful as it was and is it was he; and 
 after all, he was as great as unequaled on that college campus 
 as on any battlefield the same everywhere and always. "He 
 was," says General Lord Wolseley, who knew him when at the 
 head of his army, "the most perfect man I have ever met," and 
 seemed "cast in a grander mould and made of finer metal than all 
 other men." It is but small praise that I, who knew him in a 
 narrower and more intimate sphere, should echo the same senti 
 ment.* 
 
 It has been already said that to the individual professors Gen 
 eral Lee was always kind and accessible. In official relations he 
 bore his authority modestly, yet always effectively. From each 
 professor he required stated reports of his department, which he 
 then transmitted to the trustees, with his own endorsement or 
 comment, along with his own report. And after submitting his 
 report, he always retired to his office to await the pleasure of the 
 Board, in order not to embarrass their action by his presence. 
 
 * Since this was written I have, for the first time, read in The Outlook, Nov. 26, 
 1904, a most sympathetic and appreciative paper by Professor Edwin Mims, of 
 Trinity College, N. C., entitled "Five Years of Robert E. Lee s Life," from which 
 I regret that it is now too late to quote. This paper was written in review of 
 "Recollections and Letters of General Lee," by (his son) Capt. Robert E. Lee 
 which volume, along with the "Personal Reminiscences," by the devoted chaplain, 
 Dr. J. William Jones offers the richest material for the study of Lee s life and 
 character. 
 
 I venture to hope that Trinity College, in its celebration of this Centennial, 
 will reprint Professor Mims s paper entire. 
 
33 
 
 In the weekly meetings of the faculty General Lee exerted 
 rather an influence which seemed unconscious both to himself and 
 to us, than any visible authority. Faculty meetings are apt to be 
 wordy, and sometimes a little excited; but General Lee never 
 showed impatience, and his quiet presence calmed every rising 
 storm. Enough occurred, sometimes, to show that he had both a 
 quick and a strong temper, but never for a moment did he lose 
 self-control or forget either dignity or courtesy. He exerted him 
 self to minimize his own authority, and to leave to each professor 
 the full sense of independence and responsibility. He never 
 made a speech ; rarely, indeed, spoke from his chair or attempted 
 by any expression of opinion to influence a pending vote. 
 It need not be added, however, that when General Lee s views 
 were known, they were always decisive, and no really important 
 measure was ever introduced without consultation with him. 
 Besides its exceptionally great ability, his was the best organized 
 and most efficient faculty I have ever served with. Its important 
 work was done (as in Congress) by standing committees, and 
 General Lee was always consulted in every case of importance or 
 difficulty. Thus though the initiative often came from another 
 source he was really identified with every important measure. 
 
 I have said that General Lee rarely spoke in faculty meetings, 
 but his influence was not the less felt. I have already stated how 
 strongly he advocated and enforced the principle of honor in 
 dealing with students, and his aversion to minute regulations. 
 And occasionally he gave utterance to thoughts which I have 
 always remembered and now deem worthy of record. On one 
 occasion a professor cited a certain regulation, to which another 
 replied that it was a dead letter. "Then," said General Lee, "let it 
 be at once repealed. A dead letter inspires disrespect for the 
 whole body of laws; but as long as it stands, it should be 
 enforced." On another occasion a professor appealed to prece 
 dent, and added: "We must not respect persons." "I always 
 respect persons," replied General Lee, "and care little for pre 
 cedent." Again he said: "We must never make a rule that we 
 cannot enforce" ; and again, counseling a professor : "Never raise 
 an issue which you are not prepared to maintain at all hazards" ; 
 and "Make no needless rules." 
 
 As to his views of discipline, enough perhaps has been said 
 
34 
 
 already. I may state, however, with reference to an important 
 and often recurring question, that General Lee held idleness to be 
 not a negative but a positive vice. "A young man," he said, "is 
 always doing something if not good, then harm to himself and 
 others" so that merely persistent idleness was, with him, suffi 
 cient cause for dismissal. Another interesting fact was this : In 
 the old college, students had lived in dormitories. Now, General 
 Lee advised all younger students to board and lodge in private 
 families reserving the dormitories as a special privilege for older 
 students because, he said, they offered special opportunities of 
 license, while younger boys needed the restraining influences of 
 family life. This view was amply vindicated by results, while 
 thus also the town and the college were drawn into closer fellow 
 ship and sympathy. There was no "town and gown" in Lexington. 
 
 One incident, personal to myself, is worth relating, for it teaches 
 still, as it taught me, a valuable lesson. I often assisted General 
 Lee in his correspondence as we all sought to help him when 
 we could. Once he gave me an important letter, which he asked 
 me to answer "with care." I did my best. When I returned it, 
 he read it carefully then took up his pencil, and said: "Pro 
 fessor, this is very good, but it will be better if we strike out a few 
 adjectives and adverbs" then, handing it back, he said: "Now, 
 if you will kindly copy it." I found that he had struck out every 
 useless word, leaving the letter, of course, better than it was 
 before. This incident I never forgot; as a teacher of English 
 I have quoted it again and again to my classes, and I recognize 
 it now as the best lesson in composition I have ever received. In 
 this connection I may remark that General Lee s own writings, 
 whether official or private, are models of clear and correct form. 
 He was a master of style, in both thought and expression. 
 
 Of his dealings with students, by which he won their love as 
 well as their reverence, many interesting anecdotes are related I 
 mention only one or two, which came under my personal knowl 
 edge. 
 
 I have said that by weekly reports he kept in close touch with 
 all the classes. Especially no single unexcused absence was ever 
 overlooked.* The delinquent was at once summoned to General 
 
 *I take the liberty of adding here that, in this respect, General Lee s discipline 
 was a model. His puctuality made it at once strict and easy. By thus meeting 
 neglect and disorder on the threshold, he prevented their continuance ; and hence 
 there were but few cases of prolonged misconduct to be dealt with by him or by 
 the faculty. 
 
35 
 
 Lee s office always a most dreaded ordeal and his reception 
 varied from "grave to gay" according to circumstances. I give 
 an instance of each: A young fellow whose general record was 
 none too good, was summoned to answer for absence. He stated 
 his excuse, and then, hesitatingly, he added another and another. 
 
 "Stop, Mr. ," said General Lee, "one good reason should be 
 
 sufficient," with an emphasis on the word good that spoke volumes. 
 Another, an excellent student, now a distinguished lawyer in 
 Tennesessee, was once beguiled into an unexcused absence. The 
 dreaded summons came. With his heart in his boots he entered 
 General Lee s office. The General met him smiling: "Mr. M., I 
 am glad to see you are better." "But, General, I have not been 
 sick." "Then I am glad to see you had better news from home." 
 "But, General, I have had no bad news." "Ah," said the General, 
 "I took it for granted that nothing less than sickness or dis 
 tressing news from home could have kept you from your duty." 
 Mr. M. told me, in relating this incident, that he then felt as if 
 he wished the earth to open and swallow him. To a lazy fellow, 
 he once said: "How is your mother? I am sure you must be 
 devoted to her ; you are so careful of the health of her son" ; and 
 to another, who was in rebellion against authority : "You cannot 
 be a true man, until you learn to obey." 
 
 Of General Lee s religious character I do not feel myself worthy 
 to speak. That he was deeply, sincerely religious, with a perfect, 
 trusting faith in God and in Christ that by this he was guided 
 and upborne in every act and every trial that this he sought, 
 unobstrusively yet earnestly to impress upon his family, his com 
 munity, his college as he had done upon his army this is 
 manifest from all the course of his life, as from his writings. His 
 last afternoon was spent in a vestry meeting at which I also 
 was present in the attempt to relieve his beloved rector (for 
 merly his trusted companion in arms) ; and his last conscious act 
 was, on that same evening, to attempt to ask a blessing upon the 
 evening meal when God called him, and he sank, unconscious, in 
 his chair. Of the following days of anxious sorrow, of the shock 
 of his death, and of the grief with which we laid him in his coffin 
 and followed him to his grave, I have no heart to speak. There 
 he rests, beneath the chapel which he himself built, to the glory of 
 God his tomb fitly crowned with that recumbent statue by 
 Valentine, symbol of the Eternal Eest. 
 
Such, most imperfectly sketched, was General Lee, as a college 
 president. And surely this part of his life deserves to be remem 
 bered and commemorated by those who hold his memory dear. In 
 it he exhibited all those great qualities of character which had 
 made his name already so illustrious ; while, in addition, he sus 
 tained trials and sorrows without which the highest perfections of 
 that character could never have been so signally displayed. This 
 life at Washington College, so devoted, so earnest, so laborious, 
 so full of far-reaching plans and of wise and successful effort, was 
 begun under the weight of a disappointment which might have 
 broken any ordinary strength, and was maintained, in the midst 
 of private and public misfortune, with a serene patience and a 
 mingled firmness and sweetness of temper, which give additional 
 brilliancy even to the glory of his former fame. It was his high 
 privilege to meet alike the temptations and perils of the highest 
 stations before the eyes of the world, and the cares and labors of 
 the most responsible duties of private life under the most trying 
 circumstances, and to exhibit, in all alike, the qualities of a great 
 and consistent character, founded in the noblest endowments, and 
 sustained by the loftiest principles of virtue and religion. It is a 
 privilege henceforth for the teachers of our country that their 
 profession, in its humble yet arduous labors, its great and its petty 
 cares, has been illustrated by the devotion of such a man. It is an 
 honor for all our colleges that one of them is henceforth identified 
 with the memory of his name and of his work. It is a boon for us 
 all; an honor to the country, which in its whole length and 
 breadth will soon be proud to claim his fame ; an honor to human 
 nature itself, that this great character, so often and so severely 
 tried, has thus proved itself consistent, serene and grand, alike in 
 peace and in war, in the humblest as well as the highest offices. 
 The "Lost Cause," indeed! No cause is wholly lost, to a people 
 or to mankind, that produces such men, and leaves such memories, 
 as Wade Hampton and Eobert E. Lee. 
 
 Young gentlemen of the University: Would you follow Lee? 
 No more, on the embattled field, can he lead you, as he led your 
 fathers, to glorious victory ; but in spirit and in eternal fame he 
 still lives the Christian soldier, the self-sacrificing patriot, the 
 college president, the South s noblest gentleman to remind you, 
 by example as by precept, that "Duty is the sublimest word in the 
 language." 
 
GENERAL LEE AND TRAVELLER, BY MILEY, OF 
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